Iowa: Today, voted down a bill to remove gender identity as a civil right

Erin Reed published an update a few minutes ago:

Today, in Iowa, Representative Jeff Shipley sponsored an anti-trans bill (House Bill 2082). At the state Capitol, he "began with an incendiary tirade against transgender people, labeling transgender women as 'creepy old men,'" and his primary witness claimed that trans women will spread bodily fluids and assault children in women's bathrooms.

This is what scaremongering is. This is what moral panic is.

Unfortunately, this is normal for Republicans.

What really got my attention in Reed's article was that Shipley referred to Iowa Code 216 as giving trans people "generous protections" (civil rights protections) that he "seriously questions" if we deserve. Why does he want to withdraw basic protections? Because (as he put it), when Chloe Cole spoke at the University of Iowa last October, people protested her. If you search for this incident online, you can indeed see videos of people chanting "trans lives matter!" Also, in advance of the event, some chalk-drawn sidewalk advertisements for Cole's talk were washed away, and a poster was ripped down.

So, because some individuals protested a talk (a thing they're allowed to do, a freedom everyone has), no transgender person deserves civil rights protections (as if basic rights are privileges anyone has to deserve)?

If you watch the video above (posted October 16, 2023), you can hear Jasmyn Jordan, chairwoman of Younger Americans for Freedom, say: "I believe that they think that right-leaning organizations are impeding on their rights and wanting to hurt them, which is very much not true. We just simply want to provide a different voice, a different perspective that they may not be used to." (0:36–50)

First of all: Why would someone think that a trans person isn't "may not be used to" a non-transgender voice? Have these people never heard that trans people indeed have empathy for cis people because trans people don't live in a trans bubble?

Secondly: Right-wing politics very much intend to hurt trans people. Removing us from civil rights protections qualifies as intention to hurt us. Changing the law to reframe what rights people do and don't have, without consulting the people who are affected, is, very literally, "impeding on their rights," and if intent to hurt us is in question, please see above mention of scaremongering.

Anyhow, today, lots of people turned up to testify and protest against the legislation, and it was voted down.

'It's dead! It's dead!' Iowans cheer demise of bill to end gender identity as a civil right, Stephen Gruber-Miller, Des Moines Register, January 31, 2024

If you're a politician, does everyone agree with your agenda — really?

For representative democracy to work, politicians must "know" and "react to" public opinion, including by "constrain[ing] their behavior to be consistent with" it. However, "elected representatives are more ideologically extreme and maintain a systematically distorted understanding of constituents' policy preferences" and their perceptions of what people think are often biased "in the conservative direction."

The people think what I think: False consensus and unelected elite misperception of public opinion
Alexander C. Furnas, Timothy M. LaPira
First published: 30 January 2024 https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12833
Verification Materials: The data and materials required to verify the computational reproducibility of the results, procedures, and analyses in this article are available on the American Journal of Political Science Dataverse within the Harvard Dataverse Network, at: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/3VFVS7.

US: Republicans oppose a plan to increase presidential power over the border

"In July 2023, Texas began deploying a floating barrier of buoys designed to maim or kill whoever tried to get through the Rio Grande River along a 1000-feet stretch of the border in Eagle Pass, Texas, an area that had seen a particularly high number of border crossings. Within weeks, the Justice Department sued Texas...

...in December, a Federal Appeals Court ordered Texas to remove the floating barrier. Instead of complying, Abbott announced massive new funds for more border barriers shortly before Christmas and signed a law making it a state crime to illegally cross into Texas, declaring that Texas had a right to apprehend people who do, put them in jail, deport them, make all of these decisions on immigration on its own."

"The Texas Border Standoff Is an Acute Crisis with Terrifying Implications: Is this how America ends? Echoes of nullification crises and Civil War, and the dissolution of the Union." Thomas Zimmer. Democracy Americana (Substack). January 29, 2024.

Then, on January 11, Texas declared a disaster and took over control of a park near the Rio Grande River, kicking out federal agents. On January 22, the Supreme Court sided with the federal government. On January 24, Governor Abbott issued a statement: "The federal government has broken the compact between the United States and the States." As Mark Joseph Stern explains in Slate, Abbott appears to have borrowed language from "the very first line of the secession ordinances passed by slave states when they purported to leave the union."

Zimmer explains: "Abbott declared that the 'lawless border policies' by the 'lawless president' Joe Biden had failed to protect the state of Texas from the 'invasion' of migrants." Abbott said Texas has a right to self-defense, i.e., in Zimmer's words, "the right to ignore the decision of the Supreme Court as well as that of a Federal Appeals Court and to continue to militarize the border without permission from the federal government, under whose purview immigration and border protection clearly fall. 'Self-defense' means open defiance of the president’s authority and nullification of federal law."

Zimmer goes on to explain: "As of right now, it is basically a standoff between Texas, which has the explicit support by 25 other Republican-led states, and the federal government; and, on the ground, between federal border patrol agents on the one hand and the Texas National Guard, state troopers, and Texas Department of Public Safety officials on the other. This might well go back to the Supreme Court soon. It might escalate on the ground or it might not."

Adam Serwer begins his article: "Ulysses S. Grant once said that the Confederate cause, the defense of chattel slavery, was 'one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse.' Texas’s embrace of neo-secessionist rhetoric in defense of letting children drown in the Rio Grande belongs somewhere on that same list." Let's think about this: "The Civil War settled this question; the union is perpetual, the federal government is sovereign, and states do not get to defy federal law simply because they don’t like when their preferred candidates lose the presidency. Perhaps the most significant through line between these two statements is the assertion that states are entitled to ignore the Constitution and the federal government if the rival party wins elections."
The Supreme Court Has Itself to Blame for Texas Defying Its Orders [gift article]: Greg Abbott is taking a stand to protect his state’s right to let children die in the Rio Grande, and four justices of the Supreme Court are encouraging him to do so. Adam Serwer, The Atlantic, January 29, 2024

This is also standard-issue Republican hypocrisy and refusal of bipartisan work to accomplish anything real

Republicans Who Screamed About A Crisis On The Border Now Oppose A Plan To Fix It
Many on the right claim the U.S. is being "invaded" by migrants but also want to wait until Donald Trump is elected president again to stop it. Igor Bobic, Arthur Delaney, Kevin Robillard, Daniel Marans. HuffPost, Jan 29, 2024

Republicans Agonize Over Supporting Bipartisan Border Bill They'd Insisted On: A bipartisan bill to address the surge of migrants at the southern border is sowing discord within the Senate GOP as Trump urges them to kill it. Igor Bobic, HuffPost, Feb 1, 2024

"For House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who saw his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), unceremoniously ousted for allegedly being too cooperative with Democrats, votes like Wednesday’s [January 31, 2024 tax bill] are preferable to getting nothing done or facing the same fate."
— House Republicans Are Such A Mess They’re Accidentally Doing Bipartisanship. But the right-wing House Freedom Caucus still has a final say. Jonathan Nicholson, HuffPost, Feb 3, 2024

Also

On February 1, 2024, Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) suggested murdering a reportedly undocumented migrant.

— GOP Congressman Shocks With ‘Pinochet Air’ Idea For Migrant, Then Makes It Worse: MSNBC’s Chris Hayes said the call “for murdering people using the Pinochet regime’s preferred method of dropping them out of helicopters is really not great.” Lee Moran, HuffPost, Feb 2, 2024

It's about the 2024 election

Robert Reich says: In the compromise bill, "Biden and Senate Democrats have caved to Senate Republican hardliners. Among other restrictions, the bill would make it much harder for people to apply for asylum." It also gives the president emergency authority to close the border.

BS on the border: Trump’s biggest issue in the campaign is neofascist bupkis, Robert Reich, Jan 30, 2024

Trump characterizes the bill as a "horrible, open-borders betrayal of America."

Hypocritical? Yes. "Just last year," Reich says, House Speaker Mike "Johnson argued that Congress must tighten immigration laws to strengthen the president’s hand. When he was president, Trump sought similar additional authority from Congress."

I'm sure Trump has no idea what's in the bill. He just doesn't want voters to think 'Biden' when they think 'border'. Trump wants to own that issue in everyone's minds. Whatever he says is good, whatever they say is bad.

See what other bipartisan plans they don't want

As HuffPost explains: A bill with changes to the Child Tax Credit was approved 40–3 by the House Ways and Means Committee and "would likely pass the House in a similarly overwhelming bipartisan fashion," but "if Johnson allows the House to vote on something bipartisan, then far-right members of the House Freedom Caucus might retaliate against him for collaborating with Democrats." In other words, if he stopped it from coming to a vote in the House, it would have nothing to do with whether the bill is good for U.S. parents, just whether it's good for Democrats.

"Freedom Caucus member Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) complained on Friday, for instance, that the legislation will allow 'illegal foreign nationals' to claim the credit, even though the bill does not change the requirement for children to have social security numbers to qualify.

'The Child Tax Credit reforms in this bill are pro-family policies that maintain the child tax credit structure of the Trump-era GOP tax reform,' Ways and Means chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.), who negotiated the bill with Senate Finance chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), said in a statement pushing back on the criticism. 'It halts any push for monthly checks and provides no special loopholes for illegal immigrants.'"

Returning to Serwer's article in the Atlantic, he says: "As with terrorism or crime however, for some people the metric of success for a particular policy on immigration is not whether it fixes the problem but whether it is sufficiently cruel."

Or whether it helps their team by giving them power to do anything (openly or in secret). Or whether they can take the credit for anything anyone else achieves.

Well, they did allow a vote. On January 31, the bill passed the House 357-70. This is how the GOP forms its agenda: "Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)...suggested that he opposed the bill because passing it 'makes the president look good' by allowing him to 'mail out checks before the election'..."

It's unclear if the Senate will pass the bill, with one Republican saying it “makes the president look good” by letting him “mail out checks before the election.”

Here's the compromise that President Biden says is great, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson says is terrible:

"On Sunday [Feb. 4], a group of Senators — James Lankford (R-OK), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) — announced that they had reached a bipartisan "compromise" on a bill to overhaul the nation's immigration system and provide more funding for wars in Ukraine and Gaza. ... the proposal would create severe restrictions on asylum-seeking migrants that are similar — and in some ways harsher — than those imposed during the Trump administration. It would upend a bedrock principle of American immigration law: people who come to the country seeking asylum have a right to have their claims adjudicated." — Judd Legum, "The immigration 'compromise,'" Popular Information, February 6, 2024

HuffPost explains that Republicans:

"Lankford said he anticipated that Wednesday’s [Feb. 7] vote to advance the bill would fail. Moreover, he repeatedly declined to say whether he would vote in support of his own bill. [Lankford asked rhetorically:] '“Why would we force a vote on something that would kill it...' ... [Lankford] tried to argue that even if he votes against advancing his own bill this week, that it wouldn’t necessarily mean that he opposes it since it could still come up at a later date....[Republicans] were the ones who initially demanded linking border policy changes with the passage of aid to Ukraine. More time isn’t going to change anything, and many in the GOP would like to keep the border issue alive so they can hammer Democrats over immigration policy in the November presidential election."
— "In Huge Reversal, GOP Poised To Kill The Border-Ukraine Package It Demanded": Republican Sen. James Lankford, who spent months negotiating the border provisions the GOP demanded, said he may vote against his own bill this week. Igor Bobic, HuffPost, Feb 5, 2024

On Feb. 7, Lankford said in a speech on the Senate floor that, four weeks earlier, an unnamed "popular commentator" had warned him: "If you try to move a bill that solves the border crisis during this presidential year, I will do whatever I can to destroy you, because I do not want you to solve this during the presidential election." Radio host Jesse Kelly immediately said he was the one who said it.

Impeaching the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security

On January 31 (HuffPost), Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee

"approved two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas — an entirely baseless effort aimed at helping Donald Trump look tough on border issues ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

The committee voted 18 to 15, along party lines, to approve the GOP’s impeachment resolution, which accuses Mayorkas of 'willful' refusal to comply with immigration laws and breaching public trust. The full House could vote as soon as next week to impeach him."

Did Republicans once care about "security issues"? Wasn't DHS a creation of the George W. Bush administration, supposedly to "fight terrorism"? Well, now Republicans just want to break government. If it's a government thing, and if Democrats wield any power within it, they'll smash it.

On the Department of Homeland Security

it's wild that DHS will have survived two presidential transitions to a Trump administration. It's a Chekov's gun of reactionary tools, and rather than dismantle the org, both Obama and Biden treated it like as dull and normal a part of day-to-day governance as NOAA. newrepublic.com/article/1470...

[image or embed]

— Kelsey Atherton (@atherton.bsky.social) November 18, 2024 at 9:34 AM

This excellent @mford.bsky.social piece will be 7 years old in February, goddamn newrepublic.com/article/1470...

[image or embed]

— Kelsey Atherton (@atherton.bsky.social) November 18, 2024 at 9:35 AM

"DHS was a bipartisan mistake. It’s made it harder for FEMA to respond to national disasters. It’s enabled a culture of impunity and aggression among our immigration officers. It has a history emerging from a specific historical context and time. I believe that as the decades pass, historians like me will look back in sadness at the years after 9/11, when national unity was squandered in persuading Americans to abandon their civil liberties, plunging the nation into endless war, and laying the groundwork for our new regime of concentration camps (as some genocide scholars characterize them) on the American border."
It’s time to break up the Department of Homeland Security, David Perry, CNN, July 10, 2019

Journalism: Today's bad news & good news

Not good:

In "WTF is Happening in Journalism This Week?" (Jan 26, 2024), Parker Molloy lists the massive layoffs: Pitchfork, Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, TIME magazine, Business Insider, Forbes.

Similarly, Marisa Kabas says:

"After layoffs last week at the LA Times and Business Insider, and the complete annihilation of Sports Illustrated and Pitchfork, it started to feel like the dog days of the Trump administration when you weren’t sure how your brain could possibly absorb any new, bad information. It left me wondering, in the immortal words of Vincent Laguardia Gambini, 'Is there any more shit we could pile on?'

Every day in media is like the end of an episode of America’s Next Top Model where the image of the person who was voted off disappears from the group photo — except the group photo originally had like, a million people in it and now it’s down to approximately five."

— Today is the most depressing day to work in media since yesterday: On mass layoffs and massive ennui, Marisa Kabas, The Handbasket email, February 2, 2024

However, a HEATED email today (January 26) tells us:

"The Guardian is the U.K.’s leading progressive newspaper, and one of the world’s most trusted news outlets. The paper also has a massive U.S. bureau with more than 150 staffers, and it’s the only major newspaper to ban fossil fuel advertising.
Co-publishing an investigation with The Guardian is a huge win for our mission to increase the visibility of climate accountability reporting. While HEATED’s website gets, on average, about a half million views per month, The Guardian’s website gets more than 370 million visits per month."

Read the HEATED / Guardian story: The propane industry is trying to dupe you: Documents and recordings obtained by HEATED detail a multi-million dollar plan to spin the fossil fuel as 'clean' and 'renewable'." Arielle Samuelson, January 25, 2024.

If you're a journalist, what do you do?

Don't self-reject. Ask if you can write and get paid for it. Advice from Tim Herrera, interviewed by Parker Molloy and Mark Yarm:

“I’ve found myself kind of drawing a blank when I work with freelancers and they ask me who’s taking pitches, or how to frame a pitch for the current time or strategies for working through this, because I honestly don’t know,” Herrera says. “Freelancing is a tough business, but right now I feel like it’s the toughest I’ve seen as long as I’ve been working directly with freelancers.”

So what does an independent journalist do? “The advice I kind of fall back on is: No one has any idea what any newsroom’s freelance budget looks like right now, or what any given newsroom is going through internally, so you might as well cast a wide net and just pitch everyone,” he says. “Swing for the fences and pretend things are fine, because it’s either that or just give up entirely. At this point we really have nothing to lose by going after everything, so have at it, you never know. I always say the only way to get bylines is to get bylines, so just keep pitching like everything is fine.”

— Keep calm and query on: "Just keep pitching like everything is fine”: Freelancing guru Tim Herrera on how independent journalists can survive these dark days. Plus, Pitchfork’s Amy Phillips picks its most "magic" longform. Parker Molloy and Mark Yarm. Long Lead Presents: Depth Perception (Substack). January 30, 2024.

And from Marisa Kabas: "So what comes next? More collectives of independent writers, like Flaming Hydra? More worker-owned sites like Hell Gate and Defector? We’ll see!"

Louisiana: In the news

An info-collection related to Louisiana.

Photo: Swamp by bobmann from Pixabay

Child custody

If you have questions about child custody, visitation and child support, consult the online Louisiana Guide to Child Custody by Custody X Change. See also a study of alimony amounts that mentions Louisiana, which found it awarded high alimony compared to several other states.

If you prefer academic journal articles, see Katrina Disaster Family Law: The Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Families and Family Law (PDF). By Sandie McCarthy-Brown & Susan L. Waysdorf. Indiana Law Review, Vol. 42:721, 2009.

The novel My Sunshine Away by M. O. Walsh, which starts with an incident in 1989, is about a Louisiana divorce.

Homeschooling

Homeschool in Louisiana: Diploma, graduation sold at nonpublic school | AP News

Louisiana lawmakers vote to remove lunch breaks for child workers, cut unemployment benefits A House committee approved the bill along with others to reduce unemployment benefits and workers' compensation wages. James Finn, NOLA.com, April 18, 2024

Nature: What surrounds us

On October 23, 2023, smoke from marsh fires in the southern part of the state, together with fog, created a hazardous driving condition and led to a massive pile-up of cars. Since August, the Louisiana marsh fires have smelled like burning tires, says this person on Bluesky on November 5.

Oil spill tops 1 million gallons, threatens Gulf of Mexico wildlife As they work to contain the spill off the Louisiana coast, authorities are trying to determine if a pipeline was the source. Darryl Fears, Washington Post, November 21, 2023.

A ‘collapse’ is looming for Louisiana’s coastal wetlands, scientists say: Scientists say the overwhelming majority of the state’s wetlands — a natural buffer against hurricanes — are in a state of ‘drowning’ and could be gone by 2070. Brady Dennis and Chris Mooney. February 15, 2024

Redistricting

Supreme Court Unfreezes Louisiana Redistricting Case That Could Boost Power Of Black Voters (HuffPost, June 26, 2023) An appeals court has blocked the redrawing of Louisiana's congressional map (NPR, Sept 28, 2023)

Louisiana lawmakers approve a congressional map with a second Black-majority district, Fredreka Schouten, CNN, January 19, 2024

"In the current phase of the dispute, a three-judge trial judge panel sided with a group of 12 self-described 'non-African American' voters who alleged that their 'personal dignity' had been injured because the new map with two Black-majority districts 'racially stigmatizes,' 'racially stereotypes' and 'racially maligns' them."
Black voters won a big victory in Louisiana. Some White voters said it violated their ‘personal dignity’, Tierney Sneed and Fredreka Schouten, CNN, May 6, 2024

Supreme Court Orders Louisiana To Use Congressional Map With Additional Black District In 2024 Vote: The Supreme Court has ordered Louisiana to hold congressional elections using a House map with a second mostly Black district, despite a lower-court ruling that called the map an illegal racial gerrymander. Mark Sherman, May 15, 2024

Solidarity and progress

"In Louisiana, during the chattel slavery system, the state followed the Code Noir, a French set of Christofascist laws that excluded Jewish people from living in any of the parishes or from owning slaves."
— Why Some Jewish People Believe Black People Owe Them Solidarity: Even though solidarity should not be transactional. Allison Wiltz, December 3, 2023.

Inside the collapse of Louisiana's Democratic Party: No cash, few candidates, internal fights (subscriber-only): Low turnout and poor enthusiasm about candidates underscore years of struggles for Louisiana Democrats. Sam Karlin and James Finn. Oct 20, 2023.

A new governor

Republican Jeff Landry Wins The Louisiana Governor's Race, Reclaims Office For GOP. Attorney General Jeff Landry has won Louisiana governor’s seat, fending off a crowded field of candidates. Sara Cline, HuffPost, Oct 14, 2023.

In April, just after Biden announced that Title IX would be expanded to explicitly cover trans people, "Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley was the first to respond, decrying the fact that the new Title IX regulations could block teachers and other students from exercising what has been dubbed by some a “right to bully” transgender students by using their old names and pronouns intentionally."
(Erin Reed, Four States Tell Schools To Ignore Biden's New Title IX Rules Protecting Trans Students, April 25, 2024)

Incarceration

"Prisoners in the US are part of a hidden workforce linked to hundreds of popular food brands." Robin McDowell and Margie Mason, Associated Press, January 29, 2024

“We’re Going to Be Overwhelmed”: How Louisiana Just Ballooned Its Jail Population Louisiana's governor championed a raft of new laws that double down on punishment, fueling a cycle of incarceration that sends more money into local sheriffs' coffers. Piper French, Bolts Mag, March 8, 2024

Religion

"A handful of extremely concerning bills are rapidly advancing through the Louisiana legislature. SB123 and HB334 would allow chaplains in public schools as volunteers or employees. Unfortunately, both were advanced with strong bipartisan support. HB71 passed the House and will move to the Senate. It would make Louisiana the first state to require schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. The bill’s Christian nationalist author, Representative Dodie Horton, successfully passed a bill last year requiring public schools to display “In God We Trust.” On her latest effort to insert religion in schools, Horton said, “The Ten Commandments are the basis of all laws in Louisiana, and given all the junk our children are exposed to in classrooms today, it’s imperative that we put the Ten Commandments back in a prominent position.” Last but not at all least, the state is poised to pass a universal school voucher bill, HB475, even after investigative reporters revealed existing school privatization policies in Louisiana have driven families into low-performing private schools with little oversight."
— American Atheists email, April 13, 2024

Louisiana High Court: Priests Have a “Property Right” Not to Be Sued For Sexual Abuse: The legal system will never run out of ways to transform real-world harms into meaningless abstractions—all in service of insulating the wealthy and powerful from accountability. Steve Kennedy, Balls and Strikes, April 9, 2024

Banning the Pride flag (attempts in the US and Canada)

In January 2023 in Pennsylvania, as Ian Kumamoto wrote ("These School Bans On Pride Flags Should Freak All Of Us Out", HuffPost Voices):

"...the Central Bucks school board, which oversees the third-largest school district in Pennsylvania, exemplified this idea by banning teachers from displaying rainbow flags as part of a larger effort to stop educators from advocating for 'political' issues.

The Central Bucks school board is just the latest group to frame LGBTQ-plus people as polarizing political subjects, rather than actual people just trying to live. In the past year, districts in Wisconsin, Michigan and New York have all cracked down on pride flags in schools, typically citing the belief that they are political in nature."

In January 2023, Chaya Raichik was harassing a school in Colorado because it was selling Pride flags.

By the way (Ian Kumamoto, HuffPost, January 13, 2023, thanks much):

"Unlike a political organization, there is no central LGBTQ organ, headquarters or single representative whom LGBTQ people take orders from (except maybe Cher). For these reasons and many others, the designation of pride flags as political symbols doesn’t make much sense. The argument is yet another pretense to pathologize and exclude queer and trans people and to galvanize voters against a common enemy."

In October 2023, Raichik threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) if it didn't remove her name from their Glossary of Extremism, and so the ADL...removed her, as she requested. As reported by The Advocate.

Florida, 2024

In January 2024, Florida Republican lawmakers advanced HB 901, co-sponsored by State Rep. David Borrero (R), that (as HuffPost explained) "would bar the display of any flag that represents a 'political viewpoint, including, but not limited to, a politically partisan, racial, sexual orientation and gender, or political ideology viewpoint.'" This "would ban teachers and government officials" (though not explicitly students) "from displaying pride flags and those that champion the Black Lives Matter movement." Additionally, "flags of sovereign states recognized by the United States" are OK, while, according to Borrero, "the flag of Palestine, which is not recognized by the U.S., would not be allowed, he told the AP. Teachers would also not even be allowed to wear a lapel pin bearing such flags."

U.S. federal government, 2024

While trying to pass a spending bill, Democrats managed to eliminate about 50 anti-LGBTQ provisions but did not manage to eliminate one that prevents U.S. embassies from flying the Pride flag. The Republicans insisted on that one.

Alberta, Canada, 2024

"Alberta town bans Pride flags, rainbow crosswalks after plebiscite": Residents voted in favour of the town flying only government flags and painting crosswalks in a white striped pattern. Jeremy Simes, The Canadian Press, in the National Post, Feb 23, 2024

Read more

See also: "Why a Homophobe Displays a Rainbow Flag". It's a 4-minute read on Medium.

Science denier admits starting wildfires & blaming it on government

Climate headlines. Today, from CNN.

Climate conspiracy theorist who said Canadian government deliberately lit wildfires pleads guilty to starting 14 himself Deadly fire ants are forming rafts to cross Australian flood waters Goats so exhausted by heat they’d rather risk the wolves at night: study Breathtaking photographs show how world’s largest iceberg is changing

From the article on the arsonist:

"Canada’s 2023 wildfire season was record-shattering, scorching around 18.4 million hectares (45.5 million acres) — an area roughly the size of North Dakota and more than double the previous record.

Weather that drove eastern Canada’s devastating wildfires made twice as likely by climate change Smoke from the fires poured southward, choking cities in the United States and even making it as far east as Europe."

In case you missed it

The social costs of greenhouse gas emissions in health care are astounding — and we’ve been ignoring them completely, David Introcaso, The Hill, January 12, 2024

Roger Stone allegedly wanted to assassinate Democratic lawmakers

Weeks before the 2020 election in the US, it is alleged that Roger Stone told his security guard, former NYPD cop Sal Greco, in a private conversation: "It’s time to do it. It’s either [Representative Eric] Swalwell or [Representative Jerry] Nadler has to die before the election."

There is a recording of the alleged conversation. Now, over three years later, U.S. Capitol Police and FBI are investigating the matter.

This is a reminder: There's a timeline of the January 6 United States Capitol attack. The attempts to overturn the election were broad and deep, and some of them started even before the election was held.

Sources

Falzone, Diana (January 16, 2024). "Capitol Police Investigating Roger Stone Remarks About Assassinating Members of Congress". Mediaite. Retrieved January 17, 2024.

Visser, Nick (January 17, 2024). "Roger Stone's Alleged Assassination Remarks Prompt Capitol Police Investigation: Report". HuffPost. Retrieved January 17, 2024.

Trumpism in 2024 threatens democracy

At the Iowa Republican caucuses on January 15, 2024 — the first in the nation to caucus or primary &mash; Donald Trump received 51% of the popular vote, Ron DeSantis was a distant second with a little over 21%, Nikki Haley was third with 19%. Vivek Ramaswamy approached 8% and Asa Hutchinson received less than 1%, but they've since dropped out. When Ramaswamy dropped out, he endorsed Trump. We can anticipate that some DeSantis or Haley voters will also vote Trump.

Trump supporters include both rich and poor people

A reminder:

Jamelle Bouie skeets today: "The Trump movement is both a movement of reactionary property owners and one of less advantaged people with an affective investment in the social order." That is, Trump supporters are both rich and poor. The rich are defending their money; the poor are defending their whiteness.

It's not an economic agenda, it's an anti-democracy agenda

More, though, they're attacking democracy. Whatever their personal character or intentions may be, that is the effect of their political choice. Parker Molloy has a good article today: We Really Don't Have to "Understand" Trump Voters Anymore: This isn't 2016 or 2020. It's 2024. We know who they are. (The Present Age, January 16, 2024):

"Empathy is vital in a divided society," Molloy grants, "but recognizing when choices breach ethical and democratic norms is equally important. The 2024 landscape has shifted dramatically. We're not just dealing with voters disenchanted by the perceived political establishment." Today's debate over Trump is about "endorsing a candidate whose tenure and post-presidential period are marred by unprecedented assaults on democratic institutions, numerous criminal investigations, and a proven track record of fostering division" and "comprehending why they [his supporters] continue to back someone who has repeatedly compromised the very essence of democracy." Trump supporters, Molloy continues, "are opting for a candidate whose actions consistently demonstrate a disregard for the rule of law and democratic principles. Supporting Trump after all that has transpired is an implicit endorsement of these actions and an acceptance of an America fundamentally incompatible with democratic values."

"What ongoing support for Trump represents," Molloy says, is something "beyond mere political preference" and isn't solely based on "someone’s economic situation or dissatisfaction with politics." The nature of the choice has changed. So, "we don’t need to understand this choice anymore. Instead, we must recognize it for what it is: a threat to the fundamental principles of democracy and to the very idea of America itself." Today, we need to "acknowledg[e] the consequences of their choice."

See this weird campaign behavior

Ramaswamy, endorsing Trump, is suddenly telling everyone else to stop running, even though he himself was running against Trump until January 15.

Vivek Ramaswamy Wants Trump’s Rivals To Drop Out Of The 2024 GOP Primary: “I think Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley would actually, at this point, do this country and this party a service by stepping aside,” the former GOP presidential candidate said. Marita Vlachou, HuffPost, Jan 17, 2024

Nikki Haley wants to be on a debate stage with Trump. It is mathematically possible she could pull into a close second place in time for a debate, but knowing what we know about the phenomenon of Trumpism, she's not going to outplace him by normal campaign tactics (like a good "debate" performance). She may be able to take the Republican nomination if Trump were to swiftly very go to jail (though realistically his criminal indictments are moving so slowly that they won't outpace the party nomination timeline), or even the presidency if a Trump–Haley ticket were elected in November and then (perhaps shortly before the election or at some point after the election or inauguration) Trump were to go to jail.

However, the New Hampshire primary election will come a week later, and there, Haley and Trump are each polling at 40%, with DeSantis effectively not a contender at 4%.

Anyhow, whatever Haley is thinking, ABC says there's no point having any more Republican debates:

ABC Calls Off Next GOP Debate After Nikki Haley Says She Won't Appear Without Trump: “The next debate I do will either be with Donald Trump or with Joe Biden," Haley said. Nick Visser, HuffPost, Jan 16, 2024

And Trump, of course, is being racist toward Haley, calling her by a name she doesn't use, solely for the purpose of "othering" her:

Trump attacks Haley while referring to her by her first name Nimarata, Kate Sullivan, CNN, January 17, 2024

On January 24, 2024, following his victory over Nikki Haley in the New Hampshire primary the day before, he posted to Truth Social: “Anybody that makes a ‘Contribution’ to Birdbrain [Nikki Haley], from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp. We don’t want them, and will not accept them..."

In Haley's January 31 radio appearance:

"'If that whole state says, 'We don't want to be part of America anymore,' I mean, that's their decision to make,' Haley said, though she also noted, 'Let's talk about what's reality. Texas isn't going to secede.'

Asked if she still believes that states generally have the right to secede, a sentiment she expressed on camera during her initial run for governor of South Carolina, Haley said that 'states have the right to make the decisions that their people want to make.'"

She walked it back, just as a few weeks earlier she'd walked back her claim that the Civil War was about “the freedoms of what people could and couldn’t do.”

Steve Bannon's agenda

Conor Lynch writes for Salon (Jan 20), in "The Supreme Court looks set to make Steve Bannon's dream come true," that Trump, shortly before Biden was elected in 2020,

"signed an executive order known as 'Schedule F,' which would have stripped civil service protections from tens or even hundreds of thousands of employees had it been implemented. ...[this] was an overt attempt to politicize the bureaucracy. It would have empowered the president to easily purge the civil service of any senior or mid-level officials deemed politically suspect or insufficiently loyal.

Today Schedule F has more or less become doctrine on the right. ... All the major Republican presidential candidates have promised to reinstate some version of the executive order, which President Biden rescinded upon entering office. Indeed, most candidates have even tried to outdo Trump in both their policies and rhetoric.

The supposed 'moderate' in the race, former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador under Trump, Nikki Haley, has put forward an even more radical plan than Schedule F that would not just strip civil service protections but introduce five-year term limits for all positions in the federal workforce — from air traffic controllers and public health inspectors to park rangers and Social Security administrators. As Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell notes, this would effectively 'destroy the basic machinery of government' — which might just be the point."

Canadians are saying

Already, "49 percent of Canadians believe the U.S. is becoming an authoritarian state," and 64 percent believe that "U.S. democracy cannot survive another four years of Donald Trump." (thenewcivilrightsmovement.com) The poll was conducted January 9–11, 2024.

He knows he's an outlaw

HuffPost tries out this message:

Right-wing agents have funding

"This Pa. activist is the source of false and flawed election claims gaining traction across the country," Carter Walker, Votebeat, Philly Inquirer

He's being mentored

"Viktor Orbán is taking his blueprint on dismantling democracy to Mar-a-Lago.

The Hungarian prime minister first won power through a democratic election, then proceeded to weaken the institutions of that democracy by eroding the legal system, firing civil servants, politicizing business, attacking the press and intimidating opposition parties and demagoguing migration.

Former President Donald Trump has left no doubt that he’d try something similar in the United States if he wins a second term – so the presumptive GOP nominee will presumably be eager to compare notes when he hosts Orbán in Florida on Friday.

The prime minister isn’t meeting Biden administration officials. (A Biden administration official told CNN’s Betsy Klein that no invitation for a meeting between the current US president and Hungarian leader was extended.) Instead, he’s choosing to meet the man he hopes will again be US president next year. The two men have a long history of mutual admiration. The fact that one of Trump’s first moves since becoming presumptive GOP nominee this week is to meet a European autocrat speaks volumes."

— "Orbán meeting offers preview of Trump’s 2nd-term strongman idealizations," Stephen Collinson, CNN, March 8, 2024

And this:

"'He's Looking For Dictatorship': Joe Biden Rips Viktor Orbán's Mar-A-Lago Visit: The U.S. president's remarks arrived on the same day that his predecessor praised the autocratic Hungarian leader as 'fantastic.'" Ben Blanchet, HuffPost, Mar 9, 2024

Also:

"Ahead of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, Beschloss sounded the alarm in an interview on MSNBC when he said: 'We could be a dictatorship next year if Donald Trump is elected and carries through on his threat to suspend the Constitution.'"
— Lee Moran, HuffPost, March 8, 2024

More:

"[On October 23, 2024,] NBC News presidential historian and author Michael Beschloss warned voters to “all be really vigilant and really sleep with one eye open” when it comes to former President Donald Trump and the 2024 election result if he loses."
— Lee Moran, HuffPost, October 23, 2024

Behavior

"...a fundraiser for the Johnson County GOP featured an effigy of President Joe Biden that attendees could pay to physically assault.

Video...shows people punching, kicking and swinging a bat at a Biden mannequin wearing a “Let’s Go Brandon” shirt.

“This booth was hosted by a Karate school to promote their self defense class,” Maria Holiday, who chairs the Johnson County Republican Party, told The Kansas City Star.

Video of people kicking the Biden dummy was uploaded to the video platform Rumble, but later deleted."

— A Kansas GOP Fundraiser Let People Kick And Punch A Biden Effigy, The attacks on the Biden mannequin were later condemned by some state GOP officials. David Moye, Mar 11, 2024

"Trump’s proposals are terrifying. But they’re also remarkably incoherent. What’s most striking in the interview is that Trump, even after four years as president, has virtually no grasp on any policy issue beyond empty talking points, most of which are lies. When asked how he will implement his plans, he waffles, obfuscates, and delivers a stream of non sequitur boasts about how great he is or about how other people have said that he’s great. He lies all the time, but many of his statements on core policy issues are so garbled and gassy they don’t even qualify as lies. It’s like interacting with a chatbot programmed by a fascist parrot.

Trump’s blank, aggressive ignorance shouldn’t be a comfort. He has shown, over and over, that incompetence doesn’t have to undermine evil intent; often it can exacerbate it. He offers a vision of a presidency of cruelty and violence disavowed as it occurs, with every abuse of power accompanied by a vague flurry of denials and endless self-hagiography. Trump promises us, over and over, that he will do harm, and that he will learn nothing."

— He's not even trying to hide it Trump's Time Magazine interview exposes a malevolent fool. NOAH BERLATSKY, publicnotice.co, May 2, 2024

There's A GOP Plan For An Execution Spree If Trump Wins The White House: Buried on page 554 of the plan is a directive to execute every remaining person on federal death row — and dramatically expand the use of the death penalty. Jessica Schulberg, HuffPost, May 9, 2024

Liberal pundits operating in the "applaud me for being sympathetic to Trump voters' grievances w/elite liberalism" genre should admit to this much: They're being unfair to liberal voters, who never get this solicitude, and they're ostrich-like in their refusal to grapple with the dark side of MAGA.

[image or embed]

— Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) May 28, 2024 at 10:54 AM

‘Georgia Is Our Laboratory’: Inside Trump’s Plan to Rig 2024: Team Trump sees Georgia as ‘a road map’ for putting Trump’s heads-I-win-tails-you-lose philosophy of elections into practice. ADAM RAWNSLEY, ASAWIN SUEBSAENG, Rolling Stone, June 8, 2024

In June 2024, Republicans gathered on Capitol Hill to strategize behind closed doors. Parker Molloy points out that this AP article "reads like something the Trump campaign would have sent out": Cheers, cake and a fist-bump from GOP as Trump returns to Capitol Hill in a first since Jan. 6 riot, Lisa Mascaro, June 13, 2024

not very subtle

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.bsky.social) Jun 23, 2024 at 9:48 AM

July 10, 2024: Stacey Abrams writes that swing voters need to be told that "a Trump presidency would bring more crackdowns on access to abortion and even contraception, and that the failed real estate maven will not tackle the housing crisis. That Trump’s economic plan and promised tariffs would reignite inflation and risk a major recession. He will cost us jobs again, not create them."

July 16, 2024: These Republicans use violent rhetoric. They are featured speakers at the RNC. Judd Legum and Rebecca Crosby. Popular Information. July 16, 2024.

Scoop: Ann Vandersteel, a far-right conspiracy theorist podcaster, hosted an online forum for Republican election denier candidates running for supervisors of elections in counties throughout Florida & endorsed them. The candidates then touted her endorsement. www.mediamatters.org/voter-fraud-...

[image or embed]

— Alex Kaplan (@alkapdc.bsky.social) Jul 26, 2024 at 11:12 AM

At a July 26, 2024 event, Trump told a Christian crowd in Florida

"to vote 'just this time' and claimed they 'won’t have to do it anymore' after the election in November.

'Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore,' the GOP presidential nominee told the crowd at the conservative Turning Point Action event in Florida."

— Trump Tells Crowd They 'Won't Have To Vote' Again After Election In Bizarre Remarks Ben Blanchet, HuffPost, Jul 27, 2024

Trumps words are so impenetrable. If only we had some direct evidence of how he’d actually react to an election that didn’t go his way.

[image or embed]

— Seth Masket (@smotus.bsky.social) Jul 27, 2024 at 9:09 AM

"Get out and vote, just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what? It'll be fixed, it'll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore....In four years, you don’t have to vote again." He said it. Take it seriously.

— Benjamin Dreyer (@bcdreyer.bsky.social) Jul 26, 2024 at 9:05 PM

"Taking it seriously would mean doing what?" I don't know, Tillie. Why don't you try sitting on your hands.

— Benjamin Dreyer (@bcdreyer.bsky.social) Jul 26, 2024 at 9:15 PM

Speaking at a gathering of religious conservatives, Donald Trump said if he's reelected, Christian-related concerns will be "fixed" so much so that they would no longer need to be politically engaged.

[image or embed]

— NPR (@npr.org) Jul 27, 2024 at 12:29 PM

That's an odd way to spell "promised to abolish democracy so that no 2028 would even happen." Because we all know that's what he meant, and pretending otherwise is being complicit in his lies.

— Rob MacWolf, Werewolf Hitchhiker (@robmacwolf.bsky.social) Jul 27, 2024 at 1:23 PM

Donald Trump, in an interview on Fox News, brushed aside multiple requests to walk back or clarify his statement that Christians will never have to vote again if they vote for him this November.

[image or embed]

— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) Jul 30, 2024 at 10:02 AM

Also, he's wanted this since 2018:

"U.S. President Donald Trump praised Chinese President Xi Jinping Saturday after the ruling Communist party announced it was eliminating the two-term limit for the presidency, paving the way for Xi to serve indefinitely, according to audio aired by CNN.

'He's now president for life, president for life. And he's great,' Trump said, according to audio of excerpts of Trump's remarks at a closed-door fundraiser in Florida aired by CNN. 'And look, he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll have to give that a shot someday,' Trump said to cheers and applause from supporters." (David Shepardson, Reuters, March 3, 2018)

Jason Sattler, "Trump's superpower is plausible deniability," Jul 27, 2024:

In case you missed the last eight years:

Trump, with the help of amoral and soulless allies, evaded any lasting consequences for his obvious and growing conspiracy with Vladimir Putin, which he fired his campaign manager to hide in 2016 and his National Security Advisor for the same reason in 2017 and his Attorney General for the same reason in 2018.

He has now normalized that abominable conspiracy to the point the press refuses to even cover it as the moral outrage and treachery that it remains.

We now all are expected to just graciously accept that the Republican nominee for president is not only holding an American reporter hostage with Putin, but he is also essentially promising to pull America out of NATO and surrender Ukraine to a despot who has sent brutal hordes to rape and pillage that nation for no reason other than the pleasure of his power.

And Trump did it by conjuring up the repetition of two words: “dossier” and “collusion.”

Please listen to the episode if you want to know what I mean.

August 2024

Opinion by Jamelle Bouie, "Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss," NYT, Aug. 13, 2024:

"Trump’s Republican Party is a paradigmatically “hollow” party, according to the argument laid out by the political scientists Daniel Schlozman and Sam Rosenfeld in “The Hollow Parties: the Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics.” For all its activity, a hollow party “demonstrates fundamental incapacities in organizing democracy.” Its zombielike commitment to tax cuts and deregulation notwithstanding, the Republican Party from this vantage point is little more than “a personal vehicle for Trump’s vendettas and fantasies.” It offers nothing to the public, they observe, “besides praise for its leader.”

* * *

The anticlimactic truth is that in the wake of a third Trump nomination and a second Trump defeat, the Republican Party would simply stumble along, stuck in his orbit and too weighed down by his gravitational pull to escape."

Also:

"Trump and his criminal cohort attempted a coup in 2020 that was unpunished, allowing him free to run again. This is the first time this has happened in world history — even Hitler went to prison in between his putsch and presidency — but US social scientists express little interest in the social and political conditions that made this disaster possible.

No officials are telling the US public how their right to vote will be protected: particularly with militias pledging violence, Trump lackeys vowing not to certify Democratic wins, and the decision possibly going to SCOTUS, which has granted Trump immunity and will almost certainly rule in his favor.

It is likely that Harris will win the election — both the popular vote and the electoral college — but that does not mean she will get to be president."

— Distant Vibes: Welcome to the era of the No Information Voter. Sarah Kendzior, Substack, Aug 18, 2024

September 2024

On Sept 7, Trump wrote:

"The 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again."

CNN transcript:

Pamela Brown, CNN: "Last election, you were one of the lawmakers who voted to not certify Biden's victory. If Trump loses, and every state certifies the results of their election, will you accept a peaceful transfer of power?"

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma): "You know, it's hard to say what you're gonna do, what you're not...

He suggests that the federal government might get involved if it doesn't approve of the state's election rules."

He tells us what he's going to do: "At this point, it doesn't matter if the Republicans win or the Democrats win — both parties are probably gonna cry foul." Of course, he is the person empowered to cry foul. He's telling us he'll cry foul even if the Democrats win.

Pamela Brown: "You are not willing to accept the results of this next election, even if every state certifies — "

Markwayne Mullin: "I didn't say that. I said I'm going to look at it. I'll take it by case. Absolutely. I'll look at it. I have no issues with looking at it. I'm gonna look at it. But I'm not gonna sit here and tell you what I'm gonna do and not gonna do until I can see the results."

CNN video clip posted by Aaron Rupar on Threads, September 13, 2024

also earlier listening to dean spade on democracy in this great convo

[image or embed]

— Melissa Gira Grant (@melissagiragrant.com) September 25, 2024 at 9:22 AM

On October 6, 2024, Sen. Tom Cotton wouldn't say Trump lost in 2020. The same day, Michael Cohen told Jen Psaki: "What he [Trump] says, he intends to do, and when he turns around and says...that he intends to use Seal Team Six or the military within which to round up his critics or his opponents, he intends to do it."

HuffPost, Oct 2024:

"Former President Donald Trump kept in touch with Russian President Vladimir Putin after Trump left office, according to “War,” a new book by famed reporter Bob Woodward...'According to Trump’s aide, there have been multiple phone calls between Trump and Putin, maybe as many as seven in the period since Trump left the White House in 2021,' Woodward wrote."

On Oct 25, 2024, HuffPost is reporting that Elon Musk is talking to Putin too.

On Fox on October 13, 2024:

“I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within, not even the people who are destroying our country ... I don’t think they’re the problem in terms of Election Day,” the Republican presidential nominee said. “I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people, we have some sick people, radical left lunatics.”

“And it should be easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military,” he continued. “Because they can’t let that happen.”

He also said that he doesn’t foresee any political tumult coming from his own supporters on Election Day, telling Bartiromo, “No, I don’t think so. Not from the side that votes for Trump.”

Bret Baier on Fox interviewed Kamala Harris on October 16. She wanted to talk about Trump's comments about the "enemy within." Bret Baier played a clip of Trump speaking that didn't include that phrase. Later he said he'd played the wrong clip mistakenly.

By the way, who's the "enemy within"? Republican leaders disagree with each other.

Security clearances

An internal memo from those closest to Donald Trump puts forth a plan for the former president to "bypass traditional background checks" and give appointees "immediate access to classified secrets after taking office," according to Maggie Haberman of the New York Times. THIS IS NOT NORMAL OR OK.

[image or embed]

— Gvnzng aka Victor (@gvnzng.bsky.social) October 27, 2024 at 2:52 PM

Also

"Go wild": RFK Jr. claims Trump promised him "control" of CDC and federal health care agencies: Kennedy claims that he endorsed Trump after being offered a powerful position overseeing health agencies, Nicholas Liu, Salon, October 30, 2024

Donald Trump's troubling outreach efforts: Post-election staffing plans signal a dark takeover: A look at the people who Trump has given a seat at his table, Heather Digby Parton, Salon, October 30, 2024

Donald Trump Claims 'Nobody's Going To Feel It' When Elon Musk Slashes Government This comes as Musk, a billionaire backer of Trump's presidential bid, says that giant budget cuts would create “temporary hardship” for the country. Arthur Delaney, HuffPost, Oct 30, 2024

I hope federally funded scientists are preparing for large scale, bad faith attacks by Musk and his troll army. It’s pretty clear the DOGE operation is going to take snippets of grant proposals and papers, present them out of context, and direct weaponized harassment of individual people.

— Alex Wild (@alexwild.bsky.social) November 23, 2024 at 11:16 AM

This is an old tactic by creationists, climate deniers, and other dishonest movements that see modern science for the public good as a threat to their wealth. But in 2024 they have an information machine and thousands of extremist foot soldiers (like the Proud Boys) to intimidate targets.

— Alex Wild (@alexwild.bsky.social) November 23, 2024 at 11:16 AM

In facing these attacks, I would not descend into details when defending science, except in certain media environments with educated audiences. That is confusing, and prone to Gish Gallop counter attacks. Don’t go on the defensive. Go on the offensive.

— Alex Wild (@alexwild.bsky.social) November 23, 2024 at 11:16 AM

Elon Musk takes far more federal dollars with far less oversight than any of the public scientists facing attacks. People who come under attack should respond by making sure anyone listening knows how much federal money Musk makes, and how he shields it from scrutiny.

— Alex Wild (@alexwild.bsky.social) November 23, 2024 at 11:16 AM

If you lead with a defense of your science, no matter how good, you’ve already lost. You’ve allowed Musk to define the terms of conflict. To the extent you can, recast the terms. Musk is a massive part of government waste, and he is trying to grab more of the pie for himself with these attacks.

— Alex Wild (@alexwild.bsky.social) November 23, 2024 at 11:20 AM

This is a simpler argument, much easier for listeners to grasp than you trying to explain the rationale for your work. And it is also true.

— Alex Wild (@alexwild.bsky.social) November 23, 2024 at 11:23 AM

'Hey, you can’t do this': Expert blows hole in Musk and Ramaswamy's big plans Tom Boggioni, Raw Story, November 24, 2024

Elon Musk's SpaceX and Amazon are trying to claim that a crucial agency is unconstitutional — and it could deal a major blow to workers' rights

[image or embed]

— Phil Lewis (@phillewis.bsky.social) November 27, 2024 at 10:56 AM

A major “blow” to workers rights is a fucking understatement. It would literally end all labor protections and enforcement of such protections. All labor unions would effectively be null and void. The NLRB is what gives them legal legitimacy.

— Pita Skeeter. (@iwpj.bsky.social) November 27, 2024 at 10:59 AM

The 'cis is a slur' trope serves a transphobic purpose

Erin Reed has a good article (Jun 22, 2023): 'Cisgender' Is No More A Slur Than 'Straight' Is - Elon Musk Restricts Term On Twitter: Elon Musk declared that 'cis' is a slur on twitter. The word is no more a slur than 'straight' or 'heterosexual,' and it has over a hundred years of use to describe gender identity or presentation."

She wrote: "Yesterday, in a stunning development, Elon Musk announced that Twitter would begin to consider the term 'cis' or 'cisgender' as a slur. The word, which is important in conversations that center on gender identity, is extensively employed by transgender people, as well as by medical professionals, researchers, service providers, and advocates, to differentiate between transgender and cisgender individuals and their distinct needs."

The result: "Musk is endorsing policies that squelch the speech of transgender people who use terms like 'cisgender,' which are essential in explaining lived experiences and unique circumstances to differing gender identities."

This is Musk's June 2023 post.

In October 2023, Musk tweeted: “The word ‘cis’ is a heterosexual slur. Shame on anyone who uses it.”
In response to which, on October 30, Ari Drennen tweeted: "They think 'cis' is a slur because they use 'trans' as a slur"

Yesterday, January 11, 2024, Musk similarly tweeted: “Cis is a heterophobic word. Shame on anyone who uses it.”

(Pink News)

Plainly, it isn't. If "heterosexual" and "straight" are not slurs for "not gay/bisexual," why would "cisgender" be a slur for "not transgender"?

People have written about this on Medium (unpaywalled links):

* Cisgender Definitions Pax Ahima Gethen

* No, “cis” is not a slur David Allsopp

* Cis Is Not a Slur. It Does Not Belittle Who You Are. Emma Holiday

* Cis Women Don’t Oppress Us. And Cis Is Not a Slur. Cassie Brighter

* What Does “Cis” Mean, And Is It Bad? Quispe López

Also, notably:

"My 2007 book Whipping Girl is probably best known for two things: It popularized “cis” terminology (which I did not coin) and introduced the concept of “transmisogyny” (which I did) ... In the intervening years, many people have taken up this language, often using these words in ways that I hadn’t anticipated. Which is perfectly fine, as language is always evolving, and I am not the “gatekeeper” for these words. ... All my essays revisiting cis terminology are collected..." Julia Serano, What Is Transmisogyny?, Medium, May 24, 2021

Transphobes reject the word "cis" because they don't want trans people to say things that make sense.

Trans people often use simple language to make obvious points like "people who aren't 'trans' are 'cis'," "anti-trans positions are transphobic," "anxiety about trans people is moral panic and scaremongering," "concern about hypothetical trans people being too trans is concern-trolling," etc.

Transphobes object to this language because it shows them exactly how they're being transphobic, a judgment they reject in its essence. To persist in their anti-trans agenda, they object to trans people using language that diagnoses anything at all as transphobic. They object to trans people using language that makes the relevant distinctions that will enable us to go on to diagnose anything as transphobic.

On May 14, 2024, "X made good on the regressive provocateur’s stance and reportedly began posting an official warning that the LGBTQ-inclusive terms could result in a ban from the platform." If you use the word on the platform, "trying to publish a post using the terms “cisgender” or “cis” in the X mobile app will pop up a full-screen warning reading, 'This post contains language that may be considered a slur by X and could be used in a harmful manner in violation of our rules.'" (Will Shanklin, "X now treats the term cisgender as a slur," Engadget, May 14, 2024)

Of course "cis" isn't a slur, Shanklin writes. Unfortunately:

"some people have a hard time accepting and respecting that some humans are different from others. Those fantasizing (against all evidence and scientific consensus) that the heteronormative ideals they grew up with are absolute gospel sometimes take great offense at being asked to adjust their vocabulary to communicate respect for a community that has spent centuries forced to live in the shadows or risk their safety due to the widespread pathologization of their identities."