U.S. Latino vote, 2024 presidential election

Quote:

"One of the other things I was really surprised about was how nearly a decade of brutal, dehumanizing anti-immigrant rhetoric from the right instead of creating a racial solidarity consciousness among Latinos offered them a choice. That is the choice that has been offered to immigrants throughout our history, which is to either remain the maligned and dehumanized other or opt in and be white. Just be white, you know which is the greatest thing in the world to be, apparently.

And Latinos literally have that option on the census, they're not a race. They're white people who may or may not be of Spanish-speaking origin, It's not surprising in the sense that many people have predicted that this would be what would happen. But I think that the scale of it, and in response to such pre-genocidal rhetoric. Rhetoric that fully dehumanized immigrants, made them into mortal threats, that created a blood libel narrative."

— How to compete with the right-wing meaning-making media machine: Writer and policy wonk Heather McGhee on how Democrats failed to reach voters on policy, why having Beyoncé on your side isn't enough, and what it will take to build a left media in the Trump years. The Ink, Nov 11, 2024

When Trump said he would arrest someone, he meant he was going to arrest you.

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Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) pursues accountability from Hegseth for bombing a girls' school

AI Suggested Bombing a School? In the U.S.–Israel war against Iran, AI is being used, and many students have died Tucker Lieberman, 3 min read, Medium, Mar 5, 2026

Background

"...like most of the country I’m still completely confused about what the point of this latest war is, other than, perhaps, distraction from the Epstein files.

To that end, it seems that Trump, even in his attempts to distance himself from charges of abuse and assaults on women and girls, can’t help but inflict more horrific violence on women and girls, as one of the first targets of his and Netanyahu’s joint bombing spree was a girl’s school where more than eighty children, mostly girls between the ages of six and ten, were killed on the first day of the attack."

— Starhawk, War In Iran, Mar 1, 2026

"The girls’ school in Iran, where 165 people were killed by an apparent US-Israeli attack, was hit with two strikes, with the second missile killing sheltering survivors, two first responders and the parent of a slain child have told Middle East Eye." (Exclusive: Iranian girls killed by ‘double-tap’ strikes on Minab school: Eyewitnesses describe second blast which killed survivors as they sheltered in prayer hall, Middle East Eye, 4 March 2026)

‘Beyond Evil’: Medics Say Iran School Massacre Was Double-Tap Strike “The second bomb hit,” said one paramedic. “Only a small number of those who had taken shelter survived.” Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams, Mar 04, 2026

New imagery suggests U.S. responsible for Iran school strike, CNN video, March 6, 2026

Rights Group Says Massacre at Iranian School—Likely by US—Should Be Investigated as ‘War Crime’ “Trump loves putting his name on things, but this should be the only building for which he is remembered by history.” Jon Queally, Common Dreams, March 7, 2026

""I can tell you as a veteran in no uncertain terms, the United States does everything it can to avoid civilian casualties," Waltz told ABC News reporter Martha Raddatz on Sunday [March 8]. "Sometimes, of course, tragic mistakes occur.""
— U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz Responds To Report U.S. Is Responsible For Bombing Iranian School, Paige Skinner, HuffPost, March 8, 2026. (Waltz then went on to suggest that someone else might have bombed the school, as in a separate incident when, in October 2023, a hospital in Gaza was bombed and there was dispute over whether it was a Palestinian rocket that fell short or was misdirected and accidentally landed on the hospital, or whether Israel had done it.

Not only did the US, per its own ‘intelligence,’ bomb this girls primary school, THEY BOMBED IT TWICE. www.reutersconnect.com/item/the-pri...

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— Nathan Kalman-Lamb (@nkalamb.bsky.social) March 8, 2026 at 7:11 AM

Missile Fragment From Iran School Massacre Marked ‘Made in USA’—But Trump Keeps Lying: Trump falsely claimed that Iran has “some” highly restricted Tomahawk missiles as additional evidence pointed to US culpability for the deadly strike. Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams, Mar 10, 2026

"An ongoing investigation into the deadly Tomahawk missile strike on an Iranian elementary school has concluded that the U.S. military is to blame, The New York Times reported Wednesday [March 11]...The White House has not taken any accountability for the attack, repeating that it remains under investigation." (U.S. Behind Deadly Strike On Iranian Elementary School: Report)

Watch A Republican Senator Apologize On CNN For Bombing Of Girls School In Iran "When you make a mistake, you ought to admit it," the GOP senator said of the U.S. likely being responsible for the fatal strike on a school. Ron Dicker, HuffPost, Mar 11, 2026

Hegseth is blaming the bombing of the girls' school on Iran, Mar 13

Three months later, the search for accountability (CNN video)

Jake Johnson for Common Dreams (Jul 08, 2026):

"The House Democrat who introduced articles of impeachment against Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier this year revived her call for his removal on Wednesday following news that top US military commanders bypassed warnings about the reliability of their targeting information before authorizing the bombing of an Iranian school, killing more than 150 people—mostly young children.

“This is unconscionable,” Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), one of two Iranian Americans in Congress, wrote on social media in response to CNN’s reporting on the US commanders’ catastrophic decision."

This is unconscionable. Children were murdered in the first days of Trump’s illegal, pointless war that has wreaked havoc across the world. It is an abomination. It is a war crime. And it is why I’ve introduced Articles of Impeachment against Pete Hegseth. I urge my colleagues to join me.

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— Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari (@repyassansari.bsky.social) July 8, 2026 at 11:24 AM

They're not reviewing the info:

Within a week of the strike, the first two stages of a “battle damage assessment” focused on answering basic questions including whether the strike hit and damaged the intended target had been completed, indicating that the US was responsible for striking the Shajareh Tayyiba school in Minab, the sources said.

But a third standard review stage, a step where analysts – typically from the Defense Intelligence Agency – review the entire body of relevant satellite imagery and other intelligence sources to provide a more holistic determination about what took place and how a strike impacted the broader mission, was not ordered, the sources said. That review would almost always be conducted in the immediate aftermath of a noteworthy strike, they said, but it had not begun as of early July.

Exclusive: US military hasn’t conducted standard review of intelligence tied to strike on school in Iran, sources say, Zachary Cohen, CNN, July 16, 2026

No liberal U.S. apology tour can fix the past decade or two

There was some attempt to convince the nation that Biden had improved their lives.

"Airlines in the United States are now required to give passengers cash refunds if their flight is significantly delayed or canceled, even if that person does not explicitly ask for a refund." — CNN

In case it hasn't been said enough: This is another thing that we can thank the Biden Administration + Secretary Pete Buttigieg for.

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— Celeste Pewter (@celestepewter.bsky.social) October 28, 2024 at 9:48 PM

But Democrats chickened out on a lot of stuff.

A guy who's not getting the attention he deserves for failing hard in this environment is Buttigieg. Went along with trans bashing and hasn't mentioned Mamdani once. For the guy who dreams of being the first openly LGBTQ+ president, and who tried playing a progressive in 2020... I think he's done.

— Lucas Kuhn (@lucaskuhn.bsky.social) November 5, 2025 at 7:45 AM

After another year of Trump:

Katelyn Burns, Dec 1, 2025:

Democrats can't and haven't push back en masse against these attacks because all of them are deathly afraid of getting hit with another Trump style "Kamala is for they/them" ad.

We all need to take a step back and see the larger picture here. Continuing to be squeamish about trans people is what is letting Trump and the other Republicans get away with all of this. They are trying to drive trans people out of society using roving hordes of online abusers, and destroying every institution standing in their way.

Stand up for us now, or watch everything you love get torched one by one until you live in the ashes.

After a further six months:

We're Talking About Revolutionary Shit, Here, Muckrake Podcast, June 19, 2026 (40:41–42:50):

Nick Hauselman: "Obama spent...the first half of his first year, maybe the first year, having to travel around the world apologizing for Bush. Right? Trying to convince everybody out there that we are a functioning government and we're going to return to the things that we aspire to in the Constitution. How long is that going to take the next president to do after Trump steps down (when he does, if he does)? It could take the entire four years to figure out, to earn any kind of trust back from the rest of the world."
Jared Yates Sexton: "Yeah, and we're very lucky we've got an example of a president who followed Donald Trump and wasn't able to do anything about it or really change things. That idea at this point, Nick, that's like you asking me how are we going to get in my car and drive to the moon. 'Cause there's no repairing this. There's no rolling it back. It's like in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. You're not going to get those miles off the car. You just have to have a giant change that shows everybody that we're serious about that and then on top of it, after a giant change, you still have to earn trust. You still have to show that things actually did change. We're talking about revolutionary shit, here. ... The reason why there's no putting this thing back in the box is we've tried for a while to put this thing back in the box. The lineage of the presidency goes: George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Donald Trump. Like, at some point or another, there's no winding that back. There's not a world meeting tour that's going to fix this."
Nick Hauselman: "I think what you're saying is: The rest of the world is on to us."
Jared Yates Sexton: "They're on to us!"

2026: US admitting only white South Africans as refugees

The US has not admitted any refugees — not really, not exactly — in 2026. Everyone who had this immigration designation has been a white South African. Except for three people who were something other than a white South African.

Andrea Pitzer explains this.

[Andrea Pitzer speaking:] "As Mother Jones has reported, with more than 6,000 refugees admitted to this country since October 1 of last year" [i.e., since October 1, 2025] — [clip of Donald Trump speaking:] "but whether they're white or black makes no difference to me" — [Pitzer again:] "only three asylum seekers who were admitted was anything but somebody white from South Africa." [Clip of Nermeen Shaikh speaking on May 21, 2026:] "The Trump administration is advancing plans to increase the number of white South Africans it admits to the United States as refugees in the coming months. The proposal would see an additional 10,000 white South Africans resettled into the US even as the Trump administration continues to block the entry of refugees from other countries." (0:40-1:15)

"In June 2018, Sullivan posted on Twitter, 'Slowing massive demographic change is not fascist, it's conservative.' He was arguing against undocumented people in America. But did this slight of hand to talk about slowing demographic change? Is he against people coming without papers, or is he against people from predominantly non-white countries showing up? I've thought about this line of reasoning a lot since he made that comment years ago because 'slowing massive demographic change' is eugenics." (13:05–13:48)

"The long-standing ideal of the country as a home for poor huddled masses yearning to breathe free is erased." (15:16-24)

"The trap," says Pitzer, "is the idea that someone else's race or culture is the actual reason you feel lost." (17:03–10)

"Fascism has never — not once in human history — been driven by demographic change, a majority becoming a minority. Germans were under no demographic threat in the 1930s. Poles and Austrians are under no demographic threat. Nor are Italians. Whatever refugees and immigrants have arrived on these shores, they’re hardly to about to establish states where sipping coffee and wine, among other staples of European cultural life, are suddenly outlawed. And yet, neofascist politics are rising in all these places, aren’t they?"

— umair haque, Why it’s a Myth That Fascism’s About Demographic Change and Cultural Anxiety: How Neoliberals Have Taught You to Play Right Into Fascists’ Hands — Without Knowing It, Medium, Aug 17, 2018

The right-wing used to talk about freedom, and it doesn't really do so anymore:

"For the first time in a generation, the idea of freedom is not an especially important animating principle for the right. They use the word still, but they are fundamentally about something else now, fundamentally about protecting people from supposedly menacing forces like demographic change and changes to M&Ms and children’s books and 'woke' corporations. This is the pitch not of freedom but of the strongman."
Anand Giridharadas, Kamala Harris on Freedom: It's not just a Beyoncé song — it's about reclaiming an American ideal, The Ink, Jul 25, 2024

It's not "polarization" either.

"The other thing I have been working and writing on is a proper deep dive into all the many ways the 'polarization' narrative obscures far more than it illuminates. Really, if only we could stop talking about 'polarization.' I'll make the case to you why we need to finally move beyond that utterly misleading tale."
— Thomas Zimmer, Big News: Democracy Americana Now Also Available in German, Democracy Americana, June 13, 2026

Here's a mention of "demographic change" and "polarization" I found. (emphases mine)

"The premise of the Mindful Resistance Project is that understanding and addressing the root causes of Trumpism is important—so important that we shouldn’t let Trump’s antics and outrages get in the way of this mission. To put a finer point on it: 1) We need to respond to each day’s news about Trump wisely—with moral clarity and forceful conviction but with awareness of the way overreactions to his provocations can play into his hands. 2) Meanwhile, we need to get a deeper understanding of the forces that led so many people to vote for Trump. These forces include globalization, demographic change, the loss of jobs through automation, and a political polarization that is grounded partly in the tribalizing tendencies of social media. This polarization is also grounded in what you might call the psychology of tribalism, in cognitive biases that afflict us all—so fostering an understanding of how our minds work will be among the goals of this project."
Robert Wright, How to Fight Trump Mindfully: Plus: Non-Trump news. Trump goes hawk? A setback for EVs? (Working) class-less Dems. And more! NonZero Newsletter, Nov 8, 2024

$1.776 billion slush fund to enrich January 6 rioters would be a billion-dollar theft

‘He’s Just Stealing Your Money’: House Dems Launch Bid to Block $1.8 Billion Trump-MAGA ‘Slush Fund’: “It’s illegal and corrupt as hell,” Congressman Don Beyer said of the president’s self-dealing $1.77 billion IRS settlement. “We’re fighting it in court.” Brett Wilkins, May 18, 2026

Todd Blanche Suggests Jan. 6 Rioters Eligible For ‘Anti-Weaponization’ Payments: The Justice Department has not spelled out what "weaponization" means, but it apparently could include having been prosecuted for assaulting law enforcement. Arthur Delaney, HuffPost, May 19, 2026

Democrats Force First Vote On Trump’s ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ Democrats will try to make sure Republicans pay a political price if they support the president's new payout scheme. Arthur Delaney, HuffPost, May 19, 2026

A Criminal Conspiracy that Changes Everything.: The most brazen abuse of taxpayer money in American history just took place. Spread the word. Amber Tamblyn, May 19, 2026

Mike Johnson Pretends To Have No Idea ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ Could Benefit Jan. 6 Rioters Meanwhile, a convicted Jan. 6 rioter told Huffpost he and others like him expected to be taken care of. Arthur Delaney, HuffPost, May 20, 2026

"It’s not unusual that a judge blocked the creation of President Trump’s “settlement” with himself, creating a $1.776 billion fund to reward people Trump seems to have been targeted by the government.
What’s unusual is that the administration calmly said it would comply.
* * *
What changed?
This time, the administration faced skepticism from the courts and Congress."
“Checks and balances” is plural for a reason Congress and courts, together, prompted a different response from the Trump administration. Steve Inskeep, Differ We Must, Jun 02, 2026

BREAKING: Judge Brinkema is giving the Trump admin one week to submit a sworn statement — signed by the Attorney General and Treasury Secretary — that the slush fund will not go forward.

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— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1.bsky.social) June 12, 2026 at 10:00 AM

Related

GOP Charging As Much As $20,000 To Be A ‘Delegate’ At Trump’s Fake Convention: The September gathering in Dallas will choose neither a candidate nor a platform, but state parties are charging thousands for the privilege of a floor seat. S.V. Date, HuffPost, Jul 9, 2026

Trump Terminates Election Assistance Commission Members: The terminations follow Trump and top administration officials' advocacy to change vote-by-mail requirements and investigations into the 2020 election outcome. Bo Erickson and Erin Banco, Reuters, Jul 9, 2026

Ex-Trump Attorney Issues Dire Elections Warning: 'Those Forces Are Already On The Field' Ty Cobb delivered a troubling overview of President Donald Trump and his “deliberate plan” to “take over part of the referee role for the elections.” Marco Margaritoff, HuffPost, Jul 11, 2026

Hey, I previously wrote: Who Paid $3 Million for the January 6 Riot & Election Overthrow Attempts: A reminder: The coup was planned, and many people organized it (Oct 19, 2024)

On billionaires

"But I've spent decades in this industry, often knowing the executives and investors long before they came to wield so much power, and... they're just a bunch of dudes. They're just as prone to becoming swept up in stupid conspiracized thinking as, well, everyone else in their demographic seems to have been. And it's important to remember, nobody becomes a billionaire by accident. You have to have wanted that level of power, control and wealth more than you wanted anything else in your life. They all sacrifice family, relationships, stability, community, connection, and belonging in service of keeping score on a scale that actually yields no additional real-world benefits on the path from that first $100 million to the tens of billions.

So you have a cohort that is, counterintutively, very easily manipulated. If you have access to a billionaire (and billionaires all have access to each other, because it suits their ego to think of each other as peers), most are very easy to program by simply playing to their insecurity and desire for acknowledgement of exceptionalism, and so they push each other further and further into extreme ideas because their entire careers have been predicated on the idea that they're genius outliers who can see things others can't, and that their wealth is a reward for that imagined merit. "I must be smart, look how rich I am." The rising power of movements meant to counter their influence has catalyzed a vicious, and frankly very weird, backlash where they want to put everyone else in their place. And, due to the insularity of their lifestyles, they very seldom have any corrective voices pointing out when they've clearly lost the plot. If it weren't for the deep harm they were doing to so many with these radical ideas, I'd have a lot of pity and empathy for the fact that they're clearly acting out due to social isolation and the existential emptiness that must come from pursuing wealth and power to such an extreme degree that there's no room left in life for someone to call them on their bullshit."

— Anil Dash, "VC qanon" and the radicalization of the tech tycoons, 07 Jul 2023

"The rise of extreme wealth is one of the clearest signs of this imbalance. In 1987, billionaires held wealth equal to 3% of global GDP. Today this tiny elite, just 0.0001% of the world population, owns the equivalent of *16%* of world GDP in wealth."

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— Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social) April 15, 2026 at 10:21 AM

"After 2018, in part because of Trump’s tax cuts for the rich that went into effect at the start of that year, America’s richest 0.1 percent are now worth more than the entire GDP of China.

What do they do with all this money? Well, when they’re not just shooting rockets into space or building hideous trucks, they’re spending it on politics.

Billionaire political spending in presidential elections is exploding.

After the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, it took off.

In the last presidential election, just 300 billionaire families spent roughly $3 billion. Those families gave an average of $10 million each — roughly 100,000 times what an average donor gave.

And the super-rich are getting a big return on their “investment.” They’re getting more tax cuts, more deregulation, and a government that lets them get away with busting unions, exploiting workers, and monopolizing their markets while poisoning the environment."

— Robert Reich, Inequality Isn't Just Unfair. It's Dangerous! Jun 09, 2026

Hear Danielle Moodie explain that billionaires are a virus (Danielle Moodie, talking to Jared Yates Sexton, We're Reaching the Moment of Truth: The Check-In with Jared Yates Sexton and Danielle Moodie, April 15, 2026, see 31:00 and later)

‘This Is Oligarchy’: Nearly 100 Billionaires Are Funding Susan Collins’ Reelection Bid: “While Susan Collins’ campaign is backed by billionaire donors, our campaign is built on a movement funded by the people, with an average donation of $26,” said Graham Platner’s campaign manager. Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, Jun 12, 2026

Not that kind of 'alien'

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The fascist enablers are selling 'veneers'

Do you listen to Dispatches From a Collapsing State? It's a weekly conversation, one hour, paywalled. If you think it's wonderful, support these creators. Dispatches is on Substack, and I realize many people have reason to avoid Substack — Danielle Moodie also has a show on YouTube, and Jared Yates Sexton has a Patreon, so support them where you can.

Today, on Dispatches, Danielle says something that will stick in my brain for a while:

"When people say: 'Oh, they couldn't possibly bring back segregation, they can't possibly bring back slavery,' I'm like: 'We used to have this thing called Roe v. Wade. We used to have this thing called the Voting Rights Act. Get out! Like, I need people to actually imagine with their whole brain about what the setup is here. It isn't just about the grift. It is also about getting rid of the entire Constitution of these United States that they are slowly dismantling through the Supreme Court. Right? So, when people say, 'Oh, it couldn't happen,' like, progress is not just forward fucking movement because you will always have at least half of this country that is invested in misunderstanding, that is invested in racism and misogyny, that is invested in capitalism to any extent. They don't care about humanity. So I need people to stop thinking that, like a midterms [elections] is going to save you, that the next presidential election is going to save you, bcause what is at the core of America isn't fundamentally good, it is fucking rotten to its core. And all that we have put up — It's like going to the dentist and you have cavities and they're like, 'We'll just put on veneers. We're not gonna actually — ' and then you're like, 'But shouldn't you remove the rotten teeth?' 'No, no, we'll just give you medication for it.' So you live numb but you look good but you're rotting from the inside fucking out. That's America." (48:00-49:45)

Jared's thing in this episode is that anyone who is still selling veneers has chosen to lie to themselves and to others. He can't tolerate the deception anymore. He can't spend his time trying to persuade them. They need to get real. The fascists are telling us exactly what they're doing, why they're doing it, and what their intended outcome is, so it's not hard to understand. Even if it were hard, many people have studied history, reported news, interpreted what's going on, and we can listen to them and believe them.

'Sympathetic pitilessness'

Talking about Molly Crabapple's Here Where We Live Is Our Country, Cory Doctorow describes her "admirable achievement of being both sympathetic and pitiless." As "a veteran political activist," Crabapple has "endured every failure that radical politics can manifest, sat through every kind of bad meeting, and she recognizes in these disputes the same personalities and personal failings that have broken her heart a hundred times. She understands why these people are this way — but she can also see, with perfect hindsight, the ghastly horrors that followed..."

I understand this feeling. You can understand someone well enough that you wince at what they are going through, including the mistakes they themselves are making. And yet you don't have to coddle them. You can judge that, on an ethical level, they've chosen poorly.

Each of us is obliged to tell the truth about the callous people in power who wreak extreme harm as well as the revolutionaries who are flawed and who fail or are failed. There are appropriate ways to tell those truths. Sometimes doing so involves a measure of sympathy, since sympathy, too, is part of our truth.

Truth-telling is the opposite of putting up a veneer.

‘Voters Are Seeing Through the Bullshit’: Progressives Take Down Corporate Dems Nationwide “If the Democratic Party wants to beat Republicans and win back a majority in November, they need to listen to their voters and usher in a new generation of fighters.” Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, Jun 10, 2026

Trump says there is no joy except in kissing his ass

You've heard people say: What if someone believes they're trans but later discovers they aren't and they regret their transition? They dress this up as a "reasonable concern." But the "reasonableness" is only the tone or phrasing of the question; there's never any good reason behind it. The more you repeat it — what if you regret it? what if you regret it? — the more it sounds like a threat.

I have written:

• Why Transphobia Teaches Us to Be Terrified of Regret: What if you start to change your gender and regret it? (8 min read) Oct 12, 2022
• On Respair, Regret, Reality, and Relapse: Four reflections (4 min read) Jul 22, 2023
• Let Me Tell You Something Gorgeous About Regret: We will begin but this path cannot end yet (4 min read) Mar 11, 2025

Anti-trans people don't have evidence that lots of trans people regret our choices, nor that regret is a problem to be solved (either in oneself or in someone else), nor that the proper solution would be for authorities to take away everyone's body autonomy so that no one can live a trans life.

If trans people are sad about anything, it's transphobia. Trans people overall are very happy with our transitions.

The anti-trans people therefore resort to asserting that all trans people are sad.

And (for those who are right-wing in other respects) that everyone to the left of them is sad.

And — as Donald Trump now has it — that anyone who doesn't kiss his ass is sad.

In the wee hours of this morning, Donald Trump posted to his own social media site:

(Yes, that's real.)

Speaking of happiness, this is a man who didn't like social media, a man who, discontent with the PR opportunities available to him as a U.S. president and as a billionaire days shy of his 80th birthday who's been world-famous his whole life, had to create his own tech platform to put out his press releases and claim that it is "social media." It isn't social at all. It's really sad. He is a sad person, and that's an understated way of describing the void within him.

I believe this is a big part of what anti-trans people mean when they say What if trans people regret their transitions? They are likely basing their knowledge in their own experience of being huma, and what they very likely mean is a reflection of their own feelings: I feel sad about my life, I have made some choices I'd like to reevaluate and wish I could redo, and I don't know where to go from here.

Trump's absurd climate speech

NOAA Makes it Official: Extreme Weather Due to Climate Change: Congress, candidates and electorate take note: The extreme weather the U.S. has been experiencing is due to climate change and is expected to become more extreme in the future. Janet Ritz, The Environmentalist Magazine, published in HuffPost, Jun 28, 2008

On September 23, 2025, Trump gave an absurd speech, supposedly on climate, to the United Nations.

Here are some miscellaneous reports on that and also on Trump's war on science more generally.

Check out: Trump delivers dumbest climate speech of all time: The president's easily-debunked 10-minute climate tirade at the U.N. was so stupid and unoriginal, it was actually kind of funny. Emily Atkin, HEATED, Sep 24, 2025

Harrison Ford says Trump’s assault on climate policy ‘scares the shit out of me’ Indiana Jones star calls US president one of history’s greatest criminals for attacks on science and boosting of fossil fuels, Oliver Milman, The Guardian, 31 Oct 2025

And just to be complete, in case you need verified NOAA data, yes, as of October, 2025, it's official, a new record was set for the 36-month mean rate of atmospheric CO2 growth: Feb., 2019: 7.826 ppm per 36 months. Oct., 2025: 7.874 ppm per 36 months. Winning!

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— Prof. Eliot Jacobson (@climatecasino.net) November 13, 2025 at 8:20 PM

Your daily reminder that the fossil fuel industry is propped up by billions of dollars in U.S. government subsidies and a multimillion dollar campaign to spread climate disinformation. 💵

— Center for Climate Integrity (@climateintegrity.org) November 17, 2025 at 11:52 AM

Sabine the doomer? "And I guess that’s the thing that’s so frustrating about this. That it’s all so obvious. We were obviously never going to do anything about this until it’s way too late." www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5Gh...

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— Prof. Eliot Jacobson (@climatecasino.net) November 18, 2025 at 2:03 PM

We found so many examples of missing federal government data that we couldn’t put them all in this story. “The status quo was, the federal government is going to collect and disseminate data. That is no longer a reasonable assumption.”

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— Anna Kramer (@annackramer.bsky.social) February 2, 2026 at 8:52 AM

US Youth, Climate Coalition Sue to Stop Trump EPA ‘From Torching Our Kids’ Future’ “This shameful and dangerous action,” said one expert, “is rooted in falsehoods, not facts, and is at complete odds with the public interest and the best available science.” Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams, Feb 18, 2026

"Kate Marvel spent more than a decade at NASA studying the future of life on Earth. Then the Trump administration made that job feel impossible.

“Instead of saying, we value your science and here’s how we’re going to protect it, we were being told things like, ‘Make sure you take your pronouns out of your email signature,’” she told HEATED. “That was the highest priority.”

Marvel, a prominent climate scientist, resigned from NASA in March amid the Trump administration’s sweeping attacks on federal science. Since Trump’s second term started, more than 10,000 federal employees with STEM Ph.D.s have left the government—mostly through layoffs, firings and buyouts—and more than 7,800 research grants were terminated or frozen. It’s, in other words, a nerd purge."

— Why Kate Marvel left NASA: The prominent climate scientist explains how pronouns have become more important than the planet at the nation's space agency. Emily Atkin, HEATED, May 28, 2026

We have very unfortunate news to share today... 😢 I've been an author for this report since 2020, and we just celebrated our 20th anniversary edition last year.

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— Zack Labe (@zacklabe.com) August 10, 2026 at 3:04 PM

"All of this analysis, the stats, the records is here to show one thing. We are having a profound climate impact on billions of people right now. Not five, ten, fifteen years from now. But right now." ➡️ Check out our latest state of the climate webinar: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrXC...

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— Zack Labe (@zacklabe.com) September 18, 2026 at 6:27 PM

U.S. national book bans: CHARLIE Act

🚨Bad news. A THIRD National book banning bill has passed committee in the house.🚨 Meet the CHARLIE act that will prohibit the teaching of what they call: equity ideology (not white supremacist jingoistic history) More from @authorsabb.bsky.social when we have it. www.congress.gov/bill/119th-c...

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— Maggie Tokuda-Hall (@maggietokudahall.bsky.social) May 26, 2026 at 10:41 AM

Write to your representative in Washington

"As your constituent, I urge you to vote no on HR 8705, the 'CHARLIE Act.' The intent is to discriminate. The bill would derail discussions about the experiences of Black, Latino, Indigenous American, non-Christian, and LGBTQ+ students and communities.

Even were this bill in good faith, Trump shouldn't dictate educational standards. Those decisions can be made locally and personally by people who have studied to be educators, who are licensed and who have built careers in education. Students can learn critical thinking so they can reach their own conclusions and opinions. That's what school is for."

You may be interested

I wrote:

Can I Opt Out of Reading ‘Mahmoud v. Taylor’?: I wish I could, but I have to know what’s in it (10 min read) Jun 27, 2025

Good That We Had That Discourse About Politically Violent Speech: Last September, after Charlie Kirk was murdered (6 min read), Nov 20, 2025

"Obviously, no one thought Pete Hegseth was spending his time paging through a towering pile of books looking for subversive content; the DoD list was simply a result of challenging any book that mentioned justice, or activism, or rainbows."
Why not just ban all the books?: Keyword searches for "justice" and "pride" drive what ideas are being kept from kids. Andi Zeisler, Salon, June 20, 2026

Silas Shelton had objected to Heartstopper at a school book fair, saying LGBTQ+ books posed a “mental health” risk to children. www.advocate.com/news/crime/h...

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— Lady Haha (@lensman23.bsky.social) June 29, 2026 at 4:51 PM

"A ridiculous number of people, more than 600 that we know of, lost their jobs or faced retribution for saying negative things about Kirk or simply for pointing out what his beliefs actually were and the harm he’d caused. And of course there was the repeated online harassment and threats of violence that followed. Some of those folks sued their former employers and won, most notably former Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah. But not everyone will be vindicated, and even those who are will still have residual trauma from the experience." (One year of Kirkification: Charlie Kirk was supposed to become a martyr. A year after his murder, he’s merely a meme. Melissa Ryan, Ctrl-Alt-Right-Delete, Sep 10, 2026)

Trump bullies a senator in public: Stay "loyal to me"

President Donald Trump set off alarm bells on Monday [May 11, 2026] with comments about loyalty to Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) during a White House event announcing the new Moms.gov resource for new and expectant mothers, which itself has drawn controversy over some of its content.

Trump credited the Alabama Republican with persuading him to support the initiative, saying, “she’s the one that got me” into backing the resource.

But he then added, “I hope she always remains loyal to me so I can continue to support her.”

Britt replied, “You’ve got it. You’ve got it. You’ve got it.”

Trump continued: “I would hate to go against her. That will never happen, Katie, right?”

Britt, who previously went viral in 2024 for her widely mocked response to then-President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, responded, “That’s right, sir.”

Donald Trump’s ‘Loyal’ Talk With Sen. Katie Britt Leaves Critics Deeply Uneasy: “This is stuff you only hear in authoritarian countries,” said one commenter. Lee Moran, HuffPost, May 12, 2026

Here's that 2024 response:

Senator Katie Britt’s Lie: ‘The Cartels’ Did It They didn’t. Nor did Biden administration policies cause crimes in Mexico 20 years ago. Tucker Lieberman, Mar 11, 2024

Trump's aggression toward Cuba

‘Peace President’ Trump Floats ‘Friendly Takeover’ of Cuba While Preparing to Attack Iran: “Trump ran on an explicitly anti-interventionist platform when he ran for president,” noted one critic. “He lied to the American people.” Brett Wilkins, Feb 27, 2026

Trump Declares Cuba 'In Its Last Moments Of Life' At Shield Of The Americas Summit: The president joked that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would take "one hour off" in between Iran and his next assignment. Hilary Hanson, HuffPost, Mar 7, 2026

‘Shield of the Americas’: Trump Assembles His Fascist Hemispheric Fan Club The group of Caribbean and Latin American leaders attending Trump’s weekend summit in Miami are the fan club of his aggressive interventionism, his so-called “war on narco-terror,” and his administration’s attacks on left-wing governments and movements. Alexander Main, Jake Johnston, Common Dreams, Mar 07, 2026

Trump: "Cuba is a failed nation. Cuba also wants to make a deal. And I think we will pretty soon either make a deal, or do whatever we have to do. We're gonna do Iran before Cuba."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 15, 2026 at 7:26 PM

President Trump says 'I think I could do anything I want' with Cuba President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday [March 16] that he believes he could have the "honor of taking Cuba" on the same day the communist-run island’s electricity grid suffered its first nationwide collapse since the US effectively shut off the flow of oil to the country. CNN video, March 17. (It's also described on HuffPost, March 17.)

Pentagon Reveals Attacks in Latin America Are Just the Beginning With “Operation Total Extermination” and Trump’s threats against Cuba, expect more U.S. military strikes in the region. Nick Turse, The Intercept, March 23 2026

‘This Is Insane’: Alarm Bells Follow New Report of Looming US Plan to Attack Cuba: “Trump is preparing to take the US into another illegal war against Cuba,” warned one progressive critic of the US president. “We must stop him. It’s not too late.” Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams, Apr 15, 2026

US intelligence-gathering flights are surging off Cuba | CNN, May 10, 2026

Following Pattern Set by Venezuela and Iran Assaults, US Surveillance Flights Off Cuba Surge The Trump administration has conducted more than two dozen surveillance and reconnaissance flights off Cuba’s coast since early February, according to CNN. Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, May 11, 2026

"President Donald Trump on Tuesday said his administration will be talking to Cuba amid questions about his plans for the Latin American country.

"No Republican has ever spoken to me about Cuba, which is a failed country and only heading in one direction - down! Cuba is asking for help, and we are going to talk!!!" he wrote on Truth Social, without offering further details.

His post follows an NBC News report from Monday saying that Trump was annoyed over the Cuban government's ability to cling on to power despite U.S. pressure, including in the form of sanction. The Pentagon has also been updating its plans for a potential military attack against Cuba in case Trump orders one, NBC reported."

Marita Vlachou, Trump Says His Administration Will Be Talking To Cuba, HuffPost, May 12, 2026

Cubans prepare for ‘invasion’ as US escalates tensions with long-suffering island Analysis by Patrick Oppmann, CNN, May 16, 2026

Cuba’s president warns of ‘bloodbath’ if US takes military action, Gonzalo Zegarra, CNN, May 18, 2026

Unlawful US Attack, Says Cuban President, ‘Would Trigger a Bloodbath With Incalculable Consequences’ “Cuba, which already endures a multidimensional aggression from the US, does have the absolute and legitimate right to defend itself against a military onslaught,” said President Miguel Díaz-Canel. Stephen Prager, Common Dreams, May 18, 2026

Cuba's minister of energy confirmed reserves are gone — with just enough diesel left to keep hospitals online. The UN has classified Washington's blockade a humanitarian crisis.

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— Truthdig (@truthdig.com) May 24, 2026 at 10:01 AM

Why Regime Change in Cuba Is Imminent and We Should Be Worried: Cuba looks set to see a repeat of the Venezuelan playbook, as President Donald Trump has said he will be “the one” to finally act on Cuba. The message from Washington is clear: Cuba is next. Jawad Khalid, Common Dreams, May 28, 2026

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A post shared by Sovereign Media (@sovereign_media_)

"In Exxon Mobil, the [U.S. Supreme] court, by a vote of 6-3, held that the Helms-Burton Act trumps the sovereign immunity of Cuban agencies and instrumentalities, and thus plaintiffs who sue those agencies or instrumentalities under the act need not also satisfy one of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act’s enumerated exceptions. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the majority opinion, and Kagan wrote a dissenting opinion, joined by Sotomayor and Jackson." (SCOTUS Blog, June 24, 2026)