We Resist: Day 861

One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures (plus the occasional non-Republican who obliges us to resist their nonsense, too, like we don't have enough to worry about) is keeping on top of the sheer number of horrors, indignities, and normalization of the aggressively abnormal that they unleash every single day.

So here is a daily thread for all of us to share all the things that are going on, thus crowdsourcing a daily compendium of the onslaught of conservative erosion of our rights and our very democracy.

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Earlier today by me: Trump Admits Russia Helped Him Get Elected and Primarily Speaking and Mike Pence Is a Terrifying Menace.

Here are some more things in the news today, and I'm going to start with some GOOD resistance news!

Lydia Smith at Pink News: Trans Activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera to Get New York Monument. "Transgender activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera will be commemorated with a monument in the city of New York. ...The two transgender women of colour led the uprising against homophobic police raids, an era-defining moment in the struggle for LGBT equality. Rivera and Johnson also later co-founded the organisation STAR, or Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, a group dedicated to helping homeless young drag queens and trans women of colour. The monument will mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and it is proposed for the Ruth Wittenberg Triangle in Greenwich Village, the New York Times reported. It will also be one of the world's first monuments dedicated to transgender people." Woot!

Audrey McNamara at the Daily Beast: New Hampshire Abolishes Death Penalty. "New Hampshire lawmakers voted Thursday to abolish the death penalty, making it the last state in New England to end capital punishment. The vote overrides a veto from the state's Republican governor, Chris Sununu, and makes it the 21st state nationwide to abandon the practice." Yay!

[Content Note: Gun violence] Kay Wicker at ThinkProgress: Shannon Watts Says the Gun Control Movement Is Finally Outmaneuvering the NRA. "What I've learned over the last six years is that Congress is not where this work begins; it's where it ends, like most social issues in this country. When Sandy Hook happened, we didn't have a political movement with any power. We do now. In just six years. Those wins on the ground will eventually point Congress and the president, whoever that [ends up being], in the right direction. ...We out-maneuvered the NRA at the midterm elections, for the first time ever. And that sends a strong a cultural signal." Hell yeah.

* * *

Jamie Ross at the Daily Beast: Trump Admits Russia Helped Elect Him — Then Does a U-Turn. "Donald Trump finally admitted that Russia helped elected him president—before immediately retracting it. In an ill-tempered series of tweets sent Thursday morning, he said he 'had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected.' With reporters jumping on the fresh admission as Trump appeared on the White House lawn almost immediately afterward, the president contradicted himself, saying: 'Russia did not help me get elected... Russia didn't help me at all.'" Okay, player.

Impeach. Him. Now.

One of the arguments I have made for impeachment is that it would be a much more significant a political story than a standard Congressional investigation — which might begin to penetrate the bubble in which Trump's base resides. And that bubble is thick:

A large chunk of the electorate is ensconced in an impenetrable bubble of Trumpian propaganda. https://t.co/XsVNjtbGQt

— Adam Serwer🍝 (@AdamSerwer) May 30, 2019

Impeach. Him. Now.

Joyce White Vance at USA Today: If Only We Had Heard from Robert Mueller Before William Barr's Spin. "If Mueller's statement Wednesday had been the public's introduction to his report, the conversation about it would have been framed in a very different light, far more damaging to Trump than Barr's were. ...Mueller's comments Wednesday should have been the first public characterization of his findings on obstruction of justice. ...The public's understanding of the report is tainted by Barr's initial comments. It is difficult to change first impressions." Yup.

And it's almost like that is the objective, especially given what vague weaksauce Mueller's comments were, anyhow.

If nothing else, had Mueller said, "I did my job to the limits of my authority, Congress; now do yours," it would have made it a lot harder for Trump to again declare exoneration. He still would have, but it would have looked way more like the transparent bullshit that it is.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) May 30, 2019

Charles M. Blow at the New York Times: Democrats, Do Your Damned Duty! "What the hell is it going to take, Democrats?! What evidence and impetus would compel you to do the job the Constitution, patriotism, and morality dictate? What is it going to take to make you initiate an impeachment inquiry? Your slow walking of this issue and your specious arguments about political calculations are pushing you dangerously close to a tragic, historic dereliction of duty, one that could do irreparable damage to the country and the Congress."

Absolutely. And one other point I will make about the need to launch impeachment hearings: If the Democrats fail to do so, it won't be Donald Trump and the Republican Party who exclusively bear the blame for this execrable mess. Unless Congressional Democrats want to share that mantle of shame, they'd better get to getting. Now.

* * *

Alex Marquardt and Zachary Cohen at CNN: U.S. Intelligence Partners Wary of Barr's Russia Review.

Key allies who share intelligence with the United States could soon be dragged into the middle of Attorney General Bill Barr's politically-charged Justice Department review of how the Russia investigation began.

[Donald] Trump has said he wants Barr to look into the role key intelligence partners, including the United Kingdom and Australia, played in the origins of Russia probe. He has said he could raise the issue with the British Prime Minister Theresa May during his state visit next week and suggested he may ask her about his accusation that Britain spied on his 2016 presidential campaign.

In describing the scope of Barr's mission to declassify and study the pre-election Obama-era intelligence, among several other topics, Trump told reporters, "I hope he looks at the UK and I hope he looks at Australia and I hope he looks at Ukraine."

Fuuuuuuuuuuck.

Meanwhile, the collusion continues to happen right out in the open:

#Breaking: White House announces trilateral meeting of National Security Advisors from the United States, Israel, and Russia to be held in Jerusalem in June. "To discuss regional security." pic.twitter.com/apdbaVklBN

— Noga Tarnopolsky (@NTarnopolsky) May 29, 2019

Ian Millhiser at ThinkProgress: A Dead Man Just Revealed the Trump Administration's Plans to Rig Elections for White Republicans. "[Dr. Thomas Hofeller, a Republican master in the dark arts of political mapmaking who passed away last summer] was previously believed to be a minor figure in the Trump administration's efforts to rig the census, until his estranged daughter turned over the contents of Hofeller's hard drives to the voting rights group Common Cause. Hofeller died last summer. Among other things, the documents on Hofeller's hard drive revealed that he 'played a significant role in orchestrating the addition of the citizenship question to the 2020 Decennial Census in order to create a structural electoral advantage for, in his own words, 'Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites.''"

Luke O'Neil at the Guardian: U.S. Energy Department Rebrands Fossil Fuels as 'Molecules of Freedom'. "Mark W Menezes, the U.S. Undersecretary of Energy, bestowed a peculiar honorific on our continent's natural resources, dubbing it 'freedom gas' in a release touting the DoE's approval of increased exports of natural gas produced by a Freeport LNG terminal off the coast of Texas. 'Increasing export capacity from the Freeport LNG project is critical to spreading freedom gas throughout the world by giving America's allies a diverse and affordable source of clean energy,' he said. The concept of 'freedom gas' may seem amorphous, but it's actually being measured down to the smallest unit. 'With the U.S. in another year of record-setting natural gas production, I am pleased that the Department of Energy is doing what it can to promote an efficient regulatory system that allows for molecules of U.S. freedom to be exported to the world,' said Steven Winberg."

I don't even know.

* * *

Eve Johnson at Reuters: White House Wanted USS John McCain 'out of sight' During Trump Visit. "Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was unaware of any effort to move the USS John S. McCain that was stationed near the site of his recent speech in Japan. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to Reuters that an initial request had been made to keep the John McCain out of sight during Trump's speech but was scrapped by senior Navy officials."

Carla Babb at Voice of America: Shanahan Says He Did Not Okay Efforts to Keep USS John McCain 'out of Sight'. "Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan said Thursday he did not authorize and was not even aware of a White House directive to have the U.S. Navy warship USS John S. McCain 'out of sight' when [Donald] Trump visited Japan. 'I would never dishonor the memory of a great American patriot like Senator [John] McCain,' Shanahan told reporters traveling with him aboard a U.S. military aircraft en route to Singapore. 'I'd never disrespect the young men and women who crew that ship.' During a visit to Indonesia earlier, Shanahan told reporters: 'What I read this morning was the first I heard about it.' He said he is asking his chief of staff to look into the matter."

Olivia Messer at the Daily Beast: Trump: Whoever Ordered USS John S. McCain Hidden Was 'Well-Meaning'. "During a gaggle with reporters on the White House lawn, Trump said, 'I wasn't a fan, but I would never do a thing like that. Now, somebody did it because they thought I didn't like him. They were well-meaning, I will say.' Minutes later, Trump picked the topic back up again, noting that whoever made the request 'thought they were doing me a favor because they know I am not a fan of John McCain.' He added, 'John McCain killed health care for the Republican Party, and he killed health care for the nation... I disagreed with John McCain on the Middle East. He helped George Bush to make a very bad decision of going to the Middle East. So I wasn't a fan of John McCain and I never will be. But certainly I couldn't care less whether there's a boat named after his father.'"

This is at once an incredibly stupid story and an incredibly important one, because it lies at the heart of Trump's brittle authoritarianism, and the lengths to which people who fear his power will go in order to accommodate it. When that includes the military, it's particularly frightening.

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[CN: Anti-choicery; war on agency. Covers whole section.]

Louisiana’s governor wants to sign the state’s new bill banning abortion after only six weeks of pregnancy. He’s a Democrat. So is the woman who sponsored the bill. This is what the party gets for welcoming in folks willing to force births to stay elected. https://t.co/JvcvXvJYyE

— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) May 30, 2019

Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: Why States Are Always Dangerously Close to Losing Their Last Abortion Clinics. "It's challenging for clinics to stay open. The red tape makes it hard, with clinics — depending on the state — having to meet standards comparable to surgical centers and ensure the room where the abortion takes place is a specific width. There are also financial obstacles, with insurance not always covering abortion services, so clinics aren't reimbursed. The number of abortion providers fell from 780 in 2017 to 755 in 2018 nationwide, according to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and University of California, Berkeley."

Jessica Glenza at the Guardian: Revealed: Women's Fertility App Is Funded by Anti-Abortion Campaigners. "A popular women's health and fertility app sows doubt about birth control, features claims from medical advisers who are not licensed to practice in the U.S., and is funded and led by anti-abortion, anti-gay Catholic campaigners, a Guardian investigation has found. The Femm app, which collects personal information about sex and menstruation from users, has been downloaded more than 400,000 times since its launch in 2015, according to developers. It has users in the U.S., the EU, Africa, and Latin America, its operating company claims."

Imani Gandy at Rewire.News: When It Comes to Birth Control and Eugenics, Clarence Thomas Gets It All Wrong.

In Thomas' esteemed opinion, bans like the one at issue in Box "promote a State's compelling interest in preventing abortion from becoming a tool of modern-day eugenics." To make his claim, Thomas conflates eugenics, which is an effort to "improve" the population by controlling who has kids and who doesn't, with a choice that an individual pregnant person makes to terminate a pregnancy. They are not equivalent.

Eugenics is about restricting someone's reproduction. As Amanda Stevenson — who is a professor of sociology at University of Colorado Boulder and a family planning enthusiast — explained to me in an email, "eugenics is an ideology advocating for population-wide policies aimed at changing who has kids in order to 'improve' the population. It's about removing or constraining individual reproductive choices." It's not about the choices individuals make about their own reproductive autonomy.

But that doesn't seem to matter to Thomas; he goes all in.

Loathsome.

What have you been reading that we need to resist today?

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Election Thread

Minnesota, Connecticut, Wisconsin, and Vermont had primary races yesterday. Here's a thread to talk about any and all of the results that you found exciting or disappointing.

A couple bits of good news I saw: Christine Hallquist won the gubernatorial Democratic primary in Vermont to become the first openly transgender candidate for governor to be supported by a major party; Ilhan Omar won her primary in Minnesota and is now positioned to be one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress; and Jahana Hayes won her primary in Connecticut and, if she wins her seat in November, she'll make history as Connecticut's first Black Congresswoman. Congratulations, ladies!

In not so great news: Rep. Keith Ellison won the Democratic nomination in the Minnesota Attorney General's race, despite allegations of domestic violence. And Senator Bernie Sanders won the Democratic nomination for his Senate seat in Vermont but is poised to pull his usual bullshit of now declining to run as a Democrat and instead run as an independent. In case you're not familiar with Sanders' history, this is what he does every time, in order to block a meaningful Democratic challenger.

And once again: I'm appalled (though unsurprised) by how much not understanding basic politics I'm seeing on social media this morning, specifically in the form of people talking about how Democrats did versus Republicans. Folks, these are primaries. They determine which Democrats and which Republicans will run against each other in the general election.

There is no shame in being confused. Except when you're positioning yourself as some kind of expert and clearly don't even know what the hell the objective of a primary actually is. And there is a lot of that nonsense going around. Sigh.

Did you vote yesterday? Did your candidates win? Tell all in comments.

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A Note About Language and Protesting Nativism

[Content Note: Nativism; domestic violence; child abuse.]

I just want to make a brief observation about the popular hashtags being used on social media regarding the atrocities being committed along the United States' southern border.

"Families Belong Together" and "Keep Families Together" have emerged as the most frequently used hashes, and I just want to challenge folks to think hard about whether to use them.

Because there are a couple of problems I want to highlight here.

1. Many of the women and children arriving at the border are fleeing husbands/fathers. And, as in one case I highlighted earlier today, some children forcibly separated from their mothers — whose petitions for asylum because of domestic violence are now denied because Jeff Sessions is a fucking shitpile — are being "reunited" with their abusive fathers. Similarly, some of the asylum-seekers are young queer people escaping family violence. To suggest that these families "belong together" is to engage in a sickening erasure of the (primarily) women and children escaping their families.

2. The hashtags are not inclusive of people like Roxsana Hernandez, who died after being detained by Customs and Border Protection in one of their holding cells known as "iceboxes," because of how cold they are. Our concern must be communicated broadly enough to show concern and compassion for all of the people, with all of their particular circumstances, at the southern border — and it's not that difficult. Something like "Stop Abusing Immigrants" or "Nativism Is Obscene" would be as inclusive as it is deservedly blunt.

3. This:

Cruz wants to replace family separations that add up to child abuse with indefinite detention that add up to family gulags. And he's cynical enough to think many in the media will report that he wants to end family separations without this context. https://t.co/6A7aIRAj2x

— Frank Sharry (@FrankSharry) June 18, 2018

Here, of course, is the end game: To "solve" the problem by creating camps for entire families.

Trump has repeatedly framed the problem as immigrants who keep coming back over and over. The so-called cycle of catch and release. Recall the times you've heard him say some variation on: "We throw them out; they come right back."

That's always been laying the groundwork for the argument that detaining people here is the only way to stop "the infestation."

The administration will also cite deterrence, which has been a big buzzword for two weeks, as justification.

And our compassion expressed for families will be exploited and misappropriated in defense of internment: Now it will be an act of compassion to "keep families together" in indefinite detention.

* * *

I'm obviously not saying don't have compassion for families being torn apart. I'm challenging us all to consider whether there might be a smarter approach to expressing that compassion.

Trump knows how to manipulate media, and he's always ten steps ahead. We need to be, too, if we have any hope of defeating this fucker.

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We Resist: Day 300

One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures is keeping on top of the sheer number of horrors, indignities, and normalization of the aggressively abnormal that they unleash every single day.

So here is a daily thread for all of us to share all the things that are going on, thus crowdsourcing a daily compendium of the onslaught of conservative erosion of our rights and our very democracy.

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Here are some things in the news today:

Earlier today by me: Lock Her Up for WHAT, Though?

[Content Note: Mass shooting.]

There was a time, in my lifetime, when a shooting in which five people died would have been news for days. Now it's news for hours, if that. We have become frighteningly inured to mass shootings in the U.S.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 14, 2017

Already, yesterday's mass shooting in Rancho Tehama, California, has almost completely fallen out of the news. The fact that Donald Trump tweeted (then deleted) a message to the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas, the site of last week's mass shooting, is getting more attention than the shooting itself.

The fact that the U.S. president can't even keep track of all the mass shootings is a fairly compelling argument for gun reform. https://t.co/d5HEECdgbb

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 15, 2017

Five people, including the shooter, were killed and at least 10 were injured. And it's just another day in America where nothing will ever change, because no amount of grief or outrage will motivate Republicans to do anything that will risk that sweet NRA money.

Relatedly: Lois Beckett at the Guardian: The Gun Numbers: Just 3% of American Adults Own a Collective 133 Million Firearms.

American civilians own at least 265 million firearms, which gives Americans the highest rate of per capita firearm ownership in the world, with about one gun for every American.

...But surveys show that gun ownership in America is actually highly concentrated. Only 22% to 31% of Americans adults say they personally own a gun.

Rates of personal and household gun ownership appear to have declined over the past decades — roughly two-thirds of Americans today say they live in a gun-free household. By contrast, in the late 1970s, the majority of Americans said they lived in a household with guns.

Most of America's gun owners have relatively modest collections, with the majority of gun owners having an average of just three guns, and nearly half owning just one or two, according to a 2015 survey by Harvard and Northeastern researchers, which gave the most in-depth estimate of Americans' current patterns of gun ownerships.

But America's gun super-owners, have amassed huge collections. Just 3% of American adults own a collective 133m firearms — half of America's total gun stock. These owners have collections that range from eight to 140 guns, the 2015 study found. Their average collection: 17 guns each.

And there are an estimated 7.7 million super-owners in the country, who are disproportionately white men. Just a bunch of white men with massive personal arsenals. Swell.

* * *

AP/PBS: RNC Cuts Fundraising Ties to Roy Moore. "The Republican National Committee has severed its fundraising ties to Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. A Federal Election Commission filing late Tuesday shows that the national party is no longer part of the effort to raise money for Moore, the embattled GOP nominee facing allegations of molesting two teenagers when he was in his 30s." Too late, RNC. Too late.

David Smith at the Guardian: Roy Moore Complains He Is Being 'Harassed' by Media. "Addressing the faithful at a Baptist church revival in south-west Alabama, Moore insisted that the claims are a calculated effort to derail his political career. 'Why do you think they're giving me this trouble?' he demanded. 'Why do you think I'm being harassed in the media and people pushing forth allegations in the last 28 days of this election?'" Roy Moore is a rapist who complains about being "harassed." JFC this fucking guy.

Nowhere in this piece is it mentioned abandoning Moore might be an absurdly hypocritical choice for Trump, given his own record of sexual assault. https://t.co/9kiarz3OsA

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 15, 2017

I mean, the entire Republican Party is a bunch of absurd hypocrites on the subject of sexual assault as long as Trump is in office. It would be nice if the political press would point out that indisputable fact in every article on the topic.

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[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Sahil Kapur at Bloomberg: Senate Republicans Toss Potential Obamacare Bomb into Tax Bill. "Senate Republicans have tossed a potential bomb in the middle of their tax overhaul bill. The plan released Tuesday night mixes two red-hot debates by adding a repeal of the Obamacare law's individual mandate to their tax legislation. While the move will help them meet their fiscal target, it complicates the vote calculations in both chambers and hands Democrats a bumper sticker-ready issue they can use to charge up their base. The revised proposal 'will effectively repeal Obamacare's individual mandate tax so that we can provide even more tax relief to low- and middle-income families,' Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said Wednesday."

Also so they can more quickly destroy Obamacare, because the entire thing collapses without the individual mandate.

How new plan works:
1. GOP ends Obamacare’s individual mandate
2. Fewer healthy people buy insurance
3. Premiums shoot up for everyone else
4. Millions can’t afford insurance who want it
5. Govt saves $ on subsidies
6. $ goes to corporations & rich people

— Ben Wikler (@benwikler) November 14, 2017

Tory Newmyer at the Washington Post: Senate GOP Is Gambling Bigly by Rolling Back Individual Mandate in Tax Package. "Senate GOP tax writers incorporated the high-stakes maneuver into the latest version of their plan, released late Tuesday night. They applied the new revenue to making permanent the deeply-slashed 20 percent corporate rate at the heart of the tax plan; doubling the child tax credit to $2,000; and expanding access to a deduction for pass-through businesses. But the updated bill sunsets individual rate cuts at the end of 2025 to help the package comply with strict budget rules — a move that Democrats seized on to blast the GOP for prioritizing corporate interests over working people." Correctly seized on and accurately characterized, I might add.

The CBO says that the GOP tax bill could trigger $25 billion in Medicare cuts. https://t.co/OB9lctrI2b

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 14, 2017

Tucker Higgins at CNBC: CEOs Raise Doubts About Gary Cohn's Top Argument for Cutting the Corporate Tax Rate Right in Front of Him. "A meeting of CEOs might seem to be a friendly gathering place for [Donald] Trump's chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, former president of Goldman Sachs. But at a gathering of chief executives hosted yesterday by the Wall Street Journal, business leaders called into question one of Cohn's top arguments for slashing the corporate tax rate to 20 percent. When one of the Journal's editors asked the crowd if they planned to up their capital expenditure if the GOP's tax plan went through, only a smattering raised their hands. 'Why aren't the other hands up?' Cohn asked." Because trickle-down economics is trash.

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[CN: Islamophobia; homophobia] Normally, People choosing its annual "Sexiest Man Alive" wouldn't be of much interest to me, and it certainly wouldn't warrant a place in the We Resist thread, but, this year, they chose Blake Shelton, and uh.

I guess it makes sense in Trump's America that an Islamophobe who "jokes" about beating up gay men would be named the "Sexiest Man Alive."

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 15, 2017

(While I know that it may be tempting to respond to this item by commenting that Blake Shelton doesn't deserve it because "he isn't even that sexy" or whatever, that is not the point and please don't do that. Thanks.)

* * *

[CN: Nativism] Esther Yu Hsi Lee at ThinkProgress: Immigration Arrests at New York Courthouses up 900 Percent, Advocates Say. "The number of immigrants arrested or detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency at courthouses in New York has gone up 900 percent in 2017... About 20 percent of individuals detained by ICE did not have prior criminal convictions; 16 percent were there for desk appearance tickets or offenses that didn't warrant an arrest. Some of the immigrants were arrested in family court and even at the Queens Human Trafficking Court. 'The exponential increase in ICE courthouse arrests reflects a dangerous new era in enforcement and immigrant rights violations,' Immigrant Defense Project attorney Lee Wang told the publication. 'Immigrants seeking justice in the criminal, family and civil courts should not have to fear for their freedom when doing so.'" Unconscionable.

[CN: Nativism] Tina Vasquez at Rewire: Trump Administration Orders Large-Scale Immigration Raids — for DUIs.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carried out a large-scale enforcement operation last week targeting undocumented immigrants charged with driving under the influence (DUI), signaling to advocates that while publicly claiming to remove "violent criminals" from local communities, the Trump administration is targeting those with low-level offenses.

Since November 4, ICE has apprehended 25 undocumented immigrants in Long Island, New York, as part of the immigration enforcement sting "Operation Secure Streets." Twenty-four were targeted because of a DUI-related conviction, according to ICE. "This operation targeted those who were convicted of driving under the influence, some with children in the car, solidifying ICE's commitment to remove public safety threats from our communities," said Thomas R. Decker, an ICE field office director.

Michael Admirand, senior legal counsel at Harvard Law School's Fair Punishment Project, told Rewire that prior to the Trump administration, he had not heard of ICE operations targeting immigrants with DUIs. Perhaps more alarming, Admirand said, is the rhetoric administration officials use to justify large-scale raids.

"What is becoming clear is that targeting people for DUI is a theme for [the Trump administration]," Admirand said. "In September, during the nationwide raids that detained almost 500 people, the Trump administration said they were targeting violent criminals, like MS-13 gang members. By far, the most prominent conviction among those detained was DUI. There is a striking disconnect between the rhetoric the administration uses to justify these raids and the reality of who is actually being targeted."

They're counting on people agreeing that DUIs are a serious enough offense to warrant our inattention. Listen, I hate people driving while intoxicated. I loathe it. And I absolutely do not support this administration targeting undocumented immigrants for committing this crime. Deportation is displacement. That is not the community standard for driving while intoxicated anyplace in the United States.

NEW: Richard Cordray, appointed by Pres. Obama as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will step down "before the end of the month."

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) November 15, 2017

⬆️ We are going to have to resist mightily whoever Trump installs in his place.

[CN: Transphobia] Katelyn Burns at Rewire: Despite Electoral Gains, Transgender Community Faces Barriers to Political Involvement. "While it's critically important that the trans community remains politically active in electoral campaigns, canvassing and phone-banking can present particular challenges to trans volunteers. 'A pretty common thing that trans people will say [is], 'I don't want to go to door-to-door' or 'I don’t even want to do phones. Can I do data entry or something that isn't public facing?'' [Jay Wu, communications manager for the National Center for Transgender Equality] said... Eve Freeman, a trans woman from Northern Virginia who chose not to get directly involved in Roem's campaign, says that her deep voice was part of the reason for her decision. ...Freeman's concerns are painfully common for many trans people and will remain barriers until society grows more comfortable with the idea that trans people are just average, everyday citizens like anyone else. Campaigns should be actively looking for ways to make their operations more trans-friendly, including finding roles for trans people who don't want to face the public."

What have you been reading that we need to resist today?

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Two New Suits Will Immediately Challenge Trump's Trans Military Ban

As part of his weekend of vile decisions, Donald Trump issued a memorandum following through on his threat to ban transgender people from serving openly in the U.S. military.

He directed the military to halt the directive formulated during President Barack Obama's administration that allowed transgender people to be recruited by and serve in the armed forces; he banned the Department of Defense from using any of its resources to fund medical regimens and/or transition healthcare for trans service members; and, per a White House official, he directed the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security "to determine how to address transgender individuals currently serving based on military effectiveness and lethality, unitary cohesion, budgetary constraints, applicable law, and all factors that may be relevant."

Never mind that similar or exact such studies have been long completed, having served as the justification for the Obama-era rule opening military service to out trans individuals.

This is all terrible news, indicative of Trump's ignorance and malice.

However, in good news that is only good news relative to that terrible news and wouldn't even have to exist if Trump were not a shitty human being and shitty president, two lawsuits have already been filed to challenge the constitutionality of Trump's ban.

BREAKING: We just sued @realDonaldTrump over his #TransMilitaryBan. See you in court, Mr. President. #LGBTQ pic.twitter.com/eo8wT4XtQO

— Lambda Legal (@LambdaLegal) August 28, 2017

BREAKING: We're taking @realDonaldTrump to court to challenge the unconstitutional transgender military ban. pic.twitter.com/udV6P1hIJh

— ACLU National (@ACLU) August 28, 2017

Lambda Legal and the ACLU join other organizations already challenging Trump's transgender ban, as the Executive Director of GLADLaw reminds us.

Together, we will make sure Trump's #TransMilitaryBan's days are numbered @LambdaLegal @ACLU @NCLRights @GLADLaw @OutServeSLDN

— Janson Wu (@jansonwu) August 28, 2017

It wouldn't be a bad idea to call your Senators and Representative today and let them know you would like them to issue a strong statement in support of transgender service members, as Senator Tammy Duckworth did.

When I was bleeding to death in my Black Hawk, I didn’t care if the troops saving me were gay, straight, transgender, black, white or brown pic.twitter.com/FTzjHpZuuH

— Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) August 24, 2017

That's what real leadership looks like.

In stark juxtaposition to the cowardice and cruelty being demonstrated by our deplorable president.

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We Resist: Day 167

One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures is keeping on top of the sheer number of horrors, indignities, and normalization of the aggressively abnormal that they unleash every single day.

So here is a daily thread for all of us to share all the things that are going on, thus crowdsourcing a daily compendium of the onslaught of conservative erosion of our rights and our very democracy.

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Here are some things in the news today:

Earlier today by me: The North Korean Missile Crisis.

REMINDER: KEEP CALLING YOUR SENATORS TO TELL THEM TO VOTE NO ON TRUMPCARE.

Speaking of healthcare...

Greg Sargent at the Washington Post: A GOP Stunt Backfires, and Accidentally Reveals a Truth Republicans Want Hidden. "[The Indiana] episode also neatly captures another larger truth about why it is proving so hard for Republicans to repeal the law: It has helped untold numbers of people, and the GOP bill would largely reverse that. This is admittedly a simple and obvious point, yet the extraordinary lengths to which Republicans are going to obscure this basic reality continue to elude sufficient recognition. If you think about it, pretty much every major lie that [Donald] Trump and Republicans are telling right now to get their repeal-and-replace bill passed is designed to cover it up."

Charles Ornstein at ProPublica: Medicare Halts Release of Much-Anticipated Data. "Health economist Austin Frakt, who is affiliated with a number of academic institutions, said he was disappointed by the decision to halt the data's release. He said he wants access to the data as a researcher — and as a taxpayer. 'We are paying an enormous amount of money to private insurance companies...but we know very little about what we're getting for that money,' he said."

* * *

Brian Klaas at the Hill: North Korea Test Shows Need for Strong State Department.

[Donald] Trump has willfully and deliberately created a diplomatic ticking time bomb as he guts the U.S. State Department.

America woke up this Fourth of July to news that North Korea had successfully conducted a test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile — a weapon capable of reaching at least Alaska and possibly the lower 48 states. Kim Jong-un, a ruthless dictator who starves his people and executes opponents for his amusement, may soon have the capability to attack the United States with a nuclear weapon.

This calls for a forceful diplomatic response aimed at defusing a rapidly escalating nuclear standoff — guided by the seasoned professionals at the highest echelons of the State Department.

The only problem? Most of those key positions are vacant, not because of Senate obstructionism as [Donald] Trump falsely claims, but because the president has failed to nominate anyone to fill them. Nearly six months after taking office and 240 days since being elected, Trump has not nominated anyone for 94 of the 124 appointed positions at the State Department. That's three out of every four top jobs in American diplomacy.

American interests cannot be served without seasoned officials to serve them.

Meanwhile, as Trump leaves the State Department unstaffed, Bob Mueller is ramping up the staffing of his investigatory team.

Matt Zapotosky at the Washington Post: As Mueller Grows His Russia Special Counsel Team, Every Hire Is Under Scrutiny. "Mueller has brought in 15 attorneys to work with him — among them former colleagues at the firm WilmerHale and veteran Justice Department lawyers, said Peter Carr, a spokesman for the Special Counsel's Office. Only 13 have been publicly identified. Put together, the team is a formidable collection of legal talent and expertise with experience prosecuting national security, fraud, and public corruption cases, arguing matters before the Supreme Court and assessing complicated legal questions."

I don't know what could more perfectly and terribly sum up the dire state of affairs in U.S. leadership right now that the juxtaposition of those two stories: The team tasked with investigating the president is more effectively and thoroughly staffed than the State Department, thanks to the lackadaisical attitude of the president being investigated.

Julian Borger at the Guardian: Investigators Explore if Russia Colluded with Pro-Trump Sites During U.S. Election. "The spread of Russian-made fake news stories aimed at discrediting Hillary Clinton on social media is emerging as an important line of inquiry in multiple investigations into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow. ...The role of Russian generated fake news is a separate strand which has gained less attention up to now, but the part it played in depressing the Clinton vote in key states like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania in the critical last days of the 2016 campaign could have helped change the course of recent American history."

An interesting (ahem) piece in that story from John Mattes, part of the Sanders campaign's outline strategy team, who details how the Russians helped Team Sanders: "He argued that if the pro-Sanders websites in east Europe had been primarily motivated by maximising clicks they would have moved on to another viral subject. 'What I found was that 95% of them has gone dark,' he said. 'So my question is: what are they hiding and why did they run as soon as the investigation began?' Mattes believes that the aim of the campaign was to damage Clinton, who Vladimir Putin saw as his arch foe, and then, after the primaries were over, to minimise the number of Sanders voters who switched their support to Clinton in the face-off against Trump."

No kidding. And then this: "Because the Sanders online campaign was so open, democratic, and relatively unregulated, Mattes says he now realises: 'We basically set ourselves up to be victims of an international cyberwarfare campaign. We were pawns in this but very effective pawns.'"

So, two things: 1. This is just additional confirmation that Sanders supporters were agents of Russian disinformation. 2. As I've noted previously, the entire reason that many Sanders supporters were "effective pawns" is because they hated Hillary Clinton and were prepared (and primed) to believe and spread all kinds of despicable (and demonstrably untrue) shit about her. The Russians didn't create their misogyny; they simply exploited it.

* * *

David Filipov at the Washington Post: What Russia Hopes to Gain from This Week's Putin-Trump Meeting. "'For the foreseeable future, the most important item by far on the U.S.-Russia relations agenda will be avoiding direct collision, which might lead to war,' was the dire assessment of Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center. Putin will almost certainly press Trump to back a de-escalation plan for the Korean Peninsula announced in Moscow on Tuesday with Chinese President Xi Jinping that would have North Korea halt its ballistic missile program and the United States and South Korea call off their large-scale missile drills. Putin is also likely to demand that Washington return two Russian diplomatic compounds shuttered in retaliation for Moscow's election meddling."

All of that is surely accurate, but, even more importantly, Putin is almost certainly hoping to sink his claws further into Trump, who is too arrogant and ignorant to understand that he is not Putin's peer, but Putin's mark.

And Putin will do whatever it takes to get what he wants from Trump.

Everything you ever needed to know about Vladimir Putin, summed up in half a sentence https://t.co/7hWMb88CUu pic.twitter.com/exW4edjzXt

— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) July 5, 2017

The scary thing is that probably all Putin will have to bring to the table to manipulate Trump is a little flattery.

Meanwhile... [Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Marc Champion, Peter Martin, and Brian Parkin at Bloomberg: China, Germany Step Up as U.S. Retires from World Leadership. "The U.S. traditionally takes point in the search for common approaches to the big global issues of the day at G-20 summits. Not this time. When world leaders meet in Hamburg on Friday, China and Germany will move in to usurp the U.S.'s role. The two industrial powerhouses of Asia and Europe are being nudged into an informal alliance to pick up the leadership baton that the U.S. is accused of having dropped since [Donald] Trump's inauguration earlier this year, according to diplomats and officials from several Group of 20 members."

Terrific.

* * *

[CN: White supremacy; guns] Christopher Mathias and Andy Campbell at the Huffington Post: Guns And KKK Members at Gettysburg Confederate Rally, But No Foes to Fight.

A few hundred armed militia group members, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Ku Klux Klaners, supporters of [Donald] Trump, and other self-described patriots descended upon the Gettysburg battlefield Saturday to defend the site's Confederate symbols from phantom activists with the violent [sic] far-left group Antifa.

Some carried semi-automatic rifles ― permitted in Pennsylvania ― as they peered out across the battlefield with binoculars, on the lookout for the black-clad, face-masked anti-fascists, anarchists, and socialists they said they had heard were traveling to the national park to dishonor Confederate graves, monuments, and flags.

Although many came expecting violence ― even after Antifa made it clear its adherents never planned to show up ― the only bloodshed came when a lone militia group member accidentally shot himself in the leg.

Fucking hell.

Julia Reinstein at BuzzFeed: NPR Tweeted the Declaration of Independence and Some Trump Supporters Were Offended. "Trump supporters were outraged at what they viewed as a political act by NPR. One person called the Declaration 'propaganda.' A few said NPR should be defunded." Because, of course, they didn't recognize the text of the Declaration. Good grief.

[CN: Nazism] Jed Lipinski at the Times-Picayune: Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins' Auschwitz Video Draws Criticism. "A video U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Port Barre, recorded in part from inside the Nazis' Auschwitz concentration camp last week has drawn criticism on social media for what commenters described as its disrespectful and self-serving content. The video includes Higgins recording from inside one of the former gas chambers — an action that drew criticism from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. ...[T]he museum posted a photo of the entrance to the gas chambers. 'You are in a building where the SS murdered thousands of people,' a stone engraving reads. 'Please maintain silence here: remember their suffering and show respect for their memory.'" What a contemptible dipshit.

Judd Legum at ThinkProgress: Politico's Poll on Trump's Travel Ban Is Fake News: "This morning, Politico published a story with a provocative headline: 'Poll: Majority of voters back Trump travel ban.' ...The story was quickly embraced by White House press secretary Sean Spicer. There is only one problem with this story: it isn't true. ...In sum, Politico substituted a policy that Trump opposes, called it 'Trump's travel ban' and is using it to claim that 'Trump's travel ban has majority support.' ...Polling of Trump's actual travel ban has consistently shown that a majority of Americans oppose it."

[CN: War on agency] Amy Littlefield at Rewire: The Anti-Choice Embrace of Trump Is Complete: Dispatch from the National Right to Life Convention. "[O]fficials made it clear how firmly they have embraced [Trump]. 'He's doing an amazing job,' NRLC President Carol Tobias told Rewire in an interview. 'For the pro-life movement, of course, I think the highest priority for everyone [was] the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.' Tobias also cited Trump's expansion of the Global Gag Rule; his elimination of U.S. funding to the U.N. Population Fund; and his commitment to defunding Planned Parenthood, a provision contained in a Republican health-care bill sputtering its way through the Senate. 'We're just very pleased with President Trump and what he has been doing,' Tobias said."

Gyasi Ross at Indian Country Today: Donius, Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Paris Climate Accords: Ideas to Protect Our Homelands. "A little over a week ago, U.S. District Court Judge said that the Army Corps of Engineers did not do all of their homework before it approved permits to complete the Dakota Access Pipeline. That's positive. Unfortunately, a few weeks ago the [indecent] Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. The Agreement is an effort to curb global warming by reducing greenhouse gases and other air pollutants. That is bad. ...Yet, some States have come together to create the 'Climate Alliance' to be the conscientious objectors to the United States' nastiness. ...Native Nations can and should do the same. Not only will it help to separate and hopefully point out to foreign nations that not all of the US is nasty, but it could also help insulate those nations from disgusting companies like the...Dakota Access Pipeline."

[CN: Racism] Kate Aronoff at Colorlines: How the On-Demand Economy Enables the Cycle of Racial Labor Discrimination. "Provisions like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — which bars employers from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin — apply only to legally recognized employees. Gig economy companies tend to classify drivers and 'taskers' as independent contractors instead, which excludes them from adhering to most of the laws that regulate workplaces and protect employees. Few people think about the gig (or 'on-demand') economy's impact on workers more than Nayantara Mehta, senior staff attorney at the National Employment Law Project. ...Colorlines caught up with her by phone to talk about the discrimination hardwired into the on-demand economy and what workers are doing to fight back against it."

[CN: Trans exclusion] Andy Towle at Towleroad: Pentagon Pushes Start of Transgender Military Enlistments for Six Months. "A planned July 1 start for accepting transgender troops in the military has been deferred for six months, the Pentagon announced on Friday. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis made the announcement on Friday, the AP reports... 'After consulting with the service chiefs and secretaries, I have determined that it is necessary to defer the start of accessions for six months,' Mattis said in a memo that was sent Friday to the service chiefs and secretaries and was obtained by The Associated Press. 'We will use this additional time to evaluate more carefully the impact of such accessions on readiness and lethality.'" Fuck off.

What have you been reading that we need to resist today?

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Dear Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III: F#@k You. Sincerely, Your Employees

Every day, there are federal employees — career bureaucrats who have dedicated long or short parts of their lives to jobs in which they serve the government and its people — who are resisting the Trump administration from their desks (so to speak, and sometimes literally). We don't hear about many of these acts of resistance against the dismantling of the federal government and its services, but sometimes we do, and, when we do, it's pretty fucking great.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions' decision to rescind Obama-era guidance supporting the rights of transgender students is set to get a symbolic rebuke from Sessions' own employees next week.

On the morning of June 28, the Justice Department is scheduled to hold its annual LGBT Pride Month Program in the Great Hall of the department's main building on Pennsylvania Avenue, in between the Capitol and the White House.

A notice about the program, obtained by BuzzFeed News, went out to employees on Tuesday. At the event, which was attended by former attorney general Loretta Lynch in 2016, the relevant work of the department is highlighted, a keynote speech is given, and awards are presented.

This year, DOJ Pride — the department's group for LGBT employees and their allies — plans to present Gavin Grimm with its Gerald B. Roemer Community Service Award at the event, BuzzFeed News has learned.

Gavin Grimm, as you may recall, is the Virginia teenager who has spent the last several years of his life locked in a lawsuit against his school system after he was denied access to the boys' restroom because he is transgender.

Grimm's case had gone all the way to the Supreme Court, where it "would have been heard earlier this year — had it not been for Sessions' decision to rescind the pro-transgender guidance. The justices had taken up the case in the fall, but sent it back to the appeals court for further consideration after Sessions and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos rescinded guidance issued by the Obama administration — delaying Grimm's challenge past his high school graduation date, June 10."

So, Sessions' maneuvering (in part) served to deny justice to Grimm.

And the Justice Department will soon give Grimm the Gerald B. Roemer Community Service Award at its LGBT Pride Month Program.

Which isn't justice. But it's a very strong message to the head of the Justice Department, about what his employees think about his priorities.

Congratulations (in advance) to Gavin Grimm. Well deserved, young man. ♥

[H/T to Eastsidekate.]

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In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

ThinkProgress' Ian Millhiser makes "The case for firing James Comey" because "Americans have rights. Even if they are Hillary Clinton."

[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] And another important one from Kurt Eichenwald: "Donald Trump's Companies Destroyed Emails in Defiance of Court Orders." Of course they did.

Also not a surprise, but nonetheless infuriating, comes this news from Matea Gold at the WaPo: "Donald Trump is refusing to pay his campaign pollster three-quarters of a million dollars." The guy has paid himself and his family members millions from his campaign coffers, but can't pay his pollster. Just like he's been stiffing contractors his entire life.

My Shareblue colleague Tommy Christopher on the brilliant Hillary Clinton ad that features the "Daisy Girl" from Lyndon Johnson's 1964 ad.

[CN: Environmental harm; child abuse] Awful, awful, awful: "About 300 million children in the world are living in areas with outdoor air so toxic—six or more times higher than international pollution guidelines—that it can cause serious health damage, including harming their developing brains, a new United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) report has revealed. 'Pollutants don't only harm children's developing lungs—they can actually cross the blood-brain barrier and permanently damage their developing brains—and, thus, their futures,' said UNICEF's Executive Director Anthony Lake in a news release today announcing the agency's new report 'Clear the Air for Children'."

[CN: Transphobia] "The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Friday to take up the case of Gavin Grimm, a transgender high school student who sued Gloucester County School Board over its policy prohibiting the 17-year-old from using the boys' bathroom during his senior year at his high school." GOOD. Now let us fervently hope they make the right decision.

I #StandWithGavin because trans rights are human rights and human rights are trans rights, once and for all.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 28, 2016

The Transgender Law Center has more.

Interesting: "Dear Science: Why do people like scary movies and haunted houses?"

"The male wine-throated hummingbird has an impressive courtship display." That's pretty much how Iain courted me. Except instead of fuchsia plumage, it was an elaborate display of treating me like an equal human being.

What have you been reading?

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In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: School shooting] Goddammit: "Two children have been injured at a shooting in a South Carolina elementary school Wednesday afternoon, according to local reports. Greenville News reports that the shooting took place at Townville Elementary School in Townville, South Carolina, and that the school has been evacuated. A suspect is in custody, according to local authorities." There is very little additional information at this time. I am just so sad and so angry.

Michelle Obama hit the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton in Philadelphia and was typically awesome. She also appears in a new Clinton ad.

[CN: Queerphobia] Meanwhile, Clinton campaigned in North Carolina, where she sharply criticized HB2: "Think about everything that's at stake in this election. The very mean-spirited wrong-headed decision by your legislature and governor to pass and sign House Bill 2 has hurt this state. But more than that it has hurt people. It has sent a message to so many people that you're not really wanted. You're not part of us. I think the American dream is big enough for everybody."

Heads-up, trans voters: The National Center for Transgender Equality has updated its Voting While Trans checklist.

[CN: Police brutality; racism] Serena Williams has spoken out about police killings of Black people in a moving Facebook post, which ends: "I. Won't. Be. Silent."

[CN: Lead contamination] An appalling update on the lead contamination crisis in East Chicago, Indiana.

[CN: Abuse] "10 Emotional Abuse Tactics That Trump Blatantly Used in the First Debate." Followed by ten metric fucktons of gaslighting.

[CN: Fat-shaming] And finally: FYI.

Y'all, "Alicia Machado wasn't even fat when Trump fat-shamed her!" isn't helpful. What he said was heinous *no matter her size*.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 27, 2016

What have you been reading?

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On the Proposed HUD Regulations on Transgender Inclusion at Homeless Shelters

[Content Note: Transphobia.]

In September, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will reportedly finalize and issue new guidelines to shelters that receive federal funding, requiring them to provide space to transgender people seeking short-term housing, essentially bringing shelter regulations in line with the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits denial of housing on the basis of race, religion, or gender.

Under the new rules, shelters would not be allowed to turn away transgender women from a women's shelter, which is critically important: Transgender women of color, in particular, are at higher risk for both homelessness and abuse. The National Center for Transgender Equality found [pdf] that trans and gender non-conforming people have a rate of homelessness (2 percent) almost twice the rate of the general population, and that 19 percent of trans or gender-nonconforming people had experienced homelessness at some point in their lives. Further, 29 percent of those seeking refuge at a homeless shelter were turned away.

HUD's proposed guideline is critically important. And yet, if you read about it, you are likely to do so under headlines like: "Transgender rules for homeless shelters spark firestorm," over articles that reflexively include deeply transphobic narratives that have become familiar talking points of anti-trans conservatives.

The Hill, whose headline is above, quotes Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association, which has a profoundly anti-trans agenda, calling trans people "sexually confused," which is just flatly incorrect; conflating being trans with saying you're a different race, which is also flatly incorrect; and whining: "No one is in favor of beating up transgender people, but why do you have to force other people to feel really uncomfortable, and in some cases unsafe, just to make your political point?"

Providing safe spaces for trans people who are homeless and/or abuse survivors is not "making a political point." But suggesting that cis people's discomfort is more important than trans people's safety surely is.

The Hill also quotes John Ashmen, president of the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions, who dregs up the thoroughly discredited—and irrelevant—trope of cis men who will pose as trans women in order to get access to women for the purposes of assaulting them.

There is no evidence that expanding access to trans women in any space—whether it be gym locker rooms, bathrooms, or shelters—increases the likelihood that cis male sexual predators will try to masquerade as trans women as part of their predation. And even if there were, the predatory behavior of cis men is not a justification for denying access to trans women in need of safety and security.

That is tasking trans women with the responsibility for the behavior of male sexual predators. It would be like saying that no men should be allowed in bars anymore, because male sexual predators exploit men's access to bars to prey on women.

This guideline is not opening the floodgates to abuse of cis women. To the absolute contrary, it is a much-needed first step in shutting down endemic abuse of trans women, who experience increased vulnerability due to a lack of institutional support and legal discrimination.

What endangers trans people is transphobia—and the cis people who subscribe to it, promulgate it, and act on it.

The Obama administration is taking important steps to provide safe spaces for trans people who urgently need support. Detractors have no good argument against that except discredited narratives and the specter of cis people's discomfort. Which is hardly more important than trans people's lives.

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Good Job, Philly!

Last night, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission adopted a new policy for transgender students. In a statement, Superintendent William R. Hite said: "Every student deserves to know their rights will be recognized and upheld at school. This policy provides clear guidance and will help to ensure that our schools remain welcoming to all of our students."

The policy, effective immediately, reads:

* Students may be addressed by names and pronouns corresponding to their gender identity. This applies to interactions with other students and staff, and all written records, including report cards, class rosters, and photo ID.

* Transgender identity, legal name, and sex assigned at birth is confidential.

* Students may participate in gender-segregated groups that correspond to their gender identity.

* Schools should use gender-neutral language in communication with all students and families, regardless of a student's gender identity.

* Students may access locker rooms and restrooms that correspond to their gender identity.

* Students may also dress in accordance with their gender identity. Schools may not adopt dress codes on the basis of gender.

The neat part about this is that it wasn't obliged by a lawsuit; it wasn't begrudging. It was because the Philly school system saw a need to protect its trans students, so it did the decent thing just because it's the decent thing.

Relatedly: Did you know that Pennsylvania is the only state with a transgender physician general? It's true! Dr. Rachel Levine!

I watched Dr. Levine give a speech to an attorney's group recently, on LGBT law, and she was seriously terrific. I would not be mad at all if President Hillary Clinton chose Dr. Rachel Levine as Surgeon General. I'm just saying!

But I digress! Good job, Philly!

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In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Shooting; death; self-harm] Yesterday at UCLA, a student shot and killed his former professor before killing himself. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the extent of his violence: "Police said Thursday that the gunman...had a 'kill list' with other names, including that of a woman who was found dead in Minnesota. The gunman—Mainak Sarkar, 38—apparently had a grudge against the professor, which prompted him to drive to California from his home in Minnesota with two handguns and extra ammunition, said Charlie Beck, chief of the Los Angeles Police Department." The professor who was killed, William Klug, 39, who was a professor in UCLA's engineering department, was also named on that list, according to Charlie Beck, chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. Beck also said "that the shooting appeared to be 'tied to a dispute over intellectual property.' Sarkar apparently felt that Klug had released some kind of information that harmed him, Beck said. But Beck added that school officials called this 'absolutely not true and this is the workings of his imagination.'" Already, the disablist narratives that Sarkar was "deranged" have begun. But this seems to be a pretty classic case of an aggrieved, entitled man who uses a gun to get vengeance against people he believes have crossed him.

[CN: Toxic water] Damn: "At least 33 cities across 17 US states have used water testing 'cheats' that potentially conceal dangerous levels of lead, a Guardian investigation launched in the wake of the toxic water crisis in Flint, Michigan, has found. Of these cities, 21 used the same water testing methods that prompted criminal charges against three government employees in Flint over their role in one of the worst public health disasters in US history. ...The Guardian's investigation demonstrates that similar testing regimes were in place in cities including Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Milwaukee." Unsurprising, but still infuriating.

[CN: Transphobia] "During a PBS town hall, President Obama made a strong show of support for transgender rights and debunked the idea that he is forcing the issue onto the country. President Obama was asked by a person in the town hall in Elkhart, Indiana, 'With all the pressing issues that you have before you right now, why is the issue of which bathroom a person uses such an issue?' President Obama responded: 'Somehow people think I made it an issue; I didn't make it an issue. What happened and what continues to happen is you have transgender kids in schools. And they get bullied. And they get ostracized. And it's tough for them.'" Damn right. It wouldn't be an issue if there weren't bigoted bullies. After all, trans people having been peeing in public for a long time.

[CN: Police brutality; death; racism] "Back in March, the Hennepin County attorney declined to indict the two Minneapolis Police Department officers who were involved in the shooting death of Jamar Clark. Today (June 1), the federal government also opted not to charge Officers Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze for killing the unarmed Black man. According to the Associated Press, Minnesota U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger decided not to file criminal civil rights charges against the officers, citing insufficient evidence to prove that they employed excessive force to intentionally violate Clark's rights." By way of reminder: Witnesses reported that Clark was handcuffed when he was shot, but Luger says the evidence (?) shows otherwise.

You know we've reached the nadir of media coverage when CNN actually fact-checking Donald Trump is newsworthy.

[CN: Domestic violence; video may autoplay at link] If these texts between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp's personal assistant are indeed real, everyone who rushed to defend Depp is going to feel like a fucking asshole. Or would, if they had any integrity or shame in the first place.

[CN: Addiction] "Tests show that Prince died of an opioid overdose, a law-enforcement official told the Associated Press on Thursday. ...The official, who is close to the investigation, spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The findings confirm suspicions that opioids played a role in the musician's death. After he died, authorities began reviewing whether an overdose was to blame and whether he had been prescribed drugs in the preceding weeks." I'm sharing this because it will be all over the news, but it doesn't really matter. Or shouldn't. He died of a disease that is very difficult to treat.

Oh dear: "Paris' Louvre museum halted entries on Thursday and will be closed to the public on Friday to allow priceless artworks to be removed if the swollen river Seine keeps rising, according to an internal email to staff. 'The museum will remain closed to the public tomorrow out of precaution: there is no danger to the public or our staff but will allow us to calmly remove certain art collections should it be necessary,' the email, seen by Reuters, stated. After days of torrential rains, the French government has issued an orange alert for central Paris, with the Seine's water level bursting through five metres." I'm not familiar with that area of Paris, so I don't know how residential it is. I hope everyone who has businesses and/or homes in that area will be okay, too.

Whoa! "Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the universe is expanding 5 percent to 9 percent faster than expected. 'This surprising finding may be an important clue to understanding those mysterious parts of the universe that make up 95 percent of everything and don't emit light, such as dark energy, dark matter, and dark radiation,' said study leader and Nobel Laureate Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute and The Johns Hopkins University, both in Baltimore, Maryland. The results will appear in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal."

And finally! Oh just a GIANT alligator strolling along on a golf course. LOL yikes!

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In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Airline disaster] "Signals have been detected from one of the black boxes of the EgyptAir plane that crashed last month, French investigators have confirmed. They were picked up by the French vessel Laplace as it was searching the Mediterranean Sea. ...'The signal from a beacon from a flight recorder has been detected,' said Remi Jouty of France's Bureau of Investigations and Analysis. A priority search area has been established, he added. Laplace is using acoustic detection systems to listen to the locator 'pings' given off by the black boxes underwater. A specialist vessel carrying robots able to dive to 3,000 metres (3,280 yards) is due to arrive next week to help retrieve the devices." Fingers crossed that this will help provide much-desired answers for the family and friends of those lost.

[CN: War on agency] Restricting access to abortion doesn't stop abortion. It just forces pregnant people to turn to other methods of ending their pregnancies. "Five years into a wave of anti-abortion legislation that is without historical precedent, Johnston is not surprised. In fact, she is part of a rising chorus of abortion providers and activists who wonder if they are witnessing, as a direct result of those laws, a spike in women who are attempting to take matters into their own hands. ...Until recently, abortion rights activists treated stories like these as harbingers of the future if states continued to erode abortion rights. Thirty-eight states have passed more than 300 new abortion restrictions since 2010, laws that have shuttered dozens of abortion clinics across the south, west and midwest. But a growing number now reject the idea that these anecdotes represent the worst-case scenarios. And a small body of research has emerged to support them. Among the most eye-catching is a report, released in November, projecting that anywhere from 100,000 to 240,000 women of childbearing age in Texas—the site of the nation's most bruising abortion fight—have at some point attempted to induce their own abortions." Fucking hell.

In good news: "An influential body of rabbis passed a resolution last week calling for synagogues to be 'explicitly welcoming' to transgender people. As the country debates which bathrooms transgender people can use, the rabbis of Conservative Judaism officially declared their support of transgender rights. ...The Rabbinical Assembly called on synagogues, camps, schools, and other institutions affiliated with the Conservative movement to make sure their facilities meet the needs of transgender people and to use the names and pronouns that people prefer. It also encouraged Conservative institutions to advocate for national and local policies on behalf of transgender people. 'That is always the first job of the religious community, the faith community: to bring our Jewish values to bear on our real-life situations and the real people around us,' said Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, the executive vice president of the organization of 1,700 rabbis."

Relatedly: "Should it reach his desk, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, says he'll sign the House version of a transgender rights bill which has been stalled in the legislature for several months. ...'The bill approved by the Senate and the version that is set to be passed by the House on Wednesday would allow people to use the restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity and would protect transgender people from discrimination in barber shops, malls, libraries, restaurants, and other public accommodations.'"

In more (qualified) good news: "US survey shows dramatic rise in acceptance of same-sex relationships: US public acceptance of sexual activity between two adults of the same sex has nearly quadrupled since 1990. According to a national survey of more than 30,000 Americans, those who view sexual activity between two adults of the same sex as being 'not wrong at all' increased from 13% in 1990 to 49% in 2014. The shift was even greater for adults under the age of 30, with the proportion rising from 15% to 63% during the same time period." The qualification, of course, is that it's still not 100%. But quadrupled acceptance is still pretty terrific!

[CN: Police brutality; racism; death] "Just over a month after a jury found him guilty of killing Eric Harris, an unarmed Black man, former Tulsa County Reserve Sheriff's Deputy Robert Bates has been sentenced to four years in prison. Tulsa World reports that yesterday (May 31), District Judge William Musseman concluded a four-hour hearing by following the jury's sentencing recommendation of four years for the second-degree manslaughter conviction. It is the maximum punishment allowed for the charge." But real justice will not come until no more Black people are murdered by police.

[CN: Racism; class warfare; homelessness] "While the path from kindergarten through college can be tough for anyone, two government reports released this month outline the particular difficulties facing poor black and Hispanic students, as well as the higher education hurdles confronting homeless and foster youth. One Government Accountability Office (GAO) study shows increasing isolation of poor students of color in K-12 education. And, their schools have fewer resources. Another GAO report says homeless and foster youth graduate from college at a sharply lower rate than other students. The two groups also have a difficult time navigating bureaucratic rules that make it harder for them to secure financial aid for college." Only in a nation of bootstraps fairytales could we even imagine that it could be any other way.

[CN: Rape culture] Baylor University chancellor Ken Starr is reportedly resigning "as a matter of conscience." Oh. I guess that means he feels pretty guilty that he got busted not giving a shit about football players raping people.

Hillary Clinton is going after Donald Trump as a con man. That is a pretty good and also very accurate strategy!

Good grief: "Donald Trump Actually Does Not Know What Brexit Is." Of course he doesn't.

Neat! "Close-up imagery of Pluto's surface has scientists wondering how the dwarf planet's terrain came to be. The photos, which show expansive mountain ranges and valleys, were taken by the New Horizons probe in July 2015 and were released by NASA this week. 'We traveled 3,000 miles and found something a lot like the Earth,' says Alan Stern, New Horizons' principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. 'It was a big surprise.'" (What Stern means is that they traveled 3,000 miles around Pluto, I believe, since Pluto is 4.67 billion miles from Earth, lol.)

And finally! A compilation of joyous cats greeting their humans after long separations. Because dogs shouldn't get all the attention for loving their people!

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I Support Transgender Access to Bathrooms

[Content Note: Transphobia; sexual assault.]

Yesterday on Twitter, @EmmaCaterine urged: "I need every cis person to say that they support transgender access to bathrooms NOW. Your silence will permit this violence against us."

I absolutely and unequivocally support transgender access to bathrooms. And I reject being used as a prop in the transphobic campaign to deny trans people access to bathrooms, under the auspcies of "protecting me."

You know, there is actually a place where people are pissing where they shouldn't, flashing their junk at people, and committing sexual assaults against people who share the space with them. It's called the subway. Maybe these moral crusaders could look into making that space safe for women. From cis men.

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In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Possible shooting; video may autoplay at link] A possible active shooter was reported at the Naval Medical Center San Diego this morning: "NMCSD posted the following notice to its Facebook page around 8:10 a.m. Tuesday: '**!ATTENTION!** An active shooter has just been been reported in building #26 at Naval Medical Center San Diego. All occupants are advised to run, hide or fight. All non-emergency response personnel are asked to stay away from the compound, located at 34800 Bob Wilson Drive, San Diego, CA 92134.'" Fucking hell. I hope everyone is okay.

UPDATE: [CN: Video autoplays at link] "Authorities 'have not located any casualties or evidence of a shooting having taken place,' Navy Region Southwest spokesman Scott Sutherland told Navy Times. 'They are conducting a secondary, more thorough floor-by-floor sweep now.' Personnel remain sheltered in place, he said." Phew.

[CN next two paragraphs: White supremacy] Hillary Clinton is being criticized for historical revisionism after her comments on Reconstruction at the Democratic Town Hall last night: "Identifying Abraham Lincoln—not her husband Bill Clinton nor former rival and boss Barack Obama—as the president who most inspired her, Clinton lauded the 16th chief executive as a figure who 'was willing to reconcile and forgive. ...And I don't know what our country might have been like had he not been murdered, but I bet that it might have been a little less rancor, a little more forgiving and tolerant than might possibly have brought people back together more quickly,' Clinton continued. 'But instead, you know, we had Reconstruction, we had the reigns of segregation and Jim Crow. We had people in the South feeling totally discouraged and defiant. So, I really do believe he could have very well put us on a different path.'" As Jamelle Bouie accurately summarized: "No HRC, Reconstruction was actually good! It didn't fail, it was destroyed!"

And while it is true that during the Reconstruction era, there was rancor and divisiveness, insomuch as white people were rancorous and divisive toward black people, that is clearly not what Clinton said. And language matters. To conflate Reconstruction with white supremacy is a huge fucking problem. As of this writing, her campaign has not issued any follow-up statements, clarifications, or apologies.

[CN: Carcerality] In very good news, President Obama has announced that he is adopting the recommendations in a Department of Justice report on "the overuse of solitary confinement across American prisons," among which includes "ending the practice of placing juveniles in restrictive housing." This is certainly not a comprehensive solution to the vast and varied problems with the US prison system, but it is an important step in reducing one of the key conveyors of the trauma and dehumanization inherent to that system.

[CN: Transphobia; body policing] In more good news: "The International Olympic Committee is adopting new guidelines that will make it easier for trans athletes to compete in the Olympic Games. Previously, trans athletes were required to undergo gender-reassignment surgery. According to guidelines made public on Sunday, the new recommendations remove any restrictions on trans men, and allow trans women to compete in the Olympic Games after one year of hormone replacement therapy." Those are definitely imperfect and arbitrary guidelines! But they are a step in the right direction.

[CN: Misogyny] Lots of women are still dying from heart attacks and heart disease because many of the public awareness campaigns around heart health center on men's symptoms. Here is some crucial information "about key differences in heart attack indicators and treatment in women."

"He's a liar. That's why nobody likes him, that's why his Senate people won't endorse him, that's why he stands in the middle of the Senate floor and can't make a deal with anybody. He looks like a jerk."—Donald Trump, talking about Ted Cruz. Yeah. Donald Trump just said someone else is an unlikable liar who looks like a jerk.

[CN: Video autoplays at link] In case you were waiting to see who George Pataki would endorse after dropping out of the Republican primary, your seemingly interminable nightmare is over! He has endorsed Marco Rubio. What a coup for the thirsty jerk!

[CN: Rape culture] The next time some dipshit is caterwauling about rape accusations ruin men's lives, tell them to watch Woody Allen's new series on Amazon. Because of course he has a new series. And of course stars, including Miley Cyrus, are lining up to be in it.

Wow: "A rare white giraffe was spotted in Tanzania's Tarangire National Park. This giraffe, named Omo, has a condition called leucism. 'Leucism is a genetic condition that results in some of her skin cells being unable to create pigments, so she ends up looking very pale, with only vague patterns compared to a normal giraffe's coloration,' said Derek Lee, founder of the Wild Nature Institute. Lee researches giraffes at the National Park."

And finally! Ecuadoran police saved a sloth who got stuck in the middle of a highway: "That's when the local police went on the most adorable rescue mission and commemorated it by posting pictures on their Facebook page. The little traveller had gained many fans who were glad to know that the story ended well." Oh sloths. ♥

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