If you see this post, can you please help spread this information?#ASafeChoice is a referral network of physicians who provide medication abortion services ACROSS THE US.People everywhere need to know about this option. These doctors have capacity to help more women! Let’s spread word! ❤️✊
I have so much to say about today’s case, legal analysis, and more.But the most powerful thing today was watching Chase Strangio argue in front of the court as the first trans attorney to do so.You could feel history, and nobody will ever take that away.
I just ran into the main plaintiff and their family in the hallway of the Supreme Court in the skrimetti case today, and we all hugged and now I’m in tears in the press room.I thanked them profusely.Trans people deserve equal protection. We deserve to live like anyone else.
Chase Strangio walks out of the court to cheers after he becomes the first trans attorney to present a case to SCOTUS.Video too big in size but will post later.
I also can't get over the conservative justices favorably citing European laws about transgender health care when they vociferously refuse to consider other nation's laws and traditions when dealing with issues on which the U.S. is an outlier, like gun violence and the death penalty.
Ran into what I assume was one of the far right people in the bathroom line who said “I thought the men’s bathroom was on the other side” at SCOTUS.Thankfully the rest of the line were people who knew me and my reporting and I didn’t even dignify it with a response.
This should be said everywhere. Allowing discrimination like this against trans people undermines bedrock principles of constitutional rights across the board.
Chris is correct. Everyone stop saying landslide or mandate now. And let’s get to work blocking their most extreme plans.[Repost: https://buff.ly/41pxuOu%5D
"Repeat after me: there was no 'landslide'. There was no 'blowout'. There was no 'sweeping' mandate given to Trump by the electorate. The numbers don’t lie."My new Guardian op-ed on the new GOP election lie – and why it's important to rebut it! I brought (lots of) receipts:
"Trump won the crucial blue wall states… by 231,000 votes? So if just 116,000 voters across those three swing states – or 0.7% of the total – had switched from Trump to Harris, it is the vice-president who would have won the electoral college … and the presidency" – me for the Guardian:
“Both Tesla and SpaceX quite likely would not exist as successful businesses if it were not for the use of public funding, either through subsidies, through the electric car industry, or through actual government contracting in the case of SpaceX,” Ramaswamy said in 2022 on a Fox News podcast.
December 3, 1833 Oberlin College was founded in Ohio. It was the first college to enroll men and women on equal terms, and to accept African-American men and women on equal terms with white students.
December 3, 1965 An all-white jury in Alabama convicted three Ku Klux Klansmen for the murder of white civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo. Viola Liuzzo The mother of five from Detroit was shot and killed while driving a young black activist, Leroy Moton, back to the town of Selma following a protest march to the state capital in Montgomery. It was later learned that another Klansmen in the car, Gary Thomas Rowe, was an FBI informant. Klansmen Collie Wilkins, Eugene Thomas and William Eaton at their trial
December 3, 1969 Files were destroyed at eight New York City draft boards in protest of the Vietnam War.
December 3, 1984 In the early morning hours, one of the worst industrial disasters in history began when American-owned Union Carbide’s pesticide plant located near the densely populated city of Bhopal in central India leaked a highly toxic cloud of methyl isocyanate into the air. Estimates of the fatalities vary widely, but of the approximately one million people living in Bhopal at the time, 2,000 were killed immediately, at least another 8,000 within a short time, and hundreds of thousands were injured, many still suffering today. The U.S. blocked extradition of Union Carbide officials facing criminal prosecution in India. Union Carbide has since been purchased by Dow Chemical which continues to refuse responsibility for the incident or its victims, and has yet to clean up the site. Contemporary news report on the incident bhopal.org
December 3, since 1992 The International Day of Disabled Persons was declared by the United Nations. “The annual observance of the International Day of Disabled Persons … aims to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities . . . .” 2020 Theme: Building Back Better: toward a disability-inclusive, accessible and sustainable post COVID-19 World. more info
December 3, 1997 An international treaty banning land mines was signed by 122 countries. It comprehensively prohibits the use, production, trade or stockpiling of antipersonnel mines. Buried landmines kill about 15,000 people every year worldwide. The dangerous and time-consuming process of removal would take centuries at the current rate of landmine clearance.The United States and approximately forty other countries have yet to sign the treaty, and fifteen countries continue to produce land mines. The Pentagon requested $1.3 billion for research on and production of two new landmine systems—Spider and Intelligent Munitions System—between fiscal years 2005 and 2011, but Congress has resisted funding the programs under pressure from nearly 500 U.S.-based organizations opposing the weapons. Comprehensive information from the International Campaign to Ban Landmines Recent U.S. policy on land mines:
It’s Monday. There are 700 days until the midterm elections. The FBI is about to get way scarier, a warning from a monster’s mommy and Dark Brandon goes Dark Daddy.
Be advised: This newsletter uses profanity. And it’s been saving that shit up for like a week.
Note: Sexy Patriots! Holy shit we sure missed your hot asses. How the hell are you?! How was your Thanksgiving? Does Uncle Trump Trash have third-degree burns on his crotch thanks to an “accidental” gravy boat spill? Oh that’s a shame. Well we sure are glad to be back with you, and we’re damn grateful to you for letting us take some time off to recharge. Lots of scary fucked up shit happened while we were away. But right now we need to talk about this…
Um… We don’t really know what to say here. There’s weird, there’s fuck-a-couch weird and then there’s whatever the hell that is. We kinda like that Jello Diddler (JD) Vance has gone missing, but when he pops up just to do shit like this it really freaks us the eff out. It’s like there’s a roomful of horrifying serial killers but the one you really gotta worry about is the guy who keeps disappearing. We like to think Trump traded him out for Elon Leon or he’s just off defiling a sofa, but we all know he’s probably up to something stupid and evil. Whatever it is, dude, it ain’t worth it if you’re posting shit like that on Thanksgiving. Yikes. Y’all have a blessed day.
Note two: We’d just like to take a second to congratulate all the dumbshit mainstream media reporters who bought Trump’s bullshit denials about Project 2025. More: AP News
Note three: Jamie Raskin is making a move to replace Nadler on the House Judiciary Committee. Nadler is a nice man, but this needs to happen. We need warriors in key places, and few people fight like Raskin does. More: Axios
Note four: Ex-convict Charles Kushner, who was pardoned by his son’s father-in-law, will be our next ambassador to France because the only thing Trump loves more than criminals is nepotism. More: AP News
Note five: We like y’all too much to show you the clip of RFK Jr. in the shower while Cheryl Hines sells her crap. So here’s the story without the video. You’re welcome.
Note six: We understand there are people who wish Biden hadn’t done what he did for Hunter (more in the news section), but watching Colorado Gov. Jared Polis try to cozy up to the right every chance he gets is really pissing us off. Go ahead and run for president, asshole. More: The Hill
Note seven: You’re not gonna believe this but pardoned criminal Dinesh D’Souza is totally full of shit. Ok so you will believe it. This weekend Dinesh apologized for the lies in his movie, 2,000 Mules, which was about voter fraud in the 2020 election. He should have kept lying. He might have gotten elected president. More: Independent
Note eight: Did y’all watch “A Man on the Inside” over the break? Isn’t it wonderful?
Note nine: Elon Leon Musk has like 50 kids of his own, but he spent Thanksgiving with Baron Trump. How fucking weird is that? More: CNN
Note 10: Politico and other kiss-asses just don’t understand why normal decent people are leaving Elon Leon’s nazi playground Twitter for Bluesky. (snip-MORE)
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OK. Now for the message from Ali. Can you tell I watched a lot of PBS this weekend, with the interruption of a perfectly good and funny bit of work to remind people that democracy and freedom are not free? I feel like I’m doing that.
The thing is better and more succinctly explained here, but very briefly, tomorrow the US legislature opens a session, and we want to meet them with the message that “LGBTQ+ People Are Not Going Back.” And neither are your allies-we aren’t going back, but we are going with you wherever you need us to, and many of us have free mom hugs to go along with that. After you wash your hands. Anyway, my bit, which I’m working on and is saved in drafts, will be to encourage all of us to write to our Congress critters, and any other Congress critters to whom we’re moved to write. I’m likely to do the Congress critters writing tonight, so they see it in the morning first thing. As the draft post here will be.
We can fight like Jamie Raskin! (See above; Parkhomenko has that bit of great news up there. It could be a great idea to write to him, and encourage him to make the move.)
(As is said on my other favorite blog, Our Failed Political Press at work again. sigh The money graf here: A foreign national under federal fraud prosecution making a purchase that results in $18 million cash payment to the president-elect has all the makings of a major scandal. But it has been virtually ignored by several major media outlets.
The banana is not Sun’s most notable recent purchase.
On November 25, Sun purchased $30 million in crypto tokens from World Liberty Financial, a new crypto venture backed by President-elect Donald Trump. Sun said his company, TRON, was committed to “making America great again.”
World Liberty Financial planned to sell $300 million worth of crypto tokens, known as WLF, which would value the new company at $1.5 billion. But, before Sun’s $30 million purchase, it appeared to be a bust, with only $22 million in tokens sold. Sun now owns more than 55% of purchased tokens.
Sun’s decision to buy $30 million in WLF tokens has direct and immediate financial benefits for Trump. A filing by the company in October revealed that “$30 million of initial net protocol revenues” will be “held in a reserve… to cover operating expenses, indemnities, and obligations.” After the reserve is met, a company owned by Donald Trump, DT Marks DEFI LLC, will receive “75% of the net protocol revenues.”
So before Sun’s purchase, Trump was entitled to nothing because the reserve had not been met. But Sun’s purchase covered the entire reserve, so now Trump is entitled to 75% of the revenues from all other tokens purchased. As of December 1, there have been $24 million WLF tokens sold, netting Trump $18 million.
Sun is also joining World Liberty Financial as an advisor, making Sun and the incoming president business partners.
While Trump has the cash, Sun’s tokens are effectively worthless. To comply with U.S. securities law, WLF tokens are “non-transferable and locked indefinitely in a wallet or smart contract until such time, if ever, [WLF tokens] are unlocked through protocol governance procedures in a fashion that does not contravene applicable law.” The only thing that Sun can do with his tokens is participate in the “governance” of World Liberty Financial. Right now, the only thing World Liberty Financial does is sell tokens.
Any foreign national paying an incoming president $18 million weeks before entering the White House should raise red flags. Sun’s purchase is even more alarming because the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently prosecuting him for fraud.
The SEC’s ongoing prosecution of Sun
On March 22, 2023, the SEC charged Sun and three companies he owns. The SEC accused Sun of marketing unregistered securities and “fraudulently manipulating the secondary market” for a crypto token “through extensive wash trading.” Wash trading involves “the simultaneous or near-simultaneous purchase and sale of a security to make it appear actively traded without an actual change in beneficial ownership.” In other words, according to the SEC, Sun made it seem like there was a lot of interest in crypto tokens he issued when much of the trading was fraudulent and manufactured by Sun.
The SEC also charged Sun with “orchestrating a scheme to pay celebrities to tout” his crypto tokens “without disclosing their compensation.” Federal law requires people who endorse securities to “disclose whether they received compensation for the promotion, and to specify the amount.” The celebrities involved included Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, and Soulja Boy.
Lohan paid $40,000, and Paul paid about $100,000 to settle the charges against them without admitting liability. Soulja Boy did not respond to the lawsuit, and a default judgment was issued against him.
Sun posted on X that he believes the SEC “complaint lacks merit” and complained that “the SEC’s regulatory framework for digital assets is still in its infancy and is in need of further development.”
The litigation against Sun is ongoing, with a federal judge considering a motion by Sun’s attorneys to dismiss the charges. The current SEC Chairman, Gary Gensler, who announced the charges against Sun, will step down when Trump takes office in January. A new SEC commissioner appointed by Trump could settle or dismiss the charges against Sun.
How Trump can use the power of the presidency to unlock hundreds of millions in profits for himself
Through World Liberty Financial, Trump can reap massive personal profits from creating a more permissive regulatory environment for crypto ventures.
In addition to his 75% share of revenues over $30 million, Trump’s company was also awarded 22.5 billion WLF tokens. At the current sale price, these tokens are worth more than $300 million. That is more than 20 billion tokens being offered for sale publicly. (This makes the “governance” value of WLF tokens, which was already questionable, effectively worthless. No matter how many tokens you own, Trump will always be able to outvote other token holders.)
Right now, Trump’s tokens — like those purchased by Sun — are worthless because they cannot be transferred. But Trump could appoint a new SEC chairman who is friendly to the crypto industry and who would create new rules allowing the WLF tokens and similar crypto assets to be legally traded. If the price of the tokens increases when they hit the open market, which is a possibility for a crypto token backed by the President of the United States, the value of Trump’s tokens could be in the billions.
That appears to be exactly the path Trump is taking. WIRED reports that Trump is “asking the crypto industry to weigh in on potential picks.” Among the leading contenders is Paul Atkins, a former SEC Commissioner, who, since leaving the agency in 2008, has run a consulting firm that works with crypto companies. Atkins is also co-chair of the Token Alliance, an initiative of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, the lobbying group for the crypto industry. He is also a member of the Chamber of Digital Commerce’s Board of Directors.
Another top contender, former SEC General Counsel Robert Stebbins, has said that the SEC should “pause most of its crypto lawsuits while clearing a path for the firms to do business without the overhang of litigation.” But Stebbins’ candidacy underscores the need for Sun to forge a favorable relationship with Trump. Stebbins acknowledged that, even if it takes a more permissive view toward the crypto industry, it may want to consider continuing to pursue litigation involving fraud.
Major media outlets obsessed with banana, ignore Sun’s payment to Trump
A foreign national under federal fraud prosecution making a purchase that results in $18 million cash payment to the president-elect has all the makings of a major scandal. But it has been virtually ignored by several major media outlets.
The New York Times, for example, has published five articles about Sun’s purchase of the banana but none about Sun’s $30 million purchase of WLF tokens and his business partnership with Trump. The Washington Post has published three articles about the banana, but its coverage of Sun’s purchase of WLF tokens was limited to one short paragraph in a larger editorial about the crypto industry. (The paragraph does not explain how Trump personally profits from Sun’s token purchase.) The Wall Street Journal did publish a short piece about Sun’s token purchase on its “Live Update” blog, but the piece was not viewed as significant enough to be included in the print edition. The paper published two articles, plus a video, focused on the banana. One of the Wall Street Journal articles about the banana was published on the front page of the paper.
NPR took a hard right turn from impartial reporting years ago. Maybe some time around 2005. All studies show the main stream media has a right bias overall. But nothing but complete agreement with and capitulation to them will ever please republicans now. Also notice in all the talk of slashing government programs and services to save money none of the subsidies to corporations along with SpaceX and Tesla. Hugs
Dr. Bhattacharya, who is not a practicing physician, has called for overhauling the N.I.H. and limiting the power of civil servants who, he believes, played too prominent a role in shaping federal policy during the pandemic.
Trump just picked Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health.In 2020, Bhattacharya pushed anti-COVID lockdown theories that were promptly dismissed as crankery — fringe policy prescriptions that would have led to millions of unnecessary deaths. http://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/26/u…
Fine resigned from the Florida Senate on Monday shortly after Trump posted an endorsement, urging him to run for the US House.
He has appeared here many times for his vicious anti-LGBTQ actions and threats of violence.
From my Saturday post…
Randy Fine, the sponsor of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, appeared here last month when he was held in contempt for flipping off a judge during a virtual hearing about an election lawsuit.
Before that he appeared here when DeSantis vetoed funding for a “woke zoo” because it wouldn’t host a fundraiser for Fine.
Fine also appeared on JMG in May 2022 when he tweeted what many interpreted as a threat to assassinate President Biden. That tweet remains online.
Before that, Fine appeared on JMG when he called for felony charges after Florida Democrats staged a sit-in over the racist US House map submitted by DeSantis.
And before that, he appeared here when he threatened to defund a Florida Special Olympics event and called a local school board member a “whore” because she’d been invited to its fundraiser gala and he was not.
Fine was a sponsor of the bill that stripped Disney’s self-governing status. His family owns annual passes to the “woke” theme park giant. In April 2023 he declared, “Damn right, we ought to erase” LGBTQs.
In 2022, he arranged for a Florida town to honor a war criminal who was convicted of executing four Iraqi prisoners.
Fine is also a sponsor of Florida’s bill criminalizing drag shows in view of minors. Of note, his wife runs a self-described “sultry” burlesque show that would violate her husband’s law.
President-elect Trump’s advisers are discussing how to unilaterally strip federal resources from Chicago and other Democratic-run cities if they refuse to participate in deportations of undocumented immigrants
Pete Hegseth, a nominee for Secretary of Defense under Donald Trump, has voiced enthusiastic support for a convention of states, a controversial proposal that has long been championed by far-right groups. Speaking during a promotional interview with his wife in June, Hegseth revealed not only his alignment with the cause but his active participation in its efforts, which included joining Zoom calls dedicated to advancing the movement and named dropped Mark Meckler, a proponent of the movement.
Pete Hegseth
Facebook
A convention of states, enabled under Article V of the Constitution, would allow state legislatures to propose sweeping amendments to the Constitution without Congressional approval. Because this process would allow for the Constitution to be rewritten, critics warn of the potential for chaos and extremism, with the possibility of unraveling fundamental protections enshrined in the Constitution.
Hegseth’s endorsement of the effort aligns with a growing push by far-right activists who hope to capitalize on Republican control in state legislatures. His suggestion that such a convention would become “more relevant than ever” due to the political scrutiny facing Trump underscores the ideological motivations behind this proposal.
Pete Hegseth with Trump
Instagram
The idea of a convention of states is seen by many as a fringe concept that threatens to undermine the delicate checks and balances of the American system, and therefore, is opposed by groups on both sides of the political divide. During a convention of states, far right groups could enshrine a nationwide abortion ban, end marriage equality, and abolish term limits for the presidency which means it could be a path for Trump to serve longer than 4 additional years.
Hegseth’s vocal advocacy for this cause as a potential Secretary of Defense would put him in a position to back decisions made by convention of states with military might. At a time when democracy itself faces numerous challenges, Hegseth’s support for such a radical initiative should give both lawmakers and voters pause about his fitness for a role as critical as Secretary of Defense.
I am sorry but how does this protect any student or adult … it also includes higher education. Notice this part … About 3% of high school students identify as transgender, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is in a country of 337 million people.
This is only a hate bill based on the absurd idea that trans women want to assault girls. Notice it is always trans girls / women they talk about never trans boys or trans men. It is a made up problem that never happened so they have to destroy a small minority of people’s lives to prove a point of their bigotry. I am so sick of this posturing on the part of republicans trying to do to trans what they couldn’t do to the gays 30 years ago. It is the same tactics and hate they promote. If you want to know the real cost listen to the trans students who quit school because they had nowhere to go to the bathroom, or the trans students who were given approved bathrooms so far from their classes that they missed some and got bad marks for simply needing to pee before the class started. These bills have real world consequences for young people in every state. It is not just the bathroom issue but it makes a trans person a target even if there is a “trans bathroom” assigned. It means any student using it is outing themselves to the ones that want to target them for abuse.
Again this solves no problem but does promote hate and bigotry … and it is driven by religious bigotry because of the fundamentalist belief that their god created them male and female only. They are demanding we run our society, or 2024 understands on the book written by religious leaders 2,500 years ago. Think about it, these people had no idea of everything we take for granted today, yet the fundamentalist who demand we ;deny rights to trans people do it based on that book of people who did not even understand germs! These bills are designed to promote a religion and a religious view of life / morality in the public life. I am an old gay man, this still affects me. Because bigotry against one group’s rights is bigotry against all people’s rights! If these people get the right to exclude trans people from bathrooms what is next? Gay people on the same idea that we are a threat? Or hell watch about the old segregation idea that blacks are a threat to whites in bathrooms? See this is the same playbook. This is not different from black people shouldn’t be in white people’s bathrooms. Hugs
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has signed a bill into law banning transgender students from using school bathrooms and locker rooms that match up with their gender identity.
The law requires people at Ohio K-12 schools and universities use the restroom that aligns with their gender assigned at birth. It also bans students from sharing overnight accommodations with people of the opposite sex from their assigned sex at birth at K-12 schools.
This does not prevent a school from having single-occupancy facilities and does not apply to someone helping a person with a disability or a child younger than 10 years old being assisted by a parent, guardian or family member.
The law will take effect 90 days after DeWine signed the bill.
Several transgender Ohioans, allies and educators called on DeWine to veto the bill. The Ohio Capital Journal recently talked to a family who plans on moving out of Ohio because of anti-transgender legislation at the Statehouse.
The bathroom ban (House Bill 183) was added to a bill that revises College Credit Plus (Senate Bill 104) in the eleventh hour of a House Session at the end of June before the lawmakers went on an extended break.
The American Medical Association officially opposes policies preventing transgender individuals from accessing basic human services and public facilities consistent with gender identity.
Slightly more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth in Ohio considered suicide in 2022, according to the Trevor Project.
About a third of LGBTQ+ students were prevented from using the bathroom that aligned with their gender and slightly more than a quarter were stopped from using the locker room that aligned with their gender, according to Ohio’s 2021 state snapshot by GLSEN, which examines the school experiences of LGBTQ middle and high school students.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine gives his 2024 State of the State address in the Ohio House chambers at the Ohio Statehouse on Wednesday afternoon. (Pool photo by Barbara J. Perenic, Columbus Dispatch.)
Forty-two percent of transgender and nonbinary students were unable to use the bathroom that aligned with their gender and 36% couldn’t use the locker room that aligned with their gender, according to the Ohio GLSEN report.
Transgender youth who can’t use the bathroom that aligns with their gender are at a greater risk of sexual violence, according to a 2019 study published in the journal Pediatrics.
Florida, Oklahoma, Idaho, and Tennessee’s laws have all been challenged. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit blocked Idaho’s law last year.
North Carolina made history in 2016 by becoming the first state to ban bathroom access to transgender people. The law was quickly appealed in 2017 and settled in federal court in 2019, but the state ended up losing hundreds of millions of dollars as the NBA All-Star Game and NCAA events were moved out of state.
Scottie's Playtime 