This is a great take down of how bad the Cass report is that the anti-trans haters are right now loving to cite. Vaush even includes the fact that Cass herself disavows the report and says puberty blockers should be given out at younger ages than they are. The report is a shitshow. She almost comes out and admits she was paid to find ways to prevent, mock, and give reasons why kids who are claiming not to be the gender they were assigned at birth should be given gender affirming care per the trans best care guidelines, but instead should be sent to delaying / conversion therapy places. It is another open and shut case of the anti-trans right wing activists doing all they can to deny reality and roll back society to the 1950s. They don’t agree or want trans people, so no young person can know their gender. But they agree that every cis child knows their gender … so why not the kids that are different? Because they don’t want that, nor do they want to admit it. Face it, this is no different from the people that said homosexuals were a choice just to rebel against their parents, that same sex marriage was not a real marriage, that every gay or lesbian person just needed sex with the other sex to make them straight. It is just a denial of a reality they don’t like. They don’t want to admit medical science and society has moved past their comfort spot. Oh well, sorry but I don’t have to live my life to make you comfortable or happy. Hugs. Scottie
I want to thank personnelente at https://personnelente.wordpress.com/2024/05/17/immigration-facts/ for the link. The fact is far too many lies are being told about immigrants due to racism and political advantage. The facts show that immigrants commit fewer crimes than citizens, and that immigrants add to the economy not diminish it. The US economy does far better with immigrants than without them. Hugs. Scottie
The myth that immigrants, documented or otherwise, drive wages lower and crime higher thankfully seems to be petering out. That’s not enough
I’m worried instead that our changing attitudes about immigration, our rhetoric and our behavior, will ultimately curtail immigration policy to the point where we cause serious damage to our nation. In a fast-developing, fast-urbanizing world in which a fierce global battle for labor and talent is well underway, America is already underperforming. We have one thing going for us, though: robust immigration rates. And we’re about to give it up.
Post 9/11, America reframed the debate about immigration to be one of national security and borders, rather than economic imperatives, growth or national prosperity.
In terms of sheer numbers, America has more people living in it who weren’t born in the country than any other nation in the world, by a lot.The Pew Research Center estimates that there were 50.6 million people who are not native-born in the United States in 2020. That’s more than the immigrant populations of the next four largest nations combined. But, as a percentageof its population, America now ranks 25th among nations with populations greater than 1 million; roughly 1 in 7 of America’s residents are foreign-born. For the world’s pre-eminent “nation of immigrants,” that number isn’t all that high. As many as 1 in 5 of Canada’s residents are foreign-born, and in Australia foreign-born residents make up almost 30% percent of the population.
What is behind this shift? Post 9/11, America reframed the debate about immigration to be one of national security and borders, rather than economic imperatives, growth or national prosperity. It’s telling that unlike most other countries, in the U.S., immigration now falls under the Department of Homeland Security, rather than economic development, or the Commerce Department or under a department called, say, “Immigration.”
Nearly a quarter century later, this reframing has left us with an enduring misunderstanding about what immigrants contribute to this country. Without reversing this narrative, and a strong national strategy for maintaining — and likely increasing — high immigration numbers, America could soon start to suffer irreparable economic harm.
The myth that immigrants, documented or otherwise, drive wages lower seems to be petering out. Much of the mythology around this stemmed from a largely debunked 2015 Harvard study written by George Borjas called “The Wage Impact of the Marielitos,” which argued that Cuban refugees who formed the 1980 Mariel boatlift caused a large drop in wages for native-born workers in Miami. This proved false. And on a much larger scale, our national unemployment rate of under 4%, with wages rising faster than inflation, lays waste to the idea that an influx of workers hurts the economy in general, or wages in particular.
And then there is the spreading notion, racist-but-effective, of “migrant crime.” While crime is of course committed by every demographic group, Americans who are not native-born commit less of it than native-born Americans, perhaps in some part because they have a unique disincentive — deportation — to do so. In fact, since the 1960s, immigrant men are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than those born in the U.S. The data proves that rampant migrant crime is a feeling, not a fact.
When we mainstream these counterfactual notions, we distance ourselves from meeting the long-term imperative of maintaining America’s position as the world’s top destination for immigrants. Our continued economic success hinges on growing our levels of immigration. We simply can’t afford to mess this up.
As a percentage of its population, American immigration numbers lag behind competitor nations, like my home country of Canada, which have long understood the benefits of strong immigration and have taken great pains to make themselves attractive destinations for immigrants (as Canada did for my parents, who emigrated from Kenya). We want — we need — our working-age population to grow; more labor means a better, stronger economy. In the face of an imminent drop in those numbers as the baby boom generation retires, immigrants are more critical than ever. Immigrants will fill in this worker gap.
Prioritizing immigration will keep our population from stagnating and possibly shrinking. More than three-quarters of immigrants in the U.S., according to Pew Research, live and work in this country as a result of following normal immigration channels. Given new U.S. Census Bureau data, Brookings estimates that high immigration will allow us to counter an aging populace and help build our working-age population.
With each slip of the tongue when referring to undocumented migrants as “illegals,” we are not simply perpetuating a myth among Americans but, perhaps more dangerously, we are solidifying a reputation as a country that is unwelcoming to the very migrants we so desperately need.
Immigrants also help to alleviate critical worker shortages in a wide range of American industries, filling in the gaps by doing jobs that native-born workers either don’t want to do, or aren’t educated to do. Foreign-born workers comprise 22% of all workers in the U.S. food supply chain, 38% of home health aides, 29% of doctors, 23% of pharmacists and 15.2% of nurses. In STEM fields, more than one-fifth of workers are foreign born, and foreign-born migrants are responsible for more than 75% of patents from the top 10 patent-producing U.S. universities. Those patents lead to startups. Those startups lead to jobs. The workers in those jobs pay taxes and consume, and often launch startups of their own.
The data is clear. In the words of Alexander Hamilton — (or at least the version of him written into the eponymous play by Lin Manuel Miranda), — immigrants get the job done.
With each passing day, each slip of the tongue when referring to undocumented migrants as “illegals,” we are not simply perpetuating a myth among Americans but, perhaps more dangerously, we are solidifying a reputation as a country that is unwelcoming to the very migrants we so desperately need. In doing so, we are putting our future in peril.
I’m not the only immigrant in my family. Every member of my family for four generations and over the last 125 years has ended up becoming an immigrant, from India, to South Africa and Mozambique, to Kenya, to Canada and the United Kingdom and, in my case, to America. We know what it’s like to look for and, ultimately, to find a home. And we will fight to make that home a better place for our children and for those who come after us.
Immigrants are not our problem in America — yet. Let’s make sure we don’t get there.
This is an adapted excerpt from Ali Velshi’s newest book, “Small Acts of Courage.”
Ali Velshi
Ali Velshi is the host of “Velshi,” which airs Saturdays and Sundays on MSNBC. He has been awarded the National Headliner Award for Business & Consumer Reporting for “How the Wheels Came Off,” a special on the near collapse of the American auto industry. His work on disabled workers and Chicago’s red-light camera scandal in 2016 earned him two News and Documentary Emmy Award nominations, adding to a nomination in 2010 for his terrorism coverage.
By my dogs that love gravy, what has Israel become. They have become the very thing that gave them a state, that gave them world sympathy. They have become the apartheid fascist nation that makes one group out to be subhuman, to be lessor, to blame all things on. Israel has taken its first Jewish victimization and while victimizing others still claims to be the victim. Shades of tRump. The phrase “NEVER AGAIN” used to stand for something … but to have meaning it has to apply to everyone. Israeli government has for decades trashed it.
The Israeli government worked for decades to teach their people that Palestinians were not humans like them, that they should either die and go away or simply be happy being slave labor mistreated having nothing. The government has been teaching their people the same message that the southern states during slavery and still today want to teach about black people. These people also claim that Hamas is refusing to release the hostages without knowing or understand that their own government is the ones blocking that. Hamas has been trying to make a deal to release the hostages they took for 5 or more months but Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu has been blocking it. For two reasons. One because as soon as the war is over he loses his protection from prosecution for breaking the laws, the ultra religious groups want the Palestinians gone, and the wealthy including tRump’s son-in-law want to build luxury resorts along the coast of Gaza. See the real issues.
Oh and one important issue. These food trucks were being escorted my the Israeli military who simply did nothing as they people attacked the trucks, harmed the drives, and destroyed the aid. Yes the young people knew where to be on unpublished shipments of food, had support of a well funded by a shadow group support, and the military that was there to protect the food aid simply did nothing. Total government support of this vile disregard of the death and starvation of other humans. Just to drive them out, kill them, and get their land.
To be clear, Israel had become an oppressor nation. They are out of compliance with international laws and with moral decency. It could have and would have been stopped long ago except … money. The AIPAC … The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is the largest most powerful lobby in DC. They spent 603 million in lobbing congress, both parties but mostly republicans to do everything for Israel that is possible. To give Israel aid money, weapons, to defend them at the US, everything for Israel and to hell with the US needs. It is scary how many republicans are in debt or working for foreign government, Russia, Israel, Egypt.
What these states are fighting for is the right to discriminate and target kids for abuse, which in their minds somehow pushes the fundamentalist Christian superior morals. They really believe that these laws denying kids the right to live as their authentic self without being harassed and targeted makes their god happy. I got news for them, I doubt it makes their god happy but I know it makes them happy. Their god seems to hate those they hate and love the things they like. Weird how that works. These same states removed child labor protections and school food assistance programs. Makes kids more willing to sacrifice school for work if they are hungry and harassed. Hugs. Scottie
Read the full article. The parents were represented by the anti-LGBTQ Beckett Fund For Religious Liberty, which represented Hobby Lobby in its successful bid to deny birth control to employees. As you can see below, supporting the parents is homocon Andy Ngo.
Liberals were left stunned as Muslims & Islamists gathered on Tuesday to protest the Montgomery County (Maryland) School Board over its LGBTQ+ curriculum. The Muslims want to be able to remove their children from the classroom when that material is taught. pic.twitter.com/vgTai9erXQ
This is what happens when you have hate preachers and right wing media constantly pushing a narrative of anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda and claiming that gay and trans people want to make everyone gay and trans. Plus the US needs better mental health treatments and the US really need to screen police officers much better. Hugs. Scottie
Read the full article. Of note, Lupe Fiasco recently called out fellow rappers for their homophobic lyrics. As you’ll see below, Gomez brandishes assault weapons in most of her videos. Her “weak and gay” video has over two million views as of today.
I found a strong gay man for you Ms. Gomez. Seek him out for some strong advice. I dare ya.
Corporal Andrew Charles Wilfhart is the first openly gay US soldier to die in combat since the repeal (DADT) policy in 2011. Wilfhart died in Operation Enduring Freedom. Major Alan Rogers, died in 2008 while serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom as an Army intelligence officer.
These asshole red state republicans refuse to honor Black History Month and Pride Month but they can celebrate traitors who attacked the US government so they could continue to discriminate against, abuse, and keep black humans as slaves. Yet they call themselves Christians. Hugs. Scottie
Some republican red states like Florida have passed laws making Christian Preachers / Priests / Pastors legally able to be school councilors. Yes troubled kids asking for help will have to accept being preached to, told to pray more, and give their body’s to … god. Yet some of these preachers don’t accept medical science, don’t believe gay LGBTQ+ kids have rights or are born the way they are, they will try to guilt trip them into changing into cis straight kids who go to that church. Hugs. Scottie
The fundamentalist got some more control over a woman’s body with the ending of Roe, now they are going for the entire control over the woman’s rights, their bodies, and their sex organs. Hugs. Scottie
This is their way of forcing their god on the public, in a public school, regardless of the parents religion or lack of. But no other religion gets to do this, just the Christians. Hugs. Scottie
And this is why they feel the need to do this. They are losing more than the culture war and control of society. They are losing money and possible influence because less and less people believe in their deity, far more ass are in pews putting moeny in collection plates.
Another pair of republican Christian jerks who try to force their religious doctrine on everyone while running on family values and hating on the LGBTQ+. But they don’t follow the rules they demand you follow. They were having an affair. Hugs. Scottie
And this jerk wants to make wearing a mask to protest illegal … and yet the terrorist right wing gang thugs like Proud Boys, Patriot Front, Oath keepers, and other Nazi racist bigoted groups wear them all the time to prevent being fired from their jobs. I doubt this bill will pass without some kind of exemption for them. Hugs. Scottie
Screw the immuno-compromised, right? And don’t expect this law to be used against the Proud Boys or Patriot Front.
Sen. Buck Newton, not incidentally, first appeared here in 2016 when as state attorney general nominee, he spoke at a hate group rally, declaring, “Go home, tell your friends and family who had to work today what this is all about and how hard we must fight to keep our state straight.”
approved masks
Not approved:
Definitely not approved:
I wonder if this would be illegal?
And who do you think he works for when / if he holds office. Hint it won’t be for you, the public. Hugs. Scottie
This one is new but it shows how republicans simply lie and misinform now. Reality means nothing to them. They learned from tRump that voters on their side no longer care about the truth, care about what is real. They simply make false claims and double down on it when called out. They don’t even care. They want their cake and eat it also. Hugs. Scottie
Read the full article. In an interview today with a Minnesota station, Trump denied having said he’d never go back. And then he denied that Biden won Minnesota in 2020. Watch the LOL clip.
Yes. He was appropriately roped off by police/crime scene tape.
I posted about this situation the other day. We have an ideology driven supreme court who wants to make rules based on their religious convictions rather than law. They have an extreme religious faith and demand the right to make the rest of the country that way.
An 887-page plan by Project 2025, led by the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation, says that if elected, Trump should make a concerted effort to execute the remaining 40 prisoners on death row.https://t.co/LPpIVcvWgc
For those that don’t think this is important, I worked with some Catholic doctors that were so religious high rollers that they condemn and refused to treat those they felt broke god’s laws or their church rules. Specifically the LGBTQ+. I have repeated told of an ICU doctor who was assigned a very sick and dying openly gay man in a same sex relationship. This was just before same sex marriage was legal country wide and before it was legal in Florida. The patient’s lover / boyfriend had complete power of attorney over all the patient’s medical, financial, and other life decisions, something all of us gay people in same sex relationships did so our partners could make our hospital decisions when we couldn’t. This doctor refused to listen or include the patient’s gay partner disregarding their relationship. He went so far as to call the patient’s estranged family members to try to get them to overrule the wishes of the partner. The patient’s partner got a lawyer and legal told the doctor he had to include the partner and treat him as the next of kin legally. The doctor walked on the floor, took the chart and signed himself off the case. Then loudly told all of us he was not the doctor of record for the patient and he wouldn’t treat him, so do not call him or his people for any reason for that patient. That left us and the hospital scrambling. The ICU intensives all worked for the same practice started by that doctor, so they had to find some doctor qualified to step in to be the patient’s doctor because the ICU requires a doctor to be qualified on respirators such as a pulmonologist. Yes they can have other doctors treat them in the ICU but in our ICU’s because of the possibility the patients would have to be intubated in case of a code the ICU and all patients had to be managed by the intensivist / pulmonologist. He was always a self righteous prick, he and his top doctors always bragging about their connections to the Catholic hierarchy locally and the time they spent at the Vatican. This holy super Christian was willing to let a man die rather than acknowledge his male partner and same sex relationship. Hugs. Scottie
Biden Administration Restores Health Protections for Gay and Transgender People
The Health and Human Services Department finalized a rule prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, reversing a Trump-era policy.https://t.co/u3zp49A4E1
This is all about being able to break the laws and not follow rules and get away with it. If they own the cops then the cops won’t investigate them. The DOJ won’t charge them so no court will convict them. Complete immunity for republican lawbreakers and those who pay the republicans for the privilege. However it also lets them do what they always accuse Biden of doing, use the legal system against political opponents. Hugs. Scottie
Former president Donald Trump attends his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court for falsifying documents related to hush money payments, in New York, NY, U.S., May 16, 2024. Victor J. Blue/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Some of Donald Trump’s allies are assembling proposals to curtail the Justice Department’s independence and turn the nation’s top law enforcement body into an attack dog for conservative causes, nine people involved in the effort told Reuters.
If successful, the overhaul could represent one of the most consequential actions of a second Trump presidency given the Justice Department’s role in protecting democratic institutions and upholding the rule of law.
It would also mark a dramatic departure from the department’s mission statement, opens new tab, which identifies “independence and impartiality” as core values.
Trump, who has been indicted on dozens of criminal charges by the Justice Department, has vowed on the campaign trail to overhaul the agency if he wins the presidential election on Nov. 5 and pledged to use it to pursue his own opponents, including Democratic President Joe Biden.
The plan is essentially twofold, according to the nine people interviewed by Reuters, some of whom requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
First: flood the Justice Department with stalwart conservatives unlikely to say “no” to controversial orders from the White House. Second: restructure the department so key decisions are concentrated in the hands of administration loyalists rather than career bureaucrats.
The FBI – which many Republicans see as biased against them – would have new constraints on its authority, with many of its responsibilities shifted to other law enforcement agencies, those people said.
“Trump feels that the DoJ has institutional problems,” said Steve Bannon, a prominent Trump ally who was prosecuted by the Justice Department and convicted for contempt of Congress. “It’s not just personnel: you do need to purge the DoJ, but you also need to reform it.”
Overhauling the Justice Department would allow the Trump administration to pursue conservative policy initiatives such as dismantling hiring programs meant to boost diversity in the workplace and ending federal oversight of police departments accused of racist practices.
In response to questions from Reuters, the Trump campaign pointed to a December statement from co-campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita.
“Unless a message is coming directly from President Trump or an authorized member of his campaign team, no aspect of future presidential staffing or policy announcements should be deemed official,” they said.
The campaign itself has few full-time policy staffers. Trump and his team are in frequent contact with outside groups, such as those formulating recommendations on the Justice Department.
With Trump holding a lead in most swing states likely to decide November’s election, the former president’s advisers may have a shot at putting their ideas into practice.
Trump’s promises to remodel the Justice Department have been well documented, but less attention has been given to identifying the specific measures his allies and advisers are advocating.
Two prominent Trump allies told Reuters they support eliminating the FBI’s general counsel, an office that enraged Republicans during Trump’s 2017-2021 term for its role in approving an inquiry into contacts between his 2016 campaign and Russian officials.
The general counsel provides legal advice to FBI employees regarding ongoing probes and other matters. Closing it would force the bureau to receive legal guidance from people closer to Trump’s attorney general in the chain-of-command and limit the FBI’s ability to conduct investigations without close political oversight, according to several Trump supporters and legal professionals with knowledge of the department’s workings.
Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Mousa said in a statement that Trump and his allies “were putting Trump’s own revenge and retribution ahead of what is best for America.” The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
‘NOT STANDARD POLITICS’
Trump’s allies argue that, as head of the executive branch, the president should have broad powers to command and oversee the Justice Department as he or she sees fit.
Most Democrats and even some Republicans reject that view. They say the Justice Department requires an unusual amount of independence because it’s responsible for administering justice in a non-partisan fashion. At times, that mandate includes investigating a president’s close political allies.
“There are always enforcement disputes … That is standard politics,” said Kristy Parker, a former federal prosecutor who is now at Protect Democracy, a non-profit legal advocacy organization.
“What is not standard politics is somebody basically coming in and saying we are going to jettison the idea that the Department of Justice should have a wall of separation between it and the personal political agenda of the president.”
Many Trump allies making these proposals are affiliated with a consortium of conservative think tanks known as “Project 2025”, which has been making detailed plans for a second Trump presidency. In a statement to Reuters, Project 2025 said it could not speak for the Trump campaign.
These allies are also combing through federal regulations for novel ways to bring stalwart conservatives into the Justice Department at the start of a potential Trump term, according to two people with knowledge of those deliberations.
These detailed preparations contrast with Trump’s chaotic 2016 transition, which involved relatively little policy planning, several people involved have acknowledged.
The former president spent the opening months of his first administration butting heads with his attorney general and FBI director, both of whom angered the president by failing to halt inquiries into his 2016 campaign.
It’s an experience, according to several associates who speak to Trump, that he’s determined not to repeat.
Trump currently faces a total of 88 charges in four criminal cases – two of which have been brought by the DoJ – over efforts to subvert the 2020 election, retaining classified documents after leaving office, and alleged efforts to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star.
The 77-year-old denies wrongdoing in all the cases and points to the charges as proof the Justice Department is biased against him. The department denies this and says it conducts all of its probes impartially.
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday deplored what he called “a series of unprecedented and frankly unfounded attacks on the Justice Department.”
While promising to establish a non-partisan justice system, Trump has called for many of his political opponents to be arrested. Last June, he pledged in a post on Truth Social to have a “special prosecutor” probe the 81-year-old Biden.
CONTROL OVER FBI
Some allies stop short of embracing Trump’s rhetoric of revenge. But they agree Trump should have greater control over the Justice Department and FBI.
“Whenever you have power centers … that have enormous resources, coercive power and investigative tools at their disposal, and they are presumed to be independent of any control down the chain of command from the president, that is a recipe for abuse of power,” said Steve Bradbury, a former Justice official who briefly served as Trump’s acting Transportation Secretary.
In interviews with Reuters, Bradbury and Gene Hamilton, a senior Justice Department official under Trump, both endorsed the measure to eliminate the FBI’s general counsel.
They said they do not speak for Trump, but both are contributing ideas to Project 2025. Hamilton is a trusted lieutenant of Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s closest policy advisers. Miller did not respond to requests for comment.
Both Bradbury and Hamilton also endorsed changing the Justice Department’s chain of command so the FBI director reports to a pair of politically appointed assistant attorneys general.
The director currently reports to the deputy attorney general, a more senior official who in practice is too busy and has too large a portfolio to oversee and guide FBI probes, Bradbury said.
Bradbury and other legal experts said that change could be done without congressional authorization. He said these steps are necessary to ensure that the bureau’s enforcement priorities align with the White House’s policy preferences. Detractors say these measures will undermine the independence of the Justice Department and the FBI.
Some Trump allies and advisers also want to narrow dramatically the types of crimes the FBI can investigate, arguing the bureau’s focus is too sprawling for political appointees to oversee effectively.
In a publicly available policy memo, which was published last July but received little attention, Bradbury said other law enforcement agencies, like the Drug Enforcement Administration, could take the lead where their jurisdiction overlaps with the bureau.
The remnants of the bureau, Bradbury wrote, could focus exclusively on “large-scale crimes and threats to national security” that require a federal response.
PERSONNEL IS POLICY
As important as restructuring the department, Trump allies argue, is ensuring it is stacked with allies unlikely to slow-walk Trump’s demands.
Trump has publicly embraced a potential executive order known as “Schedule F” that would give him the power to replace thousands of civil servants with conservative allies.
That would allow his administration to expand the number of political appointments in the Justice Department, which sits in the low hundreds, though allies have not settled on precisely how many positions could be created.
Some Trump allies at Project 2025 also want to expand the use of the Intergovernmental Personnel Act, an obscure statute that allows departments to bring in outside experts with the help of non-profits, several people with knowledge of those deliberations said.
AFSCME Local 2830, a union representing some Justice Department employees, said in a statement to Reuters it is “concerned that Trump officials will fill positions to further their partisan agenda instead of impartially carrying out federal laws and regulations and upholding the Constitution.”
With the right structure and personnel in place, Trump will be better prepared to pursue conservative policy goals, his supporters say. While his allies have floated dozens of ideas, many relate broadly to how the federal government polices civil rights.
For instance, Hamilton argued that the Justice Department should examine whether corporations are discriminating against whites by instituting programs designed to boost the number of people of color in the workplace.
The department could derive its authority, he said, from the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bars hiring or compensation decisions based on “race” or “sex.”
Hamilton also called for radically curtailing court-monitored settlements known as “consent decrees” between the Justice Department and local police departments, which are used to help curb civil rights abuses against people of color, the disabled and the mentally ill.
Conservatives portray these agreements as heavy-handed federal actions that interfere with local agencies trying to fight crime. Rights advocates say such arguments ignore centuries of documented inequities.
Christy Lopez, a Georgetown professor who formerly served as a Justice Department Civil Rights Division official, said the department reduced its police accountability work during Trump’s first term.
“There’s no reason to believe that his administration won’t double down,” she said.
Revealed: Citizens for Sanity was one of top political spenders last election cycle and is back for 2024 with more extreme messaging
Citizens for Sanity is housed at the headquarters of the Conservative Partnership Institute, which is a key Maga political base. Photograph: Alex Wroblewski/AFP/Getty Images
Again these people are terrified of sex. The only good sex in their minds results in a woman being forced to carry a fetus to term and give birth. What I can not figure out is why they are this way. We all know they have mistresses and side boys. But they don’t want you to have one. Hugs. Scottie
Former President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, Thursday, May 9, 2024.
Angela Weiss/Pool/AP
For the past several weeks, witnesses in Donald Trump’s hush money trial have evoked a chapter of his past when the adult entertainment industry helped him brandish an image as a Manhattan playboy.
If some of the former president’s allies get their way, a second Trump term would put that industry on the ropes – and potentially its actors and producers behind bars.
A movement to rein in online pornography is rapidly intensifying, fueled by conservative outrage and growing unease over the accessibility of sexual content online, especially for children. In dozens of states, the porn industry is on the defense and facing new threats to its existence after decades of expansion in the internet era.
Now, those cheering on the effort are preparing to take the push national, putting porn producers as well as teachers, librarians and tech companies on notice – and they increasingly view Trump as a potential linchpin in the coming fight.
“It’s a very good opportunity for President Trump to continue to build on his legacy of being supportive of working families and children,” said Terry Schilling, the president of American Principles Project, one of the driving forces behind the new state laws.
The cause has support within some of the highest reaches of Trump’s orbit, including the Heritage Foundation, a Washington, DC-based conservative think tank that is already laying the groundwork for the Republican’s potential return to the White House. Through its Project 2025 initiative, the organization published a 900-page blueprint for another Trump term. Pornography is mentioned on the first page; banning pornography and locking up those who produce it are proposed on Page 5.
At first glance, Trump appears an unlikely champion for cracking down on the adult entertainment industry. Long before launching a political career, Trump developed a history with Playboy, the men’s magazine that helped mainstream pornography and pioneered its place in the lawfare over free speech. He was an occasional guest at Hugh Hefner’s famed Playboy Mansion and made cameos in soft-core pornographic films produced by the company – though not in any scenes depicting sexual content or nudity. During his 2016 race, he proudly displayed an issue of Playboy magazine that featured him on the cover.
Allegations stemming from that period – including affairs with porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy centerfold Karen McDougal – sit at the heart of the Manhattan district attorney’s case against Trump, the first criminal prosecution of an American president. McDougal has previously claimed she met Trump at the Playboy Mansion, an encounter she said led to an eight-month affair. In testimony last week, Daniels said her 2006 tryst with Trump occurred at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe where her adult film company sponsored a hole.
Trump has denied the allegations.
Heritage President Kevin Roberts is unconcerned by Trump’s past. He likened it to the parable of the prodigal son, a New Testament teaching about paternal forgiveness granted to a man who squanders his father’s fortune with indulgences.
“We understand our lord works with imperfect instruments, including us,” Roberts said in a recent interview with CNN. “While on the surface it seems like a contradiction, on the whole, it may make him a more powerful messenger if he embraces it.”
Roberts hasn’t discussed the topic directly with Trump, but he has talked to the campaign and said there is alignment among those who have policy influence, including Ben Carson, the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative young voter group Turning Points USA and a close Trump ally, has also made curbing pornography a recurring focus of his popular podcast.
“Without being presumptuous of the president’s will, there will at least be conversations on this being a priority we can tackle,” Roberts said.
Asked about the focus on pornography by Project 2025 and other closely aligned groups, Trump’s campaign pointed to a past statement from its top advisers, Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, downplaying any connection between those organizations and the former president’s plans for a second term.
“Let us be very specific here: unless a message is coming directly from President Trump or an authorized member of his campaign team, no aspect of future presidential staffing or policy announcements should be deemed official,” the statement from LaCivita and Wiles said.
‘Sex is the canary in the coal mine’
The Supreme Court has deemed previous attempts to curb online pornography unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds. But Schilling’s group and others have successfully pushed a growing number of states to test the legal system once again.
In the past two years, 10 states have moved to force adult websites to verify the age of their users – often with bipartisan support – and legislatures in two dozen others are considering nearly identical legislation, according to a bill tracker maintained by the Free Speech Coalition, the advocacy group for the online pornography industry. In some states, porn websites cannot be accessed without showing identification confirming the user is over 18 years of age.
Supporters of these laws argue the tools for restricting websites have become more sophisticated in the two decades since the Supreme Court struck down Congress’ first stab at requiring age checks. They point to industries such as online gambling and mobile alcohol sales that have successfully integrated age verifications. Meanwhile, the availability of the internet has made it much easier for sexual content to reach kids in a way that necessitates legislative action, they say.
The porn industry and free speech advocates contend these laws violate the First Amendment rights of consenting adults to produce and view sexual content. Requiring a government-issued ID to watch pornography is akin to having Big Brother peer into the most intimate quarters of Americans’ personal lives, they argue.
The US Supreme Court last month declined to block the Texas version of the law from taking effect while an appeal is considered.
“Sex is the canary in the coal mine of free speech,” said Mike Stabile, spokesman for the Free Speech Coalition. “It may sound good to create age-verification laws, but what these people are really trying to do is create a larger censorship regime so that you have to show who you are to access sensitive content.”
Pornhub, one of the most trafficked websites in the world, and its sister sites have blocked access in seven states – Virginia, Montana, North Carolina, Arkansas, Utah, Mississippi and Texas – as a means to comply with new laws.
The adult industry insists it doesn’t want children accessing its material but says the onus should be on Apple, Google and other device makers to sell phones and tablets with default settings that ensure kids can’t access adult content, an alternative that technology companies oppose.
“Parents, not the government, are best positioned to make these judgments based on their own family’s unique needs and values,” said Robert Winterton, spokesman for NetChoice, an organization that represents tech companies including Amazon, X and Facebook. “One-size-fits-all mandates are unlikely to be effective and risk undermining the constitutional and parental authority.”
Purveyors of online pornography have long assumed the recent wave of age-restriction laws is a means to put them out of business. In Louisiana, the first state to pass such laws, Pornhub saw an 80% decline in traffic, executives for the company told CNN, citing Google Analytics data.
Heritage’s Project 2025 has given credence to their concerns. It likens pornography to illicit drugs in declaring the content “should be outlawed” and “the people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned.” Teachers and librarians who distribute content Heritage deems pornographic “should be classified as registered sex offenders,” the document continues, and tech companies that facilitate its spread “should be shuttered.”
“We see pornography as undermining the public good, not just for children but all adults,” Roberts told CNN. “We think that’s in the purview of Congress.”
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation – a leading advocate against pornography that for most of its existence went by the name “Morality in Media” and has worked closely on these state laws – has also publicly stated its goal is “to ensure the online pornography industry is taken down once and for all.”
“These laws don’t work because they weren’t designed to work,” said Solomon Friedman, a lawyer and co-founding partner of Ethical Capital Partners, the Canadian firm that purchased Pornhub last year. “They weren’t designed to protect young people from accessing adult content. They were designed to protect adults from accessing adult content, which, of course, is their stated aim. It’s not a conspiracy theory when it’s written on Page 1.”
Schilling disputed that his organization is working toward a federal prohibition on porn, telling CNN: “It’s been tough enough getting legislators on board with age verification.”
“Politics and public policy have to be based in political reality,” he said.
Given Heritage’s influence – the organization is full of the former president’s staff, and the person leading Project 2025, Paul Dans, is a former Trump administration official who told a recent gathering of religious broadcasters that he expects to return to the White House if Republicans are victorious this fall – they are not dismissing the threat, Stabile said.
“We’re taking it deathly seriously,” Stabile said. “Not just for us, but for all kinds of communities around sex or gender. This isn’t a joke to us. This isn’t theoretical.”
Next steps
Schilling and others want a Trump administration to more aggressively use the US Department of Justice to utilize existing laws to target content they view as obscene. They have also proposed a federal version of age-verification legislation that has successfully passed in states.
“It’s gotta go national,” Schilling said. “Why should kids from California not be protected from pornography online?”
Any law signed by Trump would run into the same constitutional objections raised by the US Supreme Court in the past, said Stuart Brotman, a media professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Proponents hope the court, which skews conservative and includes three Trump appointees, will take a different view. Brotman – who has written extensively on pornography and free speech, including a book on Playboy’s Hefner – is skeptical.
“The Roberts court has been considered a highly First Amendment-friendly court,” Brotman said. “It would be difficult for some of the justices now to indicate there’s a more narrow view of the First amendment.”
If Trump chooses to embrace this cause, it wouldn’t be the first time. The GOP platform when he was first nominated in 2016 said pornography was “destroying the lives of millions.” That same year, Trump signed a pledge that he would consider a presidential commission to examine the “public health impact of Internet pornography on youth, families and the American culture.”
Advocates were ultimately let down by his administration, said Ben Bull, general counsel for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
“We don’t know if it’s political expediency or if it’s heartfelt this time,” Bull said. “We’ll see. But people are only going to be fooled for so long.”
Former President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, Thursday, May 9, 2024.
