This Is How We Change People's Minds

[Editorial]

You all probably also know on Saturdays, I write "Saturday 9" meme. Most of the people who also play along on meme are Christian women. Well I have two comments from them, the first from So California...

Not a lot of transgender adds here in So CA, though it is an issue for the far right. I met my first transgender when I worked at the post office in the mid 70's. I also took a class in human sexuality that explained things and then had that same person as a guest. I don't understand a lot, but I do understand being kind. My neighbor is also a transgender and we get along fine. People are so quick to judge based on what they see. I am a Christian and I try not to judge. Jesus taught love, not hate. Too many people forget that. Oh, I voted for mail and have for years.

The other from Long Island NY...

I voted early. I am holding my breath until the results are final, I voted for my grandmothers, who fled the pogroms of Europe. I voted for my mother, who my father said “was a liberated woman before there was such a thing,”. I voted for my daughters, who should have the same rights I had. I want to cry tonight like I did in 2008, not line I did in 2016.

We shape many minds by just being ourselves, just by living our lives. Last week I wrote about voting and how while waiting inline I talked to other people around and just by being out we change people's minds.

What the Republicans want to do is bring us back to pre-Stonewall, to pre-Silver Lake's Black Cat Uprising, pre-Cooper Do-nuts Uprising, and the Compton Cafeteria protests, where you had to wear 3 items of male clothing (and socks counted as only one item.) or you could be arrested.

They want to force us the dark allies or the sleazed bars. I remember the hearing gay stories who they hop for bed to bed in one nightstands. That is what the Republicans want to force us back to the closet.

This is what they want to bring us back to...

[/Editorial]

Commiserate

Yes, it looks like that the Republicans got a trifecta the presidency and Congress (The House vote is still in process but is leaning Republican).

So now we have to work on the back court game. Blocking legislation action, working with the state legislatures, and challenging every law in court.

And I will predict this… Vance will be president before the four terms are up. That Trump will either step down and let Vance to be president to finish is term, or the old man will die in office. I think that is the Republican long game, Vance is under the wings of billionaire Peter Thiel, a PayPal co-founder and I think that is the payoff for supporting Trump.

You are going to see me say that more often… "Ne permittas bastardus te deprimere" This is my new motto.

And here you thought I wouldn't be through writing about politics any more!

Don't forget that we will now have a trans woman sitting on the floor of the House! Sarah McBride won her election! And...

Trans politician Zooey Zephyr trounces GOP opponent as she’s re-elected to Montana state house

Montana Democrat, and the state’s first transgender representative, Zooey Zephyr, has been re-elected.

Pink News

By Amelia Hansford

November 6, 2024

Zephyr has become an increasingly prominent voice for LGBTQ+ rights in Montana and across the US. She was famously censured in 2023 over her vocal opposition to an anti-trans law.

She polled 3,370 votes, while Republican candidate Barbara Starmer managed just 703. In a post on X/Twitter Zephyr said she was honoured by the result and vowed to continue her fight for progressive policies in what is known as Big Sky Country.

“I promise to do as I have always done,” she said. “Fight for my constituents, stand up against those who seek to break democracy and be a bulwark against the rising tide of American fascism.”

One last thought... just before Thanksgiving a Constitutional question could arise. What happens if on November 26 Judge Juan Merchan sentences Trump to five years in prison?

What happens to Trump’s criminal and civil cases now that he’s been reelected

CNN

By Devan Cole, Lauren del Valle, Kara Scannell and Jeremy Herb

November 6, 2024

Donald Trump has been reelected to the White House as a convicted felon who is awaiting sentencing in his hush money case in New York and still working to stave off prosecution in other state and federal cases.

It’s an extraordinarily unique position for him to be in: Never before has a criminal defendant been elected to the nation’s highest office, just as an ex-president had never been criminally charged until last year.

[…]

 Should Merchan move ahead with sentencing, Trump could be ordered to serve as much as four years of prison time, but the judge is not required to sentence the president-elect to prison, and he could impose a lesser sentence, such as probation, home confinement, community service or a fine.

Any sentence, of course, will be complicated by the fact that Trump is set to take office on January 20, 2025. Trump’s lawyers are likely to shape their appeals to raise constitutional issues challenging whether a state judge can sentence a president-elect, which could tie the case up in courts for years.

Since it is a state case, Trump does not have the power to pardon himself next year after he is sworn into office. 

Is Trump above the law? Will he get to serve his time in jail? It is a state court so he cannot grant himself a pardon.

ABC New wrote…

"The public's confidence in the integrity of our judicial system demands a sentencing hearing that is entirely focused on the verdict of the jury and the weighing of aggravating and mitigating factors free from distraction or distortion," Merchan wrote in his ruling Friday. "The members of this jury served diligently on this case, and their verdict must be respected and addressed in a manner that is not diluted by the enormity of the upcoming presidential election."

[…]

Merchan's opinion noted that any conflict was of Trump's own making as the former president repeatedly sought to delay the proceedings.

"Notably, had Defendant been sentenced on July 11, 2024, as originally scheduled, there would of course have been no cause for delay," the judge wrote.

We never before had an incumbent president up for sentencing before, this happened before the he was president so it was before he had presidential immunity.

And let us not forget that there are more cases pending, how will they be affected by his incumbency? Will Trump be serving his presidency behind bars with Vance as the President?

"Ne permittas bastardus te deprimere"

Now The Waiting Begins

I wrote this yesterday in hopes of a Harris win. The people voted their pocketbooks and it appears that they got the trifecta... the presidency, the Senate, and the House! God help us!

This is our motto: "Ne permittas bastardus te deprimere"*

We have to fight him in court.

We have to fight him in the Congress.

We have to fight him in the court of public opinion.

Now the waiting begins, will there be violence? Will there be tons of law suits? Will the Republicans certify the elections in the House? Trump said he and Johnson have something up their sleeves. People magazine wrote…

"We gotta get the congressmen elected and we gotta get the senators elected because we can take the Senate pretty easily, and I think with our little secret we’re going to do really well with the House, right?" Trump said while looking at Johnson. "Our little secret is having a big impact."

"He and I have a secret," Trump added. "We’ll tell you what it is when the race is over." 

Are they going to gerrymander something up in the House when they seat new members, will they somehow try to nullify the will of the people?

I sat with some trans folks and we were talking about what we will do if Trump was elected. I tell you there are some very worried trans people out there. For us the wait is agony, we fear the worst under Trump’s dictatorship because that is what it will be, he already said he was going after enemies of the “state” and we are IT! NPR reported,

With just two weeks remaining until the presidential election, former President Donald Trump has used his most recent appearances on podcast and cable interviews to escalate attacks on fellow Americans whom he calls “the enemy from within.”

Will he criminalize us if he wins? The Guardian wrote,

Trump has also pledged to rescind federal LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination policies, which could mean a loss of protections in housing, healthcare, employment, education and a range of federal programs. He has promised new credentialing for teachers to “promote positive education about the nuclear family, the roles of mothers and fathers”. The Republican platform calls for advancing a “culture that values the sanctity of marriage”.

Project 2025, the rightwing manifesto authored by Trump allies, is even more explicit, saying Biden-Harris pro-LGBTQ+ policies should be replaced by ones supporting the “formation of stable, married, nuclear families” and “heterosexual, intact marriage”. It says adoption agencies, healthcare workers and businesses should be able to reject LGBTQ+ people, and faith-based government contractors should be allowed to deny services to people who don’t fit “biblically based” definitions of marriage.

Some legal scholars have warned that marriage equality, already endangered at the supreme court, could be further threatened under Trump, particularly if he gets the opportunity to appoint additional justices.

Over lunch at Transweek (Formerly know as Fantasia Fair) we talk what we would do if Trump win. I said I have an eye on Canada... maybe a little place in Nova Scotia overlooking the ocean. We said that we could start refugee community there, an enclave of trans expatriates, just like during the Vietnam!

It is a sad commentary on the new reality, because even if Harris and Walz win the Democrats take the House and Senate... there still are MAGAs out there that hate our guts.

Why we might not get a presidential winner on election night

A delay in results doesn't mean fraud.

Yahoo News

By Dylan Stableford

October 29, 2024

On Nov. 5, voters across the United States will head to the polls to cast their ballots in the 2024 presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. But as was the case in 2020, they might not know the results on election night.

That’s because it takes time to count the votes — record numbers of which are being cast before Election Day. And in a race that’s expected to be extraordinarily close, more votes will need to be counted before a winner can be called.

[...]

“I think it’s likely towards the end of the week — Thursday, maybe Friday — we should have an idea of who won the presidency,” Becker said in response to a question from Yahoo News.

So now we wait, our lives in the hands of the voters and the courts because even through the networks called the election it is not over until the next president takes the oath of office… do we live here or do we flee the country where we were born and lived because a fascist dictator was elected.

Are we move forward or backward to the 1950s?

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It is 1:30AM And I am scared. I am scared to live in my own country. I never thought that there was some much hate and bigoty in this country. I am scared that the man who said he will criminalize us might be the next president of the United States of America. It looks like the con artist will once again be president.

So Connecticut stays Blue and the ballot question wins.

I worry about my two grand-niblings, I don't have many years left before me (I will be eighty when his term is up), but they have their who life before them.

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* "Don't let the bastards get you down"

It Looks Like We Have A Trans Women In Congress!

Yes, Sarah McBride is going to be in the 118^th Congress!

Democrat Sarah McBride set to be first openly transgender member of US Congress

Reuters

By Moira Warburton

October 29, 2024

Democrat Sarah McBride is expected to make history next week as the first openly transgender person elected to the U.S. Congress.

She is no stranger to making history: In 2016 she became the first openly transgender person to address a major U.S. political convention and in 2020 became the first to serve in a U.S. state Senate.

McBride, 34, is favored to win Delaware's sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, after securing the Democratic nomination in a competitive September primary and is expected to easily win a seat that the three major U.S. nonpartisan political rating services rate solidly Democratic.

"The fact that the candidacy of someone like me is even possible... is a testament to Delawareans," McBride said in a Saturday interview.

However, she sought to play down the history-making nature of her nomination and expected election.

Wow! I bet she will be a burr under the Republican saddle.

McBride is not worried about working with people who oppose transgender rights in Congress, saying she will focus on members open to bipartisanship, even if they do not fully agree with her values.

"If democracy is going to work, we have to be able to have conversations across disagreement," she said. "There is a responsibility that comes with being first, but (that) doesn't matter if I don't fulfill the responsibility of just being the best member of Congress that I can be for Delaware."

She said her priorities in Congress will include passing the PRO Act, which would expand federal protections for workers to unionize, as well as affordable healthcare and childcare.

Notice it is not a trans bill but one that affects everyone!

"The country is faced with two very different visions for the future," Robinson said. "Her historic role as the first transgender member of Congress would be a testament to both the work she's done, and to the power of voters to embrace progress over fear."

This just goes to show you like this morning’s post it is only the Republicans that got their shorts in a knot, that most people we are not an issue.

Looking Back

Why us? What got me was the fact that the Trump campaign spent $65 million dollars against us! Whoa can you imagine what that much money spent helping us could instead of tearing us down?

Why anti-transgender political ads are dominating the airwaves this election

PBS News

Nov 2, 2024

If you’ve watched TV this month, you’ve likely seen campaign ads supporting Donald Trump by attacking Kamala Harris over transgender issues. From Oct. 7 to Oct. 20, Trump’s campaign and pro-Trump groups spent an estimated $95 million on ads, more than 41 percent of which were anti-trans. Independent journalist and LGBTQ+ activist Erin Reed joins Laura Barrón-López to discuss.

John Yang:

If you've watched TV this month, especially sports like football or baseball, you've likely seen campaign ads supporting Donald Trump by attacking Kamala Harris over transgender issues. Laura Baron-Lopez looks at what's behind them.

Laura Baron-Lopez:

Less than 1 percent of the U.S. population identifies as transgender. But this election year, Republicans have spent a considerable amount of money on ads demonizing transgender people. From October 7th to the 20th, Trump's campaign and pro Trump groups spent an estimated $95 million and more than 41 percent of those ads were anti-trans.

Can you imagine how much animosity and hate those ads have generated against us with his lies? His lies have real life consequences, violence against minority communities have skyrocketed in the last couple of years.

Republicans are betting big on trans issues. Following through could prove harder.

A party faction that includes several GOP governors says government shouldn’t get involved.

Politico

By Daniel Payne

October 31, 2024

Donald Trump is spending more on ads criticizing Kamala Harris’ support for transgender rights than he is on any other subject in the campaign’s closing days — and down-ballot Republicans are following suit, believing the issue can tip close races.

But nationwide, the GOP is finding it’s easier to oppose trans rights in theory than in reality — when it means kicking a child off a team or blocking parents from proceeding with medical care recommended by a doctor. Some Republicans are even warning their party’s stance conflicts with conservative values on individual and parental rights.

[…]

The sharp focus on transgender rights may not only lay the groundwork for the next phase of the culture war but also foreshadow more efforts to restrict federal protections for transgender kids’ ability to transition, play sports or use facilities in accord with their gender identity. The fights could test the party’s core beliefs — about using the power of federal and state governments in ways that affect localities and families.

That is what I fear, in January we will see more Republican states pass more draconian legislation against! That we will see Texas try to get medical records from out of state for not only us but for women also who may have had an abortion out of state.

In North Dakota, Gov. Doug Burgum said he was uncomfortable with the use of “the heavy hand of state government” in a bill he vetoed, which restricted teachers from using transgender students’ preferred pronouns without teacher and administrator permission.

Arkansas’ then-Gov. Asa Hutchinson said a bill he vetoed would have created “new standards of legislative interference with physicians and parents.”

And in Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine used the language of the anti-abortion movement in describing his veto of a bill banning gender-affirming care as “pro-life.”

They use us to rile up their evangelical Christians and there transphobic and homophobic base. The LA Times writes…

Column: Transgender issues aren’t a top voter concern. Why is Trump’s campaign obsessed with them?

By Robin Abcarian

November 3, 2024

Gallup recently published a list of what Americans consider the most pressing issues as they choose the next president. Unsurprisingly, there is no overlap between Republicans and Democrats on the top five.

Republicans say they are concerned about the economy, immigration, terrorism and national security, crime and taxes.

Democrats are concerned about American democracy, Supreme Court nominations, abortion, healthcare and education.

Transgender rights — for or against — are nowhere to be seen among the top concerns of voters in either party. In fact, of more than 20 issues the pollsters asked about, transgender rights ranked dead last in importance to voters overall.

So why has former President Trump’s campaign been spending tens of millions of dollars on inflammatory ads attacking Vice President Kamala Harris’ support for transgender rights?

Since she is only following the policy that Trump okay-ed! Notice Trump has been silent about the fast that it is his policy.

Since the beginning of August, Trump and other Republicans have reportedly spent more than $65 million on anti-trans ads, concentrating on the battleground states — although even here in deepest-blue California, I can’t turn on my television without seeing them.

[…]

As the Harris campaign and others have pointed out, the ad is misleading. Federal policy, including under the Trump administration, has allowed incarcerated transgender people to receive gender-affirming medical care. Only two federal prisoners have ever received gender-affirming surgery, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and FactCheck.org.

His loyal cult followers just ignore those pesky little facts.

So what exactly is going on here? Is it as simple as demonizing a vulnerable group of people to score political points in a close race? Or is it something deeper?

“What Republicans are seeing or feeling is that people are anxious about the future,” M. Gessen said in a conversation about the ads with a New York Times opinion editor last week.

“They’re anxious about their economic future,” said Gessen, a nonbinary journalist who frequently writes about LGBTQ+ issues. “They’re anxious about their social future. And it can all be boiled down to this anxiety about one’s children — that one’s children are going to come home from school one day and speak a different language than the parents or use a different name and generally be a stranger.”

Thanks to the Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Alvarez otherwise known as the Stolen Valor Act of 2005 case.

There’s no law against lying in political ads, but I’m guessing Trump’s inane ramblings about school sex-change operations are too bizarre even for his ad makers. Picking on transgender incarcerated people and migrants must have seemed like the next best option. But the message is always about fear.

The PBS article says,

Erin Reed:

It's important to note that some of the biggest benefactors of the Republican Party, some of the most influential organizations in the party we're talking, groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom, for instance, have made this their main issue.

If you're running a campaign in a place like Pennsylvania or Ohio or Michigan at any level, and you want money in your campaign, targeting trans people is a really good way to do that. But as for Trump, I think that there's something different at play here. I think that this is a classic fear campaign. We've just got polling today showing that Harris is catching up on the economy and on other issues that Republicans tend to pull well in.

And so the purpose of a fear campaign is to distract you from issues that you normally care about by making you so afraid of a group of people, of somebody like me, for instance, that you're willing to throw everything else away because you're scared.

[...]

Laura Baron-Lopez:

Who are these ads targeting? They run during major sporting events. They were just on during the World Series. Who is he trying to reach here?

Erin Reed:

The group of people that are watching these sporting events are young men. And I think in a lot of cases, the Republican Party is trying to tap into what they hope is some level of fear that they can draw up from that group of people. If you look at most polling and anecdotally, really, young people tend to understand trans people better than anybody else.

They're not as afraid of us. And I think that might be part of why this messaging campaign might be falling short. 

And that is the bottom line… fear. Fear that the undocumented immigrants eating your cats and dogs. Fear of people who worship different religions. Fear of us. Fear of those who are different from them and the LA Times ends with this,

This presidential campaign is going to be over soon. But the damage Trump has done to transgender people — by fomenting fear, by scapegoating, by “othering” — will most assuredly live on.

Two take-aways from the video... WE VOTE! The percentage of LGBTQ+ people who vote is 94%! high. While at the same time these ads had zero influence on getting people to vote and zero influence on people changing their votes!  

Did You Vote?

Today is the day we see if our democracy survives.

Our choice in this election is between democracy and fascism. It is as simple as that.

Trump promised that he would be a dictator on Day 1, he promised that he will stuff government offices with his cronies, he promised to appoint those cabinet members who worship the ground he walks upon, he promised that only his loyal cult followers who kiss his feet will be judges in his country.

 

Vote! Your vote will affect my Human Rights, if I will be a full citizen of this country or a second class citizen with no rights.

Your vote reflects on your values. For me, I voted for the woman with Integrity, Honor, & Character and will let me live my life in peace.

Here We Go Again!

First it was vaccinations that set the right-wingers off in to a tizzy… now it fluoride! The ultimate expert in fluoride that Trump wants to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the anti-vaxxer politician RFK and he wants to ban it!

I agree we need more research but Trump and RFK are just fear mongering like they did with the COVID vaccine.

RFK Jr. says fluoride is ‘an industrial waste’ linked to cancer, diseases and disorders. Here’s what the science says

CNN

By Nadia Kounang, Carma Hassan and Deidre McPhillips

November 4, 2024

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. waded into another scientific debate on Saturday by saying Donald Trump’s administration would advise that fluoride be removed from the country’s water supplies if the former president wins Tuesday’s presidential election.

“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S​. water systems to remove fluoride from public water. Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease,” Kennedy, a former independent presidential candidate, wrote in a social media post.

I can just hear the MAGA gicen hi-fives… YEAH! While the rest of us are saying wait a minute fluoride works to stop tooth decay! That is why it is in tooth paste! Back in September a federal judge said hold it. Lets study this more.

US District Judge Edward Chen ruled that while it’s not clear whether the amount of fluoride typically added to water is causing a drop in IQ in kids, there’s enough risk to warrant investigation and that the EPA needs to take further action in regulating it. The ruling did not state what actions the EPA needs to take and the agency is currently reviewing the decision.

And experts agree that despite the politicization of the issue, more research is needed to understand the effect on fluoride – not just on young children, but for the general population as well.

Did you read that… “more research is needed” and that is all the anti-vaxxers needed.

“I think that health effects of fluoride on young children, particularly in the realm of neurodevelopment have been sufficiently studied such that it has now been identified that a hazard to child IQ is present. However, I would argue that more research is needed to better understand impacts of chronic low level fluoride exposure on adult health outcomes because that research is scarce,” Malin said.

But you know how Trump likes to stir up unrest to get his base riled up.

So what was the study and what was amount of fluoride that caused the negative findings about fluoride?

The program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended US limit for drinking water.

You got that? Twice the recommended levels and a Canadian study found possible lower level might cause to children…

A 2019 study looking at Canadian mothers and children found for each additional 1 milligram per liter in concentration of fluoride in a mother’s urine, there was a 4.5-point drop in IQ in males. The study did not find such a significant association in female children, nor did it examine why boys were more significantly affected.

So the scientist say that we need to look at it some more while Trump and company are screaming take it out!

NBC News write,

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Saturday that a Trump administration would, on its first day, “advise all U.S​. water systems to remove fluoride from public water.”

Kennedy linked fluoride to various illnesses, despite major medical associations supporting water fluoridation, which they say is safe and a benefit to public health.XXXXX

[...}

“I’m going to let him go wild on health. I'm going to let him go wild on the food. I'm going to let him go wild on medicines,” Trump said at that event.

It is a knee jerk reaction designed to stir up the Ant-vaxxers!

That leads me to Trump and EPA.

Trump budget slashes EPA funding, environmental programs

The Hill

By Rebecca Beitsch and Rachel Frazin

February 10, 2020

President Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal 2021 calls for significant reductions to environmental programs at federal agencies, including a 26 percent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Trump’s budget would eliminate 50 EPA programs and impose massive cuts to research and development, while also nixing money for the Energy Star rating system. The Energy Star program, which measures the efficiency of electronics and appliances, would instead rely on businesses to pay a fee to participate in the program.

The proposed spending reductions mark the latest effort by the administration to chip away at government agencies focused on science, the environment and public lands. The White House budget request would reduce spending at the Energy Department by 8 percent and cut 16 percent from the Department of the Interior’s budget.

[…]

At the EPA, the Trump budget would cut the Superfund program, tasked with cleaning up hazardous waste sites, by 10 percent, despite data showing the agency has the largest backlog of toxic waste cleanups in 15 years.

The billionaires are whispering in Trump’s ear… these programs are costing us money if we can just throw those regulations we can make billions by just throwing the stuff out like we did at Love Canal or the Rouge River just because it caught on fire in 1969 is no reason to stop us.

Yes, we have to stop this madness… vote Blue tomorrow! Vote Harris/Walz and vote yes on the Connecticut ballot question about mail-in ballots. Don’t believe the Republican “Big Lies!”

The LA Times And The Washington Post Said No!

The both refused to endorse a candidate. Did they do it because they feared lost of revenue? Did they fear if Trump won there would be reprisals?

But the New York Times wrote (With all the original links)…

You already know Donald Trump. He is unfit to lead. Watch him. Listen to those who know him best. He tried to subvert an election and remains a threat to democracy. He helped overturn Roe, with terrible consequences. Mr. Trump’s corruption and lawlessness go beyond elections: It’s his whole ethos. He lies without limit. If he’s re-elected, the G.O.P. won’t restrain him. Mr. Trump will use the government to go after opponents. He will pursue a cruel policy of mass deportations. He will wreak havoc on the poor, the middle class and employers. Another Trump term will damage the climate, shatter alliances and strengthen autocrats. Americans should demand better. Vote.

Well one newspaper has a backbone*

 

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*Many trans people do not like the NYT because they publish anti-trans editorials thinking that they are presenting both side of the discussion. But like James Baldwin said,

We can disagree and still love each other, unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.

There are no two sides with our rights!