The Democrats cannot allow this to pass. If this were the only thing between funding the govt. and shutting it down, then shutting it down is what must be done.
There is a small but growing contingent following the siren song of "Oh, let's not let these picky "culture wars" issues distract us from the important stuff." Gavin Newsom is setting the tone for that. Importantly, Jay Pritzker is *not* one of them. But the US nazis might well get seven D votes.
I’m no expert, but my understanding is treatment and medical intervention actually lessons or cures symptoms of gender dysphoria. So other than control of people’s healthcare, and cruelty, there is no point to what they’re doing.
Very important for people to understand, and I fear that far too many don't. This hasn't had logic behind it for a long time (except the logic of how best for DJ to consolidate the absolute power he craves).
Jason Stanley (Bissell-Heyd Chair in American Studies in the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto, recently emigrated from the U.S.) said last night in an interview on German TV (ZDF heute show) that "The U.S. isn't yet in 1938, but it is in 1933").
Yes, Jayna. I'll share a quote from the forward of the book that the American Jew Milton Meyer wrote shortly after the war. Not disclosing his provenance he visited Germany, trying to understand how a world center for science and the arts could fall so far, so fast. Here's the excerpt, offered with love and strength to us all.
“By easy extension, I would rather judge Germans than Americans. Now I see a little better how Nazism overcame Germany – not from without or by subversion from within, but with a whoop and a holler. It was what most Germans wanted – or, under pressure of combined reality and illusion, came to want. They wanted it; they got it; and they liked it.
“I came back home a little afraid for my country, afraid of what it might want, and get, and like, under pressure of combined reality and illusion. I felt - and feel - that it was not German Man that I had met, but Man. He happened to be in Germany under certain conditions. He might, under certain conditions, be I.
“If I - and my countrymen - ever succumbed to that concatenation of conditions, no Constitution, no laws, no police, and certainly no army would be able to protect us from harm. For there is no harm that any one else can do to a man that he cannot do to himself, no good that he cannot do if he will. And what was said long ago is true: Nations are not made of oak and rock but of men, and, as the men are, so will the nations be.” – Milton Mayer, December 25, 1954, from the Foreword of "They Thought They Were Free"
How the hell did a cult win the popular vote? That's a question that dumbfounds the observer for the last 10 years. Trump's best election was his last, where the concerns of being a lame duck don't really matter, if he says they don't. So we're stuck with four years of chaos? Not if I can burn a flag or take action.
My point in the post linked just above (to Joel) and in https://jaynasheats.substack.com/p/the-people-vs-donald-j-trump, is that the blue states *cannot* succeed if Trump and co. decide to continue the path they're on. One has to accept that the "rule of law" that we've believed in all our lives (transgressions thereof mostly - though not exclusively - against people of color) no longer prevails, and the Supreme Court has accepted that in decision after decision.
So yes, the whole system is on the way to crumbling, but in a way that will be bloody. Stopping taxes is a great idea, but every such state had better make sure its National Guard is loyal to its governor. And we had better be prepared to either sign up or support in Rosie the Riveter fashion those who do. (And try to get your friends in the national armed forces to agree to support the Constitution!)
I appreciate you and want to validate that you are correct - we have to follow the rule of law until the system actually breaks down. Succession is a last resort that may end America and women / children will suffer first.
Yes, thank you and I appreciate the comment. It's a good lesson in waiting for certain moods to pass before posting a comment. I agree fully that it's not really an answer.
I mean it's a logical response to the problem, one which would find hearty agreement in the ghosts of Jefferson and Madison. Unfortunately, a newly-seceded state or group of states would be thrust into an immediate economic and political crisis, and likely under the violent assault of the remaining US military, without a shared sense of regional identity akin to the Kurds or the Basques to hold us together. Even if such a state managed to be recognized and relatively stable, the balkanization of the United States could pose even more terrifying and existential long-term problems.
Our country is like a ship - break it apart, and both pieces will sink to the bottom of the ocean. Should the ship go down, some may perhaps persevere on lifeboats, but a great many others will be indiscriminately claimed by the waves. Our best bet is for us all to come together and keep this ship afloat. I don't know if that's still possible, but I hope it is.
When I told my gynecologist that my PCP diagnosed me as having an endocrine disorder, she followed suit, and in addition changed my sex at birth to female (we're more than a lump of tissue after all). I'm honored to have a weekly zoom with an icon in our cohort. At my suggestion she changed my diagnoses to generalized anxiety from gender dysphoria, which, having fully transitioned, I no longer suffer from anyway.
The current government, by continually bullying one of the smallest minority groups in the country, uses these tactics to keep their rabid base happy and to hide or distract from their thievery and Epstein. And they’re big on cruelty for cruelty’s sake. Look at how all terrified, undocumented human beings are being treated.
I don't think that the autocratic collapse of our nation can be wholly attributed to corruption and Epstein. If anything, one could argue that the petty corruption and Epstein intrigue are really a distraction from something much darker - the erection of a permanent autocratic regime. That, to me, seems to be the real goal of the ideologues guiding this administration.
I see no evidence of any permanent autocratic regime. Everything Trump! has done is blown away like dust in the wind by the first major change of hands in the House or Senate, or Oval Office -- let alone all three.
The people engineering, funding, and carrying out the propaganda campaign and enacting the laws and policies against transgender people must face 42 U.S.C. § 1983, 18 U.S.C. § 241, & 18 U.S.C. § 242 prosecution.
When convenient for their sexual desires, perhaps. But logical consistency is not their strong suit.
The point is power and marginalization. They want to return to a time when they could laugh about trannies and publicly mock us with impunity. That doesn't require our deaths - in fact, the lack of our burning effigy would probably deny them some measure of satisfaction. These folks are sadists, they enjoy inflicting cruelty and flexing their power over the weak.
Do they see us as men or women? Neither - to them, we aren't even human.
They define women by their "biological function" as not merely sexual objects, but bearers of children.
Cis women in this framework are given a measure of privilege over trans people that must be accounted for in any fair analysis.
Transphobia is not an extension of misogyny, though transphobia can certainly invoke misogyny when it wants to. But it is also its own distinct matrix of oppression.
After all, so much of the hatred directed towards us is justified by the supposed need to "protect [cis] women and girls".
I'm not really sure what "privilege" cisgender women who are dying due to pregnancy complications without access to proper medical care, rape, murder, victims of pedophile, domestic abuse, difficulty finding jobs/equal pay, etc... have that we don't.
It's apparently the price we temporarily pay for revolution, because they'd have to be kidding me to think we would take this dictator for four years, he used to say this phrase to people, he needs to hear it, and I'll be the one to deliver the message, "you're fired."
Why do I have feelings of fear in the pit of my stomach? I’ve been helping the trans community in any way an ally can, and this is just horrible. The government wants you to either die or leave the United States for countries with better laws, but probably worse public support for trans people.
Actually, I don’t really care if THIS government is shut down. It may be the only recourse sane people have. If this is a reprise of the Nazi regime in the 30s and 40s, then I’m going down. My family mostly perished in the Holocaust, and Trump sees this as an opportunity to finish the job.
It does seem that the chances of seven Democrats breaking ranks and supporting this are quite low, hence this is unlikely to become law. It sounds like the GOP is just trying to throw red meat to their base. However, the fact that someone, somewhere, wants to do such an extreme proposal is highly frightening. Today’s extreme proposals do tend to become tomorrow’s laws if they are determined enough.
How would this interface with laws in the blue states which prohibit medical discrimination of trans care, and that schools and athletics programs not discriminate? Seems like the federal law would then be in conflict with numerous state laws - mainly the dark blue states on Erin’s map.
That's probably inevitable. There were reasons for the Democrats to compromise back in May and fund the stopgap bill. I didn't agree with them, but I understood the case for it. None of those reasons apply now. Shutting down the government is the smart political move. It's also the move that does the least harm now that the regime has exerted full control over the executive branch. The Democrats (especially Chuck Schumer) might still cave, because their cowardice seems to know no bounds, but my money is on a protracted shutdown.
Blue states with trans friendly laws will be extorted through the withholding of otherwise unrelated federal funds to sell out their trans citizens. That is Trump's established method, which he has transmitted to his underlings, henchmen, disciples, and hostages. They know to do his bidding his way. And his bidding is now steered predominantly by christian nationalists and funded by billionaire misogynists.
I think most of us knew this was coming. That doesn't make it any easier. I'm hoping to get my bottom surgery in the next few months. I got an orchi the month after the election, to ensure I had a medical reason to stay on hormones. They've already stopped covering my progesterone, but it's not too expensive so I pay it out of pocket now. They will probably try to deny me estrogen, and we will have to argue that it is medically necessary to prevent osteoporosis, anemia, and heart problems.
So are we ready to hit the streets, folks? We need to organize and fight for our rights.
I fear that the democrats will abandon the transgender community because transgender people are currently unpopular and don't have any voting power. They are such a small minority that they can't contribute enough money or have enough votes to sway an election. Democrat politicians will decide to turn their backs and by doing so, hope to win back liberal terfs and transphobes to pull off some victories.
Precisely. This is the same turn the Labour Party made in the UK. Being the target of a partisan moral panic is bad enough; when the other party sees you as expendable, you are no longer a human being in the eyes of the law.
Next they will come for Social Security. More generally, they will attempt to coerce trans people to legally detransition and adopt (or "re-adopt") their pretransition identity info and papers in order to do any kind of business with the federal government, including all matters related to social security benefits, taxes, and so on as a matter of fraud prevention.
Our best hope may be that they go after Obergefell and other LGB legal protections as aggressively as possible, in hope that they overplay their hand. No one is coming to rescue the T contingent.
It is indeed a transgender Hyde Amendment. and for the same reason: to uphold the binary reproductive logic of patriarchy.
Also, it's time to reclaim "tranny." Wear it proud.
I truly hate it when my paranoia proves prescient. Denying coverage for gender care will be the precursor for even more draconian laws or executive orders. Deny our 2nd Amendment rights, deny us gender care, then deny us use of public spaces, then demand that we wear an identifying symbol. This all begins to sound ever so familiar.
Dems have shown an unwavering commitment to cowardice, caving, and the backstabbing of our community every chance they get, so I’m not encouraged. Before somebody gets all shitty and defensive: I have spent a lifetime voting for Dems, donating money, and volunteering, so yeah… I have earned the right to criticize the party
Everyone, we have to start working groups to call Democratic politicians all over the country. No time to wait. Wake up tomorrow, text your friends - have a little party on Sunday and list out who you all will call the next week. It's a must.
I saw this coming at the very beginning of the attacks on trans women in sports in the name of protecting cis women. The next step will be to outlaw private insurance companies from covering and then a law to make it illegal to be transgender which will give these idiots the justification to round everybody up as Hitler did to the Jewish people.
The Democrats cannot allow this to pass. If this were the only thing between funding the govt. and shutting it down, then shutting it down is what must be done.
I'm just not sure they give enough of a fuck about us. I think they might be banking on nobody caring about us enough to give a shit
There is a small but growing contingent following the siren song of "Oh, let's not let these picky "culture wars" issues distract us from the important stuff." Gavin Newsom is setting the tone for that. Importantly, Jay Pritzker is *not* one of them. But the US nazis might well get seven D votes.
Oh, there are so many other reasons to shut down the government.
They will. They'll throw us under the buss so fast our heads will spin.
I’m no expert, but my understanding is treatment and medical intervention actually lessons or cures symptoms of gender dysphoria. So other than control of people’s healthcare, and cruelty, there is no point to what they’re doing.
Cruelty is the point.
Very important for people to understand, and I fear that far too many don't. This hasn't had logic behind it for a long time (except the logic of how best for DJ to consolidate the absolute power he craves).
Jason Stanley (Bissell-Heyd Chair in American Studies in the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto, recently emigrated from the U.S.) said last night in an interview on German TV (ZDF heute show) that "The U.S. isn't yet in 1938, but it is in 1933").
Yes, Jayna. I'll share a quote from the forward of the book that the American Jew Milton Meyer wrote shortly after the war. Not disclosing his provenance he visited Germany, trying to understand how a world center for science and the arts could fall so far, so fast. Here's the excerpt, offered with love and strength to us all.
“By easy extension, I would rather judge Germans than Americans. Now I see a little better how Nazism overcame Germany – not from without or by subversion from within, but with a whoop and a holler. It was what most Germans wanted – or, under pressure of combined reality and illusion, came to want. They wanted it; they got it; and they liked it.
“I came back home a little afraid for my country, afraid of what it might want, and get, and like, under pressure of combined reality and illusion. I felt - and feel - that it was not German Man that I had met, but Man. He happened to be in Germany under certain conditions. He might, under certain conditions, be I.
“If I - and my countrymen - ever succumbed to that concatenation of conditions, no Constitution, no laws, no police, and certainly no army would be able to protect us from harm. For there is no harm that any one else can do to a man that he cannot do to himself, no good that he cannot do if he will. And what was said long ago is true: Nations are not made of oak and rock but of men, and, as the men are, so will the nations be.” – Milton Mayer, December 25, 1954, from the Foreword of "They Thought They Were Free"
I know that book; it's powerful.
How the hell did a cult win the popular vote? That's a question that dumbfounds the observer for the last 10 years. Trump's best election was his last, where the concerns of being a lame duck don't really matter, if he says they don't. So we're stuck with four years of chaos? Not if I can burn a flag or take action.
1/3 of American eligible voters sat home!
It's not a comforting thought, but this is my answer. (It wasn't dashed off in an hour; I spent a fair amount of time on it!)
https://jaynasheats.substack.com/p/resistance-is-not-futile
It's correct that the attitude of "our" military would be complex, in a civil war.
Unfortunately the logic is max pressure everywhere all at once. Transphobic propaganda has become a powerful wedge.
Luckily the US is not Germany and blue states can literally just succeed or worse stop paying taxes and the whole system crumbles.
My point in the post linked just above (to Joel) and in https://jaynasheats.substack.com/p/the-people-vs-donald-j-trump, is that the blue states *cannot* succeed if Trump and co. decide to continue the path they're on. One has to accept that the "rule of law" that we've believed in all our lives (transgressions thereof mostly - though not exclusively - against people of color) no longer prevails, and the Supreme Court has accepted that in decision after decision.
So yes, the whole system is on the way to crumbling, but in a way that will be bloody. Stopping taxes is a great idea, but every such state had better make sure its National Guard is loyal to its governor. And we had better be prepared to either sign up or support in Rosie the Riveter fashion those who do. (And try to get your friends in the national armed forces to agree to support the Constitution!)
I appreciate you and want to validate that you are correct - we have to follow the rule of law until the system actually breaks down. Succession is a last resort that may end America and women / children will suffer first.
There are a few moments in our history that suggest that secession is not the walk in the park you characterize it to be.
Yes, thank you and I appreciate the comment. It's a good lesson in waiting for certain moods to pass before posting a comment. I agree fully that it's not really an answer.
I mean it's a logical response to the problem, one which would find hearty agreement in the ghosts of Jefferson and Madison. Unfortunately, a newly-seceded state or group of states would be thrust into an immediate economic and political crisis, and likely under the violent assault of the remaining US military, without a shared sense of regional identity akin to the Kurds or the Basques to hold us together. Even if such a state managed to be recognized and relatively stable, the balkanization of the United States could pose even more terrifying and existential long-term problems.
Our country is like a ship - break it apart, and both pieces will sink to the bottom of the ocean. Should the ship go down, some may perhaps persevere on lifeboats, but a great many others will be indiscriminately claimed by the waves. Our best bet is for us all to come together and keep this ship afloat. I don't know if that's still possible, but I hope it is.
When I told my gynecologist that my PCP diagnosed me as having an endocrine disorder, she followed suit, and in addition changed my sex at birth to female (we're more than a lump of tissue after all). I'm honored to have a weekly zoom with an icon in our cohort. At my suggestion she changed my diagnoses to generalized anxiety from gender dysphoria, which, having fully transitioned, I no longer suffer from anyway.
Two can play at this game.
The current government, by continually bullying one of the smallest minority groups in the country, uses these tactics to keep their rabid base happy and to hide or distract from their thievery and Epstein. And they’re big on cruelty for cruelty’s sake. Look at how all terrified, undocumented human beings are being treated.
I don't think that the autocratic collapse of our nation can be wholly attributed to corruption and Epstein. If anything, one could argue that the petty corruption and Epstein intrigue are really a distraction from something much darker - the erection of a permanent autocratic regime. That, to me, seems to be the real goal of the ideologues guiding this administration.
Yes, I agree. That’s what many of us are most worried about. And their daily distractions and cruelty can’t hide their ultimate intentions.
I see no evidence of any permanent autocratic regime. Everything Trump! has done is blown away like dust in the wind by the first major change of hands in the House or Senate, or Oval Office -- let alone all three.
The people engineering, funding, and carrying out the propaganda campaign and enacting the laws and policies against transgender people must face 42 U.S.C. § 1983, 18 U.S.C. § 241, & 18 U.S.C. § 242 prosecution.
Honestly. What is wrong with these people? Why are they so concerned with cutting off treatment to people who are transgender?
Because...they want us to die. I'm not being flippant about that. These are nazis.
EDIT: I'm not being glib either. We need to stop fooling ourselves about what these forces are, and what they genuinely are trying to do.
Some of us fully understand. This is what I wrote just a few days ago. We are in that zone.
https://jaynasheats.substack.com/p/resistance-is-not-futile
Genuinely what Mel said. They want us dead.
They would very much like us all to be dead, and if we aren't dead, they want to us to be marginalized prostitutes and sex slaves.
So you're saying they actually do view us as women? 😆
When convenient for their sexual desires, perhaps. But logical consistency is not their strong suit.
The point is power and marginalization. They want to return to a time when they could laugh about trannies and publicly mock us with impunity. That doesn't require our deaths - in fact, the lack of our burning effigy would probably deny them some measure of satisfaction. These folks are sadists, they enjoy inflicting cruelty and flexing their power over the weak.
Do they see us as men or women? Neither - to them, we aren't even human.
Still unclear on how this is treating us differently than they do women in general.
They define women by their "biological function" as not merely sexual objects, but bearers of children.
Cis women in this framework are given a measure of privilege over trans people that must be accounted for in any fair analysis.
Transphobia is not an extension of misogyny, though transphobia can certainly invoke misogyny when it wants to. But it is also its own distinct matrix of oppression.
After all, so much of the hatred directed towards us is justified by the supposed need to "protect [cis] women and girls".
I'm not really sure what "privilege" cisgender women who are dying due to pregnancy complications without access to proper medical care, rape, murder, victims of pedophile, domestic abuse, difficulty finding jobs/equal pay, etc... have that we don't.
It's apparently the price we temporarily pay for revolution, because they'd have to be kidding me to think we would take this dictator for four years, he used to say this phrase to people, he needs to hear it, and I'll be the one to deliver the message, "you're fired."
Unfortunately, dictators have lasted far longer than four years, and often far beyond the point of having a majority of the people's support.
Even DJT knows about me, though. Not merely that I exist, but what I am bringing.
Why do I have feelings of fear in the pit of my stomach? I’ve been helping the trans community in any way an ally can, and this is just horrible. The government wants you to either die or leave the United States for countries with better laws, but probably worse public support for trans people.
Actually, I don’t really care if THIS government is shut down. It may be the only recourse sane people have. If this is a reprise of the Nazi regime in the 30s and 40s, then I’m going down. My family mostly perished in the Holocaust, and Trump sees this as an opportunity to finish the job.
It does seem that the chances of seven Democrats breaking ranks and supporting this are quite low, hence this is unlikely to become law. It sounds like the GOP is just trying to throw red meat to their base. However, the fact that someone, somewhere, wants to do such an extreme proposal is highly frightening. Today’s extreme proposals do tend to become tomorrow’s laws if they are determined enough.
How would this interface with laws in the blue states which prohibit medical discrimination of trans care, and that schools and athletics programs not discriminate? Seems like the federal law would then be in conflict with numerous state laws - mainly the dark blue states on Erin’s map.
If they don't, it would result in a government shutdown.
That's probably inevitable. There were reasons for the Democrats to compromise back in May and fund the stopgap bill. I didn't agree with them, but I understood the case for it. None of those reasons apply now. Shutting down the government is the smart political move. It's also the move that does the least harm now that the regime has exerted full control over the executive branch. The Democrats (especially Chuck Schumer) might still cave, because their cowardice seems to know no bounds, but my money is on a protracted shutdown.
Blue states with trans friendly laws will be extorted through the withholding of otherwise unrelated federal funds to sell out their trans citizens. That is Trump's established method, which he has transmitted to his underlings, henchmen, disciples, and hostages. They know to do his bidding his way. And his bidding is now steered predominantly by christian nationalists and funded by billionaire misogynists.
Our constitutional system and 250 years of history have held that when state and federal power conflict, federal power very nearly always wins.
Unfortunately, the idea of "safe blue states" is an utter fiction with which we can no longer afford to comfort ourselves.
I think most of us knew this was coming. That doesn't make it any easier. I'm hoping to get my bottom surgery in the next few months. I got an orchi the month after the election, to ensure I had a medical reason to stay on hormones. They've already stopped covering my progesterone, but it's not too expensive so I pay it out of pocket now. They will probably try to deny me estrogen, and we will have to argue that it is medically necessary to prevent osteoporosis, anemia, and heart problems.
So are we ready to hit the streets, folks? We need to organize and fight for our rights.
I fear that the democrats will abandon the transgender community because transgender people are currently unpopular and don't have any voting power. They are such a small minority that they can't contribute enough money or have enough votes to sway an election. Democrat politicians will decide to turn their backs and by doing so, hope to win back liberal terfs and transphobes to pull off some victories.
Precisely. This is the same turn the Labour Party made in the UK. Being the target of a partisan moral panic is bad enough; when the other party sees you as expendable, you are no longer a human being in the eyes of the law.
Next they will come for Social Security. More generally, they will attempt to coerce trans people to legally detransition and adopt (or "re-adopt") their pretransition identity info and papers in order to do any kind of business with the federal government, including all matters related to social security benefits, taxes, and so on as a matter of fraud prevention.
Our best hope may be that they go after Obergefell and other LGB legal protections as aggressively as possible, in hope that they overplay their hand. No one is coming to rescue the T contingent.
It is indeed a transgender Hyde Amendment. and for the same reason: to uphold the binary reproductive logic of patriarchy.
Also, it's time to reclaim "tranny." Wear it proud.
They're certainly coming after Obergefell. But I do think they'll bury us before then. These people are experts at dividing and conquering.
I truly hate it when my paranoia proves prescient. Denying coverage for gender care will be the precursor for even more draconian laws or executive orders. Deny our 2nd Amendment rights, deny us gender care, then deny us use of public spaces, then demand that we wear an identifying symbol. This all begins to sound ever so familiar.
Dems have shown an unwavering commitment to cowardice, caving, and the backstabbing of our community every chance they get, so I’m not encouraged. Before somebody gets all shitty and defensive: I have spent a lifetime voting for Dems, donating money, and volunteering, so yeah… I have earned the right to criticize the party
Everyone, we have to start working groups to call Democratic politicians all over the country. No time to wait. Wake up tomorrow, text your friends - have a little party on Sunday and list out who you all will call the next week. It's a must.
are they gonna strip funding from every maternity unit that performs circumcision?
I saw this coming at the very beginning of the attacks on trans women in sports in the name of protecting cis women. The next step will be to outlaw private insurance companies from covering and then a law to make it illegal to be transgender which will give these idiots the justification to round everybody up as Hitler did to the Jewish people.
Also look at SEC . 241. This also continues the deterioration of reproductive health access.
SEC . 241. None of the funds made available by this
Act may be used to implement, administer, or enforce
Executive Order 14076 (Protecting Access to Reproductive
Healthcare Services) or Executive Order 14079 (Securing
Access to Reproductive and Other Healthcare Services).
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/08/11/2022-17420/securing-access-to-reproductive-and-other-healthcare-services
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/07/13/2022-15138/protecting-access-to-reproductive-healthcare-services
Both executive orders Biden put in place to protect abortion access and funding.