News Day

Transgender Care

An in-depth summary of research and physician interviews focuses on medical care for transgender youth. That care is individualized, though it often includes hormone blockers at puberty. Surgery for youth is vanishingly rare. Medical care for transgender youth has been around for sixty years, involves teams of experts and months of mental health assessments, and is well-documented. Hormone blockers delay puberty. If hormone blockers are stopped, then puberty begins. While news coverage and propaganda often focus on people who have “detransitioned” or changed their minds about gender affirming care, the incidence of regret for such care is around one percent—far lower than the rate of regret for knee surgery (17.1 percent) or hip surgery (4.8 percent.)  

Losing Farms

The Guardian reports on the 2022 USDA agricultural census that shows continuing loss of farms, and increasing size of factory farms. Corporate factory farms also get most of the federal subsidies.

“Large farms – which includes mega operations with hundreds of thousands of acres – account for only 4% of the total number of farms, but control two-thirds of US agricultural land. The largest – with sales of $5m or more – accounted for fewer than 1% of all farms but 42% of all sales. …

“Government payments to farmers skyrocketed 17% since the last ag census to $10.4bn – thanks in large part to Covid era subsidies, which boosted income for some farmers to record levels between 2020 and 2022. But the number of farms receiving taxpayer subsidies fell dramatically by 25%, and it was the larger, wealthier – not struggling small farms – that benefited most. Farms with the highest sales (at least $50,000) received 64% of the total subsidies – despite accounting for only 11% of the beneficiaries. The smallest farms account for almost half (48%) of those that got some financial assistance, but only 4% of the total money.”

The Minnesota Reformer has the data showing that Minnesota is also losing farms and farmers to the consolidation and factory farm model.

Biden’s Age

A Trump-appointed lawyer who served in high positions in the Trump administration could not find any reason to prosecute President Biden for inadvertently retaining some classified papers—and then promptly returning them when his staff discovered he had done so. So the prosecutor issued a 300+ page report that included slurs about Biden’s age and forgetfulness. 

In “but Hillary’s emails” style, the major media trumpeted the ungrounded attack on Biden’s fitness. Instead of focusing on the substance of the report, newspapers that give Trump a free pass on his mental and physical (un)fitness, published a blizzard of articles highlighting the Hur attack on Biden–81 articles in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post in just four days. Judd Legum analyzes the coverage and contrasting (lack of) coverage of Trump in Popular Information. 

“On February 10, the New York Times explored the question of why voters seemed so much more worried about Biden than Trump, even though they are around the same age. …

“The article says the disparate treatment by voters reflects ‘profound differences… in how they are perceived by the American public.’ It does not mention that the perceptions of the two men by the public are shaped by media coverage.”

NATO Alliance

Trump’s rejection of NATO has nothing to do with paying dues: there are no NATO dues. His bombast and bluster inviting Russia to attack our allies is all about putting his allegiance to Putin above his allegiance to NATO—and above defense of the United States itself. 

Heather Cox Richardson has a good analysis: 

“National security specialist Tom Nichols of The Atlantic expressed starkly just what this means: ‘The leader of one of America’s two major political parties has just signaled to the Kremlin that if elected, he would not only refuse to defend Europe, but he would gladly support Vladimir Putin during World War III and even encourage him to do as he pleases to America’s allies.’ Former NATO supreme commander Wesley Clark called Trump’s comments ‘treasonous.’”

Even staunch conservative Republicans cannot swallow this treason pill:

“Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) weighed in on the issue during debate [on the Ukraine aid bill]: ‘This is not a stalemate. This guy [Putin] is on life support… He will not survive if NATO gets stronger.’ If the bill does not pass, Tillis said, ‘You will see the alliance that is supporting Ukraine crumble.’ For his part, Tillis wanted no part of that future: ‘I am not going to be on that page in history.’” 

Twitter/X and Misinformation

Social media accounts hold bi-weekly meetings to share information on fake accounts, and disinformation. Twitter/X stopped attending those meetings and leaves disinformation running rampant, including blue-check accounts that are actually AI or run by hostile governments. 

This Washington Post report details not only the Twitter/X slide into allowing disinformation, but also a court order that prevents the federal government from warning social media companies about disinformation campaigns, as well as tech companies’ reduction in staff assigned to monitoring mis- and disinformation.

“The result has been that accounts spreading disinformation that the other social media companies took down remain active on X. That allows the disinformation to be spread from there, including back to the other platforms.

“’Anyone trying to run a disinformation campaign is going to do it across multiple mainstream platforms,’ said Yael Eisenstat, a senior fellow at the nonprofit Cybersecurity for Democracy. ‘With foreign influence, we are less protected than we were in 2020.’

“The last X representative to attend one of the information sharing sessions was Ireland-based expert Aaron Rodericks, said the people familiar with the meetings, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. Rodericks was suspended from X after liking posts critical of Musk and is suing him and the company. Before that, Twitter’s representative was its safety chief, Yoel Roth, who resigned not long after Musk’s takeover and had to flee his home after Musk wrongly implied that he was soft on pedophiles. …

“Most troubling to some researchers, out of 123 accounts that Meta called out in May, August and December for participating in deceptive China-based campaigns, all but eight remain on X.”

Clothe the Goblins! 

Judd Legum reports that the Moms for Liberty campaign to make books decent for children has led to Florida teachers drawing clothes on picture book illustrations—such as adding underpants to cartoon child in Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen and covering a goblin’s butt in Unicorns Are The Worst. Other consequences of the group’s pressure were more serious:  outright removal of hundreds of books from school library shelves and death threats to school board members who resisted. 

Right-Wing Nuts

White Christian nationalists are literally up in arms about fears of a “great replacement” of white people by not-white immigrants. A Tennessee man who planned an attack with explosives and sniper rifles was arrested by the FBI before he could get to the border. A few others were arrested near the border with guns, cannabis, and “a white powdery substance.” 

Getting serious about wage theft

While wage theft is getting more ink in newspapers and a little more attention from lawmakers and enforcers, it’s still not getting punished. 

In Minnesota, Attorney General Keith Ellison is going after employers who steal money from their employees by making them pay up. He’s suing to get a big dairy farm in Stearns County to pay up three million dollars they stole from employees by shorting hours, not paying overtime, illegal deductions from paychecks, and even threatening and physically assaulting employees. 

But shouldn’t they also be prosecuted as criminals? If some kid shoplifts repeatedly, they get a criminal conviction and, if they steal enough or often enough, they go to jail. 

Why isn’t Ellison prosecuting them criminally? Well—that’s the job of county attorneys, not the attorney general. the attorney general can only prosecute if the county attorneys as them to step in.  If local authorities don’t want to be bothered prosecuting employers, the thieves get away without punishment. Minnesota’s wage theft law provides for criminal punishment, but according to the Minnesota Reformer’s reporting, “In the past four years, wage theft charges have been brought by prosecutors just five times.” 

MN Reformer’s Patrick Coolican writes: 

“A $3 million heist of a Minneapolis bank would make national news, whereas when the attorney general alleges a company stole $3 million from its workers, it doesn’t even make the front page of the Star Tribune. 

“That’s because we have two justice systems in this country: One for people who knock over a liquor store and come away with a few hundred dollars, and an entirely different one for people who steal millions from their own workers.” 

 Want to know more about the District of Columbia Circuit Court ruling that Trump is not immune from prosecution?

Here’s a link to the 57-page decision. The good parts start at page 20, after the lengthy discussion of jurisdiction. I particularly like these paragraphs (p. 40):

“We cannot accept former President Trump’s claim that a President has unbounded authority to commit crimes that would neutralize the most fundamental check on executive power — the recognition and implementation of election results. Nor can we sanction his apparent contention that the Executive has carte blanche to violate the rights of individual citizens to vote and to have their votes count. 

“At bottom, former President Trump’s stance would collapse our system of separated powers by placing the President beyond the reach of all three Branches. Presidential immunity against federal indictment would mean that, as to the President, the Congress could not legislate, the Executive could not prosecute and the Judiciary could not review. We cannot accept that the office of the Presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter.”

Unsafe at Any Speed?

One year after the East Palestine freight train derailment released toxic chemicals, driving residents from their homes, none of the promised safety regulations have been passed. Massive lobbying of Congress by the railroad industry blocked even the minimal requirement to have more than one person staffing miles-long trains. Meanwhile, 2023 saw even more derailments than 2022. 

Quick Takes

Parker Molloy has a long article stuffed with absolutely on-point anecdotes that show why Context is For Trying to Understand Reality, Not Winning Arguments. That’s the Problem.

Cory Doctorow’s fascinating description of How I got scammed (05 Feb 2024) is an important cautionary tale for even those of us who think we are sophisticated users of today’s technology.  

Paul Pfeiffer’s The Giving Tree or a Sharing Garden? offers a scathing take-down of the popular children’s book, a meditation on retirement, and a call to action for sustainability. Quite a lot to pack into a single blog post! 

I’ve been corresponding regularly with the President. Or at least I have been writing to him and getting form emails indicating that my message has been received. I know that means next to nothing. My email has been sorted into the giant pile of yes and no and is now one more entry in the ongoing tally. That’s next to nothing, but it’s not nothing at all.

My messages are short and non-comprehensive. I know that the most attention they will receive is being sorted into a pile of yes or no on any given policy, so I do not devote a lot of time to research and argument.

With that in mind, here’s today’s message to the White House. I encourage you to write, too.

This headline in today’s New York Times: “With Israel signaling an offensive into Rafah, Netanyahu said it would require removing civilians.”

Mr. President — Israel has ordered civilians to move south. Then to move farther south. Rafah, as far south as you can get, was supposed to be safe. Now Rafah is under attack. This is unconscionable.

Every government has a duty to protect civilians in war time. Including Israel. Including the United States.

YOU can protect civilians by cutting off military aid and public approval of Israel’s war in Gaza. Do it. Now.

Mary Turck

And it did not take long to get the computerized form message back:

February 9, 2024

I read far too much news every week, and if you are reading this, you probably do, too. But did you see these stories from the past week? 

First, in Oklahoma, Republican state representative JJ Humphrey introduced an “anti-terrorism” bill that classifies all Hispanics as terrorists. The Guardian has the story:

“In addition to ‘a member of a criminal street gang’ and someone who ‘has been convicted of a gang-related offense’, the bill defines a terrorist as ‘any person who is of Hispanic descent living within the state of Oklahoma’.”

Humphrey’s non-apology:

“He said: ‘I apologize for using the word Hispanic, but I was not wrong. Again, these are Hispanic. Reality is they are Hispanic. There’s nothing to be ashamed with.’

“Humphrey said he will go back to the bill and amend the language from ‘Hispanic’ to ‘undocumented here illegally, or something like that’.”

Another under-the-radar story comes from Public Notice, which details Elon Musk’s attempt to overturn the National Labor Relations Board. The article delves into the decision to file this case in Texas, and its subsequent removal to California. But the really important part is here:

“The reason Musk wants to be in Texas is because of a Fifth Circuit decision in a 2022 case called Jarkesy v. SEC in which a three-judge panel ruled that [Administrative Law Judges] are unconstitutional.

“The court reasoned that: (1) it’s illegal for Congress to delegate too much power to civil servants, unanswerable to the voters; and (2) that agencies’ use of ALJs violates the Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial. This position would have been unthinkable 15 years ago, but now that Republicans have a vise grip on the Supreme Court, they’ve decided that the judiciary needs to grab all the power it can. Just this week, the Court heard oral arguments in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, a case which threatens to hamstring the executive branch and allow courts to substitute their own judgment for that of federal agencies at will. …

“Essentially, SpaceX says that because the ALJs enjoy civil service protections and can’t be fired by the president as political appointees, and because the NLRB’s procedures don’t allow for a jury trial, the enforcement action against SpaceX is illegal under Jarkesy.

“And in case it’s not clear, if Musk succeeds, the NLRB will have no way to enforce labor laws that guarantee citizens the right to collective action.” 

Then there’s the Ouray County Plaindealer in Ouray, Colorado. The newspaper had the guts to publish a story about rape at the police chief’s house. Not that anyone got to read the story: hundreds of copies of the newspaper were stolen from all of the newspaper vending machines in town, reports HuffPost. 

“’It’s pretty clear that someone didn’t want the community to read the news this week,’ McIntyre wrote [in an email to readers]. ‘I’ll leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions on which story they didn’t want you to read.’

“The front-page headline on the January 18-24 edition of the paper in question reads, ‘Girl: Rapes occurred at chief’s house.’

“The story, authored by McIntyre, relays the horrific allegations of a 17-year-old girl who says she was repeatedly raped while at a party with the police chief’s stepson and two other individuals in May 2023.”

Finally, two important stories about crime and inflation also flew mostly under the radar. 

Crime fell both nationally and in Minnesota in 2023. Jeff Asher has a good analysis of the national figures, and the Minnesota Reformer has us covered locally: 

“Crime in Minnesota was down across the board in 2023, according to preliminary data released by the Department of Public Safety.

“Statewide, relative to 2022:

• Homicide was down 5%
• Car thefts were down 8%, and carjackings 38%
• Larceny, or theft, decreased by about 15%
• Rape fell by 20%

“Many major crime categories, like robbery, burglary, larceny and sexual assault, are now running lower than they did prior to the pandemic. Others, like homicide, aggravated assault and motor vehicle theft, remain well above pre-pandemic levels despite recent declines.”

Inflation is down, and that has been widely reported though not as widely believed. The under-reported news is that corporate profits are the biggest driver of recent inflation:

“The report, compiled by the progressive Groundwork Collaborative thinktank, found corporate profits accounted for about 53% of inflation during last year’s second and third quarters. Profits drove just 11% of price growth in the 40 years prior to the pandemic, according to the report. …

“Since pandemic inflation spiked in 2021, a high-stakes debate has played out about its sources. Many progressive economists pointed to corporate profits – or “greedflation” – and supply chain issues as a driver of high prices, while their more conservative counterparts singled out government stimulus cash and high wages.

“The report’s authors scoured corporate earnings calls and found executives bragging to shareholders about keeping prices high and widening profit margins as input costs come down.” 

That’s it for this week–now I can close those tabs and clear my browser.

Three years ago, Trump and his mob tried to destroy democracy and the rule of law. They failed. They are still trying. We still need to keep resisting. 

That means resisting the lies of the deluded right-wing minority. Trump has never had the support of a majority of the country. Even when he became president, he had only minority support. He lost the popular vote in 2016, with Hillary Clinton getting almost 2.9 million more voters than Trump had. Yes—he won in the electoral college and became president with a minority of votes cast in the election. In 2020, Trump lost to President Joe Biden by an even larger margin: more than 7 million votes. This time he also lost in the electoral college, by a vote of 306 to 232. 

A large majority of people in this country support the rule of law, equal treatment for all races, religions and ethnicities, a woman’s right to choose, asylum for people fleeing persecution, welcome for Dreamers, protection for trans children, equal rights for LGBT people … the list goes on. The loud minority threatens because they are loud, because they lie, and because they (some of them, at least) even come to believe their own lies. 

Their loud and repeated lies endanger the rest of us, too. They flood social media with lies and slime, promoting a cynicism that says all politicians are crooks and liars, facts are unknowable, and all opinions are equal. That cynicism leads to a rejection of civic involvement and political participation at the very time we need it most. 

Egregious human rights violations of human rights and rules of war by Israel continue, day after day, supported by U.S. military aid. The United States must stop supporting the slaughter that already has killed more than 19,000 people in Gaza and displaced more than 80 percent of the entire population. Our continued military assistance to Israel makes us complicit in ongoing war crimes.  

Senator Bernie Sanders has begun one process that could halt U.S. military aid. I’m writing to urge my Senators to support that initiative and to vote outright to end military aid to Israel. 

After the horrific terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7, Israel’s counter-attack on Hamas was expected and its self-defense justified. The extreme and continuing violations of human rights and rules of war are not excused by self-defense. There are lines that may never be crossed. 

While I value Heather Cox Richardson’s daily Letters from an American and read them faithfully, the November 13 Letter embraces a dangerous bothsidesism that cannot go unchallenged. The letter includes this problematic paragraph:

“Both ‘the Left,’ and the ‘Right’ want to get rid of the system. Those on the Left believe that its creation was so warped either by wealth or by racism that it must be torn down and rebuilt. Those on the Right believe that most people don’t know what’s good for them, making democracy dangerous. They think the majority of people must be ruled by their betters, who will steer them toward productivity and religion. The political Left has never been powerful in the U.S.; the political Right has taken over the Republican Party.”

Who is this “Left” that so conveniently parallels the “Right?” Not me, and I am a committed leftist. Not the leftists who brought us the eight-hour day, Social Security, Medicare, Head Start, and more, all while being denounced as socialists and communists and Marxists. Not the Squad in Congress, denounced over and over again as socialists and communists and Marxists by the fascist right wing of the Republican party. We leftists work solidly within the structure of our Constitution and electoral system, even while we work for reform of laws and systems. We work for the Voting Rights Act, not for the subversion of elections. 

On November 17, government funding runs out. If Republicans in the House of Representatives do not get their act together before next Friday, the government shuts down. 

Congress is supposed to pass 12 appropriations bills to fund the various parts of the government. The federal fiscal year begins on October 1, so appropriations should be made before then. Instead, House Republicans have blocked any action. 

Some headlines say Congress is deadlocked–that’s not true. Congress and the entire nation are being held hostage by a radical right-wing Republican minority in the House of Representatives and by a weak and waffling Republican majority that caves in to their demands.