If your love makes somebody not want to be alive, it's not love

I saw my weekend movie on Friday, a trip to the Detroit Film Theater to see Orlando, My Political Biography. It’s a French language film (with subtitles) directed by Paul B. Preciado. Orlando: A Biography is a novel by Virginia Woolf. It is the story of a young nobleman in the time of Queen Elizabeth I. She commands him to stay forever young, and he does. He has a variety of adventures over the centuries and at once in the 20th century even shifts from male to female – and does so effortlessly by waking up one morning as female. I first encountered the story through the 1992 movie starring Tilda Swinton as Orlando. It was nominated for two Oscars and won several other awards. I remember that I enjoyed it. Preciado, who is transgender, says it doesn’t work that way. So he wrote a letter to Woolf, which is this movie, to tell her what the lives of trans people are really like. If Woolf can essentially tell Preciado’s story long before he was born then he can write a letter to her long after she has died. Along with his comments to Woolf, he directs twenty trans people in acting out scenes from the book. Each introduces themselves as, “I am ____, and I play Virginia Woolf’s Orlando.” Each wears the frilly collar that sticks out, common of the Elizabethan era, in addition to their modern street clothes. Many of these scenes are very much artificial – for one we see the backdrop wheeled in, the artificial trees set about, and the snow blower put into action. In addition the trans people tell us about how they understood themselves to be trans and to act out scenes where they believe Woolf got it wrong – trying to explain their feelings to a clueless psychiatrist, arguing with a hotel clerk because her ID no longer matches. And mostly to tell Woolf that the transition definitely does not happen overnight while one is sleeping. I recommend this one. It is an important story and told in a refreshingly original way. A nice partner to the movie is an article in Parents in which an anonymous parent (wanting to avoid public hassle) of a transgender daughter talked to editor De Elizabeth about myths of the transgender experience. Myth 1 is that the process is quick and easy. The initial therapy lasts at least a year. The daughter complains the process is so slow. Myth 2 is that gender-affirming care for minors usually involves surgery. Actually it rarely involves surgery. Myth 3 is that gender-affirming medical care is harmful to kid’s health. Most of the early care is not medical in nature. Kids who don’t produce enough hormones also get hormone treatment. And harm is caused by not allowing them to transition. Myth 4 is being trans is a trend. There have always been trans kids. What is different now is lowered stigma to allow them to be who they are. I’m pleased to see Parents has several related articles on how to raise healthy trans kids. Assigned male tweeted a cartoon (a month ago) of a girl saying, “If you think that the existence of trans kids is sexualizing children...the problem is that you’re sexualizing transness.” An AP article reports the Supreme Court affirmed a lower court order to stop enforcement of a Florida law that bans drag shows. So while the case is working its way through the courts drag shows can continue. Sigh – justices Alito, Gorsuch, and Thomas said they would have granted the state’s request to allow some shows to be banned. This may not be a sign on how the justices will rule when the case gets to them. But I like what they’re doing for now. Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos reported that Matthew Connor spoke to the Virginia Beach School Board as a parent and against Moms for Liberty. Einenkel included a video and transcription of what Connor said. Here is part of it.

And I'll be real simple in case you aren’t paying attention—they're not the good guys. How can you tell? I can help. The good guys don't get declared extremist groups by human rights organizations. Never in history have the good guys been the ones trying to ban books. Never in history have the good guys been a segregationist group pushing to legislate identity. Never in history have the good guys been closely connected with and supported by hate groups like The Proud Boys. ... Now you've heard some speakers come up here and say how they love these kids but won't accept them. I'm here telling you that if your love makes somebody not want to be alive, it's not love. That's not love. Some speakers are going to get up here and talk about parental rights. The only right the parent has is the right to responsibility. And if you need somebody else to tell you who your kid is, you're probably not that good a parent.

An AP article reports that in 2021 Moms for Liberty had total revenue of $370K. In 2022 it was $2.1M. The group claims that its message is gaining traction with parents left out of their child’s education. But one single donation was $1M and another was $0.5M. Since it is a 501(c)4 nonprofit, it doesn’t have to disclose where those donations came from.

Maurice Cunningham, a former political science professor at the University of Massachusetts-Boston who has tracked Moms for Liberty’s growth and relationships, told the AP he views that as further evidence that the group is part of a “top-down” attack on public education.

MFL leadership counters there are 130K unpaid members across the country and another 7.3K small donation members. They can quote what numbers they want, but the money – and the ability to poke their noses into a lot of places – comes from those two donors. I had written about the nasty guy and his latest pronouncements that sound like they were lifted from Mein Kampf. Hunter of Kos commented on an article on Semafor that Biden has been publicly pushing the media to more thoroughly cover the nasty guy’s fascist plans. A Biden campaign official said:

What we see is a failure to properly cover Donald Trump’s dangerous agenda. I think we are filling that void.

Hunter added:

Why, then, is it the Biden campaign's duty to point this out to the majority of the political press? Why are so few national outlets reporting that Trump is promising to implement an explicitly fascist agenda? We are less than three years removed from Trump attempting a coup that left people dead. Why won’t editors believe that Trump and his allies mean what they say? ... Protecting democracy is what the press is supposed to be doing. It's not a "both sides" issue, and it shouldn't be on the not-seditionist party to goad reporters into covering it.

Denise Oliver Velez, at the start of the comments in a pundit roundup, had a few appropriate cartoons. One by Darrin Bell shows two guys in a bar. One says:

It’s not enough to say Biden won’t call me “vermin,” build massive concentration camps, imprison his opponents, seize control of all Federal agencies, purge anyone disloyal to him from government, and deploy the military to silence protests. I need a reason to vote FOR Biden.

A cartoon by Taylor Jones and tweeted by Matt Wueker shows the nasty guy orating with a sign saying “Mein Trumpf.” A cartoon by Bill Bramhall of the New York Daily News shows the nasty guy on TV saying, “I’ll root out all the vermin and build huge concentration camps.” The wife watching says, “But Biden’s age.” Dave Whamond tweeted a cartoon of a giant rat with blond hair in a hazmat suit pointing to a mouse hole drawn with a sharpie and saying to the homeowner, “You have a huuuge vermin problem! And I alone can fix it!” An Associated Press article posted on Kos reported that a judge in the Michigan Court of Claims ruled on a case trying to remove the nasty guy from the ballot, saying he’s ineligible due to the Constitution’s “insurrection” clause. The judge ruled that he can remain on the ballot and that it is up to Congress, not one single judicial officer, to decide whether he is disqualified. The plaintiffs said they will immediately appeal to the Michigan Court of Appeals and also asked the state Supreme Court to take the case on an expedited basis. The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that the nasty guy could stay on the primary ballot “because the election is a party-run contest during which constitutional eligibility isn’t an issue.” Another lawsuit would need to be filed to keep him off the general election ballot. But that is strange logic that leads to a party difficulty of winning the primary then being banned from the general. An AP article on Thursday laid out the claims of both sides in the similar Colorado case. And an AP article posted this morning reported the judge ruled in the Colorado case. The judge ruled that the nasty guy did indeed “engage in insurrection.” This is not a free speech issue. But... the judge then carefully parsed the language in the Constitution and declared that ban doesn’t explicitly apply to the president. The ban does refer to members of Congress and electors for president and vice president, but not the actual office. The evidence presented at the trial had enough for both sides to claim yes, it did, no, it didn’t, apply to the presidency. George Santos is now well known for the guy who lied about his accomplishments and ancestry to get elected to Congress. There are also 23 criminal charges for playing fast and loose with campaign money, though that case hasn’t yet been heard in court. And now the House Ethics Committee released its report. Laura Clawson of Kos reported that the contents are so damning Santos quickly announced he would not run for a second term. But he refused to resign. Ethics reports tend to tiptoe around allegations. Not this time. They are thorough and blunt with their evidence. Wrote Clawso:

The House Ethics Committee didn’t make a recommendation to expel Santos from Congress, and he has already survived one expulsion vote, in part thanks to Democrats who opposed expelling him before the ethics report was released. But another expulsion attempt is likely coming.

And that expulsion vote has a much higher likelihood of passing. Yeah, I’m cleaning out browser tabs. Here are a couple cartoons from a few days after the election. Paul Fell tweeted one of an elephant beside a freshly dug grave with a “2023 Election” headstone talking to a donkey, “Hey! Just wait a minute...! You’re not supposed to be here! You should have lost! The polls said so! The pundits predicted it! I already dug your grave!” From John Deering of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The family is looking at a TV that shows a person looking like the painting titled “The Scream” saying, “Biden should step aside and let someone else run.” The father says, “Now I remember! He was one of the pollsters who predicted the red tsunami last year!” And a cartoon tweeted by DonkeyHotey showing Joe Manchin saying “In my 40 year career, I fixed West Virginia. Now I want to fix America!” Beside him is a “Welcome to West Virginia” sign also showing:

50th in Healthcare 50th in Infrastructure 47th in the Economy 47th in Education 41st in Environment

Hunter of Kos reported that Elon Musk endorsed a post that was clearly anti-Semitic. All of this was so bad it prompted the White House to condemn it. It also prompted IBM to suspend about $1M in advertising on X. They didn’t want their ads to appear next to such racist rants. Apple and Disney have done the same. Jessica Sutherland of Kos added that it was Media Matters that posted the exposé that prompted IBM and others to leave X. Because of their departure Musk threatened a “thermonuclear” lawsuit against Media Matters. And that prompted Angelo Carusone of Media Matters to reply.

Far from the free speech advocate he claims to be, Musk is a bully who threatens meritless lawsuits in an attempt to silence reporting that he even confirmed is accurate. Musk admitted the ads at issue ran alongside the pro-Nazi content we identified. If he does sue us, we will win.

Sutherland then reported this isn’t the first time Musk tried such a lawsuit. SemDem of the Kos community took a look back at the ‘90s, in particular the Food Pyramid put out by the USDA to guide people into the proper way to eat. Once the USDA created the first draft lobbyists from agribusiness had their say. There were significant revisions (which SemDem discussed) before it was published. And “obesity rates skyrocketed.” SemDem also noted the US food pyramid was quite different from those produced by other countries where healthy eating was not sold out to the highest bidder. Sweden, which came out with a food pyramid in 1974, about 20 years before the US did, which is much healthier. A revised pyramid came out in 2005. It was better and also included exercise. But its presentation was “chaotic.” Michelle Obama, a fierce advocate fighting childhood obesity, pushed for a new model, now called MyPlate – half of the plate should be fruits and vegetables, the other half grains and protein. It’s better, but should add a few things, like a distinction between refined and whole grains. Another issue with Big Food is because of major meat corporations (which are a monopoly) they work to undercut climate and environmental legislation. An example is the agricultural and fertilizer runoff that has polluted Chesapeake Bay, and their lobbying has prevented a cleanup. Remember what has happened to smoking? Global usage of cigarettes has fallen. But obesity is a bigger killer and Big Food doesn’t want to go the way of Big Tobacco. An article on Live Science from the end of June (though I just learned about it a week ago) reported that the highest peak of Fluchthorn, a mountain in the Silvretta Alps, collapsed, losing about 330 feet. Another peak on the mountain is now higher so the mountain lost only 60 feet. The cause of the collapse is alarming. Usually the tops of tall mountains are held together through permafrost. But climate change is melting some of that, which makes the land unstable, causing landslides and rockfalls. And that is a problem for the communities in the valleys below. Tony Dutzik, a senior analyst at Frontier Group, doing transport, energy, and climate policy, tweeted:

My tinfoil hat take is that all the doomsaying about the EV market - at a time when sales are up ~50% year over year - is a coordinated effort to undercut support for strong vehicle GHG standards at the federal level and in the states.

Dutzik then linked to an article on Axios. Rohan Patel, a senior advisor for climate policy and a special assistant to Obama, responded:

This is not a tinfoil hat take as it has plenty of truth. #1 priority for the legacy automotive industry (truck and car) is to water down climate standards in almost every jurisdiction and though the announcements may not be coordinated, you can bet that the industry associations are using this line of argument.

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post, in an article not behind the paywall, reported Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan is about to sign a package of bills that will transition the state’s electricity to 80% carbon free sources by 2035 and 100% by 2040. Sources can include wind, solar, and nuclear. Natural gas is also permitted when linked to carbon capture. This pace will rival California. Just as important the bills require clean energy jobs match local prevailing wages and working conditions. There will be a new state office to help displaced workers transition to clean energy jobs. A thank you to Whitmer and the Democratic majorities in the Michigan legislature.