It's February 4, 2019 and it's time to review five of the most outrageous, infuriating,
or just plain baffling things that have happened lately.
It's your Facepalm Five.
Let's count 'em up!
1.
Transphobes go on a global hate spree.
So, week before last the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Trump's ban on transgender people
serving in the military to go into effect while its legality is decided in lower courts.
I made a whole video last week about why that's a shitty idea that nobody who isn't an intolerant
asshole should support, so if you want to hear me go on about the trans military ban
go watch that video.
In this segment of this video, I'm gonna mention a few of the other attempts to disenfranchise
and dehumanize trans people that went down over the last couple of weeks, because there
were a bunch of 'em!
First, last week in Washington, D.C. a contingent of TERFs – that's "trans-exclusionary
radical feminists" for those of you who aren't hip to the lingo – participated
in a panel hosted by the Heritage Foundation.
The purpose of the panel was to raise objections to the Equality Act, a piece of legislation
Nancy Pelosi has called a priority for the new congress, which would officially ban discrimination
on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity under federal civil rights law.
Why would feminists have a problem with expanding civil rights protections?
Good question.
Also: why would feminists accept an invitation from a right-wing and blatantly anti-woman,
anti-LGBTQ outfit like the Heritage Foundation?
Two good questions, both with the same answer: anti-trans bigotry.
TERFs like those who participated in the Heritage panel, and those who livestreamed themselves
harassing trans activist Sarah McBride a few days later, because that happened, too, believe
trans women are men who are invading women-only spaces and are therefore a threat to women.
That threat loses its force when you account for the fact that trans women are not men,
but women – it's right there on the label.
But TERFs don't account for that, because they're bad people.
Second, last week Republican members of the South Dakota House of Representatives introduced
a series of bills that could potentially be very harmful to trans children.
Yeah, it's about time somebody stood up to the most bullied kind of kid.
The bills would ban public schools from teaching about gender identity until eighth grade,
give parents the right to refuse gender-affirming health care for their trans children, and
force trans student athletes to participate in school sports according to the gender they
were assigned at birth.
Ah, the old "just ignore them, and legally empower their parents and educators to abuse
and discriminate against them, and they'll go away" strategy.
That'll . . . work.
All right, there's one more and it's really bad: Week before last the Supreme Court of
Japan ruled unanimously that trans people have to get sterilized.
Transphobia in a country other than the United States.
Yay, we're not the only bad place.
The court ruled to uphold Law 111, which requires that trans people who want to legally change
their gender designation be sterilized and undergo gender confirmation surgery before
the change can be approved.
This, according to the court's opinion, is acceptable because it helps to avoid confusion.
Right, because if some people are confused and think trans people are human beings entitled
to rights and basic respect, this law will set 'em straight.
Oh, but don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds: two of the justices wrote an additional
opinion where they acknowledge that the suffering experienced by trans people is everybody's
problem, and assert that society should be accepting of "the diversity of sexual identity."
So there.
See?
A little positivity from two of the judges who voted to keep the law that compels trans
people to get sterilized in order to legally transition.
I mean, why even write that opinion if you voted to uphold the transphobic law?
Their words, however well intentioned, are rendered meaningless by their actions!
Hey, do you have to be from Japan to serve on the Japanese Supreme Court?
If not, next time there's a vacancy they should nominate Jeff Flake.
Seems like he'd fit right in.
2.
McConnell accuses Democrats of attempted "power grab" for wanting to make it easier to vote.
Mitch McConnell took to the floor of the United States Senate last week to denounce bill H.R.
1, The For the People Act, which was recently introduced by Democrats in the House of Representatives.
McConnell called the bill "a political power grab" that would "victimize every American
taxpayer."
Jesus.
This bill must be pretty bad, huh?
Wanna know what's in it?
Automatic voter registration.
Making election day a federal holiday.
Prohibiting voter roll purges.
Ending partisan gerrymandering.
Stricter campaign finance regulations.
How could our democracy survive?!
That's the question Mitch McConnell seems to be asking.
I, on the other hand, am wondering how our democracy has survived so long without this
stuff!
McConnell belittled the bill, calling it the "Democratic Politician Protection Act,"
saying its provisions didn't pass the laugh test.
So, if someone proposes that we make it easier for people to vote and increase regulations
and oversight to help ensure elections are free and fair, and your response is to laugh
and accuse them of attempting a partisan power grab, I can only conclude two things: one,
you're a huge asshole; and two, you're worried your political party won't be able
to win elections if it can't cheat!
Look, I hate the Republican Party.
I've thought it was garbage for years.
But even I am still a little shocked at how brazenly corrupt it's become.
Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, read this bill that would protect people's
right to vote, make it easier for everyone to exercise that right, and protect the integrity
of the electoral process, and he was like, "This is outrageous!
The Republican Party could never survive this!
They're trying to destroy us!"
And then he went out and said all of that in public!
3.
Clueless billionaire baffled by backlash against vanity presidential run.
Howard Schultz, who got rich overcharging people for just-okay coffee, announced recently
that he is considering a run for President of the United States in 2020.
A lot of people are annoyed by that, and Schultz just don't get it!
The former CEO of Starbucks, Schultz also has a new book to promote, which looks like
exactly the kind of shallow, excessively focus-grouped drivel every other aspiring presidential candidate
publishes a year or two before the election.
The opposition to Schultz's candidacy has come mostly from Democrats and those further
to left, something Schultz says he's surprised by.
But since he started talking about running for president, Schultz has come out against
Medicare for all, against raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans, accused his detractors
of criticizing him for being successful, and declared that he left the Democratic Party
because it was too far left.
Did he expect progressives to applaud for that shit?
And please, for god's sake, can we stop putting super rich people on TV and letting
them whine and fearmonger about tax proposals that would make them slightly less rich?
A top marginal tax rate of 70% or higher is not going to make billionaires into hobos.
For one thing, even if taxes were raised so high that billionaires lost all their money,
most of them wouldn't be hobos.
They'd be bums.
Hobos work.
4.
Republican member of Congress throws bigoted tantrum.
I realize you need me to be more specific.
To wit: Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota and one of the first Muslim women to serve
in the U.S. House of Representatives, was recently selected for the Oversight and Investigations
Subcommittee of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
This probably would have been no big deal, except that Republican member of Congress
from New York Lee Zeldin, who is also on that subcommittee, tweeted "Just learned Freshman
Rep. Ilhan Omar was also put on this committee w oversight of US foreign policy.
Crazy to watch what House Dems are empowering/elevating."
Rep. Omar hit back with a tweet of her own, implying that Zeldin is an Islamophobic bully
and saying she looked forward to watching him lose his marbles.
Zeldin responded to that by promptly losing his marbles.
"Those poor innocent ISIS fighters & Palestinian terrorists right?"
Zeldin tweeted, adding, "Your anti-Semitic & anti-Israel hate is strong & wrong."
Now, to be fair to Zeldin, there is a lot of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel rhetoric that
does cross the line into antisemitism.
I don't think Rep. Omar has been guilty of that, but it does happen.
And after their Twitter fight, Zeldin released a hateful message left on his office voicemail
that called Jews "maggots" and "bloodsuckers" and declared they were worse than Hitler.
That is obviously unacceptable and disgusting, and Rep. Omar quite rightly condemned it.
There should be no place in politics for that kind of derogatory, dehumanizing rhetoric.
But here's the thing, that's true when the target is a Jewish man, and it's also
true when the target is a Muslim woman.
If Zeldin expects Omar to disown the hatred, ignorance and intolerance antisemites throw
at him, the least he can do is do the same for the hatred, ignorance and intolerance
Islamophobes throw at her.
And he can start by apologizing for publicly flipping out over her being appointed to a
committee and accusing her of sympathizing with ISIS.
When he's done that, he can also apologize for inviting Steve Bannon to headline a fundraiser
during his election campaign, and for supporting and continuing to support Donald Trump.
And if he's not willing to do that, maybe he should just shut the fuck up!
And now it's time for the segment devoted to some of the other things Donald Trump has
done recently to disgrace the presidency and embarrass and/or endanger the United States
and the rest of the world:
5.
The Further Misadventures of Lord Dampnut.
Please keep in mind as always: the following is not a complete list.
He reacted to the arrest of his former campaign advisor Roger Stone by declaring "Border
coyotes, drug dealers and human traffickers are treated better!"
That really depends on what color they are and how much money they've got, doesn't
it?
He tweeted his support for the smug little MAGA-hat-wearing pricks from Covington Catholic
who were involved in a confrontation with Native American activist Nathan Phillips in
Washington, D.C.
He lashed out against Democratic Senator Dick Blumenthal after Blumenthal expressed doubts
about the truthfulness of Donald Trump Jr.'s testimony to Congress about possible collusion
between Trump and Russia, calling Blumenthal "Da Nang Dick" and repeating the lie that
Blumenthal had falsely claimed to be a Vietnam War Hero and later admitted the truth with
"tears pouring down his face."
He criticized leaders of the intelligence community for being "extremely passive and
naive" in their assessment of the threat posed by Iran during testimony to the Senate
Intelligence Committee, then, after meeting with them the next day, declared that the
intelligence community actually agreed with him, and their testimony was mischaracterized
by the media.
Their testimony was aired live as it happened!
How did the media mischaracterize their testimony?
By showing us what they said?
He endorsed Bible classes in public schools, which the ACLU has said often violate the
separation of church and state because teachers use Sunday school lessons as class materials.
And finally, he met at the White House with a group of far-right activists that included
Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy, an organization designated as an anti-Muslim
hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Rosemary Jenks of NumbersUSA, an extremist
anti-immigration group.
During the meeting, according to the New York Times, one activist told Trump that women
shouldn't be allowed to serve in the military, while another denounced same-sex marriage,
and another expressed skepticism that sexual assault was all that common in the military.
In any other administration it would be alarming and profoundly upsetting to learn that such
ignorant, intolerant people had gotten a meeting with the president.
But now?
I dunno, I'm not so much alarmed or upset as I am confused.
Why would Trump need to waste time inviting people to the White House to hear this kinda
rhetoric when he can get fed the exact same bullshit from people who already work for him?
That's five.
Speak out, act out, resist, look after each other.
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