A thoughtless sop to bigots in Texas has endangered trans children and their only advocates. It’s time to stand up for them. PLUS: Madeleine Albright, remembered
"They are easy targets for the sort of bully who fears reprisal above all else, and, as his administration repeatedly demonstrated by capitulating to Huffines, Abbott is exactly that sort of bully."
Well, that's the thing. The social conservatives (read: right-wing maniacs) want to get back to say, 1928? to start with, but they retreated on gay rights proper. But they think they've got the supreme court majority that can sweep them to undemocratic victory, so they're starting off (ugh) small. Trans rights are the low-hanging fruit, and then with the momentum of a victory, they can shift to the wider attack on gay rights in general and carry the day.
I don't think there's any tactical advantage to be gained here (bit late for that) by abandoning these kids to their fates: that would just make us look like schmucks. Schmucks don't win elections. Good people can lose and you go from there, but D's never profit by trying to be Trumpy.
Spencer: "I don't write this to reduce Albright, in death, to her crassest comments."
I think that's a case of a fish rotting from the head. I just caught, for the first time the other day, a Clinton quote from 1997 about how his envoys needed to make the Russians 'eat shit'. Wow, was that not a smart play, but if he's talking like that, it seems Albright would've had to have been the lesser echo of that play.
Separately, it's clear that official DC just talked themselves into the idea that Hussein was a bad dude (true!), and therefore he had to be trying to make a nuke (not true!). It's just one of those idiot notions that becomes true through repetition. They shoulda been obsessed with making democracy in Russia a success, not non-existent bombs in the Middle East.
Protect trans kids.
Good post, Sam!
"They are easy targets for the sort of bully who fears reprisal above all else, and, as his administration repeatedly demonstrated by capitulating to Huffines, Abbott is exactly that sort of bully."
Well, that's the thing. The social conservatives (read: right-wing maniacs) want to get back to say, 1928? to start with, but they retreated on gay rights proper. But they think they've got the supreme court majority that can sweep them to undemocratic victory, so they're starting off (ugh) small. Trans rights are the low-hanging fruit, and then with the momentum of a victory, they can shift to the wider attack on gay rights in general and carry the day.
I don't think there's any tactical advantage to be gained here (bit late for that) by abandoning these kids to their fates: that would just make us look like schmucks. Schmucks don't win elections. Good people can lose and you go from there, but D's never profit by trying to be Trumpy.
Spencer: "I don't write this to reduce Albright, in death, to her crassest comments."
I think that's a case of a fish rotting from the head. I just caught, for the first time the other day, a Clinton quote from 1997 about how his envoys needed to make the Russians 'eat shit'. Wow, was that not a smart play, but if he's talking like that, it seems Albright would've had to have been the lesser echo of that play.
Separately, it's clear that official DC just talked themselves into the idea that Hussein was a bad dude (true!), and therefore he had to be trying to make a nuke (not true!). It's just one of those idiot notions that becomes true through repetition. They shoulda been obsessed with making democracy in Russia a success, not non-existent bombs in the Middle East.
elm
creatures of their time