Stephan: I have been friends, and have worked with a number of gay and lesbian individuals, and one trans-woman, and from all of them I have learned that the issue of gender is a complicated and painful one beginning with puberty for those who are in that world. Not a single friend in the LGBTQ community ever told me that their sexuality, let alone their gender presentation, was something they chose. I find the MAGAt Republican obsession with denying these individuals support to be not just mentally deranged, destructive of wellbeing, but deeply nasty.
There is, I think, something else going on as well. The Dobbs decision and the state laws that followed are driving doctors, nurses, and, by this report, whole families out of states controlled by MAGAt Republicans. Particularly in rural areas, I think this is going to mean a real degradation of healthcare in those Red states, as well as the loss of many well-educated citizens. This is all part of the Great Schism Trend that is creating two different societies in the same nation.
Coming out and socially transitioning at 14 had been rough, but by 17, Cass Jackson was a well-adjusted teen who identified as nonbinary and used they/them pronouns. Credit: Jackie Molloy / Politico
Carrie Jackson and her family of three fondly remember their home in Denton, Texas.
They had moved to the Dallas suburb from the tiny town of Malakoff, Texas, back in 2016. Jackson landed a job she liked as a lead counselor for the Aubrey Independent School District. Carrie said her 17-year-old high school junior, Cass, who is transgender, was thriving.
Coming out and socially transitioning at 14 had been rough, but by 17, Cass was a well-adjusted teen who identified as nonbinary and used they/them pronouns. Cass was making great grades, working a job, driving a car and starting to think about college, Carrie said.
“I hid away for a really long time,” Cass recalled. “But then I figured this out about myself against all odds.”
On the night of Feb. 22. Carrie was sitting in bed, scrolling through her Facebook feed, and spotted a news article […]
Stephan: America has, in my opinion, based on objectively verifiable data, a very poor social support structure. But had it not been for one man it would have been much worse. Here is a story of what one good person can do.
When it comes to poverty in America, we have to hold two contradictory thoughts in our heads at the same time.
On the one hand, this is a country that leaves behind too many people. Our child poverty rate is high compared to our peer countries. Many Americans still don’t have enough to eat, a bed to sleep in, or health care for themselves or their families.
On the other hand, an accretion of government programs, built up over the last five decades, has created a semblance of a safety net where once there was none. Programs like the earned income tax credit, expanded greatly in the 1990s, put much-needed money in working poor people’s pockets every year. Food stamps, established in the 1960s but made more generous in later decades, have put food on the table for many families. The Affordable Care Act, though still patchy, has nonetheless provided health care for the previously uninsured.
This patchwork net isn’t perfect, but it has inarguably made a difference in the lives of millions of low-income people […]
Stephan: There is almost no discussion of this trend in the media, particularly mainstream television media, so few in America seem to really appreciate how corrupt our political system has become. Here is an example of what I mean.
The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.. Credit: Daniel Slim / AFP / Getty / North America / TNS
Listening to Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court arguments about two prosecutions won by former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, it seems likely that the bad guys will go free. If and when that happens, consider it a lucky break for Andrew Cuomo’s former hatchet man Joe Percoco and a foursome caught rigging Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion program — and the umpteenth signal that America desperately needs better laws to police public corruption.
Percoco took $35,000 from a developer for helping win state approval on a project. He made the call to the head of the right agency and pocketed the money during a short break in 2014 when he was off of Cuomo’s government payroll to manage Cuomo’s successful reelection campaign. Percoco then quickly resumed his position back on the government payroll.
If Percoco hadn’t been on a brief hiatus from his official duties, it would’ve all been unquestionably illegal — but, in the sordid spirit of Supreme Court decisions […]
Stephan: I am becoming slightly optimistic about the American people awakening to the fact that Trump is a loser, as he has been all his life, and the Republican Party has, by design, become a cult of White supremacy, antisemitism, and christofascism financed by a small cadre of the uber-rich. My concern is that the Democrats will not properly understand this shift in the culture, and blow the advantage it should give them.
I was interested to see some of this Democratic pining people keep talking about.
So what evidence does the Hill provide?
[Trump’s] campaign is stirring excitement, and even some glee, from Democrats.
Members of President Biden’s party are openly pining for Trump to become the 2024 Republican nominee, believing he is just too flawed to win a general election.
They argue that the situation today is markedly different from 2016 . . . [a]nd Democrats are eager to have such a beatable opponent in an election that is likely to be challenging for their party.
That sounds bad of Democrats! Let’s get to the examples!
“I am hoping for Trump’s nomination, ‘cause I think he’s the easiest candidate to beat,” former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D) told “The Briefing with Steve Scully” on SiriusXM this week.
Stephan: Canada, is a country whose government is focused on fostering wellbeing to a far greater degree than the United States, notably in terms of climate change. This is a situation that exists mostly, but not entirely because the Republican Party has a large percentage of members and voters who don't seem to understand what the climate crisis is going to do to America. The Canadian government in contrast does seem to understand the implication of climate change, and they have created a national policy the U.S. would do well to emulate.
As climate change warms Canada up to three times faster than the rest of the planet, the government has made a plan to keep people and ecosystems safe.
Environment and Climate Change Canada, a federal agency, released its first-ever national climate adaptation strategy last week, along with $1.2 billion to help implement it over the next five years. The 56-page document, which has been in the works since 2020, attempts to create a “shared vision” of Canada’s future under climate change, calling for society-wide collaboration in five priority areas: disaster resilience, health and well-being, nature and biodiversity, infrastructure, and the economy and workers.
“Everyone in Canada is part of the solution, with different roles to play,” the strategy says.
The document lays out several high-level targets to guide Canada’s ongoing climate adaptation efforts and protect people from increasingly severe heat waves, wildfires, drought, and other disasters. One section, for example, proposes eliminating all deaths from extreme heat by 2040. Another says that all new infrastructure investments […]
