Politics

A few days ago the White House announced they were eliminating Obama-era incentivizes for car engines that automatically turn off at red lights. The feature saves gas and reduces the more noxious emissions car engines produced at low RPM, but in some cars (especially non-hybrids) the air conditioning doesn’t work as well with the engine

From TalkingPointMemo, on the Supreme Court oral arguments challenging the Idaho ban on trans girls paying in girls sports: The justices spent most of their time during oral arguments on the equal protection claims, and seemed to coalesce behind a position that could have ramifications for small minorities beyond the trans community: that Idaho and

David Kurtz, TPM: “Jan. 6 felt that momentous then, not just as a culmination of the conspiracy to subvert the 2020 election, but a clear and present choice about what path the country would take from there… The results of the 2024 election made clear which fork we took, and so we now remember the

Kaiser Permanente just announced that as of August 29th they will stop offering gender-affirming surgeries for patients under the age of nineteen, following a similar pause by Stanford Medicine announced last month. The Trump administration has threatened to withhold federal funding to institutions that provide gender-affirming care of any kind, and a few weeks ago

As the latest term of the Supreme Court mercifully comes to an end, here’s your occasional reminder that the current court is illegitimate. Not because senate Republicans blocked any nomination by a Democratic president from even coming to a vote, or because Justice Thomas was caught red-handed soliciting and accepting undisclosed bribes gifts to remain

The argument: If you let trans women use public restrooms that match their gender identity then men will claim to be trans women so they can ogle, harass and/or sexually assault women. The reality: Harassment, sexual assault and invasion of privacy is already illegal, and incidents of harassment didn’t increase in places that passed non-discrimination

The argument: The arguments against trans women playing in women’s sports runs the gamut between “trans women have an unfair advantage because of natal testosterone when they were younger” to Trump’s position that “trans women are actually men who are either delusional or lying to get an unfair advantage”. There’s also a secondary argument that

The argument: The argument against treating minors boils down to “Kids are too young to know what’s best for them, so we should hold off making irreversible decisions until they’re adults. We should also wait until there’s more research showing gender-affirming care is safe and effective.” There’s also a fair amount of “They just think

Happy International Transgender Day of Visibility! During his first two weeks President Trump issued four executive orders targeting transgender children and adults, in keeping with his campaign promises and his inaugural address. The through-line is that, “there are only two genders: male and female” and that a person’s gender is equivalent to their biological sex