In this month's Journal Club, @veraeikon.bsky.social looks at a 2024 paper investigating the harms done to trans athletes when they are excluded from participating in sports.

Journal Club: Trans People in Sports Don’t Hurt Anybody. But Kicking Them Out Does. - Assigned Media

A 2024 paper investigates the harms caused by excluding trans people from sport. Journal Club digs into the findings.

assignedmedia.org

The effective federal corporate income tax rate: 1950: 50% 1990: 25% 2020: 13% Stop asking "but how we will pay for it?" Restore the corporate tax rate. That is how we will pay for it.

Virginian friends! It's a multi-party primary election today. If you haven't already, get out and vote!

I think it also revealed just how quickly a bunch of otherwise very hard problems can be to solve with global collective action. The fuckin Ganga was running clear water for the only time in my lifetime because for 2 weeks nobody threw garbage in it. The canals in Venice had fish.

Dave Andress@davidandress.bsky.social · 4d ago

Covid lockdowns demonstrated, in a deeply imperfect way, the possibility of large-scale social solidarity for a higher cause. That is a prime reason why so many powerful people want us to run screaming away from them into the comforting arms of selfish individualist competition.

I'm someone who desperately wants to give my oponents a fair hearing and find points of compromise. It's really an epistemological crisis to find they have no real complaints, no substantive points, just empty hatred and propaganda all the way down. Subscribe for more: assignedmedia.org/support/

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@rikiwilchins.bsky.social 2026 Jul Oberver After Wake County schools hire transgender music teacher. state legislator floats idea of law to regulate what trans school employees can wear. www.newsobserver.com/news/politic...

NC GOP lawmaker says she’ll propose law to restrict attire for trans teachers

Wake has hired a trans music teacher. Rep. Erin Paré objects to the teacher’s attire.

newsobserver.com

“Ms. Moreno, the daughter of Senator Moreno ... has said that Mr. Miller scalded her chest and stomach by throwing hot water from a skillet at her body; held a gun to her head; pushed her against a wall and hit her head; and fractured their daughter’s collarbone and bruised her shoulder. ...

A mother gave the government her fingerprints, tax records, and DNA to get her 6-year-old daughter back. She did everything officials asked. ICE used that information to find and arrest her. A child welfare system became a deportation tool. open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...

ICE Turned Family Reunification Into A Deportation List

A program created to place migrant children with relatives has become a pipeline for deportation arrests.

open.substack.com

Yes: other than the hardcore base, the vast majority of Republican voters are people who systematically deny the impact of their voting decisions.

Starfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast@irhottakes.bsky.social · last wk.

Coming out as trans convinced me that both things are true because Republicans are stupid and cannot see basic connections between things. They can like every trans person they know, think trans people should be wiped out, and not understand how the trans people they know would be impacted by this.

Coming out as trans convinced me that both things are true because Republicans are stupid and cannot see basic connections between things. They can like every trans person they know, think trans people should be wiped out, and not understand how the trans people they know would be impacted by this.

This post is great, and I would add to it that people in general and Republicans even moreso become angry and affronted when you try to point out basic connections between things that mean their own behavior supports something they themselves find deeply morally wrong.

Starfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast@irhottakes.bsky.social · last wk.

Coming out as trans convinced me that both things are true because Republicans are stupid and cannot see basic connections between things. They can like every trans person they know, think trans people should be wiped out, and not understand how the trans people they know would be impacted by this.

“This means the government is finally admitting what we knew from day one and what was obvious to anyone who saw the videos: the charge against me was baseless, meant to intimidate anyone who dares to speak out, organize, or demand justice.” - David Huerta www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

US justice department dismisses charges against California union leader

David Huerta was arrested while protesting against an ICE operation during crackdown in Los Angeles

theguardian.com

I love music. I listen to a wide variety. Today I was happily surprised to find an artist I follow release a piece. I thought someone else may enjoy? If not than disregard. If you are curious then sample it? I prefer human artists do you? Cheers! www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKRH...

Cinematic Live-Looped Electric Cello Improv || Brianna Tam (Live from Osaka, Japan)

YouTube video by Brianna Tam

youtube.com

I noticed this on Seamless. I had it set to automatically tip 20%. One day I see the new options are 8, 10, and 12% and if I want to tip 20% I have to calculate it myself and type it in the "other amount" box

Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani@mayor.nyc.gov · last wk.

Uber Eats and DoorDash hid tip buttons and set default tips below 10%. As a result, tips for delivery workers fell 79%.  In January, we made these corporations change their apps — and in the past six months, we've put $104 million back in delivery workers' pockets.  This is only the beginning.

“Trump has rejected disaster aid for Democratic-run states at the highest rate in the 47-year history of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.” Right now people in blue states are basically paying federal taxes as if they’re colonized territories of red states. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

Hundreds of sports leagues and hospitals and universities have banned trans people and the national response is... "oh well". The Trump regime is openly saying they're going to eliminate us and the country just... collectively shrugs.

A Democrat saying "Black people shouldn't have healthcare" or "Jews aren't biological people" or "immigrants shouldn't be allowed to play sports" would be ostracized and condemned from coast to coast, so why should we accept these repulsive beliefs when it comes to trans people?

First of all, a clarification: it was not only the Progressive Caucus, but also the Pride Caucus' leadership invited. However, Acton's campaign later said she was not going to attend (even though it was just a remote meeting via Zoom on a Tuesday evening!). (2/?)

Hey! So, this has gotten worse! I previously shared here that Acton and her campaign were set to meet with the ODP Progressive Caucus leadership on the 28th. That's today, and it was a worst case scenario. (1/?)

Erin Reed@erininthemorning.com · 2w ago

1. In major news, the Ohio Dem Party has banned the Progressive Caucus from criticizing candidate for Gov. Amy Acton's transphobia. It has now applied more pressure to quiet criticism of anti-trans politics than it has on its own nominee to stop embracing them. Subscribe to support our journalism.

Y'all've probably seen this by now but here's a bit more about this. bsky.app/profile/ari4...

Arienne Childrey@ari4ohio.bsky.social · last wk.

"And to be clear, this is all about people, because trans youth are not 'issues,' they are people. Trans adults are not 'issues,' we are people. "

So, if you live in Ohio, or know anyone who lives in Ohio, please share the news that the Acton campaign couldn't even properly hold a do-nothing "We hear you" type call about trans rights, and just flood them with complaints. This is inexcusable on so many levels. (8/8)

If you post survey data, news articles, etc. without a link back to the source whenever possible, you are weakening the informational chain of custody and making it harder for other people to confirm that they're seeing accurate information. This holds even if you're mad at whatever it is.

Zach Weinersmith@zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Do you have any extremely niche, but serious, ethical stances?

@rikiwilchins.bsky.social 2026 Jul Up to 9% of trans ppl have moved out of hostile states since 2024. and well over half (55%) report talking steps to be less visible. Liberal Currents runs this down as a form of unacknowledged ethnic cleansing. www.liberalcurrents.com/the-american...

The American Transgender Refugee Crisis

If this were occurring abroad, to an ethnic minority, we would call it ethnic cleansing.

liberalcurrents.com

I've covered local government meetings for over 20 years, in a city where the mayor notoriously makes up rules to curb anything critical of city hall, especially clapping. So, it's worth a quick🧵 on how governments use rules of decorum to intimidate the public, even to throw opponents in jail.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · last wk.

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@rikiwilchins.bsky.social 2026 Jul 19thNews deep dive on extremist WA ballot initiative which would require EVERY K-12 girls to have their B-A sex medically verified through genetic or hormone tests [which are expensive] or reproductive anatomy inspection [yuck] before they can play girls’ sports.

How Washington state’s sports ballot measure will impact all girls

A ballot initiative to bar transgender girls from girls’ teams would require all girls to ‘verify’ their identity.

19thnews.org

Under Trump, federal agencies have subpoenaed hospitals for the names of minors, attempted to end Medicaid and Medicare funding for medial centers, and even threatened action against manufacturers of chest binders. 19thnews.org/2026/07/gend...

DOJ, HHS, FTC, FDA: The alphabet soup of efforts to restrict gender-affirming care

Dozens of investigations, subpoenas and lawsuits are bearing down on families of trans youth and hospitals providing the care.

19thnews.org

This by Parker is very, very good. The fact that the "joke" was being compared to a trans person required an apology to the cisgender reporter caught up in it did not include any space to defend the trans person who had nothing to do with thisthe event, is a sad reflection of this current moment.

Parker Molloy@parkermolloy.com · last wk.

Dylan Mulvaney's response to Trump's recent attacks on her at the WHCD is worth watching. www.readtpa.com/p/the-punchl...

Dylan Mulvaney's response to Trump's recent attacks on her at the WHCD is worth watching. www.readtpa.com/p/the-punchl...

The Punchline

Dylan Mulvaney did nothing wrong. That's the point.

readtpa.com

but they already made a historically accurate version of the odyssey?

Sen. Murray called it: Trump won’t explain this war, won’t seek congressional authorization, and expects Americans to just pay. At 4pm ET, House Republicans vote to send $73B more to Iran and $10B to rig elections. Call your reps: 202-224-3121. 🚨 #HealthcareNotWarfare