He knew he'd be indicted because he deliberately ignored a request from the National Archives, refused to return all the documents required, did not secure the documents in his possession, told his lawyers to remove some documents before returning others, and lie to law enforcement about what was kept/returned. This goes above and beyond what Trumpsters accused Hillary Clinton of doing.
I encourage everybody to read the actual indictment document.
It's deliberately written as a narrative story and very easy to understand. The DOJ wanted us to see with our own eyes what the former guy did, when he did it, and why it was wrong.
Yes, it's 49 pages, but it's double-spaced with huge margins, crammed with photographs & tables. It only took me a few minutes, even accounting for the times I stopped to re-read some things because they are so batshit insane.
I guarantee you most people defending him haven't read it.
In the Davis County School District, as of March, 33 books has been pulled from school shelves.
When a government starts banning books, the inevitable result is that somebody somewhere is going to ban a book you like.
For many in Utah, that happened this week in the Davis School District, where a review committee answered a parent’s complaint and removed a book from junior high and elementary shelves because of “vulgarity or violence.”
That book is the Bible.
[...]
The parent who filed the complaint against the Bible said the holy scripture of the Christian faith contained “incest, onanism, bestiality, prostitution, genital mutilation, fellatio, dildos, rape, and even infanticide.” Because of all that, the parent wrote, “you’ll no doubt find that the Bible, under Utah Code Ann. § 76-10-1227, has ‘no serious values for minors’ because it’s pornographic by our new definition.”
[...]
The solution to all this is blindingly simple: Remove the book bans. All of them. Let people decide for themselves and for their families what’s appropriate.
For those who want to perpetuate such bans, there’s a bit of cautionary advice from the newest banned book, once you get past the incest and prostitution and such. It’s the verse Matthew 7:1 — “Judge not, that ye not be judged.”
A little girl got 2nd degree burns from a chicken nugget and the mom asked McDonald's to cover the hospital bill, they said no and she had to sue.
So naturally just like the famous hot coffee debacle it's getting passed around like it's a greedy frivolous lawsuit and nobody understands how dangerously, illegally overheated that oil had to be for that to be possible or what a second degree burn actually is.
A blue check twitter guy already tried to pwn me by saying "duhh they get cooked in 300 degree oil!!"
Fried food isn't brought up to the temperature of the oil. The hot oil just quickly brings it up to safe temperature and then it is removed. For a nugget to destroy your skin it would have had to be left in long enough in hot enough oil to already be multiple safety violations.
I pointed this out in a Discord server I'm in and thought Id share here:
Bob Iger announced that Disney is going to absorb Hulu, and Hulu will no longer exist next year. All shows will move to the Disney+ app.
Disney also announced they were going to remove shows and movies periodically from their streaming services.
I believe both of these moves are because of the Writers Strike.
Disney knows its going to lose the strike. There is too much public support. Specifically, the WGA is going to win writers getting more residuals from streaming.
So if Disney takes shows off of streaming, they dont have to pay the writers the residuals.
They are going to use excuses like "not enough funding for the server capacity" or "not enough views to warrent keeping the show". These are BULLSHIT. Its all greed. Its only GREED.
Pay attention to what happens in the following weeks.
This is the same program that had a near 60% fatality rate among its test animals because they were using glue (medical grade but NOT brain safe) to hold the fucking chips in place.
Test animals died horrifically after having GLUE POURED IN THEIR BRAINS. Some died of infection in the head wound. Some killed themselves by ripping off their own body parts. Some died when the glue failed and the chip started causing hemorrhages. In one fucked case, they gust put the wrong chips entirely into dozens of animals by mistake, killing them.
If even a single test chimp dies in a normal program, it's halted immediately.
He killed DOZENS and now he's moving on to humans.
He does not perceive anything outside himself as alive.
Brain-implant company accused of causing needless suffering and deaths amid pressure from CEO
A public records request by an animal rights group revealed a shocking death rate among primate test subjects. “Extreme Suffering”: 15 of 23
This will kill almost everyone who tries it. Do not sign up for it. Do not let your loved ones sign up for it.
This is a rich man tricking the poor into suicide for his amusement.
Genuinely there is no benefit to having this done anyway. What are you hoping to accomplish by buying this. Google with your mind? Unskippable ads in your brain? Neurological hacks? I mean really even if it were safe (it isn’t, he just has enough money to bribe the FDA I guess) this wouldn’t be a benefit to you at all.
But yes, definitely do not sign up for the clinical study. I don’t care how much he offers to pay you. Money means little in the coffin.
Neural interfaces could have many, MANY useful applications. From being able to control sensory signals to reduce overload or pain according to a person's needs, to allowing for a person to regain motor control after nerve damage, etc. or even to simulate certain sensory signals to allow for sensations from certain synthetic materials so that a person could gain certain sensation (such as heat, or pressure) in synthetic limbs?
Yes, I have been informed this has been marketed towards disabled people.
Which is significantly more concerning.
Because if you ask yourself why the rich white man who grew up benefitting from apartheid and slave labor would be interested in implanting chips into the brains of the disabled, and you see how many trial animals died or were permanently mentally disturbed, the answer you come up with isn’t usually simple philanthropy.
I don’t trust that this is just incompetence and delusions of grandeur at this point. It feels purposeful when the victims are a severely marginalized group of people rather than his rabid fans.
We are not scientifically at a point where brain implants can be used to benefit the disabled, and even if the chips didn’t kill patients and worked as the manufacturer intended, it would open the door to far less ethical uses for that sort of technology.
Specifically, if your brain can send signals to a chip to do something for you, that won’t be a one-way street. Perhaps on the first day it will be used to give new freedoms to disabled people. By the third it will reach its natural conclusion as certain people realize you can use it to try to “cure” autism, or perhaps “cure” queerness. Not to mention how easy an interrogation would be if a person’s thoughts could be admissible in court, or if they can simply type a line of code to make a suspect feel the sensation of being on fire for twenty minutes if they don’t comply. Workers not productive enough? Just press the button that blocks all thoughts and memories irrelevant to work until their shift ends. Inhibit parts of the brain related to bond forming and rest, inhibit pain processing while you’re in there so if a worker is injured they only notice when they’re off the clock and don’t have to slow down.
I’m aware this sounds cartoonishly evil, but the USA is cartoonishly evil already. Any positive implication for this is strongly outweighed by the negatives.
It’s so fucked up that they keep trying to turn us disabled people into ‘functional’ people. It feels like it’s all in the name of profit. All in the name of fucking capitalism
They didn't want to sit through demeaning and bigoted religious services just for a place to sleep. (Church run food banks do this a lot too btw).
They were late and the shelter wouldn't let them in and voided the rest of their allowed stay bc they didn't call and tell the shelter they couldn't make it in before closing.
One of the other people at the shelter got violent/threatened violence and the shelter refused to do anything about it.
One of the SHELTER EMPLOYEES/VOLUNTEERS got violent/threatened violence and the shelter refused to do anything about it.
The shelter refuses to disclose if allergens are in the food they're providing saying, "This is all you're getting, be glad for this much and thank god!"
Shelter refused to believe person is homeless saying, "You are FAR too clean and nicely dressed!"
It feels taboo as a childfree person to admit this but I actually do have concerns about who is going to take care of me when I'm old. The elder care system in our nation relies A LOT on the unpaid care labor of adult children. I just don't think that's a good reason to have kids.
"But you'll have more money!" does not completely put this to rest for me. Neither does "Buy care insurance!" Even if I can afford direct personal care, who is going to advocate for me to get it? Who is going to navigate bureaucracy for me when I'm 80?
"If you do have kids, there's no GUARANTEE that they'll take care of you when your old!" That's true, but doesn't solve my problem.
I think childfree people get very defensive about this question because its used as a kind of "gotcha!" against us, but I actually do not feel we can afford to be in denial about this reality. Based on current trends of more people in their 30s stating they intend to be permanently childfree, we are going to see a huge wave of childfree adults hitting the eldercare system at once in a few decades. Childfree people in their 30s should be advocating around eldercare NOW.
We desperately need to cultivate a society in which everyone, even the most bitter, unlikeable, miserably lonely person in the world, has a social safety net that they can rely on from the day they're born to the day they die, and that includes their elder care.
We are not going to achieve this meaningfully under capitalism. :')
"But you'll have more money" PFFFFFT I live on SSDI I aint going to have shit and imma die in a state run care facility probably getting abused and neglected idk what planet some of y'all are on. Like, having kids would have given me a chance at having someone to help out. Not that I regret my decision, I super do not, but this is an area where the problem is very very real.
How it's going as a trans person in Florida: Planned Parenthood, 26Health, and Spektrum Health have announced they have paused all gender affirming care.
To recap, DeSantis signed several anti-trans bills into law this week. Care is banned for minors, care is all but banned for adults, Don't Say Gay has been extended, children can be kidnapped from affirming parents by non-affirming family, and there is a bathroom bill that subjects trans folks to arrest for using government owned facilities, such as those in courthouses, airports, many stadiums and parks.
The adult effective ban was felt immediately. The main elements are:
signing at every visit an in-person informed consent form created by the state
all care come from physicians instead of nurse practitioners
no telemed for gender-affirming care
Currently, it is unknown if existing HRT prescriptions written by NPs will be honored by pharmacies. I personally know one person who was able to pick up testosterone yesterday, but I have also read many reports of folks being denied. I myself don't have a refill ready for another 10 days and will report back after I try my own pickup.
What's additionally dangerous is those of us, myself included, who get non-HRT prescriptions from our gender clinics now face the uncertainty of continuing of *all* of our medical care. Our health clinics are at risk of shuttering permanently as they lose major income, and many of us will lose STD meds, depression meds, heart meds, etc, etc.
When we say "this will kill us," it goes beyond suicide risk from forced detransition.
"But you can still get HRT from a physician."
So many suck or are outright hostile and the demand outstrips the supply. Before I found my NP-run clinic, one physician just decided to not call in my Rx, another was so shit at reading lab results, he thought I had hepatitis, and the third I had to threaten to kick in the teeth for trying to force too large a speculum in me.
Also, the state-required consent form has not been finalized and distributed yet, so at this point, everything has pretty much ground to a halt.
It was estimated that 80% of trans adults would lose their healthcare because of how many use providers like Planned Parenthood, but the impact seems even greater now.
"You can get your non-gender care elsewhere still."
DeSantis recently signed a bill that allows healthcare professionals to discriminate against trans people.
The law allows any medical provider or insurer to deny care based on "ethical, moral, or religious beliefs...
Sure, we can try to find care elsewhere, but it will be a slow and expensive process, with no guarantees. It took me over 20 years to get my heart condition treated because of transphobic doctors.
What can I do as a trans Floridian?
Stay in communication with your clinic - many are working on getting physicians added to the roster to prescribe HRT. Lawsuits are being filed and it's possible the changes to adult care can be rolled back.
Continue to try to pick up your meds, but begin looking for care elsewhere, though. Inside and outside the state.
Remember that while telemed for gender affirming care has been banned, you can still cross state lines for care. See Erin's map of informed consent clinics.
Many people will turn to DIY, but be sure you are aware of the risks here, especially if on testosterone, which is a controlled substance.
What should I be worried about next as a trans Floridian?
I worry about the following next steps towards genocide:
Banning getting care out of state. This is from the anti-abortion playbook. They will likely start with kids again, but we've seen how quickly adult care gets axed.
Being declared mentally incompetent or a risk in some way. This could be anything from being barred from gun ownership to not being allowed to work for the government.
Being declared a de facto predator. This has already happened with the latest bathroom law (cis people can eject trans people from government owned single-gender facilities, with arrest as a penalty), so watch out for it being applied to privately-owned facilities. Watch for discussions of official lists of trans people.
Gender presentation enforcement laws, essentially banning "cross dressing". Laws that block or rollback documentation changes.
These all have historic precedence and are huge "I'm in danger" red flags.
What can I do as a cis person?
Amplify all this news. Talk frankly about how this is genocide. And donate what you can to trans mutual aid campaigns so people can travel to get healthcare or even leave the state.
Here's some articles to get started on building awareness:
Florida Republican leaders said regulating transgender health care was about kids. But a new bill signed by DeSantis also restricts care for
Bills signed into law Wednesday will further restrict trans rights in his state, and there’s no telling how far the extremist politician wil
Governor Ron DeSantis signed several anti-trans bills today. One of these bills, a bathroom ban, is likely to lead to many arrests of transg
Florida has banned gender affirming care for trans youth as well as Medicaid coverage for trans adults. New information in court findings sh
NOTE: this essay is a 15 minute read. If it’s listed as longer than that, it’s because it contains a list of over 100 references at the…