phreekno

phreekno, 1 month ago

This is just a snippet, please visit the article and read the entire piece!

At midnight on Saturday, more than 20 anti-LGBTQ+ bills died in West Virginia after the legislature adjourned sine die. Bills that did not pass included the misleadingly named “Women’s Bill of Rights,” which would have ended legal recognition for transgender people in the state, as well as a bill that would have prohibited gender-affirming care for all transgender youth. West Virginia is the second state in a week hinting that anti-transgender legislative attacks are encountering resistance. Last week, Florida’s legislature also adjourned, effectively killing dozens of anti-transgender bills.

One bill that failed to pass as the West Virginia legislature adjourned was House Bill 5243, also known as the misleadingly-named “Women’s Bill of Rights” by its proponents. The bill primarily aimed to exclude transgender individuals from all legal gender protections in the state. Riley Gaines, who heavily promoted the bill, joined Governor Jim Justice at a press conference where it was announced as a major policy priority. The proposed legislation would have led to bathroom restrictions, prohibitions on driver’s license and ID changes, and the elimination of legal recognition for transgender people’s gender identities. Despite frantic, last-minute efforts by some Republicans to pass it, Democratic lawmakers countered by proposing dozens of amendments for debate. As a result, Republicans placed it at the bottom of the calendar.

“HB 5243 offered no real tangible protections for cisgender women, all while punching down on another marginalized community, and sought to erase protections for transgender West Virginians,” says Ash Orr, a trans organizer in West Virginia, “Essentially, it amounted to yet another culture war bill designed to divert attention from genuine issues affecting all residents of West Virginia.”

Another bill that did not pass in West Virginia was House Bill 5297, which sought to entirely prohibit gender-affirming care for all transgender youth. The state had previously enacted a ban on gender-affirming care, but it included an exception for transgender youth experiencing “severe dysphoria.” HB 5297 aimed to eliminate that exception. More than 400 health care providers signed a letter opposing the bill, describing gender-affirming care as lifesaving and urging the legislature to reject it. The bill failed to pass before the legislature adjourned, meaning that at least some transgender youth in the state will continue to be able to receive care, making it one of the few red states where this is still the case.

phreekno, 2 months ago

A groundbreaking study from Perth, Australia, published in JAMA Pediatrics has found that only 1% of transgender youth receiving gender-affirming care at a clinic reidentified with their sex assigned at birth. This is in addition to the 4% who reidentified during the mental health assessment period or earlier and did not proceed with receiving gender-affirming care. The study, based on 552 young patients from 2014 to 2020, is poised to significantly influence the debate on gender-affirming care due to its unique methodology, which does not suffer from loss to follow-up—the detransition status of 548 patients was successfully determined. It will likely be cited as the most compelling study on low detransition rates in the coming months.

The study was made possible by the unique circumstances of the Perth Gender Diversity Service (GDS) clinic. As the only youth gender clinic in the state of Western Australia, the system was relatively isolated from other gender clinics. The clinicians treating patients took detailed notes on case closures and the reasons for those closures and followed up with appointments extensively. This allowed researchers to examine not only medical databases to find the status of each individual patient but also to research each patient’s clinical circumstances. As a result, reidentification status was able to be determined at the point of measurement for nearly every patient.

The study examined every patient who attended the clinic from 2014 to 2020. Out of 995 referred patients, 552 had their records closed by 2020. For these closed records, researchers determined the reasons by examining medical databases to ascertain if patients continued to adult care. If not, they deeply reviewed clinical notes to identify the closure reason—only in four cases were they unable to find a reason, completely bypassing “loss to follow-up,” a term referring to the portion of a research dataset that could not be collected when following up with patients who do not respond when contacted in studies that use a follow-up methodology. The vast majority of records were closed due to transfer to adult services. Only 29 patients reidentified with their sex assigned at birth, and of those, only two did so after the mental health assessment and commencement of gender-affirming medical care.

phreekno, 2 months ago

For over an hour on Thursday night, during the State of the Union address, President Joe Biden energetically presented a vibrant progressive agenda and repeatedly stuck it to Donald Trump. Yes, there were stumbles and linguistic slips, but Biden portrayed a vigor at odds with the caricatures that are constantly promoted by Trump and Biden detractors in the conservative media. Caricatures focusing on his age are then bolstered by seemingly endless coverage by the mainstream media. The president was aggressive from the git-go; Dark Brandon was in the room.

Biden opened strong, calling for congressional support for Ukraine and slamming “my predecessor” for bowing before Russian President Vladimir Putin and telling him to “do whatever the hell you want.” Biden then vowed, “I will not bow down.” Tying the fight against Russia in Ukraine to the battle to protect democracy in the United States, Biden pivoted to the Trump-incited insurrectionist riot on January 6, 2021, which occurred in the same room in which he was speaking. Staring at the Republicans present, Biden proclaimed, “My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth of January 6th.” He called on all in the chamber to say no to political violence. Democrats stood up and cheered; Republicans sat on their hands. Sitting behind the president, House Speaker Mike Johnson rolled his eyes.

In these opening minutes, Biden cornered the Trumpists: They were foes of democracy abroad and at home, a theme he returned to throughout the speech, as he relentlessly pounded “my predecessor.” MP “brags” about killing Roe v. Wade. MP, and “many of you in this chamber,” are “promising” to pass an abortion ban. During the Covid pandemic, MP “failed the most basic duty…the duty to care.” MP wants to end the Affordable Care Act and take away coverage for pre-existing conditions for a hundred million Americans. MP torpedoed the bipartisan immigration bill that included proposals from conservatives to bolster security at the border. MP did nothing on gun safety and after a recent school shooting in Iowa said that we should “get over it” and move forward.

Biden didn’t merely highlight the differences between himself and King MAGA and his comrades, he shoved it in their faces. After the speech, while delivering a predictably hyperbolic and fear-mongering GOP response, Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) derided Biden as a “dithering and diminished leader.” Had she not watched him? Biden’s blistering assault on Trump was vigorous and fierce. When he was heckled by Republicans, he shot back sharp one-liners. (“Oh, you don’t like that bill?” he jeered at Republicans who booed his remarks about the immigration bill that was negotiated by Republicans and then killed by Trump loyalists.)

Biden still looks and moves like he’s 81 years old, but he was engaged and engaging, bantering with and goading the Republicans. Biden talked policy details like a pro. He was far more cogent than Trump ever is during his rambling rants at campaign rallies.

As expected, Biden highlighted positive economic indicators and cited a long list of his accomplishments: the infrastructure bill and the 46,000 new projects it has generated (including removing lead pipes and bringing broadband to rural communities), the CHIPS Act, the revival of manufacturing, reducing the price of insulin, tax credits that lower the costs of health care premiums, $12 billion in funding for women’s health research, a reduction the student debt burden for millions, cutting credit card fees, and a wide variety of climate change initiatives.

The speech also featured a lengthy wish list of progressive proposals: ending Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy, lowering the price of prescription drugs and capping the annual costs of such medicines, tax credits for first-time home buyers, increasing affordable housing, establishing universal access to pre-school, increasing Pell grants, raising taxes on billionaires and corporations, upping pay for public school teachers, boosting the minimum wage, enhancing voter rights, protecting transgender rights, banning assault weapons. (There was plenty more!)

Recognizing the rift within the Democratic party over his support of Israel, Biden noted the horrific loss of life in Gaza and told the Israeli government that “humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip. Protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority.” The US military, he said, would lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine, and temporary shelters for Palestinians. Meanwhile, he vowed to keep working for a ceasefire that would include a return of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas. “The only real solution is a two-state solution over time,” he declared, a position at odds with that of the current Israeli government. This is unlikely to calm the protests against him for supporting Israel’s assault in Gaza, but he highlighted the horrendous civilian casualties in Gaza more than he has done in the past.

phreekno, 2 months ago

More pro Biden than I would like of mother jones but a good read. I will have to watch the actual State of Union today. Tell me what you think about his address? Personally I like the Dark Brandon caricature lol

phreekno, 2 months ago

Donald Trump is coasting to victory in Super Tuesday primaries across the country—a decisive, if not unexpected, showing that follows his overwhelming wins in GOP nominating contests in states like Iowa, New Hampshire, and Michigan earlier this year.

The former president—who tried to overturn the 2020 election and illegally hold on to power—is facing four indictments covering a whopping 91 criminal counts, and he owes half a billion dollars following multiple civil judgements handed down this year alone. But on Monday, the US Supreme Court gave him a key legal victory, ruling that he could remain on state presidential ballots despite his involvement in inciting the January 6 insurrection. And on Tuesday, he was once again dominating the GOP primaries, leading former UN ambassador Nikki Haley in nine of the 10 states reporting results as of 8:45 pm ET—in most cases by huge margins. (Haley held a narrow lead in deep-blue Vermont.) Prior to Tuesday, Trump has won every GOP contest with the exception of Washington, DC, where Haley received the support of roughly two-thirds of the 2,000 voters who participated.

Tuesday night’s results reaffirm what poll after poll had already shown: Trump wields a seemingly ironclad grip on the party, even as his first criminal trial is slated to begin later this month.

Haley has, up until now, nonetheless stubbornly refused to drop out, claiming that she has “no fear of Trump’s retribution.” But it remains to be seen if or how her crushing losses in Tuesday’s primaries will affect her campaign; she told reporters last week she was only “thinking about Super Tuesday.”

Tuesday’s results, if they hold throughout the evening, will all but guarantee that Trump will be the GOP nominee—though he won’t formally receive the party’s nomination until the national convention in July. Regardless, polls suggest it’s (basically) official: November’s election will present voters with a 2020 rematch—between Biden and Trump, and between democracy and authoritarianism.

phreekno, 2 months ago

you think theres a “left” in america? where the hell have you been?

phreekno, 2 months ago

Bitwarden TOTP code generation is still paid

not if you self host

phreekno, 2 months ago

yes it is vaultwarden that i was thinking of, not bitwarden selfhosted. my bad. i actually just spun up a new vaultwarden last night using docker compose. its got a long list of environment variables but still makes it super easy to set up in a flash

phreekno, 2 months ago

Bonus prize: i won’t be able to see all the people in lemmy dogpile and say im a MAGA Trump troll!

phreekno, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago)

what if i made an alcohol extraction of ghost pepper and carolina reapers, steeped it for two moon cycles and took it on a tuesday because thats the day for mars, the planet that rules most peppers? bet that would have a good kick to it, yea? could boof it too.

phreekno, 2 months ago

its almost like the people that end up spending the money don’t really want to fix the problem.

phreekno, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago)

These gender critical sleezball quack scientists often manage to debunk their own claims w/o realizing. The damage they cause is hard to undo though. But please keep telling us how we are infected by some “woke” mind virus when y’all can’t effectively critically assess anything.

edit: skeezball to sleezball, i like skeeball

phreekno, 2 months ago

I took the wifi chip and antenna right out of a roku TV. I don’t even want it broadcasting its MAC out to the world, fuck that

phreekno, 2 months ago

the DNC is not party for the people. its a party to the corpo fascist state. the amount of apathy from liberals is astounding. they say that the people saying uncommitted are apathetic. idk about you but saying youre just gonna vote for the dude w/o so much as a fucking protest action (that the DNC knows won’t even hurt bidens candidacy) against a literal genocide being funded with our tax dollars is like apathy 101. if any of y’all want to say i’m an apathetic piece of trash, were you at the protests this past saturday calling for an end to genocide??

phreekno, 2 months ago

Yea my point is that he can veto it. Looks like he was threatening to veto simply because it didn’t have aid for ukraine. Not because it had money for israel