Alejandra Caraballo

ELECTIONS Trump asks why US can't use nukes: MSNBC PUBLISHED WED, AUG 3 2016 8:05 AM EDT UPDATED WED, AUG 3 2016 3:01 PM EDT Matthew J. Belvedere @MATT_BELVEDERE WATCH LIVE VIDEO 1:20 Trump reportedly asks why US can't use nukes: MSNBC

Donald Trump asked a foreign policy expert advising him why the U.S. can't use nuclear weapons, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said on the air Wednesday, citing an unnamed source who claimed he had spoken with the GOP presidential nominee. "Several months ago, a foreign policy expert on the international level went to advise Donald Trump. And three times [Trump] asked about the use of nuclear weapons. Three times he asked at one point if we had them why can't we use them," Scarborough said on his "Morning Joe" program.

I will just say it out loud:

I am very concerned Trump will use a tactical nuclear weapon in his quest for a quick victory over Iran.

I am reminded of the story from 2016, when Trump reportedly asked three times in a single briefing why nuclear weapons couldn’t be used:

Oh absolutely. I'm trying to vary it up a bit but right now I'm gravitating towards people who felt trapped in their moment in time, realizing how fucked everything is and being unable to do anything about it.

I only read nonfiction. My reading list is long form doom scrolling. Currently rereading notes of a native son by James Baldwin.

It's 1992, there's a Republican president with a war in the middle east and a recession.

It's 2008, there's a Republican president with a war in the middle east and a recession.

It's 2026, there's a Republican president with a war in the middle east...

It's funny watching the NYT come on bluesky to argue with its critics.

At 1:30 Central/2:30 Eastern, my colleague @harperseldin.bsky.social will be in state court in Kansas asking a judge to block the new law that invalidated the driver's licenses of trans people across the state. You can tune into the hearing here

High gas prices, war in the middle east, unpopular president, soaring unemployment. Welcome back second term Bush administration.

The Green party has been unapologetically supportive of trans people and they took a seat from Labour after they gave cracked down on trans people. Liberal parties cannot abandon trans people without losing their base.

"'From the get-go, he didn't like that I was a boy-girl' (referencing a tomboy)...TRUMP mentioned something to the effect of 'Let me teach you how little girls are supposed to be.'"

Trans Porn Is Booming. Trans Rights Are Fading We asked trans adult creators about the complicated link between desire and politics, as trans porn is booming while rights fade.

Interesting interview in Playboy with transgender adult content creators. People often point to Pornhub stats showing trans content is more popular than ever as a contradiction, as if political and sexual objectification were ever mutually exclusive

Steve-O got a ruptured testicle by letting one of his castmates jump on his crotch with a pogo stick and he is unquestionably more morally sophisticated than most of our sitting lawmakers

Steve-O was on Joe Rogan's show trying to defend trans people and Rogan went off, he called trans people "fucking perverts" and "mass shooters" who have done the majority of school shootings.

Completely unhinged bigotry paid for by your Spotify subscriptions.

I'm going to take a wild guess that none of those people were trans.

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Kristi Noem.

An image titled "The Podcast Charts" from Spotify, displaying a ranked list of the Top 10 Podcasts in the United States. The list is presented against a dark blue background with gold and green accents: The Joe Rogan Experience – Joe Rogan (indicated as trending up) The Daily – The New York Times (indicated as trending up) The Shawn Ryan Show – Shawn Ryan Show (indicated as trending up) Crime Junkie – audiochuck (indicated as trending up) The Tucker Carlson Show – Tucker Carlson Network (indicated as trending up) This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von – Theo Von (indicated as trending down) Up First from NPR – NPR (indicated as trending up) Good Hang with Amy Poehler – The Ringer (indicated as trending up) Huberman Lab – Scicomm Media (indicated as trending down) Candace – Candace Owens (indicated as trending up) Each entry includes the show's cover art, title, creator, a "Follow" and "Share" button, and a small green or red arrow indicating its current chart movement.

This is bleak.

wow Rogan is *deep* into anti-trans conspiracy nonsense, reciting all their talking points note for note

Steve-O probably could've handled it better but he was at least trying to share empathy he had for a trans fan he met at the beginning and was bombarded by an angry bigoted rant from Rogan.

Rogan baselessly asserted that the majority of school shootings are trans shooters.

This is going out to millions of people.

Steve-O was on Joe Rogan's show trying to defend trans people and Rogan went off, he called trans people "fucking perverts" and "mass shooters" who have done the majority of school shootings.

Completely unhinged bigotry paid for by your Spotify subscriptions.

I am pleased to announce that the Highly Respected United States Senator from the Great State of Oklahoma, Markwayne Mullin, will become the United States Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), effective March 31, 2026. The current Secretary, Kristi Noem, who has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results (especially on the Border!), will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere we are announcing on Saturday in Doral, Florida. I thank Kristi for her service at “Homeland.” Serving 10 years in the United States House of Representatives, and 3 in the Senate, Markwayne has done a tremendous job representing the wonderful People of Oklahoma, where I won all 77 out of 77 Counties — in 2016, 2020, and 2024! A MAGA Warrior, and former undefeated professional MMA fighter, Markwayne truly gets along well with people, and knows the Wisdom and Courage required to Advance our America First Agenda. As the only Native American in the Senate, Markwayne is a fantastic advocate for our incredible Tribal Communities. Markwayne will work tirelessly to Keep our Border Secure, Stop Migrant Crime, Murderers, and other Criminals from illegally entering our Country, End the Scourge of Illegal Drugs and, MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN. Markwayne will make a spectacular Secretary of Homeland Security. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

And there it is, Kristi Noem is out at DHS and Trump intends to nominate Sen. Markwayne Mullin for the position.

This image is a screenshot of a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article headline. Here is the descriptive text: WSJ Article: Trump Is Preparing to Fire Kristi Noem Headline: Trump Is Preparing to Fire Kristi Noem Subheader: The Homeland Security secretary’s combative Senate hearing this week was a key factor, advisers say Authors: Josh Dawsey, Tarini Parti, and Michelle Hackman Updated Date: March 5, 2026, 1:05 pm ET Categories: Exclusive, Policy

Firing is not enough. She needs to go to prison for what she's done.

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

It's no surprise he's a ML engineer out of silicon valley. If there's any defining feature of the SV crowd it's the chutzpah to believe they're the only ones who have thought of something when they try to offer solutions to something they know nothing about. Peak Dunning-Kruger effect.

The absurd level of hubris it takes to come in to an issue he knows nothing about and begin telling people being persecuted, "well, have you tried this?" after those people have already tried it. It's consultant brained thinking you'd get from some 23 year old McKinsey associate.

The corollary here would be if states already had marriage equality for years and a backlash saw states banning those marriages. That's what is happening to trans people here. So you can't compare the two. We already had major meaningful incremental policy wins built over decades of advocacy.

The concluding section of the article, which notes that marriage equality activists accepted "half-measures like civil unions" as intermediate steps, whereas the future of trans rights remains "fragile" and "up for debate."

The fundamental difference here is that trans people are not asking for something new, we're asking for our current protections to not be stripped away. Bostock is the already the law of the land. Access to gender affirming care or even competing in sports were available for decades.

Text discussing the "no debate" posture of some activists, calling it "self-defeating" because it allows opponents to fill the silence with their own framing.

Twitter has completely lobotomized the entirety of the centrist pundit class. We've been having "debate" for decades.

What's changed is how a money backed hate movement weaponized the debate much as anti-vaxx and climate denial groups do with media all too happy to both sides it.

Forcing these people to use the bathrooms of their pre-transition sex is clearly discriminatory, and it could easily be framed as a “fairness” issue if you focused on that. Similarly, the state of Kansas is now forcing trans people to forfeit their existing drivers’ licenses and relabel them with their birth gender. These are ridiculous policies and textbook examples of discrimination. If progressives fought exclusively on issues like these, I think they could still win the larger war. But if activists argue that trans athletes have no biological advantage, people simply aren’t buying it. If anything, that’s where the public firmly believes that fairness tips the other way, that it’s unfair to cis women to allow trans women like Lia Thomas, who was previously a male collegiate swimmer, to compete in women’s sporting competitions. On youth transition, the strategic posture similarly has to become more nuanced than either “gender-affirming care saves lives, full stop” or “ban everything.” The more easily defensible path that still protects trans youth is that parents and doctors should be making individualized decisions, the same way they do for any medical question that comes up for children.

(Human Rights Campaign): A resource page titled "Get the Facts on Gender-Affirming Care." The highlighted text states: "Every person has the fundamental right to access the health care they need without fear of discrimination, prejudice, or barriers to treatment that supports their mental, physical, and emotional well-being."

(ACLU): A press release from December 18, 2025, titled "ACLU Will Challenge Trump Administration’s Unconstitutional Effort to Ban Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Youth." The highlighted text calls the ban an "unprecedented federal intrusion into the private medical decisions of families and their doctors."

(Lambda Legal): A news release detailing legal challenges against executive orders. The highlighted portion mentions an executive order "calling for widespread discrimination against transgender people in their public and private lives," including bans on military service and updating passports.

Did he ever sit there and stop and wonder why trans people in sports became an issue in the first place rather than the framing of discrimination from bathroom fights and identity documents? On GAC, the argument of letting parents and doctors decide is the argument LGBTQ orgs have been making!

The headline reads "How to win a culture war from behind" with the subheader: "Marriage equality won by changing the question. Trans rights activists are fighting on the wrong terrain." It is dated March 5, 2026.

Has Lakshya ever actually talked to a trans person about any of this? He prognosticates on what the trans movement should do while ignoring what we've actually done. Just absolutely inane stuff.

What he means by "involved" is that he wants bribes and payment to back a particular faction like he did with Venezuelan oil, the proceeds of which are sitting in private bank accounts in the UAE.

Journal Club: How Anti-Trans Policies Hurt Students — Assigned Following the enactment of cruel anti-trans policies, a 2026 review looks at the impacts of these policies on trans students. Journal Club dives into this review to see the real harms of these kinds o...

A 2026 review looks at the real life impacts that anti-trans policies have on trans youth in school. @veraeikon.bsky.social takes a look at this review in this month's Journal Club.