Anachrolady's Domain

Last week, the Trump administration quietly released a sweeping new federal rule that would use funding threats to force institutions across the country to reject transgender people. The 400-page proposed regulation would codify the administration's anti-trans executive orders into binding federal policy, imposing a blanket prohibition on federal funds going toward "gender ideology"

The proposed rule, formally titled "Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance," rewrites the government-wide framework governing all federal grants across every agency. Among its most consequential provisions, it requires that before a federal grant recipient can receive money, the award must pass a "pre-issuance review" conducted by a political appointee—not a career expert or peer reviewer—to ensure it is "consistent with applicable law, Federal agency priorities, and the national interest." The regulation explicitly instructs these appointees to screen for "denial by the recipient of the sex binary in humans or the notion that sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic." [...] An institution that acknowledges transgender people exist—through its policies, its training, its healthcare, its bathroom access, its HR procedures, its name-change processes—could be deemed to "deny the sex binary" or to “support the notion that sex is mutable” and have its federal funding blocked.

This torches everything. And I do mean everything.

A very abbreviated list of its ramifications include (but are not limited to):

ending funding for ALL DEI related initiatives

allowing the government to terminate grants at any point for any reason

preventing researchers from publishing, going to conferences, and being part of academic societies

requiring that topics must support the president’s agenda.

What this means, and if anything I’m under selling it, is the death of science and research in America. It allows the government to restrict any topic they please at a whims notice, putting officials who have no background in the topic in charge of deciding funding continuity. It controls what gets researched and if/how researchers are allowed to share their discoveries. There are no books to burn if the government never allows them to be written. This is fascism plain and simple.

Public comments are not a vote, it is a chance for you to say "here is an issue with this law I think you need to address" and provide justification for legal challenges if it goes forward:

"Comments raise the bar that agencies have to meet when making a rule; “if an agency fails to adequately respond to significant, relevant comments in a final rule, members of the public may seek to challenge the rule in court on that basis and claim it could be struck down.ˮ"

This year’s is different. They are now federal REQUIREMENTS, which means there’s no flexibility. As was said previously, the 400 pages are not singularly devoted to being absolute shitheads to trans people. Theres a lot of stuff in there, some of which is the standard dry boring grants stuff, some of which is the horrible ideological warfare outlined above.

This document is issued by the OMB, the Office of Management and Budget, which is currently lead by fucking Russell Vought, the principal architect of Project 2025. This is how they’re going to implement all the horrible shit in there that wasn’t covered by Executive Order. Russell Vought is actively coming for my job, my marriage, and my kid, and most of my friends lost their jobs last year because of him. He is the fucking arch villain behind the heinous shit the current regime is doing.

“I wish someone would see through it when I tell people I’m fine-” Well, but have YOU considered not lying when people ask you how you’re doing?

“I am so resentful of my friend because they keep doing this thing that really bothers me-” Well, but have YOU directly communicated that the thing is bothering you?

“I am burning out because my friend keeps expecting me to help them with serious struggles-” Well, but have YOU tried to establish the boundaries you need to feel okay?

“No one ever asks me about this thing I really care about-” Well, but have YOU brought it up yourself?

“I miss my friend but they haven’t texted me-” Well, but have YOU been reaching out to them?

Being cared for is not a fantasy. But you have to let people know you need it. And you have to understand that sometimes they will let you down. Just like you totally could live in a cute farm, but you still have to shovel shit, and the crops sometimes die anyway. Or maybe you win the lottery, but you still have to manage your money and learn real estate law.

How often do we find ourselves wishing that other people would just ‘know’ what we want, without us needing to tell them.

it's not correct and it isn't edgy or funny either. I'm annoyed at people from other countries saying this shit, but at least they have the excuse of ignorance. I can't stand these boomerlibs and blue-haired fake pronoun college kids acting like they're too cool and enlightened to acknowledge their own culture. it makes them sound like entitled snot nosed morons who think whatever facebook or tiktok tells them to think.

my parents live in the south, I live on the west coast, I'm visiting them. we spent the day visiting a city in a nearby state because I haven't been here before. we looked at the historic buildings and squares and commented on the unique styles of local architecture compared to the west coast. we ate at a fusion restaurant. we read plaques about the history of the riverboats and about the famous people who have lived here going back 300 years. we passed bars playing blues music. we talked about the last time we had bananas foster and pointed out how many sweets shops advertised pralines. how are you going to say the us has no culture? literally what the fuck are you talking about?

it's also racist as fuck. A., when you say "the us has no culture," you're actively erasing the cultures of regional and ethnic groups. you're telling me cajun culture in louisiana, the culture of italian americans in new york, native american culture in montana, surfer culture in southern california, lutheran church culture in the midwest etc just don't exist and everyone here is exactly the same? B., what you really mean is "white americans have no culture," which is not only untrue, it is fundamentally both racist against white people and simultaneously white supremacist, because you're saying that your own culture is so much the default it doesn't even count as culture and every "real" culture is only a culture because it's an aberration from that which you know. use your goddamn brain for thirty fucking seconds. no other group is stupid and self-absorbed enough to say that about themselves because they can see it perfectly clearly. you think you sound progressive but you actually sound like your entire head is so far up your own ass you can't see three feet in front of you.

there is nothing cool about hating your country. it doesn't make you sound more intelligent or more enlightened. you're just as bad as the people who think that the us is infallible. if you hate the country then leave. you have no right to sit there are say that your opinion should have any weight whatsoever if you hate your country. I love my country. I can acknowledge its flaws and the areas in which it could improve, because I want my country to be the best that it can be, that is a part of loving something. but if you go to another country you will quickly learn that the us DOES have a culture by the very fact that you'll have to get used to a different one.

my mom said if she ever goes to another country she'd deny that she's american. they say this like this makes them better than other americans, and like people in other countries wouldn't be able to immediately tell. the reality is they would go to another country and find that people move at a faster or slower pace, have different customs about ordering in restaurants, different mannerisms when it comes to interacting with strangers, different things that are considered rude or polite. my dad likes to cross streets when the lights are red, that isn't that unusual here, but go do that in germany and see what the locals say. my mom smiles and says hello to strangers when they pass on the street, that is also normal here (at least outside of big cities, where it is less common) and you will be seen as rude if you don't reciprocate, try doing that in france and seeing how people react. going to a restaurant and immediately being served ice water. leaving a tip. going on road trips and travelling everywhere by car, expecting everyone to have a car, and the cars that you have being large. seeing national flags everywhere and displays of patriotism being seen as commonplace and generally positive. speaking only english and with an american accent. you think that saying your country has no culture makes you sound worldly, but it's actually completely the opposite.

I also can't stand when europeans say this shit because they will turn around and with the same breath say that white americans have no claim to feel connected to their european ancestry (the relative obsession with ancestry being itself a part of american culture, by the way). there is literally no winning for white americans. if you're curious about other cultures or say you understand a little about them, you're told you're an ignorant american who doesn't know anything. if you don't show interest in other cultures or say that you don't know about them, you're told you're an ignorant american who's a product of american cultural imperialism. if you're proud to be american you're a dangerous redneck (derogatory) nationalist. if you're proud of your ancestry you're a fool who doesn't understand that you're just an american and not a european (which is so patronizing and incorrect because actually most of the people saying shit like "proud irish american" do in fact understand perfectly well that they are not irish-irish and so on, but eurotards on their high horses will literally tell you to your face what they assume you think and not believe you when you say you know that). and then these same people who so condescendingly give you no way to not lose will turn around and make the wildest unnuanced assumptions about the us and you're not even allowed to correct them or stand up for your own culture. you're just supposed to take it.

gotham knights (2000) #3 // batman (1940) #404 // gotham knights (2000) #3 // gotham knights (2000) #3 // batman: the twenty cent adventure (2002) #2 // dennis o'neil's batbible (1989) // batman: kings of fear (2018) #4 // batman: shadow of the bat (1994) #2 // batman and robin (2011) #22 // batman: the dark knight (2011) #10 // batman: black and white (2020) #5 // gotham knights (2000) #3 // gotham knights (2000) #3 // batman: shadow of the bat (1994) #0 // detective comics (1937) #1047 // dennis o'neil's batbible (1989) // detective comics (1937) #939 // batman: shadow of the bat (1994) #0 // batman (1940) #439 // batman: legends of the dark knight (1989) #29 // batman: arkham city // grant morrison from on fatman on batman // batman (1940) #634 // batman: night cries (1992) #1 // gotham knights (2000) #3 // gotham knights (2000) #3 // gotham knights (2000) #3 // detective comics (1937) #982

anyway i go in to see paul one week in the summer of 2016, and i’m doing my usual bullshit which consists of me talking shit about myself, and paul is staring at me, and then he cuts me off and says that he’s got a new tool for helping people recognize when they’re using negative language, and gets up and goes over to his desk

and i’m like alright hit me with that sweet sweet self-help article my man, because i’m a linguistic learner and whenever paul’s like here i have a tool for you to use it’s pretty much always an article or a book or something

paul opens a drawer, takes something out, and turns back around. i stare.

i say, paul.

is that a nerf gun.

yeah, says paul.

i say, are you gonna shoot me with a nerf gun in this professional setting.

he happily informs me that that’s really up to me, isn’t it. and sits back down. and gestures, like, go ahead, what were you saying?

and i squint suspiciously and start back up about how i’m having too much anxiety to leave the house to run errands, like it was a miracle to even get here, like i’ve forgone getting groceries for the past week and that’s so stupid, what a stupid issue, i’m an idiot, how could i–

a foam dart hits me in the leg.

i go, hey! because my therapist just shot me in the leg. paul blinks at me placidly and raises an eyebrow. i squint again.

i say, slowly, it’s– not a stupid issue, i’m not stupid, but it’s frustrating me and i don’t want it to be a problem i’m having.

no dart this time. okay. sweet.

so the rest of the hour passes with me intermittently getting nailed with tiny foam darts and then swearing and then fixing my language and, wouldn’t you know it, i start liking myself a little more by the end of the session, which is mildly infuriating because paul can tell and he’s very smug about it 

Mine, in addition to being the reason my idiolect has the word “homie” in it, clocked my shit immediately and insisted on discussing emotions instead of logic and not being too formal about it. We also talk about star wars and sometimes it’s bigger picture themes and sometimes it’s just “holy shit star wars is cool!” Also last appt i mentioned i was going shoe shopping and he was like “just warning you this is one of those topics i might be neurodivergent about” and i was like “alright bet” so i got to hear a brief infodump which was epic. I mean, I’ve had three therapists and this one is simultaneously the most informal yet leaps and bounds the most effective for me. I don’t even go to him for autism treatment but I have a sneaking suspicion he’s coaching me on how to deal with social situations anyway. And I don’t even care if im being tricked into practicing socialising because guess who used to have a laundry list of ptsd triggers and now only has a normal amount?

They don’t raise the threshold of the tax brackets, they don’t cut taxes that eat up a larger portion of low income budgets, they don’t want to cut the fraud.

For "tax the rich" specifically, the government puts out high-bracket taxes, and then just keeps most of that money, giving back crumbs.

And the business taxes? Consider that protection money. New and small businesses need to put more of their profit to work in order to grow and get a foothold to survive, while bigger more established businesses have better economies of scale and large consumer bases. (And that's just getting started with all the ways the government protects already-made-it's against up-and-comers in the business world.)