HUMORLESS QUEERS

We interview Glenda Aldana Madrid, Staff Attorney at the the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project about their lawsuit against Jeff Sessions. We also discuss Listener Mail about the U.K. election, and why even Department of Education lawyers can't seem to spell Betsy DeVos's name correctly.

The post Suing Jeff Sessions (E29) appeared first on HUMORLESS QUEERS.

If you want to support the show, you can do so on Patreon for as little as $1 a month. You’ll get access to bonus content each month and help us keep the show going!

We start out with Comey Week! The hearing, the media’s response, our thoughts, Trump’s insane post-hearing press conference, and all the he said/he said you can stand. 

Then, we’re going to talk about the horrible bullshit the GOP was up to while everyone was hungover from the Comey hearing, including voting to rip up Dodd-Frank, because I guess the only thing the GOP likes better than stealing our healthcare is stealing our healthcare in the middle of a brand new financial crisis.

Finally, we’ll also give a quick update on the latest flaming garbage coming out of Betsy DeVos’s Department of Education. 

If you want to get access to our special bonus audio this week, talking about how rage can fuel your swole in the Trump era, become a Patreon patron and check it out here.

MENTIONED ON THE SHOW

Please do this! Find out how your Rep voted on the Wrong CHOICE Act, and send them an email about it.

Then, make a call to your Senators! You can follow the script here from 5calls.org.

Villas, Castles, and Vacations: Report from Senator Elizabeth Warren on Financial Adviser Kickbacks

If your financial firm rips you off, you can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It’s free and easy and may help you get $ back.

On Betsy DeVos: The Department “will be overly reliant on a single student loan company,”and US Marshals: DeVos security detail could cost nearly $8M

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The post Comey Week, UK Elections, and the GOP bill to Light the Economy on Fire (E28) appeared first on HUMORLESS QUEERS.

If you want to support the show, you can do so on Patreon for as little as $1 a month. You’ll get access to bonus content each month and help us keep the show going! 

The Trump Administration isn’t good at much, but one thing they ARE good at is ripping up important rules from the Obama Administration. We talk with Erin Gloria Ryan (@MorningGloria) about a leaked draft of a new rule that would eliminate Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate. We also talk about Ivanka Trump’s nonsense and how she wants to have her champagne popsicle and eat it, too, about Jared Kusher’s “resting treason face,” and Donald Trump Jr’s obsession with conspiracy theories.

You can find Erin’s stories at The Daily Beast, and her podcast Girl Friday at Cafe.com.

MENTIONED ON THE SHOW

Any Boss Can Cut Off Birth Control Coverage Under Trumpcare by Erin Gloria Ryan. (Money quote: “Nobody could have predicted that Trump would turn to his daughter, a glorified shoe saleswoman and aspirant lifestyle brand maven, to advise him on issues facing women and girls.”)

Don Trump Jr. Is a Sucker for a Good Conspiracy Theory—Or Any Theory, Really also by Erin Gloria Ryan

The post Erin Gloria Ryan on Trump’s Spite, Ivanka’s Nonsense, and Attacks on Contraceptive Coverage (E27) appeared first on HUMORLESS QUEERS.

If you want to support the show, you can do so on Patreon for as little as $1 a month. You’ll get access to bonus content each month and help us keep the show going! 

We rage about the Trump budget bill, which is coming to fuck up every American that isn’t a millionaire or billionaire. But these are all just policy choices, and the GOP is deciding to raid the poor to pay the rich. For an alternative vision, we look at the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s People’s Budget.

TRUMP BUDGET:

Alexis’s rage storm about the Trump Budget.

Cuts SNAP by $193 billion over ten years; that’s 25% of the program. Then, it shifts the burden of paying for part of SNAP over to the states, who cannot handle that burden.

There is a $2 trillion error in the budget

The AHCA already cut medicaid by  $839 billion over ten years. The Trump budget cuts it a WHOLE BUNCH more. The Center on Budget estimates the combined cuts to Medicaid will be as high as $1.3 trillion over the next decade.

How much the average 20- to 29-year-old borrower working in public service with a bachelor’s degree would pay in extra dollars each month on their student loans, per state, due to Trump Budget cuts.

Trump’s budget cuts the Highway Trust Fund by nearly $100 billion. In 2027, that’s 250,000 lost jobs.

Trump Budget’s long lecture for disabled.

OTHER THINGS MENTIONED ON THE SHOW

NoMoreMoneyBail.org

There is an alternative! We can fund things that matter to us! Check out the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s People’s Budget.

Most Americans Lack Reserve Cash to Cover $500 Emergency

The #AHCA guts #Medicaid, uses the money to cut taxes by $2.8 billion for the richest 400 Americans, per the Center on Budget:

WTF happened in Montana?

The latest in the Deathcare bill, which just got a score from the Congressional Budget Office, showing under it, 51 million people under 65 will be uninsured by 2026.

The post The Trump Budget Screws the Poor and Middle Class (E26) appeared first on HUMORLESS QUEERS.

The post The Trump Budget Screws the Poor and Middle Class (E26) appeared first on HUMORLESS QUEERS.

If you want to support the show, you can do so on Patreon for as little as $1 a month. You’ll get access to bonus content each month and help us keep the show going! 

We talk to national security and surveillance policy expert Marcy Wheeler (@EmptyWheel) about reports that the NSA will be stopping ONE of its methods of spying on Americans — is it true?

The kill-us-all death care bill isn’t the only piece of legislation moving ahead in Congress. The GOP also advanced a bill that shreds the protections passed in the wake of the last financial crisis, also know as Dodd-Frank. Alexis catches us up on where we are, and what to do next.

Finally, we also talk about the License to Discriminate Executive Order that Trump signed in early May, an EO that turned out to be so pointless, the ACLU doesn’t even need to sue over it.

MENTIONED ON THE SHOW:

Pew Research Center: Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks, Hispanics

CFPB Explores Impact of Alternative Data on Credit Access for Consumers Who Are Credit Invisible

AI Now: Researching the social impacts of artificial intelligence now to ensure a more equitable future

ACLU’s Anthony Romero statement on so-called “religious freedom” executive order

Marcy Wheeler’s response to the NYTimes story about NSA the collection “About” searches  

Initial NYTimes article by Charlie Savage

BOOKS MENTIONED ON THE SHOW:

Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street by Karen Ho

Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil

Black Box Society by Frank Pasquale

The post Marcy Wheeler on NSA Surveillance, and the GOP coming for Dodd-Frank (E25) appeared first on HUMORLESS QUEERS.

If you want to support the show, you can do so on Patreon for as little as $1 a month. You’ll get access to bonus content each month and help us keep the show going! 

On news that Trump has fired FBI Director James Comey, we record an emergency episode about what a new FBI Director will mean, given the broad powers the FBI has inherited. We discuss how we can push back against FBI abuses by encouraging our local elected officials to follow the lead of San Francisco, who left the FBI’s Joint ­Terrorism Task Force following concern over the Trump ­administration’s Muslim Ban and concerns that participation in the task force might violate local laws protecting immigrants and ­religious minorities.

MENTIONED ON THE SHOW:

San Francisco Police Department pulls out of FBI anti-terrorism task force (Washington Post)

The post Trump Fires Comey – What Now? (E24) appeared first on HUMORLESS QUEERS.

If you want to support the show, you can do so on Patreon for as little as $1 a month. You’ll get access to bonus content each month and help us keep the show going! 

We discuss Betsy DeVos’s latest move in her war on students: undoing protections for student loan borrowers put in place by the Obama admin. Kade breaks down the news that district attorneys in Massachusetts dismissed over 21,000 tainted drug convictions, the most in one day in US history. We talk about what led to those dismissals, and what they mean about the current legal system. Finally, we also give you an update on the latest Tsarnaev related chicanery. A Boston based journalist has a new book out, and some of what she’s documented will shock even the most cynical observers.

MENTIONED ON THE SHOW:

DeVos dials back consumer protections for student loan borrowers

ACLU of Massachusetts victory sets up single largest dismissal of wrongful convictions in nation’s history

Maximum Harm by Michelle McPhee

UGA Dining Halls to introduce eye scanners

Image credit: University of Michigan School of Natural Resources @ flickr.com (CC BY 2.0)

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The post Mass. Dismisses 21,000 Tainted Drug Convictions (E23) appeared first on HUMORLESS QUEERS.

If you want to support the show, you can do so on Patreon for as little as $1 a month. You’ll get access to bonus content each month and help us keep the show going! 

We debrief on the House of Representatives vote to let Internet Service Providers (ISPs) sell our personal data. We talk about two troubling actions by Betsy DeVos and the Department of Education that has the potential to seriously screw Americans with student loans — and those about trying to get them. Finally, we’ll laugh at James Comey, and Alexis will discuss the Queer Dance Party she attended outside of Ivanka Trump’s house, and ask WTF has Ivanka Trump actually done for LGBTQ rights.

TAKE ACTION:

Call the Capitol Switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and ask for your Senators, and tell them: I am concerned that Betsy DeVos will not obey the law and grant Public Service Loan Forgiveness to borrowers who’ve dutifully paid their loans and worked in public service for ten years. I want to know what you are doing to protect the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program? Has the Senator signed a letter or otherwise spoken out? This is a priority for me. 

MENTIONED ON THE SHOW:

Forgive My Student Debt: Explainer page about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program

Information about other student loan forgiveness programs like Pay As You Earn.

Student Loan Forgiveness Program Approval Letters May Be Invalid, Education Dept. Says

The IRS Data Retrieval Tool is Down Until October – What the Department of Education Should Be Doing Now

Applying for Financial Aid is Going to be Harder This Year – Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, Washington Post

A bipartisan group of 43 lawmakers from the House and Senate wrote a joint letter expressing concern about the outage we mentioned on the show. See if your member of Congress signed it.

Muslims inside FBI describe culture of suspicion and fear: ‘It is cancer’

Krebs on Security:Post-FCC Privacy Rules, Should You VPN?

Simple VPN Comparison Chart 

Image credit: @lpritchard8 on Twitter

The post Ivanka Trump is Fake, Betsy DeVos’s Mess, and James Comey gets pwned (E22) appeared first on HUMORLESS QUEERS.

The post Ivanka Trump is Fake, Betsy DeVos’s Mess, and James Comey gets pwned (E22) appeared first on HUMORLESS QUEERS.

If you want to support the show, you can do so on Patreon for as little as $1 a month. You’ll get access to bonus content each month and help us keep the show going! 

This week the Republican-led Senate voted on party lines to allow internet service providers to sell our private internet records. We talk about what we can do to stop this horrible proposal from becoming law, and why it matters. We also discuss the latest nomination to Trump’s Incompetent Cabinet, Jay Clayton, a lawyer who works at one of Wall Street’s favorite law firms, Sullivan and Cromwell.

TAKE ACTION:

Tell Congress: Our browsing histories are not for sale. Don’t let Comcast spy on us!

Call the Capitol Switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and ask for your Senators, and tell them: I am asking you to vote NO on the nomination of Jay Clayton to the SEC. We shouldn’t have a Wall Street lawyer running one of the regulators who oversee Wall Street. How does Senator _____ plan to vote on Jay Clayton? [IF THE ANSWER ISN’T NO:] I urge you to vote no.

MENTIONED ON THE SHOW:

Kade’s GoFundme to Buy GOP Senators’ Internet Records

How ISPs can sell your Web history—and how to stop them

Trump Broadens CIA Powers, Allows Deadly Drone Strikes

Image credit: Christopher Sessums on flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The post GOP Attack on Internet Privacy; Jay Clayton for SEC; Trumpcare Fails! (E21) appeared first on HUMORLESS QUEERS.

The post GOP Attack on Internet Privacy; Jay Clayton for SEC; Trumpcare Fails! (E21) appeared first on HUMORLESS QUEERS.

If you want to support the show, you can support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month. You’ll get access to bonus content each month and help us keep the show going! 

Donald Trump said that President Obama wiretapped him. Like most things that Trump says, that’s a lie. But the law that authorizes the warrantless wiretapping of American citizens is up for reauthorization this year. We talk about why that matters, and what we can do about it. We also discuss how the Trump Administration wants to delay (and kill) a rule that helps prevent Wall Street from stealing your money through conflicted retirement advice.

Finally, we have a discussion with ACLU staff attorney Chase Strangio (@ChaseStrangio) about the legal details of Gavin Grimm’s case, the underlying law that protects him and other trans students (Title IX), and also get an update on the ongoing legal battle against the anti-LGBT bill HB2 in North Carolina. We also reminisce about how isolating it was to be young queer kids, and hope things are at least a little better for the young queers today.

TAKE ACTION:

Send a comment letter to the Department of Labor, telling them not to delay the rule that protects retirement savers from conflicts of interest.

Call the Capitol Switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and ask for your Senators (or your Representative), and tell them: I am very concerned about the reauthorization of Section 702 of the FISA amendments act. My understanding is that this law put Congress’s stamp of approval on Bush Admin’s warrantless wiretapping program, and I do not believe that warrantless spying makes us any safer. In fact, it threatens the core liberties that this country should be the most proud of. So you should vote against it!

SUGGESTED READING:

Despite a Remand, We Fight On For Trans Justice by Chase Strangio

ACLU: G.G. V. GLOUCESTER COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD

The real surveillance scandal is hidden in plain sight by Kade Crockford

Another day, another dollar for retirement advice rip-offs

Image credit: jeffschuler on flickr (CC BY 2.0)

The post Warrantless Wiretapping; Chase Strangio on Title IX and Gavin Grimm’s lawsuit (E20) appeared first on HUMORLESS QUEERS.