I feel like that's probably the most likely scenario yeah. She might not have even known she was trans when she joined it. Getting closer to the other girls might have been the thing that helped her realize she didn't want to just be part of the cheer squad she actually wanted to be one of the girls.

Last numbers I saw is that Trump more or less got the same amount of votes as 2020 while Harris got 15 million less votes than Biden.

For a couple reasons. Some cynically wanted to continue to use abortion as a political football. Codifying Roe in any meaningful way in their minds would have meant they had to find a new wedge issue to drive turnout and donations. We saw this on the other side when SCOTUS actually overturned it and the right didn't know what to do with themselves for a while.

Then maybe in part because of the former, there were a bunch of people that naively didn't believe they'd actually entirely destroy Roe. They genuinely thought the worst that could possibly happen was some minor restrictions at the margins. So those people were not motivated enough to actually do something about it.

No shortage of Christian terrorism. Just ask any abortion clinic nurse.

The clinic that did the selective termination that saved my twins' lives had to be so cloak and dagger about their stuff that we literally had no idea we were showing up to the termination until they're wheeling my wife back to surgery. It's one of the only clinics in the state that even does the procedure we needed to my knowledge. That's how many bomb threats, arson and assassination attempts they deal with.

Ben if he had actually made it as a screenwriter in Hollywood.

So most of these bills ban pretty much all medical interventions for anyone under 18. Puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy, surgery, the whole nine. Some go further and are trying to ban it for anyone under 26. You could theoretically still get counseling but you wouldn't be able to actually do anything.

And yeah sure, on its face that might seem reasonable. Wouldn't want impulsive teens rushing into big irreversible medical changes on a whim right? But those safeguards already exist. You can't just walk into a gender clinic as a 10 year old boy, say the magic words "I'm actually a girl," and walk out with an appointment for bottom surgery and a prescription for titty skittles. It takes long term counseling, social transition steps like trying out a new name and pronouns, wearing clothing that aligns with your gender, etc.

In reality that hypothetical 10 year old boy walking into the clinic is going to get extensive counseling. From that counseling he might try out using a different name, she/her pronouns, or dressing in more feminine clothing. She then might get prescribed puberty blockers here to make sure she has time to do all of this and be sure of herself without being forced into male puberty. A few years go by and last statistics I saw something like 2% of people at this point say, "No I think I actually am a boy," and they go through that slightly delayed puberty. But almost all progress to HRT and later surgery.

Do some people later truly regret their transitions and try to go back? Of course they do. But realistically, transition already has basically the lowest regret rate of any medical procedure out there. A higher percentage of people regret getting something like a hip or knee replacement surgery than regret transition.

Puberty already forces your body through permanent changes that can range from easy, to nearly impossible to reverse. That's why puberty blockers are so important. Imagine if as a young cis boy through some rare medical issue you start going through female puberty. But you're a boy! You know you are. You've got a penis and everything.

But now you're growing breasts. Like big enough that you can't really hide them. Big enough that they get in the way, they're heavy, and you have to wear a bra otherwise they hurt like hell. The other boys in your grade stare at you or bully you because you're a boy but you've got bigger tits than a lot of the girls in your grade. Soon everyone starts mistaking you for a girl. Guys start hitting on you even though you're a guy and you're attracted to girls. A lot of the girls aren't interested in you because they're attracted to more... Traditional looking guys. You get told that you should just accept it. After all you look just like a girl. But you're not a girl damnit. You're a boy. This wasn't supposed to happen. Now imagine they tell you they can't do anything about it until you turn 18... Or maybe 26. Sounds terrible right?

Basically yes that's my understanding. When Congress appropriates money for something, the Executive Branch is obligated by law to spend that money on what Congress appropriated it for.

As much as I hate the whole border wall thing if Biden just said "Fuck Congress, we're not doing that" it almost certainly would lead to a world where the next Republican president uses that same idea to essentially end things like Medicaid or SNAP.

To my knowledge the only sections of wall he's built were funded by Trump's Congress before he left office. Meaning he had little choice but to spend the money on what Congress appropriated it for.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather not live in a world where someone like Trump can just decide he doesn't want to spend portions of the money Congress appropriated. He could just suddenly decide that the federal government isn't going to pay like Medicaid or SNAP.

~~MANKIND IS DEAD.~~

~~BLOOD IS FUEL.~~

~~HELL IS FULL.~~

Nah, I'm good. I'll continue to vote for Biden because he's infinitely more likely to be swayed to stop the genocide than Trump who if I'm not mistaken has literally expressed a desire to accelerate the genocide on top of all the other heinous shit in Project 2025.

You can hate me all you want for not lining my family up to starve to death in "muh glorious revolution" or to lose our means of continuing to live when Trump tries to gut the Social Security that my family lives off of, or the SNAP benefits that feed us, or however they decide they want to eradicate my disabled trans ass from public life. Call me selfish for wanting myself and my family to continue living in addition to doing what I can to stop the genocide. I really don't care. LARP away my dude.

My son can be a hell of a smart ass at times as all 12 year old kids can be. He's autistic, was diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder, the whole 9. But it's the damnedest thing, when I talk to him like he's a person with his own agency, treat him with dignity and respect, and explain to him why I want something from him he happily hops right up and does exactly what I ask. It's the craziest thing.

I'm theory I like this idea, make the person that killed the parent and remove that support try to replace it. I just don't know how well it's going to work in practice. Like, I don't know how many drunk drivers have a high enough income that any meaningful amount of child support would be derived from this. Not that a drunk driver being poor or not should get them out of consequences. But like my dad weaseled his child support payments down to $25 a month and it was just ridiculous. It didn't help at all. But some nice karma on him was that all those years of working under the table to lower his child support meant that when the piece of shit got injured and needed to try to get disability he hadn't gotten enough work credits in the previous ten years.

I feel like it would probably be better if the state established a fund that they could use to pay out to those kids that they could fund at least partially with fines brought against drivers convicted of DUI. That way we could guarantee some level of support for the kids that lost parents and still force the drunk drivers to at least partially fund it but a kid won't get screwed just because the drunk driver that killed their parent particularly happened to be poor.