Just a quick update on the situation in Ukraine. We appear to be seeing the first probing actions of Ukraine’s long awaited counteroffensive. But two other big things have happened over the last 18 hours which I wanted to note. One is either the collapse or sabotage of a dam in the eastern part of occupied Ukraine, which has caused a vast flood surge through the region. There are competing explanations and accusations over what and how it happened. The other is a news story. The Washington Post is reporting new circumstantial but pretty strong evidence that Ukraine was behind the bombing of the Nord Stream pipelines last year.
Continue reading “News From Ukraine”Meatball Ron One Step Ahead of the Law?
As evidence mounts that Gov. Ron DeSantis was behind the latest migrant trafficking stunt in Sacramento, Bexar County (San Antonio) Sheriff Javier Salazar is recommending criminal charges in last year’s trafficking of migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard.
What The Nazis’ Attacks On Trans People Tell Us About Today
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.
In the fall of 2022, a German court heard an unusual case.
It was a civil lawsuit that grew out of a feud on Twitter about whether transgender people were victims of the Holocaust. Though there is no longer much debate about whether gay men and lesbians were persecuted, there’s been very little scholarship on trans people during this period.
The court took expert statements from historians, including myself, before finding that the historical evidence shows that trans people were, indeed, persecuted by the Nazi regime.
This is an important case. It was the first time a court recognized the persecution of trans people in Nazi Germany. It was followed a few months later by the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, formally releasing a statement recognizing trans and cisgender queer people as victims of fascism.
Up until the past few years, there had been little research on trans people under the Nazi regime. Historians like myself are now uncovering more cases, like that of Toni Simon.
Being trans during the Weimar Republic
In 1933, the year that Hitler took power, the police in Essen, Germany, revoked Toni Simon’s permit to dress as a woman in public. Simon, who was in her mid-40s, had been living as a woman for many years.
The Weimar Republic, the more tolerant democratic government that existed before Hitler, recognized the rights of trans people, though in a begrudging, limited way. Under the republic, police granted trans people permits like the one Simon had.
In the 1930s, transgender people were called “transvestites,” a term that is offensive today but at the time approximated what’s now meant by “transgender.” The police permits were called “transvestite certificates,” and they exempted a person from the laws against cross-dressing. Under the Republic, trans people could also change their names legally, though they had to pick from a short, preapproved list.
In Berlin, transgender people published several magazines and had a political club. Some glamorous trans women worked at the internationally famous Eldorado cabaret. The sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, who ran Berlin’s Institute for Sexual Science, advocated for the rights of transgender people.
The rise of Nazi Germany destroyed this relatively open environment. The Nazis shut down the magazines, the Eldorado and Hirschfeld’s institute. Most people who held “transvestite certificates,” as Toni Simon did, had them revoked or watched helplessly as police refused to honor them.
That was just the beginning of the trouble.
‘Draconian measures’ against trans people
In Nazi Germany, transgender people were not used as a political wedge issue in the way they are today. There was little public discussion of trans people.
What the Nazis did say about them, however, was chilling.
The author of a 1938 book on “the problem of transvestitism” wrote that before Hitler was in power, there was not much that could be done about transgender people, but that now, in Nazi Germany, they could be put in concentration camps or subjected to forced castration. That was good, he believed, because the “asocial mindset” of trans people and their supposedly frequent “criminal activity … justifies draconian measures by the state.”
Toni Simon was a brave person. I first came across her police file when I was researching trans people at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Essen police knew Simon as the sassy proprietor of an underground club where LGBTQ people gathered. In the mid 1930s, she was hauled into court for criticizing the Nazi regime. By then, the Gestapo had had enough of her. Simon was a danger to youth, a Gestapo officer wrote. A concentration camp was “absolutely necessary.”
I am not certain what happened to Simon. Her file ends abruptly, with the Gestapo planning her arrest. But there are no actual arrest papers. Hopefully, she evaded the police.
Other trans women did not escape. At the Hamburg State Archive, I read about H. Bode, who often went out in public dressed as a woman and dated men. Under the Weimar Republic, she held a transvestite certificate. Nazi police went after her for “cross-dressing” and for having sex with men. They considered her male, so her relationships were homosexual and illegal. They sent her to the concentration camp Buchenwald, where she was murdered.
Liddy Bacroff of Hamburg also had a transvestite pass under the Republic. She made her living selling sex to male clients. After 1933, the police went after her. They wrote that she was “fundamentally a transvestite” and a “morals criminal of the worst sort.” She too was sent to a camp, Mauthausen, and murdered.
Trans Germans previously misgendered
For a long time, the public didn’t know the stories of trans people in Nazi Germany.
Earlier histories tended to misgender trans women, which was odd: When you read the records of their police interrogations, they are often remarkably clear about their gender identity, even though they were not helping their cases at all by doing so.
Bacroff, for example, told the police, “My sense of my sex is fully and completely that of a woman.”
There was also confusion caused by a few cases that, by chance, came to light first. In these cases, police acted less violently. For example, there is a well-known case from Berlin where police renewed a trans man’s “transvestite certificate” after he spent some months in a concentration camp. Historians initially took this case to be representative. Now that we have a lot more cases, we can see that it is an outlier. Police normally revoked the certificates.
A through line to today
Today, right-wing attacks against trans people in the U.S. are intensifying.
Though the American Academy of Pediatrics and every major medical association approves gender-affirming health care for trans kids, Republican politicians have banned it in 19 states, with even more moving to prohibit it.
Gender-affirming medicine is now over 100 years old — and it has roots in Weimar Germany. It had never before been legally restricted in the U.S. Yet Missouri has essentially banned it for adults, and other states are trying to restrict adult care. A host of other anti-trans bills are moving through state legislatures.
I find it fitting, then, that “A Transparent Musical” recently premiered in Los Angeles. In it, fabulously dressed trans Berliners sing and dance in defiance of Nazi thugs.
It’s a reminder that attacks on trans people are nothing new — and that many of them are straight out of the Nazi playbook.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Brave
From Morning Memo:
Rep. George Santos (R-NY) has told a judge he’d rather be taken into custody pre-trial than reveal the donors who co-signed on his $500,000 bond.
What Does The Newest Wrinkle In The MAL Probe Mean?
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Wait, A FLORIDA Grand Jury?
The day’s coverage of the Mar-a-Lago documents case was focused on Trump’s legal team meeting with Special Counsel Jack Smith at Main Justice. But the interesting new tidbit that emerged had nothing to do with that high-profile meeting.
New reporting yesterday emerged that Smith has been running a federal grand jury in Florida under the radar in tandem with the DC federal grand jury where most of the action in the Mar-a-Lago case has been.
The reporting was somewhat threadbare, but here’s what’s been pieced together:
- WSJ: “In recent days, Smith’s prosecutors have also sought testimony related to the documents probe before a grand jury in southern Florida, in what some people familiar with the process said appeared to be an effort to tie up several loose ends.”
- WaPo: “In addition, testimony from at least one witness related to the documents probe has also been sought by Smith’s investigators before a federal grand jury in southern Florida, a jurisdiction that includes Mar-a-Lago, a person familiar with the investigation said.”
- NYT: “Prosecutors are expected to question a new witness in front of a federal grand jury sitting in Florida later this week, according to people familiar with the matter. At least one other witness has already appeared before the Florida grand jury, which is separate from the one that has been sitting for months in Washington. It is not clear why a second grand jury is taking testimony in Florida.”
For a few weeks now, I’ve been telling you that Smith’s core investigative work has been largely completed and a charging decision is imminent. That’s mostly still true, but the not-previously-known activity of the Florida grand jury – which is scheduled to hear witnesses tomorrow – is good reason to be very careful about making predictions about the timing and nature of any charges in the case.
Why a Florida grand jury?
Legal commentators were quick to note the venue issue. Will Smith be able to make his case in DC, which nearly everyone considers a more favorable venue for prosecutors than South Florida, or will he be forced to proceed on Trump’s home turf? I won’t get into the complicated legal analysis, but it requires analyzing a complex interconnected series of factors, including the underlying conduct, where it occurred, which defendant is charged, and the laws being charged.
I don’t have any special insight here, but I would remind you that many observers consider it likely that Trump will not be the only person charged. Most of the analysis of the venue question has been focused on Trump since he’s the big fish, but venue for other defendants may be even harder to establish in DC, which means Smith could need a Florida grand jury for them.
The main takeaway here though remains that we simply don’t know yet the full scope of Smith’s probe let alone all the particulars. While indictments in the next few days still seems likely, be wary of what we don’t know.
You Truly Can’t Make This Up
CNN:
An employee at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence drained the resort’s swimming pool last October and ended up flooding a room where computer servers containing surveillance video logs were kept, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
While it’s unclear if the room was intentionally flooded or if it happened by mistake, the incident occurred amid a series of events that federal prosecutors found suspicious.
At least one witness has been asked by prosecutors about the flooded server room as part of the federal investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents, according to one of the sources.
Texas Sheriff Wants Criminal Charges For DeSantis Migrant Flights
The Bexar County, Texas sheriff is recommending criminal charges arising from the migrant flights organized by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard last year. The recommended charges include both misdemeanor and felony unlawful restraint. The charging decision will be made by the county prosecutor, who now has the sheriff’s completed investigation.
Another Migrant Flight Lands In Sacramento
On the same day a Texas sheriff recommended criminal charges for the first round of DeSantis migrant flights, another round of flights from Texas to California continued, prompting threats of criminal prosecution there, too, from angry state officials who are accusing DeSantis of being behind this stunt. For his part, DeSantis isn’t claiming responsibility or denying his involvement.
The GOP War On Transgender People
Notorious Spy Robert Hanssen Dies In Prison
Robert Hanssen, perhaps the single most damaging spy against the United States, was found unresponsive in his jail cell at the SuperMax prison in Florence, Colorado, where he was serving a life sentence. He was 79.
Major Ukrainian Dam Breached
A major hydroelectric project on the Dnipro River in Ukraine has been breached, unleashing significant flooding downstream.
Atmospheric CO2 At New Record Level
Guess We Won’t Hear Much About This
The Atlantic: The Murder Rate Is Suddenly Falling
Couldn’t Happen To Nicer Folk
The voter fraud hucksters at True The Vote, which we’ve covered since its infancy more than a decade ago, are accused of using the organization to enrich themselves.
George Santos Falls On Sword For Mystery Donors
Rep. George Santos (R-NY) has told a judge he’d rather be taken into custody pre-trial than reveal the donors who co-signed on his $500,000 bond.
2024 Ephemera
- TPM’s Kate Riga: Republican Presidential Candidates Show What A Dangerous Issue Abortion Is For Them
- Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) will launch his quixotic campaign for the GOP nomination for president tonight in New Hampshire.
Just Making Things Up As He Goes
Like Morning Memo? Let us know!
Schrodinger’s Candidates: They’re Running and Not Running at the Same Time
It probably goes without saying if you think about it. But it’s worth saying it out loud in any case. Aside from Trump, all of the people running for President in the GOP primary, with the semi-exception of Ron DeSantis, aren’t actually running for President. Normally, long shot entrants at least think they have some chance or they have some plan for career advancement by making a solid showing. But in this race, every candidate is in that category. And not just random mayors or people who’ve been out of politics for years. But senators, big-state governors and more. The thinking seems to be: “I’ll have some name recognition for 2028. And who knows? He might die and then I’ll have a campaign already in place! Why not?”
Continue reading “Schrodinger’s Candidates: They’re Running and Not Running at the Same Time”Where Things Stand: Could The Political Theater Be Any Clearer?
There’s not one piece on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ political stunt of an election-police task force that we’ve published in the past year or so that didn’t spell out in greater detail what we’ve seen to be true since the beginning: that this sham election crimes force was created for the purposes of boosting DeSantis’ 2024 bid and scaring certain voters away from the polls.
This new reporting from the Orlando Sentinel only adds to that rather solid hypothesis.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Could The Political Theater Be Any Clearer?”Meatball Ron Returns to the Scene of the Crime
I mentioned over the weekend that we have another example of migrants being hoodwinked into getting on a plane and then sent somewhere they didn’t know they were going to. Just like when Ron DeSantis did it last year with those folks he sent to Martha’s Vineyard, the aim is to “own the libs” and use vulnerable people for a partisan political stunt. I didn’t want to get ahead of the facts yesterday. But as one might have expected we now have the first indications it was DeSantis behind it again.
About that Big CNN Article
You’ve probably heard about The Atlantic article which has painted a devastating picture of network CEO Chris Licht and the state of the network on his watch. (CNN has had some time slots where Newsmax has managed to beat it of late.) There are several moving parts to this story. After what turned out to be a woefully mismanaged acquisition by AT&T, CNN and its parent Time Warner were picked up cheap by Discovery, a cable news heavyweight known for producing cheap shows with solid viewership. That was a bad sign for CNN and HBO — both in their in own spheres premium properties. The results for CNN, judged in viewership, have been abysmal. But for all the grief Licht is getting, this is fundamentally a failure not of execution but of strategy.
Put simply, the theory behind the current revamp of CNN is the network got “too liberal” and gave on-air hosts too much leeway for personal commentary and advocacy. But did CNN get “too liberal”? Or did the national political environment become so polarized and so knocked off the kilter of democratic norms that news coverage forced some level of confrontational stance? We’re back to the old problem of whether to prioritize “balance” or “accuracy.” Which of those two is more important shapes everything about how you approach journalism.
Continue reading “About that Big CNN Article”True The Vote Leadership Accused of Using Donations for Personal Gain
This story first appeared at ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
Conservative activists Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips used the nonprofit True the Vote to enrich themselves, according to a complaint filed to the IRS.
On Monday, the nonprofit watchdog group Campaign for Accountability called for an investigation into True the Vote, which has made repeated false claims about voter fraud in elections. The complaint said True the Vote may have violated state and federal law when the charity used donations to issue loans to Engelbrecht, its founder, and lucrative contracts to Gregg Phillips, a longtime director. The organization also failed to disclose the payments to insiders in its tax returns, including excessive legal bills paid to its general counsel at the time, who filed election-related lawsuits in four states, the complaint said.
“Such disclosure lapses heighten suspicion regarding whether True the Vote and or its current or former officers and directors intended to conceal the payments from the public or IRS,” the complaint said. The self-dealing contracts and loans were first reported by Reveal.
Engelbrecht started Texas-based True the Vote in 2010 after getting involved in Tea Party activism in the Houston area. Over the years, she and Phillips have promoted probes into voter fraud in their fundraising efforts, but they have failed to deliver evidence of such activity for years. The pair catapulted to national prominence when conservative provocateur Dinesh D’Souza featured the nonprofit’s discredited work in the film “2,000 Mules,” which played in theaters across the country.
Engelbrecht and Phillips have defended their voting work, and their attorney has previously said there was nothing wrong about the loans and contracts. True the Vote’s attorneys, Engelbrecht and Phillips did not respond to requests for comment.
The federal government allows nonprofit organizations to operate tax-free, and in return they are required to disclose substantial information about their finances to make sure donor funds are used appropriately. Charities like True the Vote are also not allowed to engage in certain political activity.
“I hope that the IRS and other applicable authorities take seriously what appears to be a pattern of bad behavior by Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips, and that makes the pursuit of accountability that much more important,” said Michelle Kuppersmith, executive director of Campaign for Accountability. The organization previously filed a separate complaint in 2020 about True the Vote engaging in political activity with Georgia’s Republican Party. The IRS did not respond to that complaint.
The group’s legal woes have mounted following the D’Souza movie. A Georgia voter sued the pair and D’Souza for defamation because he said he was wrongfully accused of committing voter fraud. The case is pending. A state investigation found the voter was dropping off ballots for himself and family members, which is legal. Former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s office asked federal authorities to investigate True the Vote’s finances after Engelbrecht and Phillips did not produce purported evidence on voter fraud to investigators in 2022.
James Bopp Jr., the former general counsel, is now suing True the Vote in federal court for breach of contract for nearly $1 million in unpaid legal bills dating back several years, according to court records obtained by ProPublica. True the Vote has countersued Bopp’s law firm, denying the unpaid invoices and accusing it of engaging in fraud and substandard lawyering, the records show.
In an interview with ProPublica, Bopp said that True the Vote’s counterclaim has no merits. “We were shocked they responded this way. They did nothing but praise our work,” he said. “This is what unscrupulous people will do when they try to avoid the repayment of debt.”
In January, ProPublica and The Dallas Morning News reported Engelbrecht and Phillips created another charity, the Freedom Hospital. It aimed to help children and elderly people affected by the war in Ukraine with medical care. Its website, which has since been taken down, said it raised halfway to $25 million for a mobile hospital. ProPublica and the News found the effort never materialized. Attorneys for Engelbrecht and Phillips said that it was a good-faith effort and that his clients only raised $268 for the project through PayPal. Lawyers said donations were returned “at Mr. Phillips’ direction.”
In its most recently available tax return, True the Vote in 2021 raised about $1.7 million but fell $289,157 into the red. The 2021 return no longer includes Phillips as a director. In 2020, the organization raised $5 million. For 2019, the organization had given a reporter and the IRS two widely different tax returns that were riddled with inconsistencies over key questions about governance and Engelbrecht’s $113,000 loan. At the time, True the Vote said it planned to file an amended return. It does not appear to have been filed with the IRS.
Despite Texas law stating directors of nonprofits can’t receive loans from their own organizations, Engelbrecht — who was a director and an employee at the time — regularly received loans from the nonprofit, ranging from about $40,000 to $113,000, according to tax filings. She also earned a salary.
Phillips first joined True the Vote as a board member in 2014. Phillips received at least $750,000 related to a research analysis contract. The Campaign for Accountability, in its complaint, raised questions about what, if any, services were actually rendered.
Bopp was paid approximately $280,000 over a seven day period related to filing and supervising attorneys on election-related lawsuits to challenge the results in key states, according to court records. Originally, there were seven lawsuits planned to be filed, but Bopp filed only four. He quickly withdrew them. Bopp previously justified the costs to file the complaints as legitimate because each state had different laws.
“Such legal fees seem excessive for a few days of work in lawsuits that never proceeded past an initial complaint and which The Bopp Law Firm voluntarily dismissed shortly after filing,” the complaint said.
In 2020, True the Vote did not report those contracts in its tax returns, which are required for contracts above $100,000. “Ms. Engelbrecht, as President of True the Vote, appears to have voluntarily and intentionally filed a false, incorrect, and incomplete Form 990,” the complaint said.