Gavin Grimm, Palestine, Mueller:3 News Stories You Should Read Today – 5/23/2018
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In the category of: Yes, your tax dollars are getting yous
Most Americans don’t realize Robert Mueller’s investigation has uncovered crimes
17 indictments and five guilty pleas so far.
One can interpret this pattern of behavior in a few ways. One is that Mueller is steadily putting in place the building blocks of a huge, mafia-style takedown that will end with Manafort “flipping” under pressure and new indictments coming against members of Donald Trump’s family and damning evidence about Trump himself. Another would be that when placed under a microscope by an aggressive prosecutor, several Trump aides turn out to have been involved in financial malfeasance only loosely related to the Trump campaign and Trump himself did nothing wrong. But there is definitely evidence of crimes — including some serious ones — by a range of figures, some Russian and some Americans and some working at a very high level in Trumpworld.
Yet despite what most Americans perceive to be a very steady drumbeat of Trump-Russia news, the majority of the public is completely unaware of these critical facts.
In the category of: Civil rights keep on keeping on.
Gavin Grimm’s case has implications beyond schools — potentially setting a standard that could reshape transgender rights in America.
The argument at the core of the case has implications beyond Grimm and schools. If the Supreme Court agrees (as some federal appeals courts already have) that trans discrimination is illegal under sex discrimination bans, that could apply not just to Title IX but also to other federal civil rights laws that ban sex discrimination in the workplace and housing. This would be hugely important, filling a big gap in trans rights today.
Most states don’t explicitly prohibit trans discrimination
Under most states’ laws and federal law, trans people aren’t explicitly protected from discrimination in the workplace, housing, public accommodations, and schools. This means that a person can be fired from a job, evicted from a home, kicked out of a business, or denied the correct bathroom facility just because an employer, landlord, business owner, or school principal doesn’t approve of the person’s gender identity.
In the category of: Just because Isreal says they aren’t a country doesn’t mean it’s true.
Palestine joins Chemical Weapons Convention OPCW
Accession of Palestine to OPCW follows decision to join other international bodies, such as Interpol and the ICC.
The move by Palestine is the latest in a raft of accessions to international bodies, having joined Interpol in September 2017 and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in April 2015.
ICC membership allows Palestinians to submit referrals to the organization asking its prosecutors to investigate alleged war crimes committed by the Israelis.
In 2012, the state was granted non-observer status of the UN, a move opposed by the US and Israel, but voted through by UN General Assembly.
In its 21-year-long existence, the OPCW has destroyed 96 percent of all chemical weapons stockpiles declared by member states.
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