Happy Tuesday, Meteor readers,

Before we get into the news of the day, one important question: Have you filled out our survey yet? It’s the best way to take our relationship to the next level. Think of it like calling your senator, but more fun!

In today’s newsletter, it’s confirmation time again, and we’re at the edge of our seats. Plus, some pardons you may have missed.

Serving surveys,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

Maybe say no this time?: Tomorrow the Senate confirmation hearings begin for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is in line to become the next Secretary of Health and Human Services. This guy is a sack of contradictions: Before he became a Trump loyalist, RFK, Jr. was an environmentalist warning consumers about the dangers of pesticides and a co-founder of the Waterkeeper Alliance. Cool. But he also led an anti-vaccine advocacy group and has repeatedly spouted theories that go against longstanding science and medical research. His greatest hits include: Wi-Fi causes cancer, chemicals in water cause “sexual dysphoria” in children, and HIV is not the sole cause of AIDS. (Tell that to this French virologist.) So he’s not exactly suited for any job at Health and Human Services, let alone the top one.

Of course, he wouldn’t be a Trump nominee if there wasn’t also an allegation of sexual assault dangling over his head. During RFK, Jr.’s bid for president, as we’ve reported before, his family’s former nanny Eliza Cooney alleged that he groped her multiple times in the late 1990s. The Washington Post also reported today that RFK Jr.’s cousin, Caroline Kennedy, spoke out against his nomination, calling him a “predator” who targeted parents of sick children. In a letter to lawmakers denouncing her cousin, Kennedy added that HHS employees “deserve a stable, moral, and ethical person at the helm of this crucial agency. They deserve better than Bobby Kennedy—and so do the rest of us.”

In other words, senators will yet again be sitting down with an unqualified and potentially dangerous white man to assess whether or not he is fit to have a job that the average American and 24,000 physicians can plainly see he cannot do. But there is still some hope here.

Last week’s confirmation of alleged abuser Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense was a 50/50 vote, with Vice President J.D. Vance casting the tie-breaker. If every Democrat and even a small handful of Republican senators vote no on Kennedy, then the confirmation won’t pass. (Here are all the members of the Senate Finance Committee, if you’re wondering who to call.) A report from the Wall Street Journal has already identified two GOP senators who could go either way on the vote: pro-vaccine senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and James Lankford (R-OK), an anti-abortion senator who’s wary of RFK, Jr.’s previously pro-choice stance. Polio survivor Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has also warned that any nominee should “steer clear” of undermining the polio vaccine and reportedly refused to meet with RFK, Jr. Even Mike Pence is opposed to this appointment, and it’s infuriating that any of us have to agree with Mike Pence on anything.

To those senators still on the fence, I also have to ask: Is approving this man worth the message it sends to the millions of women like Eliza Cooney who have to sit and watch their abusers continue to rise? As Cooney put it: “We can do better.”

AND:

• Since we’re on the topic of not giving men jobs they shouldn’t have, let’s talk about the Wisconsin Supreme Court election. This April, a seat will be opening up on the bench in the cheese state, and two judges are in the running. The first is Susan Crawford, a circuit court judge who, during her time as an attorney, represented Planned Parenthood in the fight for abortion access in the state. On the other hand, there’s Brad Schimel, a “tough on crime” candidate who is in favor of enforcing Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban, which is currently on hold until the state high court can weigh in. Wisconsinites, you literally have all the power here, so mark it on your calendars right now: Election Day is April 1.

• The situation is growing increasingly grim for immigrants in the United States. In the last week, ICE has carried out a number of raids across the country, including in Puerto Rico,  resulting in around 2,000 arrests. At least one of these raids was reportedly conducted without a warrant. Adding to the fear many immigrant communities are facing is the end of humanitarian parole programs, which allowed temporary legal status to anyone fleeing violence in their home countries, some of whom had sponsors in the U.S. Overnight, those who held humanitarian visas were recategorized as “undocumented” and are now vulnerable to detention and deportation.

• As the legal fight over birthright citizenship takes shape, pregnant women are increasingly at the forefront. Women in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Washington are suing the Trump administration for its attempts to render their children “a citizen of nothing,” as one plaintiff, a pregnant woman from Venezuela named Monica, put it. As of today, the executive order that could undo birthright citizenship is being temporarily blocked by several state AGs who also filed lawsuits.

• Last week, during the maelstrom of executive orders and proclamations, you may have missed that Donald Trump also pardoned 23 people who were found guilty of harassing and attacking patients outside of abortion clinics. One of those people was Lauren Handy, who was sentenced to five years in prison for blockading a Washington abortion clinic in 2020 and who was notoriously caught hoarding multiple fetuses in her refrigerator.

• If you, like me, keep forgetting what day it is, then boy, do I have some amazing news for you. Tonight is the first installment of Real Housewives of New York’s two-part reunion, where we get to witness franchise history as Jenna Fuckin’ Lyons shows up to the reunion in a literal bathrobe and hair towel. This is the only thing keeping me going right now.

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Salutations, Meteor readers,

I love Ben Shelton more than I ever have. Ben, if you’re reading this, I want you to know that I will personally go to Australia and yell at all the broadcasters who are trying you this week. Save your energy, I got you.

In today’s newsletter, we go over a bill speeding toward Donald Trump’s desk. Plus: an emergency contraceptive newsbrief, an update on the “slut puppy” court case, and your weekend reading list.

See you at the semis,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

Due process for some: Congress has passed the Laken Riley Act, named for a young woman in Georgia who was killed by a Venezuelan undocumented immigrant, and will be sending it to #47 to be signed. It will be among the first laws passed by his administration (although his hand must be tired from the other stuff he’s been signing) and it is ominously fitting that the first piece of legislation he executes is an anti-immigration bill.

So what’s in the bill? The top line item is that any undocumented immigrant accused of non-violent crimes like theft, either in the U.S. or their home country, will now be subject to mandatory indefinite detention by ICE. They will not be allowed bond hearings in their criminal case and, once in ICE custody, can be held until deportation, which will be the most likely outcome if they’re unable to leave the detention center for preliminary trial hearings. The bill also allows for state attorneys general to sue the federal government on behalf of residents who believe they’ve been harmed by immigration policies.

To be clear, there are already policies in place for detaining and deporting convicted violent offenders. But this bill expands those policies to include anyone arrested or charged with “theft, larceny, burglary, shoplifting” or assault against a law enforcement officer, regardless of any conviction or lack thereof. “What's dangerous about this bill is that it takes away some of the basic fundamental due process tenets of our legal system," one legal expert told NPR.

This bill is a direct response to the particulars of Laken Riley’s case: The man who murdered her had previously been charged with shoplifting, and supporters of the bill argue that had he been deported after that minor crime, Laken Riley would still be alive. That is possible—but overriding the Fifth Amendment for a vast number of people is not a sensible way to protect women from being murdered. (Riley was one of the roughly 2000 women killed by men in this country every year. Fortunately, in response to these crimes, two years ago, the White House formed the first-ever government plan to end gender-based violence… Oh, wait.)

The Laken Riley bill isn’t just a GOP favorite; 12 Democrats voted for it, too—see which here—which shows just how many people believe that immigrants to the U.S. commit more crimes than its citizens. (Which, of course, is demonstrably false.) Immigrants have long been used by the GOP as boogeyman responsible for America’s troubles, and now they’ve got the tools they need to disappear as many as possible.

AND:

• Researchers have found that ulipristal acetate, an alternative to mifepristone, has a 97% completion rate for abortion. In a normal world, this would be good news, but in the context of an anti-abortion movement eager to demonize contraception, the news is complicated: Ulipristal acetate is also found in an emergency contraceptive called Ella. “It’s going to put wind in the sails of abortion opponents who have been saying things like contraceptives can be abortifacients,” an abortion expert at UC-Davis told the New York Times. Regardless: Stock up on Ella!

• Last year we shared the story of Brenda Andrew, the only woman on death row in Oklahoma. Andrew, who was convicted of murdering her estranged husband in 2004, had been subject to a misogynist trial; prosecutors called her a “slut puppy” and showed her underwear to jurors as evidence of her character. Her lawyers argued that the jury had been unfairly influenced by irrelevant anecdotes about her sexual history. This week, the Supreme Court sided with Andrew, ruling that the lower courts must now revisit her case and determine whether that evidence biased the trial. One lower court judge, who believed Andrew was entitled to a resentencing after hearing her appeal in 2007, wrote at the time: “I find it impossible to say with confidence that the death penalty here was not imposed as a consequence of improper evidence and argument.”

• On January 6, 2021, Pamela Hemphill, once nicknamed the “MAGA granny,” was at the Capitol filming her fellow rioters. As a result of her choices on that day, she was convicted and sentenced to two months in prison and three years probation. But this week, when Trump’s pardons rolled out, Hemphill rejected hers, saying, “I don’t want to be part of their trying to rewrite what happened that day.” The rejection is largely symbolic—it isn’t even clear if there’s a legal way to formally reject a pardon—but Hemphill admits that she “lost [her] critical thinking” and understands she had been lied to and gaslit by the “Stop the Steal” movement. I mean...I hate to say it but...

• In more first-week-of-Trump news: The move to restrict online information has been swift. Instagram accounts like that of Hey Jane and Aid Access, organizations that help American women obtain abortion pills, have been shadow-banned with their content blurred out. (Meanwhile, you may have noticed that Meta is suddenly suggesting you follow Trump.) Official government resources like the Biden-era reproductive rights page have been 404’d. If you need an example of the kind of do-something energy we’ll need to deal with all this: The two cofounders of the newsletter The Skimm went ahead and bought reproductiverightsdotgov.com and transferred all the defunct page’s information there instead.

WEEKEND READING 📚

On what’s next: Could having an accused rapist returning to the White House be a death knell for the #MeToo movement? That’s the MAGA movement’s hope. (The 19th)

On a bad start: Puerto Rico’s new Trump-supporting governor has been at work for nearly a month. Things haven’t been going well. (The Latino Newsletter)

On film: The “worst movie of the year” just got nominated for 13 Oscars including Best Picture. (Slate)

On the inauguration: This week on our own UNDISTRACTED, Brittany Packnett Cunningham assembles her group chat to break down the excruciating spectacle of Martin Luther King Day coinciding with the inauguration. It’s a conversation about the price the country has paid for the success of Barack Obama, Trump’s demonizing of DEI programs and his ironic love of meritocracy. Or, as Dr. Brittney Cooper puts it, “The idea that America is a meritocracy when Donald Trump is the president is a white boy’s wet dream.” You can catch the full episode here.

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Fair Monduesday, Meteor readers,

I spent most of my day yesterday guiding my child around the Liberty Science Center along with what felt like every other kid in New Jersey. What did I miss?

If you, too, pulled a Michelle Obama and sat out the day’s events, we’ll catch you up: In today’s newsletter, we wrap our heads around the sweeping pardons granted to January 6 insurrectionists. Plus: what Cecile Richards would want us to do.

♥️ ✊🏼,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

The longest Day One ever: Yesterday, shortly after he was sworn into office (with his hand not on the Bible), Donald Trump grabbed his favorite sharpie and started signing a flurry of executive orders, including reinstating the death penalty, declaring that there are only “two sexes,” laying the groundwork for more oil drilling in Alaska, and mass pardoning nearly every January 6 rioter. (Even this guy). And we haven’t even gotten to his attempt to rewrite the Constitution to eliminate birthright citizenship. (States are already suing over this.)

While you can point to nearly every order signed and find something frightening, let’s focus for a moment on the January 6 move—which wipes out more than 1200 convictions, dismisses over 300 pending cases, and commutes the sentences of 14 violent, racist, and seditious rioters who sought to overturn an election with which they disagreed.

That means that every person currently serving a prison sentence will be released, including the leader of a self-described anti-government militia. The pardons and commutations also mean that anyone convicted of a felony will have their full legal rights restored. Do you know what felons can’t do after a conviction? Legally purchase guns. But these people now can do that, and they are thrilled.

This isn’t just an incidental ripple effect of the pardons. Rather, with the stroke of a marker, Trump has signaled, as several counterterrorism experts voiced to reporters at NPR, an “endorsement of political violence…as long as that violence is against Trump's opponents.”

For followers of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, this is very good news: Their ally in the White House has greenlit whatever they might do and the guns with which to do it. But for the rest of us, it raises real, unsettling questions: What does the future of political protest look like when the opposition has become so emboldened?

For me personally—a Puerto Rican Muslim—the prospect of a rejuvenated and protected modern-day KKK fills me with dread and fuels a deep-rooted mistrust I’ve had for years. There’s a pit in my stomach any time I go to the “good” grocery store and see white men walking the aisles. Is he one of them? Am I safe here? I have renewed doubts about the white people in my life. Would they stand up for me? Would they even know they needed to? With Trump rolling out all of the horrible things he’s promised,  I am mentally exhausted and emotionally drained—and it’s only been a day and a half.

But all of that is the point.

Fear is paralytic. It is divisive. It is distracting. It is the master’s tool. And when we think about what it will take to live through a second Trump presidency, the first unavoidable step is learning how to operate beyond fear. I don’t say that lightly; I say this as someone who is in the pit with you.

Surviving this administration will demand an enormous amount of work from every single one of us. And that work has to be based in community, or it will not survive the years ahead. Maybe that’s joining a PTA or neighborhood association, or running for school board. It could be working against gun violence. It could be running for city council or county commissioners office. It could be volunteer work or handing out supply kits to the unhoused or donating to local drives.

I also suggest engaging in the simplest act of defiance there is: reading. Go to your library and learn from those who fought these rights before we even got here. Read Audre Lorde. Read James Baldwin. Read Iris Morales. Read Angela Davis. Read Grace Lee Bogs. Read bell hooks and keep reading until you read yourself out of fear and into readiness.

There is no white hood, no “Roman Salute,” and no executive order stronger than what we can do together.

AND:

• One more note on executive orders: As you may have heard, Donald Trump is looking to rename the Gulf of Mexico and Mount Denali. (Watch Hillary Clinton react to the new “Gulf of America” here.) Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) had what is the only appropriate response to Trump’s proposal to remove Denali’s Native name and reinstate its old title, Mt. McKinley, after President William McKinley: “Our nation’s tallest mountain, which has been called Denali for thousands of years,” she said, “must continue to be known by the rightful name bestowed by Alaska’s Koyukon Athabascans, who have stewarded the land since time immemorial.” My own proposal? If Donald Trump can locate Denali on a map of the United States, then he can change the name.

• Resistance can be beautiful. Yesterday, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wore a collar and earrings made of cowrie shells to the inauguration. Cowries have many meanings—including as symbols of protection, womanhood, and, as Hannah Jackson  pointed out in Vogue, “a totem used to resist enslavement.”

DIVINE. (VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

• ICYMI: The anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life is actively searching for men whose partners have had abortions; the organization hopes to file lawsuits on behalf of these men and impose outrageous fines on abortion seekers and providers. This move is all kinds of awful, but it’s particularly dangerous for those in abusive relationships. Farah Diaz-Tello of If/When/How explained to Jezebel that these lawsuits will “[force] survivors to weigh the risks of their abusive relationships against their access to abortion.” Whose right to life are we talking about here?

• On Sunday, after 15 months of violence, the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect. Prisoner swaps have begun, and as of Monday, the UN reports that more than 900 aid trucks have entered Palestine with food, fuel, and medical supplies.

CECILE RICHARDS FOREVER  

Yesterday morning, hours before we inaugurated a president who campaigned on his disdain for women and for democracy, we lost a woman who crusaded for both those things. Cecile Richards was probably our country’s best-known abortion-rights advocate; she led Planned Parenthood for a decade, testified for 12 hours before a hostile Congress, and helped launch Supermajority, Charley, and Abortion in America. She was also funny, determined, and cheerfully relentless; she gave spot-on advice, sized people up perfectly, and adored her brand-new grandson Teddy (when I typed her name just now, her contact auto populated and a picture of him in a little red onesie popped up on my screen). She was a mentor and a hero, to those of us she knew and to plenty she didn’t; if you had lunch with her, women would approach with tears in their eyes and a story you could tell they wanted to share. And she is gone far too soon: at 67, of a brain cancer that could not stop her from speaking on behalf of Kamala Harris at the convention last summer.

The daughter of Texas governor Ann Richards, Cecile understood organizing (and the strength of women) on a cellular level. Those are two things we need more than ever right now. We need Cecile, to be honest, but in her absence, we need each other. And as her family wrote yesterday, “We’ll leave you with a question she posed a lot over the last year: It’s not hard to imagine future generations one day asking: ‘When there was so much at stake for our country, what did you do?’” And she said, of course, that there was only one answer: “Everything we could.”

—Cindi Leive

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Greetings, Meteor readers,

There’s a whole bunch going on ahead of Monday’s inauguration, so let’s get straight to it.

In today’s newsletter, Nona Willis Aronowitz examines the more than 100 executive orders Donald Trump reportedly plans to sign during his first days in office. Plus, a little news, and your weekend reading list.

Running on coffee and optimism,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

How Trump plans to “flood the zone” on Day One: We’re only a few days from the beginning of Trump 2.0, and if the president-elect is to be believed, Inauguration Day will be one of “shock and awe.” That’s not because of anything you’ll see at the actual event; it’s because, as Trump told GOP senators in a private meeting last week, he’s preparing more than 100 executive orders for Day One. In case you need perspective: That’s a lot. President Biden, for example, issued just 17 orders on his first day (and 156 during his entire presidency thus far). Trump has long been planning to push the limits of his executive powers, and this first-day onslaught is an early sign that he’s serious. (Compare it with 2017, when Trump, shocked he had won, signed a grand total of one order on his first day and then basically took the weekend off.)

The EO onslaught is an example of Steve Bannon’s infamous “flood the zone” theory: Disorient the media and political establishment with so much information that they’ll be forced to prioritize only the wildest of the wild, letting the rest sail through. So what will the zone be flooded with Monday and Tuesday? Here’s what to expect.

Immigration and border restrictions

Much of Trump’s Day One will likely be focused on immigration. (Homeland Security adviser Stephen Miller, one of the most notorious ghouls of the first Trump term, was present for last week’s meeting with senators.) Some initial orders may include…deep breath…reinstating the Muslim ban; declaring illegal immigration a national emergency; ordering the building of detention facilities; withholding federal funds to sanctuary cities; ending Biden’s humanitarian “parole” programs; finishing the U.S.-Mexico border wall; and even, potentially, closing the U.S.-Mexico border altogether, probably by citing a public health emergency.

ACTIVISTS AND MIGRANTS STAGED A PROTEST AGAINST TRUMP'S PROPOSED MASS DEPORTATIONS AT A U.S.-MEXICO POINT OF ENTRY LAST MONTH ON INTERNATIONAL MIGRANTS DAY. (VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

Perhaps most consequential of all, Trump has repeatedly signaled that he plans to end birthright citizenship, a constitutional right that grants citizenship to any baby born on U.S. soil. “We have to end it,” he has said, calling it “ridiculous” and claiming falsely that we’re the only country that grants it. (More than 30 nations have unrestricted birthright citizenship.) It’s a blatantly unconstitutional move that would get challenged in court, but all it takes is five Supreme Court justices to find wiggle room in the 14th Amendment.

Climate and energy rollbacks

Another big Day One priority? Undoing Biden’s attempts to protect the environment. Trump says he has plans to lift various restrictions on fossil fuel production, reverse bans on offshore drilling and fracking, pull out of the Paris climate agreement (again!), and revoke waivers allowing states to strictly regulate pollution—all setbacks that would make the U.S.’s climate goals even further out of reach. He has also made a Day One promise to end what he calls the “electric vehicle mandate,” which refers to incentives and tax breaks for buying and making electric cars. The Republicans have long wanted to quash EV sales, but experts say the market and Detroit automakers may decide otherwise. (And Elon Musk may prove to be a “wild card.”)

Anti-trans moves

Trans people will be in the crosshairs on Day One, too: Trump has said he plans to reinstate and expand the policy banning them from military service, block them from competing in women’s sports, and prohibit trans minors from receiving gender-affirming care. These orders may very well be redundant, given the cruel legal and congressional efforts already underway, but perhaps not if your priority is to inflict pain on the trans community as swiftly as possible.

…and a smattering of other issues

Trump has talked early and often about pardoning January 6 prisoners, though he’s sent mixed messages about exactly who he’ll spare. He’ll probably reinstate his expanded version of the global gag rule, which prohibits NGOs from using their own, non-U.S. funds to provide abortion services or information overseas. A mainstay of his campaign stump speech was that he’d cut federal funding to public schools that have vaccine mandates (which is…literally all of them, and that’s why you don’t have polio). And he’s said he has plans to revive a 2020 executive order called Schedule F that would allow certain federal employees to be fired at will (which, although scary, might be quite hard to enforce).

OK, so: Does signing an executive order mean it’s automatically legal? Not quite. Many of these actions will be challenged in court, and in some cases subject to the (rather arcane) Federal Administrative Procedure Act. But besides determining policy, the sheer number of Trump’s Day One orders would set the tone for a more authoritarian era—and pose a test of the public’s ability to stay engaged in the face of chaos. With that in mind, some of these executive orders, especially the ones on immigration and trans rights, will have immediate impact on people’s lives. Stay tuned for more coverage next week.

—Nona Willis Aronowitz

AND:

• Yesterday, thousands took to the streets in Palestine to celebrate the announcement that an initial six-week ceasefire had been reached between Hamas and Israel. But that joy has been tempered by the fragile nature of the deal: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has delayed a vote to approve the ceasefire, claiming Hamas had reneged on several last-minute concessions. (He did not specify which.) Israeli citizens are applying pressure on their government to settle the agreement, which would involve hostage and prisoner releases by both groups. Meanwhile, just a few hours after the ceasefire deal was announced, several Israeli military attacks in Gaza killed more than 80 people.

• The Biden administration has withdrawn a proposal that would have required health insurance companies to cover over-the-counter birth control methods. Why? The agencies responsible for creating the final regulations ran out of time to incorporate all of the feedback on the original proposal, according to a memo. Perhaps we should have centered women’s reproductive health a little earlier in the agenda? Maybe??

• Last week, more than 5,000 nurses, midwives, and doctors went on strike in Oregon across eight different hospitals and women’s health clinics. The providers are accusing Providence Health and Services, a large health care chain, of underpaying employees, understaffing hospitals, and offering unaffordable subpar health insurance. One nurse on strike told Labor Notes, “Providence used to be a nice community hospital, and now it’s venture capital with health care as a side gig.” This strike is the largest health care strike in Oregon’s history…and a similar one may be making its way to New York City.

• The 2025 WNBA season won’t start until May, but you don’t have to wait that long to watch your faves on the court. Tomorrow marks the start of the inaugural season of Unrivaled, a women’s basketball 3x3 league. Teams are fully loaded with WNBA greats like Skylar Diggins-Smith, Cameron Brink, Breanna “Welcome to Stewyork City” Stewart, Brittney Griner, Angel Reese, and DiJonai Carrington, just to name a few. You can support women’s sports by watching most Unrivaled games on TNT or streaming the entire season on Max.

WEEKEND READING 📚

On survival: For months, people in Gaza were unable to purchase one thing their lives depended on: HIV medication. (The Intercept)

On what children teach us: In this excerpt from an upcoming book she co-edited, Maya Schenwar tells the story of how motherhood changed her approach to prison abolition. (The Marshall Project)

On killing the fact-checkers: What difference did the now-defunct Facebook research team actually make? Plenty, writes former fact checker Carrie Monahan in “Bare Facebook Liar.” (Air Mail)

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Greetings, Meteor readers,

For anyone trying to get help while navigating the wildfires in California, we want to point you to this master document of resources, shelters, and distribution hubs created by Sarah Vitti and Bianca Wilson. And if you’re not in the LA area but you’re looking for ways to help, you can see what’s needed here.

In today’s newsletter, we tune in to the Pete Hegseth hearing. Plus, some good news for Bad Bunny fans.

With love,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

When politics and theater collide: Today was the Senate confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth, who is auditioning to become our next Secretary of Defense on this week’s episode of America’s Next Top Menace. Now normally, a confirmation hearing for a drunken, underqualified, racist TV personality (who’s also an alleged rapist) would be incredibly high stakes. The kind of event that would rivet the nation, that I would halt my entire workday to watch. (In fact, we all did just that a few years ago.)

But when you’ve already watched an underqualified, racist, former TV personality (who’s also an alleged rapist!) get elected president twice, you’re probably less likely to drop everything to watch history repeat itself on C-SPAN. And given the new GOP control of the Senate, today felt like a fruitless piece of political theater.

HEGSETH REACHING FOR A POINT TO MAKE AND FINDING NOTHING BUT AIR. (VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

But it was also necessary. True, the hearings may not prevent Hegseth from getting a job for which he has no aptitude. But if nothing else, the record will show that Hegseth stood in front of a group of senators who confronted him with his utter lack of leadership experience; the allegations of workplace misconduct, sexual assault, and financial mismanagement against him; and the “insufficient” FBI investigation of Hegseth ahead of his nomination. (According to the Washington Post, the FBI did not even interview the woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017 as part of the vetting process. Sounds familiar.)

Some of the harshest questioning came from women senators demanding that Hegseth answer for his “degrading” statements about women in the military. He chose to deny, saying, “I’ve never disparaged women serving in the military.” So to clarify: when he went on a podcast and said “we should not have women in combat roles” and when he wrote in his book “women cannot physically meet the same standards as men,” he didn’t say it in a degrading way. He was merely commenting on the lower standards the military has adopted in order to accommodate women! Sure, Jan.

His comments on standards didn’t fly with Senator Tammy Duckworth, who is also a veteran—and, as a retired Lieutenant Colonel, outranks Hegseth. “You say you care about keeping our Armed Forces strong and that you like our Armed Forces' meritocracy,” she told Hegseth. “Then let's not lower the standards for you. You, sir, are a no-go at this station.”

AND:

• This morning, Special Counsel Jack Smith—who was slated to try Donald Trump over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election but dismissed the case after Trump’s re-election—made his final report on the investigation public. And PHEW, there’s a lot in there! The major takeaway is that Smith was certain that, were it not for Trump’s election victory, “the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.” The report goes into detail about the ways in which Trump and his accomplices knowingly spread lies about the election, with a clear emphasis on the fact that Trump knew and admitted to others that what he was telling the American people was untrue—and that he also used those lies to pressure election officials.

• Since the devastating LA fires began last week, more than 40,000 acres have been burned and more than 12,000 structures destroyed. LA mayor Karen Bass has come under heavy scrutiny for her public response by just about everyone from Khloe Kardashian to her detractors at the LA Times. But while Bass is politically and literally in the line of fire, Governor Gavin Newsom is taking an unwarranted victory lap by announcing that he will rebuild LA in time for the city to host the upcoming World Cup, Super Bowl, and Olympics. Gavin, maybe we should wait until people’s homes aren’t actively on fire before we start discussing parties?

• Today the House passed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025. The misleading title is tacked onto an anti-trans bill that bans all transgender girls and women from competing in sports at the K-12 level. Reuters reports that the bill “proposes to amend the landmark 1972 Title IX legislation that outlawed sex-based discrimination to force schools to follow strict gender definitions ‘based solely on a person's reproductive biology and genetics at birth.’” It’s now up to the Senate to decide just how far they want to go with stripping the rights of trans children and teenagers.

• Bad Bunny continues to be a hometown hero. Yesterday the singer announced a 21-show residency, beautifully titled “No Me Quiero Ir De Aquí,” at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico. What makes this even more special is that the first nine shows will be exclusive to Puerto Rican residents through an in-person pre-sale. Sorry to all of us traveling from Nuevayol, but non-resident shows won’t begin until August.

• ICYMI: Among the flurry of changes Meta went through last week (similar to the second puberty its founder is experiencing), the company removed some of its restrictions on what is considered “hateful conduct.” Thanks to these changes, users are now free to call LGBTQ+ people “mentally ill” as well as refer to women as “household objects or property or objects in general.” Just adding this note here for my owner husband: If I’m going to be referred to as a household object, I’d like to be the green KitchenAid stand mixer.

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Greetings, Meteor readers,

The news from California has been heartbreaking; the Palisades, Eaton, and Hollywood Hills wildfires continue to sweep through the region, destroying entire neighborhoods, displacing thousands of people, and destroying wildlife. We hope all of our LA-based readers are keeping as safe as possible.

For anyone looking for a way to help those affected by the fires, please take a look at this list compiled by Mutual Aid Los Angeles Network.

In today’s newsletter, we piece together the connection between the California fires and climate change. Plus, your weekend reading list.

With love,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

In the line of fire: The Palisades and Eaton wildfires, along with a smaller fire in the Hollywood Hills, are being called “the most destructive” fires in the history of Los Angeles. So far, five people have been killed and roughly 180,000 people are under evacuation orders in the area. January isn’t peak fire season in California—so how did these particular fires get so bad so fast?

The short answer is, for the most part, climate change. The longer answer is just how unseriously people in power are taking climate change.

Experts have been saying for years that climate change would continue to exacerbate extreme weather events—hurricanes, fires, lightning storms, droughts, and wild weather swings. In California, those predictions have borne out: Climate change has contributed to hotter and drier weather, making for dangerous wildfire conditions. California’s famous Santa Ana winds are blowing with gusts as high as 100 mph. Add all of that to other consequences of climate change, such as recent dry weather and an “exceptionally wet climate from winter 2023 to spring 2024” (which created younger vegetation that isn’t as fire-resistant), and you have a region primed for a particularly bad fire season.

There are other factors besides climate change, too: One scientist, UCLA professor Jon Keeley, told Mother Jones that power line failures, rapid population growth, and loss of fire-blocking vegetation in California have also played a large role in the fast spread of these fires.

Finally, there’s California’s under-preparedness in the face of our new “pyrocene” era: There’s been a yearslong firefighter shortage in the state. As the blazes broke out this week, every single LAFD firefighter was asked to call in with their availability, a first in almost 20 years. (That includes those fire brigades composed of incarcerated people who get paid about 74 cents an hour for their labor.)

All these factors have contributed to this week’s devastation in LA. What has not played a role are the city’s DEI initiatives—although that didn’t stop some right-wing pundits from claiming otherwise.The right is also placing blame on LAFD Fire Chief Kristin Crowley for prioritizing diverse hiring practices over “filling the fire hydrants properly.” (Just because it’s going to drive me crazy, I need to emphasize that it is not the fire chief’s job to fill the goddamn fire hydrants.)

Activists often remind us that all of our struggles are interconnected. A fire in California does not exist in a vacuum; it lives in concert with a number of other political issues—none more so than climate change and how our leaders respond to it…or fail to do so.

AND:

• Today every living president gathered at the memorial service for former president Jimmy Carter, who died last month at the age of 100. Carter was eulogized by President Biden, who noted that the beloved former president “saw well into the future.” As his grandson, Jason Carter, said, “Fifty years ago he was a climate warrior who pushed for a world where we conserved energy, limited emissions and traded our reliance on fossil fuels for expanded renewable sources.”

PRESIDENTS CLINTON, BUSH, OBAMA, TRUMP, AND BIDEN, ALONG WITH THEIR SPOUSES AND VICE PRESIDENTS GORE, PENCE, AND HARRIS AT THE FUNERAL SERVICE FOR PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER. (VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

• Yesterday, the bathroom ban in the House of Representatives went into effect. (Just a reminder that this year, Congress swore in its first openly trans congresswoman, Rep. Sarah McBride, who will not be allowed to use any “single-sex facilities” on the Hill that do not align with her “biological sex.”) Allison Chapman, a legislative researcher, told Truthout, “Transgender people have been working on the Hill for years and their bathroom usage has never been an issue. This rule is clearly an attempt to retaliate against Rep. McBride for her status as a transgender person. Unfortunately, all transgender people working and visiting in the House are now caught in the crosshairs of this hostile rule.”

• This week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused a paramilitary group in Sudan of committing genocide. The group, Rapid Support Forces, has been locked in a civil war with the Sudanese military since 2023. The war has displaced more than 11 million people, according to UN figures, and triggered widespread famine. An estimated 150,000 people have been killed, and women have been relentlessly targeted. This is only the eighth time in modern history that the U.S. government has declared a genocide. (Notably, the genocide in Gaza did not make that list).

• The Girl Scouts will be retiring two cookie flavors at the end of the 2025 cookie season. Now before you get nervous, let me comfort you by saying the best flavor, Trefoils, is safe. On the chopping block are the Toast-Yay! and S’mores. Their retirement will reportedly “lead to something new and delicious,” a spokesperson told NPR. We’ll be the judge of what’s delicious! (If you’re looking to order some cookies but don’t have a local troop, here is a list of trans and non-binary scouts from 2024.)

• On this week’s episode of UNDISTRACTED, Brittany Packnett Cunningham is asking the question on all of our minds: What has gone wrong with men? Journalists Liz Plank and Anand Giridharadas have a few answers. Listen to the full conversation here!

WEEKEND READING 📚

On being the “other” mother: A woman who chose surrogacy reflects on the thorny relationship it created—and where it left them when tragedy struck. (Electric Literature)

On justice deferred: A “horrendous” sexual assault trial in Alaska has been delayed more than 70 times in the last 10 years. Here’s how similar slowdowns have become routine in the state. (ProPublica)

On “Mas Fotos”: Bad Bunny’s sixth album has become more than just an album. Julianne Escobedo Shepherd dives into the deeper meanings of the artist’s “textured love letter to Puerto Rico’s Indigenous and homegrown musical styles.” (Hearing Things)

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Happy final days of December, Meteor readers,

We want to thank you for choosing to spend this last year with us. There are a lot of great newsletters out there, and the fact that so many of you are keeping us in your rotation motivates us to keep getting better. (Speaking of better, you can help us improve by filling out this survey if you’re feeling it!)

Before we roll into 2025, we wanted to share some of your (and our) favorite Meteor stories and podcast episodes of the year. Enjoy your break, and you can keep up with us here in the meantime.

Voguing for Trans Liberation at New York’s Most Brutal Jail

Rikers Island is one of the nation’s most notorious jails, and incarcerated trans people there are treated especially inhumanely. But during Pride 2024, Mik Bean reports, Rikers was also the site of the second annual vogue ball for trans incarcerees. “So many ballroom legends and icons have passed through Rikers Island,” notes Jordyn Jay, founder of Black Trans Femmes in the Arts (BTFA), which organized the ball. “I think we came in with the intention of bringing joy and excitement to the women who were detained.”

The Threat of Ozempic “Coercion”

Few things seemed as top of mind this year as weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro. Samhita Mukhopadhyay spoke to fat activist and author Virgie Tovar about how America’s fatphobic culture removes the freedom of choice to lose weight or not. “What amazes me is there are a million potential health interventions available to human beings, but no one sees any of those,” Tovar says. “Weight loss is the only solution we’re comfortable with.”

Methodists Overturn Long-standing Homophobic Rules 

Comedian and seminary dropout Bailey Wayne Hundl unpacks the United Methodist Church’s landmark decision to allow LGBTQ+ parishioners to become ordained ministers. “I never thought this change would come in my lifetime,” Hundl writes.

The Dark Menergy of the Kendrick/Drake Feud

The loudest rap beef of the year was brimming with what music critic Julianne Escobedo Shepherd called “the expendability of women’s trauma.” In an in-depth analysis of the feud and fans’ responses to it, she peels back the layers to show us who really loses when two grown men decide to squabble in public.

She Needed an Abortion in Alabama

Tamara Costa had a partial molar pregnancy and needed an immediate abortion. But all she got was a sticky note with the phone number of a clinic 580 miles away from her home. As part of our United States of Abortion series, this film by Amy Elliott and story by Julianne Escobedo Shepherd show how one state’s severe laws punish families in terrifying health situations.

“Polarization is Poison”

In the wake of the 2024 election, reporter Megan Carpentier knew who she wanted to ask for advice: activists who have lived under (and resisted) authoritarian regimes around the world, from Hungary to Turkey.

And a Few of Our Favorite Podcast Episodes…

“We Did Not Consent to Chaos” (UNDISTRACTED)

Just 36 hours after Americans re-elected Donald Trump, Brittany Packnett Cunningham sat down with the people she most wanted to process this with: group chat regulars Dr. Brittney Cooper and Dr. David J. Johns. This is a conversation of righteous rage, deep disappointment, and total honesty. Worth a first and second listen.

Rutgers Women’s Basketball & the Racist Radio Host  (In Retrospect)

In this award-winning two-part special, hosts Susie Banikarim and Jessica Bennett revisit the story of the 2007 Rutgers women’s basketball team—which made it to the finals of the NCAA championship, only to be met with racist vitriol from popular radio host Don Imus. But the Scarlet Knights pushed back—and one of them shares her personal reflections here.

Love Abortion? Don’t Talk to the Cops! (The A-Files)

All around the country, people have been arrested and criminalized for trying to access abortion care. In this episode, hosts Renee Bracey Sherman and Regina Mahone talk to Rafa Kidvai of the Repro Legal Defense Fund about that reality, and some surprising rules for responding to legal threats. Worth a re-listen, as cases like this mount.

Debating Trans Rights? Maybe Talk to Trans People…with Laverne Cox (America, Who Hurt You?) 
The debate about trans rights is everywhere, from sports headlines to school board politics, but the people shouting the loudest are almost never trans folks themselves. In this episode, Laverne Cox joins host Sarah Jones to break down the misinformation.

Enjoy our work? We hope that you’ll consider supporting media made by and for women, girls, and nonbinary people, via The Meteor Fund. There’s one week left in our impact drive, and at this particular moment in time—when we know how important independent journalism is—we’d love to count you in. You can learn more about The Meteor Fund and donate here. 

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Happy holidays, Meteor readers,

We hope you’re getting ready to wind down and spend time with your family or—if you’re super-lucky—with yourself. I didn’t realize until I had a child that the greatest gift is personal space, so I wish that for all of you this season.

And if you’re looking for something engrossing for your me time, and need a break from the news-cycle nightmare that has been 2024, we have suggestions. Here, Meteor staffers and contributors share the pieces of media that have been their comfort touchstone throughout this year. The rules? Nothing too serious, and definitely no politics.

We hope our binges and obsessions get you through the week!

Wrapped in a blanket,

Shannon Melero

A wacky network dramedy: Dr. Odyssey

(VIA ABC)

As the year progressed I required an increasingly smoother brain, and so it was a relief when Dr. Odyssey debuted in September on ABC. Essentially Grey's Anatomy meets The Love Boat, it was as risqué and madcap as an hourlong dramedy could achieve on a network, following a hot new cruise ship doctor (Joshua Jackson) trying to integrate with the existing medical team (Phillipa Soo, Sean Teale) and a stately captain (Don Johnson) who is always trying to fend off a rotating cast of suitors, from Shania Twain to Gina Gershon. Each voyage (and episode) is defined by a particular cruise theme—which opens the door for a slew of great Love Boat-esque guest stars, like Kate Berlant and Margaret Cho as dueling wellness influencers, and Bob the Drag Queen as entertainment for the Gay Week cruise (with John Stamos and Cheyenne Jackson as lovers who have opened up to a third).

Dr. Odyssey sneaks in social commentary on topics like climate change, queer rights, and feminist agency amid tense operating room drama and steamy romance plotlines—there is more than one throuple brewing here—but it neither preaches nor condescends, and is the rare show on network television that doesn't glorify cops, ops, or killing. Soothing like a warm bath.

—Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, contributing editor

An offbeat, absorbing romance novel: Seven Days in June

2024 was the year I got into romance novels, and my absolute favorite was Tia Williams’ Seven Days in June. The book follows Eva Mercy, whose erotica series has throngs of fans but no highbrow cache, and Shane Hall, an elusive author whose literary novels have gotten worldwide acclaim. After an explosive fling in high school, they reunite 15 years later, and—no surprise—the chemistry still sizzles. This is not one of the sunnier novels I read (it deals with some very, very dark teen angst and a Black woman’s generational trauma). But the sexual tension it offers, the level of investment I felt, its triumphant, multi-layered happy ending — all unparalleled. And beyond the steamy love story, I just adored Eva’s artist journey; I couldn’t wait for her to embark on the book she was destined to write. You’ll start Seven Days in June and not look up until you’re done. A great one to read in one-to-three sittings during the dead week of December.

—Nona Willis Aronowitz, contributing editor

The wonderful world of “cozy content”

This year I learned about a special section of the internet devoted only to coziness. Think small farms and baby cows, rainy walks through Edinburgh, and knitwear. Lots of knitwear. As a knitter myself, I first fell into this rabbit hole looking for inspiration and now after months in the cozyverse I’ve sent about 3457934 DMs to my bestie Jenan (yes the Jenan) about the farm we’re starting with our children that will include donkeys, runner ducks, and alpacas for me only. Oh! And a shed for Bailey who sent in a formal request to live on the farm and teach the animals drag.

—Shannon Melero, newsletter editor

A messy (and historic) season of reality TV: Are You the One?

God, I love bisexuals. If you haven’t seen season eight of MTV’s Are You the One?, let me break it down for you: 16 absurdly attractive singles get put in a house together, and they’re told that “relationship experts” (see: producers) have found their perfect match. If they can correctly identify the eight romantic pairings, they win a million dollars.

And what makes season eight so special, you ask? For the first time in American reality television, everyone on cast is bi, pan, or otherwise sexually fluid.

This season has all of my favorite things: Fighting. Fivesomes. Glitter. A Gemini who never shuts up. Not one, but two trans cast members! Genuinely, this season is one of my favorite pieces of trans representation across any media. Too often, I feel like when something contains trans characters, the people who wrote it ally a bit too close to the sun and depict us as these infallible deities. Season eight of Are You the One? shows that trans people can be insecure, cocky, manipulative, hammered, sexually desirable, emotionally unavailable—you know, human. Everyone on this show is so incredibly human and so incredibly queer. I cannot recommend it enough.

—Bailey Wayne Hundl, copy editor

A quiet tearjerker from the heartland: Somebody Somewhere

I’ve spent the last few weeks bingeing Somebody Somewhere, an HBO series that tells the story of Sam—the magnetic, multitalented Bridget Everett—returning to her hometown in Kansas to care for her dying sister. The series starts a year after her sister has died, as Sam is struggling to rebuild her life.

Somebody Somewhere is heartwarming and darkly funny, but also diverse in its view of the hopes and dreams of people outside of major cities. The location gives humanity to everyone from the church-going gay couple to the girlboss sister to the trans agriculture professor helping Sam’s dad figure out what to do with his land—a subtle reminder that exit polls and voting behavior don’t fully express the diversity of our experiences or connections. The show is feelgood, but you will likely cry during every episode.

—Samhita Mukhopadhyay, collective member

A blockbuster with heart (and Denzel): Flight

There is no reason whatsoever for this movie to bring me comfort, especially as someone who hates flying, but every time I rewatch the 2012 movie Flight, I feel better. Or maybe it’s just that it makes me feel at all. At first glance, Flight is a fairly formulaic Hollywood movie with a heroic redemption arc. What I see in it, though, is a trust-fall into near-Shakespearean depths of emotion that is less about redemption than humanity.

Flight is about a cocky commercial airline pilot—Denzel Washington in an arresting performance that is somehow both sexy and pathetic—who pulls off a truly miraculous crash-landing in a plane that is hurtling toward the ground after a mechanical malfunction. Denzel is a great actor, full stop. As Captain Whip Whittaker, he is transcendent. The way he moves in and out of such a vast range of emotions, so that we can see the obvious ones (a satisfied swagger) and sense the not-so-obvious ones (the glassy-eyed grief over losing someone he didn’t love, but he knows was loved by others), is truly sublime. I watched it again last week, and was reminded of one quietly prophetic detail in Denzel’s performance: Early on in the film, Whip and his co-pilot are in the cockpit meeting for the first time, ahead of their fateful flight. “Ten turns in the three days. Off tomorrow,” Whip says, lingering on the end of “tomorrow,” with an understated smile.

—Rebecca Carroll, editor-at-large 

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