Meet the two Microsoft employees who helped shine a light on Microsoft's role in Israel's war on Gaza: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/inside-campaign-end-microsofts-collaboration-israeli-army

In a move that demonstrates mainstream Democrat politicians have learned absolutely nothing from helping to build a fascist police state panopticon, and the migrant carceral complex, before shitting themselves so hard they lost to a would-be dictator like Trump, Massachusetts Dems have quietly passed a trans student sports ban timebomb and are trying to sell it as a victory for protecting trans rights:

https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/massachusetts-house-dems-pass-bill

Massachusetts House Dems Pass Bill That Could Ban Trans Students From Sports; Senate Next

"On Wednesday, the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a $1.3 billion budget bill that included a transgender sports ban—the first such measure to pass any legislative chamber in a blue state. Rather than voting to strike down the provision, Democrats advanced an amendment allowing the ban to go into effect only after its impacts are studied. Party leaders framed the move as a win for transgender rights, claiming the study would never materialize and the ban was effectively dead. But critics argue the provision puts transgender people at risk if political winds shift or future administrations decide to act on the study. Discussions suggest Democrats chose the procedural maneuver to shield members in swing districts from casting a vote in support of transgender rights."

Are you fucking kidding me? Let me see if I understand this correctly. In the middle of a state-sanctioned, anti-trans pogrom being conducted by fascists who have already declared that trans people don't exist, and openly admitted they're trying to drive trans people from public life, (two things that historically have preceded the direct extermination of marginalized groups), a solidly blue state government full of supposed "liberals" just passed an anti-trans law they promise not to actually enforce, because - they don't want to go on record standing up for the human rights of trans people as doing so is unpopular? Did I get that right? So the reason you decided to literally provide ideological support for an anti-trans pogrom is that you're cowards, and that makes it okay somehow? Quick question; if launching Chuck Schumer into the sun polled well, would you folks be afraid to oppose that on record too, or are you only cowards when we're talking about the human rights of trans people?

Look, if American liberals don't want me to point out that the war on trans rights (which aids a real as fuck anti-trans pogrom being conducted by the fascist right) is a bipartisan initiative, they need to start telling the political leaders they insist I *have* to vote for to stand up for trans people being targeted by a nazi moral panic with eliminationist characteristics; it's gotta be you folks, because it's clear as fucking day that the Democratic Party as a whole isn't listening to trans people like me.

Five more high profile #BigLaw legal firms have capitulated to Downmarket Mussolini's fascist threats in order to keep raking in federal contracts; even as 500 of their contemporaries in US law are actively proving that fighting the Trump regime is an option:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/11/trump-law-firms-pro-bono-deal

Trump says five more law firms agree to pro bono work to avoid punitive executive orders

"Donald Trump said on Friday that five major law firms reached agreements to together provide his administration $600m in pro bono legal work, among other terms, to avoid executive orders punishing them, a significant capitulation to the president as he attacks the legal profession.

The five firms – Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Allen Overy Shearman Sterling, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft – are among the most prestigious and recognized firms in the US.

Trump’s announcement on Friday on Truth Social means he has secured a total of $940m in pro bono work from some of the most powerful law firms in the US.

The orders come as Trump’s attack on the legal profession has divided the most prestigious firms in the US. More than 500 firms signed an amicus brief last week in support of a legal challenge to executive orders punishing the firm Perkins Coie. But many of the country’s biggest firms – including those that reached agreements announced on Friday – were conspicuously absent."

Frankly, I'm tired of repeating myself so I'll keep this brief. These firms are all kissing the fascist toad in the White House's ring because standing up to him, even when the law is on their side, risks too much of their ability to make money and that's more important to them than the law, or any sort of moral obligation to oppose fascism from those in a position to do so. Like every other Big Law firm before them, these folks have traded away their independence and integrity without any guarantee whatsoever that this represents the end of Downmarket Mussolini's demands; which means, even if they don't realize it, all of these law firms work for Trump now. Maybe these bigshot lawyers honestly believe, as former Skadden lawyer Rachel Cohen reported in the interview I shared above, that they can outsmart the regime, but that presupposes the Trump administration is playing by a set of rules - which is an idea that is wholly discredited by the blatantly unconstitutional executive orders and threats from the White House that brought us to this moment in the first place.

Finally I would encourage folks not to dismiss the almost 1 billion dollars in promises for pro bono services to the regime and causes Trump himself supports, that Der Leader has extracted here. Downmarket Mussolini is forcibly recruiting massive law firms to help him conduct an assault on our civil rights and the American legal system itself, and when he says the firms have agreed they “will not deny representation to clients, such as members of politically disenfranchised groups and Government Officials, employees, and advisors” he's making that explicitly clear. I mean let's cut the bullshit here, this is a regime that has argued that white people, and fundamentalist Christians are "politically disenfranchised groups" in fucking writing, so I don't think it's hard to imagine what kind of cases Trump is going to deploy his new minions to argue on behalf of his fascist, white nationalist regime. Trump just bought himself an army of lawyers to do fascism with, and it didn't cost him anything more than the paper his unconstitutional executive orders were printed on.

I've been waiting for just over a week for the folks at TMR to clip this interview with former Skadden lawyer Rachel Cohen so I could share it here. Not only is Cohen's inside baseball perspective on the cowardice of Big Law firms groveling before Trump an interesting watch, but she's also one of the few people with knowledge of the situation willing to state what *I* feel is pretty obvious - that the Trump regime's war on Big Law is about trying to restrict the number of lawyers and firms that will bring totally legitimate cases against their fascist policies and activities, through a sheer question of numbers and resources.

The clip is only about 15 minutes long, but I guarantee you that Cohen here is spitting more truth than you'll find in all the articles about Big Law's capitalist cowardice and craven surrender in media sources like the Washington Post, the New York Times, or the Wall Street Journal. It's worth the watch:

The Majority Report: Trump's Revenge

"Sam and Emma are joined by Rachel Cohen, lawyer formerly of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, to discuss the country’s largest law firms bending the knee to Donald Trump."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0bVdiTDzQo