May 2, 2021 7 min read

Weekend Picks: May Day, Biden's First 100 Days, and Anti-Trans Hysteria

Your weekly roundup of news from the independent OptOut network, plus updates on our app.

Happy Belated May Day, OptersOut!

Since yesterday was May Day, this week's roundup will get into labor news, as well as Biden's first 100 days as president, anti-trans bigotry, and other news from the OptOut network. But first, an OptOut update.

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And now, some great content as always from the news outlets in the OptOut network.

Labor

Meagan Day has a fascinating article in Jacobin about how Hitler coopted May Day in his effort to convert socialist workers to fascism.

Also check out Day and economics professor emeritus Richard Wolff on Jacobin Weekends' celebration of May Day.

Viewpoint Magazine republished an article that explains why Amazon workers recently voted against unionization in Bessemer, Alabama.

On his podcast, Behind the News, Doug Henwood interviews Rutgers history professor Donna Murch about why labor organizing is on the rise today in the U.S.

Listen to Behind the News.

Anti-trans hysteria

This year, Republican lawmakers decided to make attacking transgender people their central culture war issue. Bigots in several states have criminalized gender-affirming health care for trans youth and banned trans women and girls from sports. Here are a few articles that analyze this trend.

Some more astute critics, meanwhile, have contended that the bills are in a sense not really about trans people at all, but are instead a cruel though also somewhat arbitrary effort to raise funds and appeal to the evangelical base of the Republican party in the run-up to the 2022 midterm elections.

"A recent wave of pseudoscholarship and pseudojournalism has encouraged people to fret about a Trans Trend that is supposedly luring vulnerable cisgender children into risky medical procedures," writes Nathan Robinson in Current Affairs.

Jordan Zakarin breaks down Florida's attack on trans kids in Progressives Everywhere.

Biden's first 100 days

The American Prospect Executive Editor David Dayen has probably written more than any other journalist I know on the beginning of Biden's presidency in his series, First 100. Here's his analysis of that period.

Eoin Higgins, creator of The Flashpoint, joined The District Sentinel to discuss Biden's first 100 days as president.

The Daily Poster released a podcast in which David Sirota speaks with guests from The Revolving Door Project and Demand Progress about Biden's presidency and the corporate figures in his administration.

Another podcast for you: Jordan and Rob of The Insurgents talk with climate reporter Dharna Noor about Biden's performance on climate, fracking, pledges, Bill Gates, and an alleged "burger ban."

Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report offers his analysis of Biden's performance so far.

In other news

Check out Welcome to Hell World on Hawaii's experience dealing with Covid-19.

Also relevant to Hawaii, Who What Why interviews U.S. Sen Mazie Hirono about the rise in hate crimes against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community and how it relates to 18th and 19th century history in this podcast episode.

In Counterpunch, CODEPINK national co-director Ariel Gold writes about extremism in Israel, which Human Rights Watch just determined is carrying out an apartheid system and persecuting Palestinians.

Tim Black says that Black Republican Sen. Tim Scott's rebuttal of Biden's State of the Union address "was full of fallacies about a post-racial society."

David Moore of Sludge and Brick House has an interesting article about how New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang got in with corporate lobbying firm Tusk Strategies, which is managing his campaign.