Good morning! Welcome to the first “3 Mojito Brunch” — three stories you need to know today, hitting right at brunch time (people brunch during the week, right?). The name is 100% ripped off from the daily podcast, “Three Martini Lunch,” which can be heard over on Ricochet. We gave it a bit of smart girl spin by imbibing mojitos instead of martinis; we’re brunching, too, because why not?
Anyway, the idea is to flag three stories that should be of interest to the Smart Girl community, focusing on politics and culture. Here we go!
Mojito #1: The Supreme Court Could Get Involved In Trump’s Tax Return Case
Via Forbes:
President Donald Trump’s legal team and the Manhattan district attorney trying to get his tax returns came to an agreement Monday that could send the case up to the Supreme Court, Politico reported, and a decision could be made before the 2020 election.
Why it matters: Democrats are hot to get their hands on the president’s tax returns from the past eight years, sure that lurking in there are “hush money” payments paid out to women with whom the president had affairs. This is all speculation, of course, as President Trump refuses to voluntarily release his tax returns. More here.
Mojito #2: Feminist Author’s Book Canceled by Publisher After Being Publicly Debunked to Her Face
Oof.
From Pluralist:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has canceled the U.S. publication of a feminist author’s book about gay persecution, months after it was largely debunked during a live radio interview.
It seems that “feminist” author Naomi Wolf, who, ironically, is a big fan of Bill Clinton, has lost the chance to have her latest book published because, well, she got big parts of it completely wrong.
During a May interview with BBC host Matthew Sweet, Wolf said she found evidence of “several dozen executions” of men accused of having sex with other men. But Sweet pointed out that Wolf was misunderstanding the legal term “death recorded,” explaining that it actually meant the men had been pardoned.
More here.
Mojito #3: Jury Rules Against Texas Dad Fighting 7-Year-Old Son’s Gender Transition
The Daily Wire has the details:
On Monday, a jury ruled against a Texas father, Jeffrey Younger, attempting to stop his seven-year-old son from a gender transition being facilitated by Dr. Anne Georgulas, the boy’s mother and Younger’s ex-wife.
Poor little James, it appears, is being pushed by his mother to become “Luna”, a mini-drag queen. Mom isn’t going to pursue chemical castration — yet — but might consider it when James gets closer to puberty.
And there’s nothing the father can do about it.
CAN YOU IMAGINE?
“Every. Single. Day. You have to see your son sexually abused, and you have to maintain your calm,” the Texas father continued, “because the courts are not going to be fair to you. And the only way you can survive this and get your son through this alive is to calmly allow your son to be tortured right before your eyes and outlast the opposition. That’s what it’s like.”
If you need a blood pressure spike, you can read more here.