Hasta La Gadget!

Dear Ivanka,

I don’t know you. But I know some of the paths you walk: You’re a parent concerned about your children; you’re a child concerned about her dad; and sometimes what you wish for one of them conflicts with what the other wants for you. I’ve walked that tightrope myself.

My daughter Lily is the light of my life. I knew that my mother, who I loved but with whom I sometimes clashed, adored her. So a few years back when my mom voted to ban gay marriage, it was painful; it took time and more than one very hard conversation for her to understand how her vote made families like her own granddaughter’s less safe. When she got a second chance to vote against gay marriage just a few years later—she couldn’t.

This year, when copies started circulating of a potential executive order which would have allowed discrimination in the guise of religious freedom, I was deeply grateful that you and Jared intervened, making whatever case it took for your dad to keep it off the table.

I can well imagine the experience of having that conversation. My mom and your dad were high-schoolers at the same time; though age doesn’t determine one’s attitude toward equality, it certainly informs it. And our folks were raised in an era before the average parent would have dreamed of telling their kids that “love is love is love.” Thank you for helping your dad be more a part of our time.

I understand that you and Jared are trying to lead another conversation that our parents couldn’t have predicted: the one about climate change. My mom was torn about this.

On one hand, she seemed to believe the news reports she was reading; but she also felt that God would just solve it in the end. Your dad seems similarly conflicted, though for economic instead of religious reasons. And here is where I’m asking for your help: Please, for all our kids, keep talking to him, keep making him see.

For my mom, the most compelling arguments about any subject were personal ones. For instance, she was OK with “gays” in general not having full marriage equality or civil rights, but when it came to her granddaughter, she didn’t want Lily to be hurt by such limits on her dads; she just wanted Lily to be happy. Maybe you can personalize your climate discussions with your dad by reminding him what’s at stake—and I don’t mean the whole planet, a concept which would be hard to take in, or even the White House, which can only be his home for eight years. Rather, remind him of three more immediately tangible concerns: Arabella, Joseph, and Theo.

Your dad probably already knows that for hundred of millions of people globally, two degrees will affect access to food and water. But, if he is like my mom was, the bigger the scope means the greater the remove, so maybe start smaller. Focus on what matters to your kids: the things they love, the places you take them, the experiences that shape their lives.

I’ve read that Arabella likes strawberries (which you grow at home) especially in “pink” ice cream. If earth’s temperature warms by two degrees, as pretty much every credible scientist now sees as unavoidable (and some think is too optimistic at this point), there will a much shorter farming season in the reduced number of places where they are still able to grow.

California, the biggest US producer, may see harvests fall by 40 percent, and what remains will be of decreasing quality. England, which foresees higher berry rot and smaller yield, is so concerned about this that its scientists are pre-emptively trying to engineer new strawberries altogether. That’s just one example—and a very small one—of what can happen.

Hawaii, your last vacation destination as a family before inauguration, will look very different when the temperature rises by those two degrees: All the famed resort-lined beaches could be erased, moving the shoreline dramatically inward, even as the islands battle flooding and species loss. Aspen, where your kids learn to ski with their cousins, is already on the cusp of change. Scientists predict that a two-degree rise will limit Aspen’s snow cover, cause dust build-up on the peaks, kill off the trees for which the region is named, and increase the risk of devastating wildfires.

For me and Lily, our Aspen is a little island off the coast of Maine. We go there for a week every summer, sharing a house with another family and reveling in the calm of a place you can’t even drive to.

You park your car in the woods, take a skiff over, and settle in for lazy days with the kids safely roaming about as they look for crabs or build fairy houses. With climate-change-induced sea level rise, the most modest estimate suggests that the island’s will be under water by 2050; by the median estimate, the houses around the perimeter will be gone; by the most extreme estimates, the island will disappear below the surface, an obstacle ships steer around on the way to the new coast of Maine.

It will join a fast-growing roster of Atlantises lost. Just think of places you’ve been with Jared—Miami, Belize, London. If things go forward unchecked, those places could be largely underwater too, wrecks sunken by the missed opportunities of parents like you and me. Now imagine not just visiting but living in those places—or in a country like Bangladesh, expected to lose 17% of its land. Imagine your family staring down the barrel of such loss.

That’s why I try to do my part, keeping a small carbon footprint, writing about the topic, and sending this letter to you—I think you have a chance to get far more done than I can.

That’s also why this column is not some put-on or satire. It’s a real letter from one parent to another.

Though the election yielded a lot of division—which I admit I sometimes contributed to—I think the best thing Americans can do for each other (and the planet) is to acknowledge where we connect and what we have in common. I believe you and I share some important values that will make our kids’ lives better.

We’re both so lucky to have children and it’s our responsibility to care for them. I hope Arabella, Joseph, Theo, and Lily get to enjoy the best world you and I can make together.

Sincerely, Dave

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All the talk about United Airlines being “flyer friendly” in an old ad while an orchestra plays “Rhapsody in Blue” may seem like a lot of hooey now, doesn’t it? 

Funny or Die emphasized the point by placing a viral video of a passenger being violently dragged off a United plane this week into the spot. The airline generated heaps of criticism for the incident, which stemmed from an overbooked flight out of Chicago. 

Watch above for what now seems like a symphony of the absurd.

Here’s the original:

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Once upon a time, Shonda Rhimes knew how “Scandal” was going to end.

“And then Donald Trump was elected.”

That’s how the prolific creator breaks it down in The Hollywood Reporter’s extensive oral history of the ABC political drama, which airs its 100th episode on Thursday.

Although Rhimes wouldn’t spill the original ending she’d had planned for Olivia Pope and her gladiators, she revealed that Trump’s election made her go back to the drawing board to develop a fitting conclusion in the current political climate.

“We had a destination, and I don’t know if that’s our destination anymore,” Rhimes explained. “The day after the election, the whole landscape changed.”

Since the series’ beginning, a Republican has been president, which Rhimes said was a choice she made to humanize the political party under Obama’s administration. With Trump in office, portraying Republicans in the world of “Scandal” has been considerably more challenging.

“We had a Democratic president [when ‘Scandal’ premiered], so I wanted to take a Republican president and make him human,” she said. “Then our stories would be about what would happen if the wheels came off the bus and nobody was driving the bus. The problem now is the wheels have come off the bus, and nobody’s driving.”

Over the last two seasons, writers have had to scrap storylines that veered too closely to real headlines ― such as a Russian hacking scandal that compromised a presidential election ― and now the show’s approach has changed entirely.

“There was a very specific planned progression that was going to be easy to tell because Hillary [Clinton] was going to be president, and we were going to be living in the light. But it didn’t occur,” Rhimes said. “I’m still trying to come to terms with that. One bad thing after another keeps happening, and the world feels very unstable. So in a world in which all of the things that we would write on ‘Scandal’ are happening in real life, it’s very hard to write ‘Scandal’ the way we used to, when it was like, ‘Let’s make Washington the most outrageous, horrifying place it could ever be.’”

To read the full “Scandal” oral history, head over to The Hollywood Reporter.

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A transgender singer named Charlie Peck has recorded a beautiful tribute for the transgender community: a duet with himself featuring his higher register before beginning hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and with his lower register, recorded nine months into HRT.

Peck told The Huffington Post that he decided to make the video, which features a cover of “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, after watching other people’s voice comparison videos online ― and after thinking about how much of his identity is presented through his voice.

“I was first and foremost hoping for a voice that I could identify with,” Peck told The Huffington Post. “In contact with other humans, the filter through which everything you say is perceived is your voice. I was also really scared that I would not be able to sing any more. With these thoughts in my head an idea about singing as a way to show others my journey started to form. When I contacted my very talented friend, André Åhl Persson, who is also a musician, and he was willing and thrilled to do this project with me this seed of an idea started to grow.”

Peck went on to tell HuffPost that while he’s thrilled his video has made such an impact outside of the community, at the end of the day it’s a project for transgender people. 

“There are many ways to transition and to find yourself,” Peck continued. “This was my way. I am not telling every trans* individuals story, but I am giving them mine… The lyrics of the song, with some modifications made by me, say so much. You are not alone, things can get better and put yourself before everybody else’s expectations on how you should live your life. Now that I have the energy to give something back to the trans* community ― this is my heart medicine for those in need.”

Check out Peck’s cover of “Home” above and head here to see more from the singer. 

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U.S. attorneys around the country will devote more resources to prosecuting immigration offenses, including illegal re-entry to the country, document fraud, identity theft and smuggling undocumented immigrants across the border, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday.

“For those that continue to seek improper and illegal entry into this country, be forewarned: This is a new era,” Sessions told Customs and Border Protection agents and officers in Nogales, Arizona, according to prepared remarks. “This is the Trump era. The lawlessness, the abdication of the duty to enforce our immigration laws, and the catch-and-release practices of old are over.”

President Donald Trump vowed to stop unauthorized immigration and expel many undocumented people from the country, and he picked an ally in Sessions, who spent much of his Senate career advocating for tougher enforcement. Now he’s getting his chance and is shaping the Department of Justice’s mission to expand its emphasis on prosecuting undocumented immigrants. Every U.S. attorney’s office in the country ― even far from the border ― will now be required to have a person devoted to coordinating enforcement on immigration, Sessions announced.

The policies he laid out are almost exclusively focused on non-violent crimes, such as illegally re-entering the country, entering a fraudulent marriage, document fraud and identity theft. U.S. attorneys will now be required to consider prosecution for each. Every adult apprehended at the border will be detained.

Sessions painted the matter in stark terms, saying that gangs and cartels “turn cities and suburbs into war zones, that rape and kill innocent citizens, and who profit by smuggling poison and other human beings across our borders.”

“Depravity and violence are their calling cards, including brutal machete attacks and beheadings,” Sessions said. “It is here, on this sliver of land, where we first take our stand against this filth.”

The Department of Justice did not provide details on how these efforts will be funded and whether there will be additional resources so the renewed focus on immigration-related enforcement on nonviolent officials will not lead to lower levels of prosecutions and investigation of other crimes. DOJ spokesman Ian Prior said Trump’s “budget blue print made clear the Department’s commitment to public safety, combatting violent crime, drug trafficking, and illegal immigration” and that further details will be in the agency’s budget “this spring.”

Sessions laid out several policy priorities in a memo to all federal prosecutors, titled “Renewed Commitment to Criminal Immigration Enforcement.” Prosecutors will be required to consider prosecution for people who transport or harbor unauthorized immigrants across the border, putting a priority on those who smuggle three or more individuals, he wrote.

U.S. attorney’s offices will also crack down on individuals who illegally re-enter the U.S. without authorization. Re-entering the country after a prior removal will be referred for felony prosecution, “especially where indicators of gang affiliation, a risk to public safety, or criminal history are present,” he said. Attorneys must consider prosecution in every instance of an individual re-entering the country without authorization after being removed.

They must also consider felony prosecution for individuals with two or more prior misdemeanor convictions for improper entry, or one or more prior misdemeanor convictions if there are certain circumstances, such as prior removals, felonies or gang affiliation, according to the memo.

Government attorneys will also consider felony prosecution for individuals who get married to evade immigration laws, Sessions wrote. When possible in these cases, attorneys must pursue charges for document fraud and aggravated identity theft, with a two-year mandatory minimum sentence for the latter.

Prosecutors will put a top priority on going after people who assault, resist or impede federal immigration officers, Sessions added.

Sessions said the Department of Justice will also ramp up its hiring efforts for immigration judges ― adding 50 this year and 75 next year ― to cut current backlogs that lead to many undocumented immigrants waiting years to have their cases resolved.

The attorney general, like other Trump administration officials and the president himself, tied a drop in unauthorized border crossings to the president’s immigration policies. Legal advocates believe part of that drop is due to CBP agents turning away asylum-seekers in violation of international law, which CBP denies. In addition to deportations, the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which is part of the Department of Justice, handles cases for asylum and other relief.

“We will execute a strategy that once again secures the border; apprehends and prosecutes those criminal aliens that threaten our public safety; takes the fight to gangs like MS-13 and Los Zetas; and makes dismantlement and destruction of the cartels a top priority,” Sessions said in his speech, according to prepared remarks. “We will deploy a multifaceted approach in these efforts: we are going to interdict your drugs on the way in, your money on the way out, and investigate and prosecute your trafficking networks to the fullest extent of the law.”

Read the memo below:

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