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Archive for November, 2022

If Marriage Can Mean Anything, It Will Soon Mean Nothing

BY: STELLA MORABITO | NOVEMBER 29, 2022

Sen. Cynthia Lummis speaking on the Senatea floor prior to voting on the Respect for Marriage Act — **The Respect for Marriage Act lets the government establish a permanent presence in your personal life while redefining your relationships.**

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STELLA MORABITO

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No matter how you define “marriage,” there is zero respect for it in the so-called Respect for Marriage Act. You may believe it serves to federally codify the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision that rejected marriage as a male-female union. Maybe it would do so temporarily. But that’s not the endgame.

If you’re paying attention, you can see that the Senate’s recent 62-37 vote for cloture on HR 8404 puts us one step closer to abolishing state recognition of marriage entirely. That’s where this train is headed.

This will happen the same way such things always happen — through a demonization campaign that frames skeptics as bigots who are guilty of discrimination. That’s how you get Democrat-pliable Republicans such as Mitt Romney and craven Supreme Court justices like Anthony Kennedy to sign on. That’s how you manufacture a public opinion cascade, warning average Americans that they’ll be pummeled with lawsuits and ostracism if they dare think out loud.

And that’s how Democrats in Congress are likely in the not-too-distant future — via HR 8404 — to make the case that marriage actually comes with privileges that discriminate against the unmarried. Disagree? You’re a bigot who deserves to be socially ostracized! Self-censorship in the face of such accusations will pave the way, as always.

Collectivists Hope to Destroy Private Life and Regulate Relationships

Once they’ve gotten to that point via HR 8404 and Republicans who supported the measure, congressional Democrats will doubtless push us to agree that marriage is a discriminatory institution. We’ll start seeing more anti-marriage initiatives supported by singles, millennials, Julias, and gen Z, all well-groomed for the moment by teacher’s unions, academia, and media.

They’ll fall for the pitch that we can all just write up domestic partnership contracts instead. “Marriage” would then become nothing but a legal relationship (a contract) between two (or more) people for any purpose at all. Bureaucrats would broker those contracts. This proposal is all mapped out in Sunstein and Thaler’s 2008 book “Nudge.” It’s also been promoted for decades by internationally acclaimed feminist legal scholar Martha Fineman who writes that a system of contracts replacing marriage will help the state “regulate all social interactions.”

Under a system that abolishes state recognition of marriage, the family could no longer exist autonomously or unmolested by the state. How could it if the state no longer recognizes marriage as the foundation of the family unit? The government would have no requirement to recognize religious rites of marriage as valid. Thus, it would meddle more deeply in religion and religious communities that recognize bonds of kinship through blood ties.

We Become Atomized Individuals in the State’s Eyes

The atomization resulting from this will have repercussions that go beyond the bill’s guarantee to treat any difference of opinion as a federal crime. If we continue on this path, the government will no longer have to recognize any biological relationships. It need not recognize any legal right you might have as the parent of your biological child. Why should it? It would have already abolished its recognition of the union that produced the child.

Some of this process has already been completed through gender-neutral language in documents like passports, birth certificates, or the rules of the 117th Congress that do not recognize the words “mother,” “father,” “son,” or “daughter.”

Much groundwork has also been laid by surrogacy and abortion laws that treat children as chattel to buy, sell, and dispose of at will. And why would the state have to recognize any other relationships resulting from marriage if it no longer recognizes marriage? It could ignore your blood relationships to brother, sister, aunt, uncle, or any familial bond. In this scenario, you’d likely need a license to raise your own child, an old communist goal that the so-called Respect for Marriage Act conjures up.

When all there is are bureaucratized domestic partnership arrangements, the government would no longer need to recognize spousal privilege and thereby could legally coerce spouses to testify against one another in court. It could also abolish the default path of survivorship through which your inheritance goes to your spouse or next of kin. Instead, the state would be free to redistribute your nest egg at will in its great bureaucratic wisdom.

Indeed, there is no reason to doubt that the Respect for Marriage Act serves as a midwife to the radical left’s long-held goal of abolishing state recognition of marriage. It will allow the government to regulate our relationships, rendering each of us naked before its power.

We are each being set up for a pre-arranged marriage with Big Government operating as our abusive spouse.

Such Atomization Is a Totalitarian Necessity

The path to human atomization is the natural arc of all totalitarian systems in the making. They must always first isolate people in order to control them through terror, as Hannah Arendt noted in her work “The Origins of Totalitarianism.” Tyrants always mask their intentions by borrowing from tradition, using words like “respect for marriage,” “love,” or “equality” as they march us all into virtual solitary confinement.

There’s nothing new about this trajectory. It’s a long-standing vision of all totalitarian systems, which first came into the open with the Communist Manifesto’s proclamation, “Abolish the family!” Communists referred to traditional religion as “the opiate of the people” while setting up communism as a pseudo-religion that demanded unquestioning loyalty. The resulting dependency then truly becomes the fentanyl of the people.

Such deceptions are why Schumer and company talk about marriage as though the government has some sort of litmus test for “love.” But anyone with half a brain knows that love’s got nothing to do with a functioning state’s interest in marriage. Marriage is an institution that exists to allow for a structured society and for the protection of children.

Of course, we easily forget such facts while living in a nation that increasingly promotes infanticide, assisted suicide, recreational drug use, child pornography, and other ways to torture and kill our children. In fact, virtually all of their policy positions are tailor-made for family breakdown, community breakdown, and for hostility toward religious communities.

But maybe you like feeling lonely and alienated, like the idea of a childless and hopeless future, and are all for the state regulating your personal relationships and conversations. Well, then, you’ll like the “Respect” for Marriage Act.

But the destruction of bonds of affection and loyalty in the private spheres of life makes sense from the point of view of statists. Those loyalties get in the way of their ambitions for power and social engineering. They are invested in isolating us so that we become dependent upon them.

Stella Morabito is a senior contributor at The Federalist. She is author of “The Weaponization of Loneliness: How Tyrants Stoke Our Fear of Isolation to Silence, Divide, and Conquer.” Her essays have appeared in various publications, including the Washington Examiner, American Greatness, Townhall, Public Discourse, and The Human Life Review. In her previous work as an intelligence analyst, Morabito focused on various aspects of Russian and Soviet politics, including communist media and propaganda. Follow Stella on Twitter.

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Scripture engaged Americans gave more than $100B to charity in 2021: report

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter | November 30, 2022

**A man reading the Bible. | Getty images**

Scripture engaged Americans donated more than $100 billion to charity last year, giving more on average to churches and other charitable organizations than the other subgroups surveyed, according to a new report.

The American Bible Society released the eighth chapter of its annual “State of the Bible” report earlier this month, which focused on the charitable giving habits of Christians and the American people as a whole. The survey found that Scripture engaged Americans, those who score the highest on a scale measuring Scripture engagement based on responses to a series of questions examining the “frequency of Bible use and the impact and centrality of [its] message” on their lives, gave a total of $145 billion to charitable causes in 2021.

According to the report, compiled based on responses from 2,598 U.S. adults collected from Jan. 20-28, charitable giving among Scripture engaged Americans accounted for 44% of all donations given to charity last year. Additionally, Scripture engaged Americans gave an average of $2,941 to charity in 2021. Their counterparts in the “movable middle” and the Scripture disengaged, as determined by their scores on the Scripture engagement scale, gave an average of $649 and $924 to charity last year, respectively.

On average, a majority of the donations from Scripture engaged Americans went to their church, parish or temple. With Scripture engaged Americans’ average contributions to their place of worship measured at $2,124, other top recipients of charitable giving among this subgroup included national religious charities ($344), other religious organizations ($277) and local non-religious charities ($162).

Respondents in the “movable middle” gave an average of $335 to their place of worship, followed by $168 to other religious organizations, $85 to local non-religious charities and $43 to national religious charities. On the other hand, the Bible disengaged directed most of their charitable donations ($406) at religious organizations besides their place of worship, more than double the average amount given to places of worship ($163).

The Bible disengaged donated an average of $285 to local non-religious charities and an average of $28 to national religious charities.

Scripture engaged Americans also had the highest proportion of givers among the three categories of respondents as determined by their scores on the Scripture engagement scale. Eighty percent of Scripture engaged Americans gave to charity in 2021, compared to 68% of those in the “movable middle” and 53% of Scripture disengaged Americans.

Among Scripture engaged Americans, a majority (58%) donated at least $210 to charity while an additional 24% gave less than $210, and the remaining 18% did not give to charity. A plurality of those in the “movable middle” (37%) gave less than $210 to charity, followed by 36% who did not donate at all and 27% who contributed more than $210. An outright majority of the Scripture disengaged (52%) did not give to charity, while the remaining 48% consisted of an even split of those who gave less than $210 and those who donated more than $210.

Practicing Christians also donated money to charity at a higher rate than their non-practicing and non-Christian counterparts. Eighty-one percent of practicing Christians donated to charity in 2021, compared to 61% of non-practicing Christians and 52% of non-Christians.

The latest chapter of the State of the Bible report also illustrated a correlation between the amount of money an individual gave to charity and their score on the Human Flourishing Index, developed by Harvard University to measure a person’s “happiness and life satisfaction,” “mental and physical health,” “meaning and purpose,” “character and virtue,” “close social relationships” and “financial and material stability.” Those who gave more than $210 to charity last year had an average score of 7.6 on the Human Flourishing Index’s 10-point scale.

Individuals who gave less than $210 to charity achieved an average score of 6.9 on the Human Flourishing Index and those who gave nothing at all to charity had an average score of 6.7. On the 10-point scale specifically measuring an individual’s level of meaning and purpose, those who gave at least $210 to charity registered an average score of 7.7 in contrast to those who gave less than $210 (6.9) or those who did not donate to charity (6.7).

John Farquhar Plake, the director of ministry intelligence for the American Bible Society, reacted to the findings of the report in a statement. “Year after year our research shows there is a strong correlation between charitable giving and human flourishing, suggesting that people find a sense of meaning when they give to a cause they believe in,” he said. “Engaging with the Bible and actively living out our faith doesn’t simply mean reading the words in the pages of Scripture–rather, it is a transformation of the heart that inspires us to love and live well.”

The State of the Bible report also illustrated a noticeable gap in levels of charitable giving based on age. Eighty-four percent of the elderly gave to charity in 2021, along with 73% of baby boomers, 61% of those in Generation X, 53% of millennials and exactly one-half of the youngest group of American adults that comprise Generation Z.

The report concluded with a look at the role that Bible users, defined as those who interact with the Bible at least three to four times a year, believe that their use of the Bible plays in their amount of charitable giving. Fifty-five percent of Bible users who agreed that “as a result of using the Bible, I am more generous with my time, energy, or financial resources” gave at least $210 to charity, while 19% donated less than $210 and the remaining 26% did not give to charity.

A majority of those who agreed that “as a result of using the Bible, I show more loving behavior toward others” (54%) reported giving at least $210 to charity. An additional 26% who credited the Bible with making them more loving toward others did not give any money to charity while the remaining 20% donated less than $210.

Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com

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Spiritual

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CIA Director’s Former Think Tank Introduced Congressional Staffers to Experts Who Worked for Chinese Spy Fronts

By: PHILIP LENCZYCKI, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER | November 30, 2022

**Image created by the Daily Caller News Foundation.**

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace introduced congressional staffers to at least 10 individuals who worked for Chinese intelligence front groups during a 2019 sponsored trip to China while current CIA Director William Burns was the nonprofit’s president, the Daily Caller News Foundation determined after reviewing author Alex Joske’s book, “Spies and Lies.”
Since at least the 1980s, Chinese spies have impersonated scholars aiming to influence U.S. nonprofits and policymakers, Joske found.
“A lot of the key scholars and other figures involved in U.S.-China relations on the Chinese side have these sorts of relationships,” Joske told the DCNF.

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace introduced congressional staffers to at least 10 individuals who worked for Chinese intelligence front groups during a 2019 trip to China while current CIA Director William Burns served as the nonprofit’s president, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found.

During the week-long, all-expenses-paid trip to Beijing, a bipartisan group of congressional staffers from the offices of various representatives — including Connecticut Democratic Rep. Jim Himes and former North Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Meadows — met with Chinese government officials, journalists, academics and policy experts, according to the trip’s itinerary. Yet, at least 10 of the Chinese individuals worked for front groups controlled by Chinese spy agencies, such as the Ministry of State Security (MSS), the International Liaison Department (ILD) and the intel arm of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the DCNF determined.

The congressional staffers participated in a number of discussions with undisclosed Chinese intelligence front group members, such as a Nov. 6 “pre-dinner dialogue” concerning “Chinese perspectives on U.S.-China policy challenges,” which included Ding Yifan, a member of the MSS-controlled Institute of World Development Studies.

PLA’s Second Intelligence Department carries out military intelligence operations, while the ILD focuses on political intelligence and the MSS serves as China’s equivalent of the CIA, according to the Defense Intelligence Agency.

The DCNF was able to identify some of the individuals who participated in Carnegie’s 2019 trip as being tied to Chinese intelligence agency front groups by cross-referencing the itinerary with the research of several prominent Chinese intelligence specialists, including former CIA analyst Peter Mattis and Alex Joske, a former analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Joske’s new book, “Spies and Lies,” details how, since the 1980s, Chinese intelligence operatives co-opted or established various nonprofits and impersonated scholars with the goal of luring prominent Western think tanks, such as Carnegie, into partnerships in order to influence U.S. government policies towards the communist nation.

Carnegie’s cooperation with Chinese intelligence front groups dates back to at least 2004, when, under the leadership of former think tank president Jessica Mathews, the nonprofit launched a joint program with the MSS-controlled China Reform Forum, according to Joske’s research. More than a decade later, Carnegie co-hosted the 2019 congressional staffer trip, which occurred while current CIA Director William Burns served as the think tank’s president.

“A lot of the key scholars and other figures involved in U.S.-China relations on the Chinese side have these sorts of relationships,” Joske told the DCNF. RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: CIA Director’s Former Think Tank Hired Experts From Nonprofits Controlled By Chinese Spy Agencies)

The six day trip, which was co-hosted by Carnegie and the Aspen Institute, became a flashpoint during Burns’ 2021 confirmation hearings. Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio pressed Burns about Carnegie’s ties to a Chinese government-backed group as well as the all-expenses-paid trip that brought 11 congressional staffers to Beijing in 2019.

Burns told Rubio the trip was meant “to provide congressional staff members with an opportunity to engage directly with Chinese counterparts and to express their concerns about Chinese actions and malign behavior quite directly.”

However, the DCNF previously reported congressional staffers were also introduced to the president of a CCP-affiliated front group called the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC). In 2020, the U.S. State Department designated CPAFFC as a foreign mission seeking to “malignly” influence American leaders. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon Funded Former Chinese Government Employee, CCP Member’s Nuclear Warfare Research)

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace employed undisclosed members of the Chinese Communist Party and individuals with ties to the Chinese government when CIA Director William Burns served as the think tank’s president, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation determined. (Artwork: The Daily Caller)

Additionally, the DCNF has identified at least 10 individuals listed on the trip’s itinerary who worked for nonprofits controlled by Chinese intelligence agencies. At least three of these individuals were simultaneously working for Chinese intelligence front groups while employed by Carnegie, the DCNF found. Another two Carnegie policy experts who participated in the trip formerly worked for Chinese intelligence fronts.

During the trip, congressional staffers visited Carnegie’s center at Tsinghua University, where they encountered at least three experts who’d worked for intelligence front groups, the DCNF determined.

One of these experts who participated in the visit was Li Bin, a Carnegie nuclear policy fellow, who spoke to congressional staffers about North Korea’s “nuclear threat.” Li Bin is a member of the CCP and a PLA intelligence front group, the China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies (CFISS), according to the group’s website.

A second individual, Cheng Xiaohe, who Carnegie employed as an international relations expert, had previously worked for the MSS front group, the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), by Carnegie’s own admission.

The third individual, Yang Wenjing, worked as the chief of U.S. policy at CICIR. While Carnegie did not employ Yang Wejing, Carnegie had featured her as a speaker during events in 2017 and 2018 and continued to feature her at events afterwards.

Similarly, at another point during the trip, Carnegie introduced staffers to Carnegie-Tsinghua advisory council member, Wang Jisi, who is also a CCP member, for a “roundtable discussion.”

Wang has a “very close relationship with the Ministry of State Security,” Joske told the DCNF. Wang has since 2000 also served as director of the China Reform Forum, which Joske’s book identifies as an MSS-controlled front group.

Wang has also worked for at least four other intelligence fronts, including the China International Cultural Exchange Center (CICEC) and another MSS front called the China Institute of Strategy and Management (CISM), the DCNF found.

Carnegie, Burns, Wang and the CIA did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

With Republicans preparing to take control of the House, lawmakers are once again scrutinizing Burns’ time at Carnegie and the group’s deep and enduring relationships with Chinese academics, policy experts and government officials.

“The amount of CCP infiltration at Carnegie shows that Director Burns was aware and intentionally concealed it from the American people, or he was grossly incompetent,” Texas Republican Rep. Lance Gooden told the DCNF in September. “Anyone who enables our top adversary is not fit to lead a U.S. intelligence agency.”

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12 GOP Senators Help Democrats Erode Americans’ Right to Act on Religious Convictions About Marriage

BY: JORDAN BOYD | NOVEMBER 29, 2022

wedding rings — **The ‘Respect for Marriage Act’ enables LGBT activists and the DOJ to bring civil action against anyone they say violates the legislation.**

Author Jordan Boyd profile

JORDAN BOYD

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Twelve Republicans disregarded their constituents’ wishes and aided Democrats in deriding the First Amendment rights of religious Americans by passing the deceptively-named Respect For Marriage Act without including any of their colleagues’ proposed protective amendments.

Of the 12 Republicans who voted to advance the RFMA to a vote on the floor, three needed to change their minds before a final vote on the bill to keep the bill from passing. It is clear from the 61-36 vote on Tuesday night that Sens. Roy Blunt of Missouri, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Susan Collins of Maine, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Rob Portman of Ohio, Mitt Romney of Utah, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Todd Young of Indiana did not change their minds.

Instead of using amendments as prerequisites for their support, these Republicans opened the door for their congressional colleagues to reject three separate attempts to give the bill robust legal protections for religious Americans who believe marriage is between a man and a woman.

The RFMA as it stands doesn’t just repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between male and female, by codifying the Supreme Court’s approval of same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges. It goes further by enabling LGBT activists, who have already made a habit of exploiting the legal system to target religious Americans, and the politically motivated Department of Justice to bring civil action against anyone they say violates the terms of the legislation.

Under the guise of vague language, the RFMA could allow for the legal victimization of wedding vendors, adoption agencies, bakeries, and any other entities run by people of faith who refuse to offer services condoning same-sex marriage based on religious convictions.

Despite the RFMA’s problems, the 12 GOP senators echoed their support for the legislation by once again voting in favor of it.

For their willingness to cave to the Democrats’ agenda, those Republicans were thanked by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer from the Senate floor ahead of the vote.

“I also want to acknowledge my Republican colleagues who voted in favor of advancing this legislation. Because of our work together, the rights of tens of millions of Americans will be strengthened under federal law,” he said. “That’s an accomplishment we should all be proud of.”

Other Republican senators, however, understood the risks the RFMA poses to Americans and offered solutions in the form of amendments that sought to clarify the bill’s cushioned language.

Sen. Mike Lee put forth an amendment that explicitly stated that the federal government “shall not take any discriminatory action against a person, wholly or partially on the basis that such person speaks, or acts, in accordance with a sincerely held religious belief, or moral conviction” that marriage is between one man and woman. The amendment would have also allowed anyone who is wrongfully targeted by the government over their beliefs about marriage to sue.

My amendment simply prohibits the Federal Government from retaliating against schools, businesses, and organizations because of their religious beliefs about same-sex marriage.

That is all it does. pic.twitter.com/xBdUiiybWA
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) November 29, 2022

That amendment, which required 60 votes to be adopted, ultimately failed.

Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. James Lankford also introduced amendments designed to clarify language and ensure religious liberty protections for all Americans.

Lankford’s amendment guaranteed that the RFMA’s obscurity would not be wielded against organizations with traditional marriage beliefs. Rubio’s amendment eliminated the private right to sue from the RFMA.

All Americans should be honored and no one should be discriminated against—no one. The Respect for Marriage Act isn’t about equality or maintaining the status quo. It is about silencing and disadvantaging people that disagree. pic.twitter.com/xp4JbZczdm
— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) November 28, 2022

Both amendments required a simple majority but failed.

Now that the RFMA has passed the Senate, the House is expected to vote on the updated bill as soon as this week.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who will likely assume the position of House speaker in January, told reporters early on Tuesday that he agrees with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) which says that the RFMA would “betray our country’s commitment to the fundamental right of religious liberty.”

“Catholic Bishops say religious protections in the Respect For Marriage Act are insufficient and far from comprehensive and treat religious liberty as a second-class right. As you know, that’s currently in the Senate. Do you agree with that assessment by the Catholic Bishops?” one reporter asked.

“I agree with them, yes,” McCarthy confirmed.

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy says he agrees with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which says the Respect For Marriage Act would "betray our country’s commitment to the fundamental right of religious liberty.” pic.twitter.com/ZbJIOytynJ
— Jordan Boyd (@jordanboydtx) November 29, 2022

McCarthy’s willingness to signal strong opposition to the bill, which garnered support from 47 House Republicans earlier this year, shows that he is listening to conservative voters who overwhelmingly reject this legislation.

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire and Fox News. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.

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Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Big Guy in Chief

A.F. BRANCO | on November 30, 2022 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-big-guy-in-chief/

Freedom-seeking people in China are protesting their tyrannical government but Biden remains silent.

Biden’s Response to China Protesters — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2022.**

DONATE to A.F.Branco Cartoons – Tips accepted and appreciated – $1.00 – $5.00 – $25.00 – $50.00 – $100 – it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. Also Venmo @AFBranco – THANK YOU!

A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Donald Trump.

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The Most Passionate Science Deniers Are Pro-Trans ‘Experts’ Who Profit from Carving Up Kids

BY: NATHANAEL BLAKE | NOVEMBER 29, 2022

surgeon arranging tools — **From medical associations to hospitals, countless people are in too deep to admit error, even as transgender ideology collapses.**

Author Nathanael Blake profile

NATHANAEL BLAKE

The transgender movement has a science problem. Trans activists and their allies are trying to silence their critics by accusing them of “science denialism,” but they are inadvertently illustrating the anti-science nature of transgender dogmas. For example, a recent opinion piece in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) — titled “Protecting Transgender Health and Challenging Science Denialism in Policy” actually demonstrates that rejecting transgender ideology is the best way to protect health and defend scientific integrity.

Of course, the authors, a couple of Yale professors plus a student, set out to prove the opposite. They open by asserting:

A virulent brand of science denialism is emerging in the U.S. legal system, as states enact bans on gender-affirming health care. Misused clinical research and disinformation have provided legal cover for bans on essential treatments for transgender and gender-expansive (TGE) people. Many of these bans restrict Medicaid reimbursement of gender-affirming care for people of all ages or prohibit gender-affirming care for minors. The recent end of federal protection for abortion and the lifting of Covid-19 protections such as mask mandates may signal an expansion of this dangerous force in health policy.

Yes, the complaints about the Dobbs decision and the ending of mask mandates are real and not a parody of upscale liberal white women. The rest is just loudly repeating transgender orthodoxies, with imprecations for doubters. And despite its apologists’ accusations of misused research and disinformation on the part of critics, transgenderism is indeed a dogmatic form of mysticism. Science has nothing to do with it.

Transgenderism denigrates the reality of bodily sex in order to exalt a non-corporeal sense of gender identity. It does not make a scientific claim, but a spiritual or metaphysical claim — that we have something like a gendered soul in a sexed body and that mismatches are possible and are best resolved by modifying the body into a facsimile of the other sex.

This extraordinary claim cannot be proven and must be taken on faith. Consequently, transgender advocates and allies, such as those writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, do not even attempt to provide a scientific explanation for transgenderism. Rather, because there is no physical need for medical transition, transgenderism has to be self-authenticating, proving itself by whatever mental health benefits can be attributed to it. This is why trans advocates are constantly (and falsely) telling parents that the alternative to transition is suicide — it’s the only argument they have; the only physical harm that can result from not transitioning is self-harm.

As this demonstrates, so-called gender-affirming care is abnormal medicine. It hugely disrupts healthy bodily functions for dubious mental benefits. It is like using intense chemotherapy to treat anxiety. Thus, the case for transition, especially for children, needs to meet an extremely high standard of evidence.

Predictably, the authors of the NEJM article fail to do this. They argue that the case for transition is robust and accuse their opponents of disinformation and cherry-picking data but tracing their citations back through their own previous work provides more assertion than evidence. The studies they cite cannot escape the usual weaknesses plaguing this area of study: poor response rates, bad sampling methods, small sample sizes, short time-frames, and a reliance on patient self-evaluation.

Even less convincing are their attempts to dismiss the side effects of medical transition, which undermine the claims of any benefits. For example, the NEJM writers suggest that the use of puberty blockers in cases of precocious puberty means they are also safe to use in transition — but the former use simply delays a natural, healthy puberty until the appropriate age, while the latter prevents it from ever happening. Even the New York Times has noticed that using puberty blockers for gender-confused children may have major downsides.

Of course, the elephant in the room is that studies on transition, and especially transitioning children, are overwhelmingly conducted by those whose careers depend upon proving the benefits of transition. The doctors who are chemically castrating teenage boys, or amputating the healthy breasts of adolescent girls, are all-in. To admit that these procedures are a mistake would be a confession of horrific, possibly even criminal, medical malpractice that would end their careers.

Likewise, many of the formerly respectable gatekeepers of medicine and scientific research have been deeply compromised by transgender ideology. From medical associations to hospitals, there is a multitude of people who are in too deep to admit error, even as transgender ideology collapses.

The fact-free nature of transgender ideology is apparent in the latest standards of care issued by WPATH (World Professional Association of Transgender Health), a pro-trans group that is treated as the leading authority on transgender medicine. The organization eliminated many of its recommended age restrictions for medical transition in order to protect from malpractice claims physicians who were transitioning children younger than the previous standards — after all, doctors can’t violate a standard of care that doesn’t exist. And bizarrely, WPATH declared “eunuch” to be a valid gender identity, a decision reached, in part, by relying on online forums filled with violent fantasies of child sexual abuse.

These cranks and creeps have captured the establishment, from medicine to academia to the Democratic Party. And they intend to use their power to intimidate and silence critics. They do not care that their attempts are dishonest and incoherent. For instance, the NEJM writers admit that the scientific “consensus is ever evolving,” yet they posit this as a reason to shut down debate and deregulate transitioning children.

They are not perturbed by the inconsistency, for they are engaged in the exercise of power, not reason. They do not care about winning the argument but about intimidating people into compliance. And so, they rely on credentialism and cries of “science denialism” and “misinformation” — following the same approach used to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story, the lab-leak theory of Covid-19’s origins, and skepticism about extended school closures and masking toddlers — to protect their faith in gender identity and the pediatric transitions it demands.

But try though they might, they cannot alter biological reality. They may live by the lie of gender ideology, but they cannot make it true.

Nathanael Blake is a senior contributor to The Federalist and a postdoctoral fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

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Health, Political

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12 Ways the New Congress Should Hold Big Pharma Accountable for Covid Evils

BY: DAVID THALHEIMER | NOVEMBER 29, 2022

doctor giving girl a shot — **We need to recognize what contributed to the insane pandemic response and implement solutions to make sure nothing like it ever happens again.**

Author David Thalheimer profile

DAVID THALHEIMER

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed a crisis of confidence in our so-called elites and technocrats, who are supposed to serve the public but instead appear to have been serving themselves. So, what do we do to restore sanity and medical freedom and make sure a public health disaster never happens again? Some suggest “amnesty” for those who went to extremes during the pandemic. Absolutely not. What we need is to recognize what contributed to the insane pandemic response and implement solutions to make sure nothing like it ever happens again.

Now that the GOP has a majority in the House and some members want to hold Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), and others accountable, here are 12 steps Congress can take to curb future pharma corruption and malfeasance.

None of these should be considered partisan since both parties should share the objective of avoiding another pandemic disaster. However, the pharmaceutical and health industry makes substantial contributions to elected officials on both sides of the aisle, with more than $361 million spent on lobbying in 2021 and an all-time high of $92 million in political contributions in 2020 (62 percent to Democrats and 38 percent to Republicans), so implementing reforms will be a challenge no matter who controls the House or the Senate.

Early in 2022, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., published a 12-point plan to rescue America. Curiously, not a single point of his plan addressed the pandemic even though it was the worst health catastrophe in a century that also triggered authoritarian medical mandates and censorship never before seen in this country.

What is the common denominator between the pharmaceutical companies, the public health bureaucracy, medical associations, the corporate media, and Big Tech companies when it comes to censorship and medical misinformation? Money, of course.

According to Statista, the pharmaceutical and medical industry spent $5.6 billion on U.S. television advertising in 2021, second only behind the life and entertainment industry at $10.1 billion. For reference, total U.S. TV ad spending is expected to exceed $68 billion in 2022. According to eMarketer, pharmaceutical and health care companies combined spent an estimated $9.5 billion on digital media in 2020, with 56 percent going toward search advertising, dominated by Google and Facebook, which have aggressively censored medical information that deviated from the official public health narrative. This accounted for about 7.1 percent of all U.S. digital ad spending.

The pharma industry pays, in the form of user fees, for 75 percent of the FDA’s drug review budget, according to Forbes, and 45 percent of its overall budget. One investigation showed that 40 of 107 physician advisers on the FDA committees examined “received more than $10,000 in post hoc earnings or research support from the makers of drugs that the panels voted to approve, or from competing firms.”

According to an analysis by the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has numerous conflicts of interest, including openly accepting private gifts through the CDC Foundation, accepting supposedly “prohibited” donations, and “automatic” conflict of interest waivers for advisory committee members. In 2010, the CDC inspector general noted a “systemic lack of oversight” of its ethics program. The CDC uses taxpayer money to develop patents and then receives money from pharma companies in the form of licenses and royalties.

The NIAID, headed by Fauci, also accepts donations, such as a $100 million pledge by Bill Gates for work on gene therapies.

Individual public health officials and scientists, including Fauci and former NIH Director Francis Collins, receive royalties on patents used by the industry, teaching hospitals accept industry donations, and doctors accept “consulting fees,” and other travel and meals payments from pharma companies when they promote their products. Medical associations, such as the American Medical Association, accept pharma money while promoting drug-based medicine and discrediting alternative medicine and other competitors. Some professional societies that are involved with the development of clinical practice guidelines also have financial conflicts of interest.

Is it any wonder why the public health authorities, medical associations and hospitals, the news media, and Big Tech have attempted to censor any information that contradicted the pro-pharma narratives?

Congress could pass one comprehensive law to effectively undercut the corruption behind the censorious Big Tech companies, the corporate media, and the corrupt public health establishment. Such a law would consist of several simple common-sense reforms to combat financial incentives that promote corruption and tyrannical behavior.

Re-impose the ban on direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising. Pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars on advertising, which has made both Big Tech and corporate media companies vulnerable to influence, leading to censorship and search engine result manipulation.
Prohibit pharmaceutical companies from contributing to the campaigns of any political candidate or any political action committee for a period of 25 years if they have been fined or agreed to settlements of more than $100 million for violations of the False Claims Act, Medicare fraud, kickbacks, failure to disclose safety data, making misleading statements about drug safety, poor manufacturing practices, or off-label promotion. Since most pharma companies have been fined from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars, this would effectively prohibit them from making political contributions to suppress government oversight and regulation.
Prohibit state medical boards and associations that accept state or federal funds from accepting funds from pharmaceutical companies. Those donations are a corrupting influence on the entire medical establishment, which has backed medical discrimination and tyrannical mandates. Instead, allocate public funds, paid for by higher taxes on pharma products, to support reputable medical boards and professional associations and enforce strict conflict-of-interest policies.
Prohibit medical journals that accept state or federal funds from accepting funds from pharmaceutical companies. Such funding is a corrupting influence on the journals, some of which have censored truthful medical studies or published fraudulent studies designed to suppress alternative treatments or challenge pharmaceutical company safety and efficacy claims. Instead, allocate public funds, paid for by higher taxes on pharma products, to support reputable journals that publish federally funded medical research and enforce strict conflict of interest policies.
Revoke laws granting pharmaceutical companies’ immunity from liability for vaccines or other products that cause death or harm. Pharmaceutical companies will no longer have an incentive to offer products that are improperly tested or do not meet reasonable safety standards and will need to pay more attention to safety. People who are harmed will be able to file lawsuits for financial restitution and bring public attention to the harm that is being done. Also prohibit the government National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program from requiring victims to agree to a non-disclosure (gag) agreement when they settle an injury claim, thus providing public transparency to vaccine injuries.
Require pharmaceutical companies that supply products to deal with a declared public health emergency, or produce products developed with federal research and development funding, to sell at a limited profit margin of, for instance, 5 percent. Pharmaceutical companies should not be allowed to use public funds in a public health emergency to make billions of dollars in profits. This should mitigate any incentive to exaggerate the threat of future pandemics, engage in unsafe gain-of-function research, or push for medical mandates to force the use of pharmaceutical products.
Pass a medical professional bill of rights that prohibits discrimination against medical professionals who do not agree with public health authorities on treatments. This includes threats of firing or decertification and attempts by public officials and medical associations to prevent doctors from lawfully treating patients using off-label medications or questioning the safety, efficacy, and need for pharmaceutical products. Impose civil or criminal penalties for public officials, private organizations, or medical professionals that engage in such discrimination.
Pass a medical consumer bill of rights that prohibits medical coercion and discrimination, including medical mandates that abrogate the doctor-patient relationship without consent or a complete disclosure of risks. Impose civil or criminal penalties for public officials, private organizations, or medical professionals that engage in such discrimination.
Limit corruption in the federal public health establishment by creating independent medical and scientific advisory commissions appointed by state legislatures that can override decisions made by the FDA, CDC, NIAID, and other federal public health bureaucracies. Doctors and scientists appointed to such commissions must be free of financial conflicts of interest with medical industries over which they provide oversight.
Create an independent, publicly funded drug safety monitoring organization that accepts no funding or royalties from pharmaceutical companies and has no role in the promotion or approval of pharmaceutical products. Oversight of this organization will also be provided by scientific advisory commissions appointed by state legislatures, whose members must be free of financial conflicts of interest with the medical industries over which they provide oversight.
Prohibit public health officials from holding investments in medical companies and receiving income from patents related to work conducted while in government service.
Limit terms of office for senior officials in public health to four years and impose a lifetime ban on employment by or representation of a medical company that they previously regulated.

These comprehensive reforms would help to remove corrupting financial incentives and decentralize federal public health oversight. The current environment rewards corruption and tyrannical behavior, which must be fought by eliminating bad incentives and replacing them with higher standards of personal integrity and transparency. There should be no amnesty for bad decisions that resulted in violations of human rights — only accountability and solutions designed to prevent them from ever being made again. As we have long been told, “those who fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.”

David Thalheimer is a graduate of George Washington University, Harvard University, the Air War College, and the National Intelligence University. He retired from the U.S. Air Force as a colonel and now works as an engineer in the field of cybersecurity.

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Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Hogwash

A.F. BRANCO | on November 29, 2022 | https://wordpress.com/post/whatdidyousay.org/71515

The green agenda lies are all just hogwash that the media and Wall Street eat up.

Green Agenda Propaganda — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2022.**

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Political

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‘Deceptive’: Franklin Graham warns Christians about ‘Respect for Marriage Act’ ahead of Senate vote

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor | November 28, 2022

**Courtesy Billy Graham Evangelistic Association**

Evangelist Franklin Graham is warning Christians that the so-called Respect for Marriage Act, which is set to be voted on by the Senate Monday, is a deceptive smoke-screen that would change the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman while not protecting those who hold a traditional view of marriage.

The Respect for Marriage Act “could impact you, your family, your church, and our nation,” Graham wrote on Facebook during the weekend. “The name is a smoke-screen. Very deceptive.”

He compared it to the Democrats’ so-called Inflation Reduction Act that “did nothing but increase inflation and further hurt our economy.”

“The current version of the Respect for Marriage Act being pushed by Senator Chuck Schumer is designed to provide strong protections for same-sex marriage — but it fails to protect those of us who believe marriage is between a man and a woman,” explained Graham, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse.

“It is dangerous legislation that would be used against individuals, churches and organizations who honor traditional marriage.”

The bill to enshrine the right to same-sex marriage into federal law cleared a major procedural hurdle in the Senate earlier this month, with critics saying that a religious freedom amendment added to the legislation doesn’t adequately protect those with deeply held beliefs that marriage is between one man and one woman. Graham said Republican Sen. Mike Lee’s proposed amendment “can improve” the legislation and “bring critically-needed protection for religious liberty and rights of conscience.”

He continued, “Many say this is a long shot, but we desperately need senators to demand the Lee Amendment be added to the current version of the Respect for Marriage Act before it is finalized.”

The measure would codify the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges, which established a right to same-sex marriage, into federal law and formally repeal the unenforced Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman at the federal level.

Graham urged Christians to call their senators “as soon as possible and ask them to vote YES for the Lee Amendment — or to vote NO to the Respect for Marriage Act if it doesn’t have this amendment.”

He warned, “Time is short — freedom-loving people have to take action before it’s too late.”

The Respect for Marriage Act previously passed the Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives in July with the support of all Democrats and 47 House Republicans.

The legislation would require all states to give “full faith and credit to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other State pertaining to a marriage between 2 individuals, on the basis of the sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin of those individuals.”

Passage of the bill has become a top priority for congressional Democrats following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, determining that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t contain a right to abortion. In a concurring opinion in Dobbs, Justice Clarence Thomas described the substantive due process as “legal fiction,” suggesting that the justices should “reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents,” including Obergefell.

In a recent op-ed for The Christian Post, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, also warned that the bill “opens the door to American persecution.”

“As the mainstream culture moves further and further away from a Christian worldview, I’ve witnessed the hostility to moral truth creep closer to our shores,” he wrote. “The West, once the safe haven of free speech and religion, is turning cold to the foundations that made our countries thrive.”

He cited an FRC report released in July, which tracked 99 incidents of government attacks on religious freedom against Christians or Christian institutions across 14 Western countries in the last two years alone.

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Texas teacher, aides arrested for allegedly locking 5-year-old special needs boy in ‘isolation room,’ where he ate feces, drank urine, and hurt himself

By: PAUL SACCA | November 26, 2022

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A Texas teacher and two aides have been arrested for allegedly abusing a 5-year-old special needs boy in 2021.

Three instructors employed at the Liberty Independent School District (ISD) were taken into custody in mid-November for alleged crimes committed during an alleged shocking incident on April 15, 2021. Teacher Melody Michel LaPointe, 47, and teaching assistants Tarah Michelle Tinney, 33, and Augusta Danielle Costlow, 27, were charged with four counts each of abandoning or endangering a child in imminent danger of bodily injury, a second-degree felony.

All three women were booked into the Liberty County Jail, and their bond was set at $60,000 each. All three are reportedly out on bond.

The teacher and instructional assistants are accused of isolating a special needs student in a room at a Liberty Independent School District facility. The 5-year-old boy was deprived of food and began eating his own feces and drinking his own urine, according to court documents.

Don’t miss out on content from Dave Rubin free of big tech censorship. Listen to The Rubin Report now.

The three instructors were reportedly responsible for the care of the young victim.

The indictment identified the victim as “R.W.,” and stated the instructors “intentionally abandoned [R.W.] in a place under circumstances that exposed [R.W.] to an unreasonable risk of harm, and under circumstances that a reasonable person would believe would place the child in imminent danger of death, bodily injury, or physical or mental impairment.”

Law & Crime reported, “The document explains that the alleged conduct involved confining R.W. ‘to an isolation room where he fell causing bodily injury’ and then failing to ‘voluntarily deliver the child to a designated emergency infant care provider’ as required by law.”

A spokesperson for Liberty ISD issued a statement on the disturbing accusations.

We immediately reported the matter to law enforcement and CPS, removed the educators who continued to work for us from the classroom, and conducted a comprehensive investigation. Based upon our investigation, we reported the educators to the State Board for Educator Certification and shared our results with law enforcement officials.

KTRK-TV reported, “According to a spokesperson for Liberty ISD, the two assistants were put on administrative leave during the investigation last year and then resigned once the investigation was completed. LaPointe, the main teacher in the classroom, was able to find work at another school district. She was recently working as a teacher for Bonnie P. Hopper Primary School in Goose Creek CISD.”

On Nov. 17, officials at the Hopper Primary School informed parents of the teacher’s arrest.

“In an effort of full transparency, we want to inform our families of an incident that occurred yesterday during dismissal. A teacher at Bonnie P. Hopper Primary School was arrested yesterday by Liberty County constables. The cause for arrest occurred in Liberty County and is not affiliated with Goose Creek CISD in any way. The teacher is currently placed on administrative leave with pay, pending the outcome of an investigation, after which the District will take appropriate disciplinary action. As this is a pending legal matter, Goose Creek CISD will allow the legal process to proceed and refrain from further comment. We want to ensure our families that the safety and security of your children is our #1 concern. We thank you for your continuous support of our campus and our district.

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Education

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Wisconsin Children’s Hospital Is Stacking Its Bench of Chaplains with Trans Activists

BY: KYLEE GRISWOLD | NOVEMBER 28, 2022

chaplain holding an open bible with hospitals and doctors in the background — **Children’s Wisconsin’s recent chaplain hires are full-fledged left-wing activists who twist religion to advance their preferred social Marxist policies.**

Author Kylee Griswold profile

KYLEE GRISWOLD

VISIT ON TWITTER@KYLEEZEMPEL

Children’s staff members were first notified of such new hires when fliers were posted around the inpatient units advertising, “Meet Your New Chaplain: Kate Newendorp.” The first tip-off to Newendorp’s beliefs about the sexes was featured prominently on the posters, with a proclamation of her pronouns as “she/her/hers” and those of her fiance, a female who goes by “they/he.”

“Working in a pediatric hospital is a dream come true!!” Newendorp is quoted on the flier. “I am so excited to be working alongside everyone and am pumped to be part of the team. Think of me as your friendly next-door neighbor!”

The poster is just your garden-variety job announcement, but a deeper dive shows that Newendorp’s social Marxist views aren’t confined to a push for preferred pronouns. The new chaplain is all-in for transgender surgeries, abortion, and a rejection of religious teaching when it cuts against her personal comfort.

Despite biblical Christian doctrine affirming the sanctity and humanity of life in the womb, the existence of only two distinct sexes, and the immorality of same-sex relations in both the Old and New Testaments, the new “chaplain” proudly rejects all of this.

“Love Jesus. Be gay. Get ordained,” she wrote on Facebook in June, with pictures of herself in rainbow garb. “What better way to celebrate Pride than being ordained?! Many thanks to my church and classis for being willing to stand for queer folks being included in ministry and for allowing me to follow God’s call.”

Several months later, on Oct. 17, 2022, after announcing her engagement to her female fiance who identifies as transgender, the Children’s Wisconsin “chaplain” spouted off about her church online. “Also, your casual reminder that my validity as an ordained minister is currently under review by my denomination because of the love I feel for my fiancé. Do better Church, because I’m not going anywhere. I was called,” she wrote.

Newendorp doesn’t just reject biblical relationships in her own life; she’s a full-fledged left-wing activist who twists religion to advance her preferred leftist policies. Her Twitter bio announces that she’s a “Chaplain desiring to shake things up” and says she’s “Daydreaming about … a time where God isn’t referred to with male pronouns.” On Facebook, she shared a blasphemous poem called “Jesus at the Gay Bar”:

But she’s also used her religion card to proclaim that loving your neighbor looks like “getting vaccinated and masking up” and voting for Democrats, and that “Abortion is a religious freedom.”

“People of all genders and sexualities have and need abortions. Abortion is healthcare,” Newendorp wrote with misinformation about maternal deaths. “I am an ordained minister who supports a person’s right to choose what is right for their life and their body. I am pastor [sic] who is pro-choice.”

In January, Newendorp started a GoFundMe “on behalf of Jennifer London” to help her fiance “Jensen” undergo a double mastectomy, known in the transgender-activist world by the euphemism “top surgery.”

Since moving to Wisconsin for her role at the children’s hospital, Newendorp appears to have become friendly with the other chaplains, posting pictures of herself going wedding dress shopping with fellow Children’s chaplain Ian Butts. This indicates Newendorp is not the only anti-Christian person installed in a religious role at the hospital to help families deal with life-and-death medical situations.

If Butts’ name sounds familiar, that’s because he was the chaplain who interrogated Children’s staff members who submitted religious exemption requests over the disastrous Covid shot mandate that left many hospitals dangerously understaffed. As part of the invasive vetting process, Butts grilled employees about their religious beliefs to determine whether their theology met his standards for being allowed their First Amendment rights and freedom to make their own medical decisions.

[READ: In Wisconsin, Hospital Shortages Aren’t From Covid, They’re From Vaccine Mandates]

As I reported in these pages at the time, “The questions included the specifics of the employees’ personal religious convictions and their vaccination record, with Butts pressing on what he considered to be contradictions. Two particularly leading questions regarded the specifics of how the employees would keep their patients safe without being vaccinated, implying a moral implication of refusing a vaccine, as well as how they could square working for a hospital that mandated something so contrary to their personal convictions as a condition of employment.”

“We have already seen that Children’s holds little value for respecting deeply held religious beliefs, given their recent COVID Religious Waiver Committee. But this feels like a step too far. This feels like they have actively recruited activists into this field to further their progressive agenda,” one former Children’s Wisconsin employee told The Federalist of the trans activist chaplains. “I think this situation really calls into question who do we want guiding the spiritual development of our children — especially children who are stuck in a hospital, isolated, sometimes alone, and extremely vulnerable and easily impressionable.”

Children’s also recently posted a flier for a “Spiritual Care Intern” named Meg Trimm, who demanded to be referred to by the third-person plural pronouns “They” and “Them.” This chaplain intern was “an LGBTQ+ community educator and LGBTQ+ teen safe space facilitator” who believes “a professional chaplain’s job is not to convert anyone or preach religion, but to empower each person to find and use the hope and resilience systems they already have.”

Like Newendorp, Trimm rejects biblical teaching such as the concurrent depravity and creation in God’s image of people of all skin colors to instead espouse the most radical of left-wing political and theological views. Trimm has shared numerous TikToks of herself “deconstructing my white supremacy,” explaining that “gender is infinite,” proclaiming, “God is TRANSGENDER!!!” and saying, “God has a purpose for your life, and it might be fricken queer!”

“I am deeply concerned with this new infiltration of trans activists into our chaplain and faith-based services,” the former Children’s employee told The Federalist. “We have already witnessed the erosion and lost of public trust in fields of psychology, psychiatry, social work and general mental health counselors due to the rise of activists in these areas. Now parents have to worry about this as well?”

Like other pediatric hospitals that have recently come under fire for mutilative transgender interventions, the “Gender Health Clinic” at Children’s Wisconsin advertises medical interventions and surgeries for children up to age 16, with no specified age the hospital deems too young. It advertises that its services include “top surgery” (meaning a mastectomy that mutilates a child’s healthy and developing breasts), wrong-sex hormones, and allegedly “reversible” puberty-blocking hormones, although that isn’t what the experts and “science” say.

While the National Health Service used to claim such gender-bending interventions were “reversible,” it has since backpedaled, admitting:

Little is known about the long-term side effects of hormone or puberty blockers in children with gender dysphoria. … It’s also not known whether hormone blockers affect the development of the teenage brain or children’s bones. Side effects may also include hot flushes, fatigue and mood alterations. … [Gender-affirming] hormones cause some irreversible changes, such as: breast development (caused by taking oestrogen), breaking or deepening of the voice (caused by taking testosterone). Long-term cross-sex hormone treatment may cause temporary or even permanent infertility.

If health-care workers in the “Gender Health Clinic” at Children’s Wisconsin decide it’s “appropriate,” they prescribe puberty blockers to children at their first visit, even if they’ve never been evaluated by a mental health professional. And while the hospital says it doesn’t pump kids full of wrong-sex hormones on the first visit, it “can work to quickly start hormones at a follow-up clinic visit, usually within a few weeks.”

Furthermore, the pediatric hospital states on its “gender health history” form: “We offer gender-affirming Spiritual Support to all our patients.” Andy Brodzeller, an external communication director for Children’s, failed to explain what “gender affirming Spiritual Support” means despite being asked repeatedly.

“Our chaplains are trained to support and engage families of various faith and personal backgrounds in a health care setting,” Brodzeller said in response to a Federalist inquiry. “They only interact with patients if specifically requested by a family. Families are also always free to seek the services of their own personal faith leader. Regarding your question about parental involvement related to care for gender diverse kids, parents and guardians are essential to all care decisions. Clear, informed consent of all parents/guardians is required before proceeding with all treatments.”

But with trans activist “chaplains” like Newendorp and Trimm stacking the pediatric hospital’s spiritual support bench, and a promise from Children’s to “offer gender-affirming Spiritual Support to all our patients” (emphasis mine), people in the Children’s community are rightly concerned.

“We have many parents and families at Children’s who are deeply religious and hold traditional Judeo-Christian values. Will these new chaplains be able to serve the need of these families objectively?” the former Children’s employee added. “How will they properly support a grieving parent who is dealing with a child’s traumatic injury? How will they properly counsel a child who may be alone in the hospital due to a single parent working to make ends meet and maintain insurance?”

How indeed.

Kylee Griswold is the editorial director of The Federalist. She previously worked as the copy editor for the Washington Examiner magazine and as an editor and producer at National Geographic. She holds a B.S. in Communication Arts/Speech and an A.S. in Criminal Justice and writes on topics including feminism and gender issues, religion, and the media. Follow her on Twitter @kyleezempel.

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Senate’s top gun-control advocate squashes Biden’s hope for more gun control, assault weapons ban

By: CHRIS ENLOE | November 28, 2022

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Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a top gun-control advocate, dismissed on Sunday the possibility that lawmakers will pass new gun-control legislation before Republicans take control of the House in January.

After two mass shootings last week, President Joe Biden demanded that Congress pass “stricter gun control” laws before the new Congress convenes in January.

“The idea we still allow semiautomatic weapons to be purchased is sick. It’s just sick. It has no, no social redeeming value. Zero. None. Not a single, solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers,” Biden said on Friday.

He also confirmed that he is “going to try to get rid of assault weapons” during the lame-duck session in Congress.

Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Murphy admitted an assault weapons ban passed by the House is unlikely to pass the Senate.

“I’m glad that President Biden is going to be pushing us to take a vote on an assault weapons ban. The House has already passed it. It’s sitting in front of the Senate,” Murphy began.

“Does it have 60 votes in the Senate right now? Probably not,” he explained.

“But let’s see if we can try to get that number as close to 60 as possible,” the senator continued. “If we don’t have the votes, then we will talk to [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer and maybe come back next year with maybe an additional senator and see if we can do better.“

Murphy also suggested the federal government should punish so-called “Second Amendment sanctuary” localities.

“They have decided that they are going to essentially refuse to implement laws that are on the books. That is a growing problem in this country,” Murphy claimed. “And I think we’re gonna have to have a conversation about that in the United States Senate. Do we want to continue to supply funding to law enforcement in counties that refuse to implement state and federal gun laws?“

Second Amendment sanctuary states and cities, however, generally have not vowed to outright ignore laws.

Rather, they have simply passed resolutions vowing to protect the Second Amendment and not enforce controversial gun control measures whose constitutionality, and thus legality, is disputed. Indeed, promising to enforce Second Amendment rights is enforcing the law.

"They've decided they're going to essentially refuse to implement laws that are on the books. That is a growing problem in this country." –
Sen. Murphy says Congress needs to consider not funding law enforcement in counties that don't enforce federal gun laws. @CNNSotu #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/HZ5WEURSND
— CNN (@CNN) November 27, 2022

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Political

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Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Something Smells

A.F. BRANCO | on November 28, 2022 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-something-smells/

DOJ Ignores a pile of Biden Corruption in the Hunter laptop and FTX Democrat laundering scheme to focus on Trump.

DOJ Focuses On Trump — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2022.**

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Political

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COMMENTARY: Walmart Mass Shooter Left Behind Suicide Note – Includes 4 Words Media Doesn’t Want to Talk About

By C. Douglas Golden | November 26, 2022

The way you can tell the media is going to move on from the shooting at a Chesapeake, Virginia, Walmart that claimed the lives of six people is that there’s absolutely no handle for them.

Race? Not a factor — accused shooter Andre Bing, who later killed himself, was black. The gun? Not an AR-15 or an associated long rifle — the handgun he used was legally purchased. His victims weren’t chosen for any other reason than that they were his coworkers at the store.

And there are four words you definitely won’t hear them talk about from the alleged shooter’s suicide note: “led by the Satan.”

The note, which Chesapeake police say they found on the phone of the 31-year-old Bing, was released in a series of tweets on Friday.

In the rambling screed, Bing said he was offended because his coworkers compared him to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

“I would never have killed anyone that entered my home,” he said, calling his fellow employees “idiots with low intelligence” who tormented him with what he described as “evil twisted grins.”

“Sorry God I’ve failed you, this was not your fault but my own,” he wrote. “I failed to listen to the groans of the holy spirit which made me a poor representation of You.”

“My only wish would have been to start over from scratch and that my parents would have paid closer attention to my social deficits,” he continued.

“Sorry everyone but I did not plan this, I promise things just fell in place like I was led by the Satan.”

As the investigation has progressed, detectives conducted a forensic analysis of the suspect's phone, which was located at the scene. This note was located in the device. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/uCAvAZgYWP
— City of Chesapeake (@AboutChesapeake) November 25, 2022

So, guess how many times Satan was mentioned in CNN’s write-up of the suicide note? Zero.

Instead, we got this: “The note — found on his phone — talks about God, the holy spirit, and how the author felt his ‘associates’ were mocking him.”

Nowhere in the article is it mentioned how he was addressing God or talking about the Holy Spirit. One is left with the distinct impression he was inspired by God, not by the embodiment of sin and evil.

By ignoring Satan, the media ignores the fact very real spiritual evil exists. “We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one,” 1 John 5:19 reads. Even a CNN reporter can look at the outlet’s own homepage and realize how true the last part of that equation is.

Focusing on that, however, would lead too many readers to ruminate on the state of our fallen world and to blame individuals — not guns, politicians or religion — for the shooting.

With the shooting at a Colorado Springs, Colorado, gay nightclub, those scapegoats were too easy. It was the fault of religion. Of Tucker Carlson and Lauren Boebert. Of the so-called “assault weapon.”

This time, four disgusting words spell out what motivated this and so many other mass murderers: “led by the Satan.”

Expect the media to do everything to avoid talking about the inconvenient fact that good and evil are real, objective things. They’re going to avoid it because they want to exist in a godless bubble where good and evil are determined by manmade standards.

Tragically, shootings like the one in Chesapeake show exactly what happens when those concepts are left to human arbiters.

C. Douglas Golden

Contributor, Commentary

C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.

@CillianZeal

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SUMMING UP THE WEEK OF NOVEMBER 25, 2022

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Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Horn of Calamity

A.F. BRANCO | on November 25, 2022 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-horn-of-calamity/

Not the Horn of Plenty this Thanksgiving, more like the “Horn of Calamity” with Pres. Biden.

Biden Fetterman Thanksgiving — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2022.**

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Suspect In Colorado Springs Shooting Claims To Be ‘Non-Binary,’ Uses ‘They/Them’ Pronouns

BY: TRISTAN JUSTICE | NOVEMBER 23, 2022

The suspect in last weekend’s Colorado Springs mass shooting at a gay nightclub isn’t exactly the right-wing Christian boogeyman legacy media immediately painted him as. According to The New York Times on Tuesday, 22-year-old Anderson Aldrich claims to be “non-binary” and wants other people to refer to him with the plural pronouns “they” and “them.”

“The lawyers refer to their client as Mx. Anderson Aldrich,” reported the paper’s Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs.

Aldrich has been charged with five counts of first-degree murder and five counts of a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury related to the shooting that left five people dead and at least another 25 injured on Saturday night.

Despite few details about the suspect emerging immediately after the shooting, left-wing talking heads placed blame on conservative media in a knee-jerk fashion. Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, whose Monday night monologue included a condemnation of political violence paired with a reminder of the dangers surrounding transgender medical interventions for minors, became a primary target — despite the fact that these interventions have been shown to raise suicide risks, contrary to the left’s constant fearmongering.

According to a recent groundbreaking study from the Heritage Foundation, “easing access to cross-sex treatments without parental consent significantly increases suicide rates.”

“There is no scientific justification for sexually mutilating kids,” Carlson said. “Is pointing that out an attack on gay people? Of course it is not an attack on gay people. It has nothing to do with gay people.”

“Violence and cruelty should always horrify us every single time,” Carlson added, provoking critics to call him a hypocrite because, according to the left, opposition to mutilative surgeries and sterilizing drugs for minors is somehow violent.

“‘Hateful’: Critics Rip Tucker Carlson’s Response to LGBTQ Nightclub Shooting,” blared a headline in HuffPost amplified by Yahoo News. The article ran down a list of media personalities active on Twitter, from Media Matters for America to liberal podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen, who admonished Carlson despite the prime-time host admitting the many unknowns and his commentary later being vindicated.

“So, the most obvious question is why did Anderson Aldrich shoot 30 people?” Carlson asked on air. “The truth is we don’t know.”

The leftist pundits on MSNBC, however, seemed to have an answer without actually knowing any of the facts. On Tuesday, NBC’s Twitter hall monitor Ben Collins, on the verge of tears, called on reporters to “have a come-to-Jesus moment” and confront the supposedly violent rhetoric from conservative outlets.

“Are we more afraid of being on Breitbart for saying that trans people deserve to be alive, or are we more afraid of the dead people?” Collins asked after he highlighted a series of headlines that warned of right-wing violence targeting transgender-identified people.

“I’m more afraid of the dead people,” Collins finished. “I don’t want to wake up on a Sunday and see all of these headlines come to fruition.”

"I think we have to have a come-to-Jesus moment here as reporters—Are we more afraid of being on Breitbart for saying that trans people deserve to be alive, or are we more afraid of the dead people?"

— @oneunderscore__ on the rise of anti-LGBT rhetoric and its real-life impacts pic.twitter.com/RuEEDikFHe
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) November 22, 2022

Now would be a good time for Collins and the rest of the left-wing media establishment to have an actual “come to Jesus moment” over their hysterical coverage that immediately fomented outrage, fear, and division by blaming their political opponents. Now that we actually have a few facts, their narrative appears to be falling apart.

Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com.

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TRISTAN JUSTICE

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Trans Ideologues Who Cheer Cutting Off Healthy Genitals Shouldn’t Set Federal Medical Standards

BY: DOUGLAS WILSON | NOVEMBER 23, 2022

Health and Human Services — **Along the new frontier of ‘transgender health,’ destructive ‘standards of care’ are being set by ideologues — with the government’s blessing.**

Author Douglas Wilson profile

DOUGLAS WILSON

Imagine the Environmental Protection Agency decides that, instead of setting air pollution standards, it will outsource oversight to an industry group called the “Emission Standards Coalition,” which, despite its innocuous name, is funded and staffed entirely by coal companies. Or, closer to home, imagine that city councilmembers in your quiet suburb decide that henceforth all speed limits will be set by the local auto racing club. We all would promptly object, haranguing the government for abdicating its most basic responsibility to citizens. “Foxes shouldn’t guard henhouses,” we’d say. Rules meant for public health and safety shouldn’t become tools to advance special interests and profit seekers. Lifting pollution and speed limits may benefit factory and Ferrari owners, but the public at large will have to cope with the resulting damage.

Farfetched as these examples might seem, something like this is happening in health care. Along the new frontier of “transgender health,” novel and even destructive “standards of care” are being set by ideologues and billionaire-backed foundations — all with the government’s blessing.

Earlier this year, President Joe Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a proposed rule under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. Behind its 190-plus pages and innocent-sounding name (“Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities”) hides a radical agenda that would reshape the nation’s health care in alarming ways. HHS is proposing new national standards for what it calls “gender affirming care,” mandating that doctors provide these services and insurance plans cover them. What is “gender affirming care” exactly? HHS never really says. Its proposed rule neither defines the term nor identifies objective standards — such as age limits — that might apply. Instead, HHS incorporates guidance from medical societies and a group calling itself the “World Professional Association for Transgender Health,” or WPATH.

WPATH is not a government agency. It is a trans-activist group. Its president is Dr. Marci Bowers, a man identifying as a woman and self-described “pioneer in the field of Gender Affirmation Surgery” with her own transgender reality show, “Sex Change Hospital.” WPATH’s staff appears to be largely borrowed from Veritas, a for-profit company that does marketing and public relations for medical societies. WPATH’s funders include the Arcus Foundation (“one of the largest LGBT funders in the world”), the Soros-backed Open Society Foundations, and the Tawani Foundation, headed by transgender billionaire Jennifer Pritzker.

‘Standards’ Reflect Radical Backers

In 2018, the Tawani Foundation gave WPATH $200,000 to develop its so-called “Standards of Care,” a gift that earned Pritzker the WPATH “Philanthropy Award.” And Pritzker is heavily invested in trans causes. While the foundation has been funneling money to groups like WPATH and the National Center for Transgender Equality, its for-profit arm, Tawani Enterprises, is making financial bets on medical devices, implants, and surgical cutting tools. With the transgender surgery market expected to grow by billions of dollars over the next decade, one careful observer notes that “it is hard to avoid the impression of complementarity” here.

No surprise, then, that the WPATH standards that HHS hopes to enshrine into law reflect the radical views of its backers. On the list of WPATH “treatments” are mutilating surgeries (mastectomies, vaginectomies, penectomies), “chest binding,” “genital tucking,” “aesthetic procedures” like “body contouring” and “voice surgery,” and puberty-blocking drugs for children. There’s no minimum age requirement for these procedures. WPATH even calls for “psychotherapy” for prepubescent “gender diverse children” to “explore their gender,” with parents involved “as necessary” and excluded if their involvement is “contra-indicated.” WPATH says it’s “committed to advocacy” for “social and political climates that ensure social tolerance, equality, and the full rights of citizenship.”

This isn’t medicine. It is the destruction of healthy bodies, the indoctrination of children, and the dissolution of parental rights. It is radical sexual ideology under the guise of science.

Rest of the World Backs Away

Even to call WPATH’s guidance “standards of care” is misleading. As the Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine explains, a true standard of care “is a treatment approach that all reasonable providers would use in a particular clinical situation,” but no such consensus exists for so-called “gender affirming care,” especially for kids. And the mounting damage this form of “care” is doing to both kids and adults is well-documented. It’s why countries around the world are backing away from it, even as HHS bureaucrats are strangely doubling down.

WPATH published its latest guidance in its “partner” journal, the recently renamed “International Journal of Transgender Health.” Among its authors is Susie Green, who heads the United Kingdom-based group Mermaids focused on “gender-diverse kids.” Green is not a medical professional. She spent several years as an IT consultant before famously helping her 16-year-old son undergo transgender surgery in Thailand. Another contributor to the WPATH guidance is Laura A. Jacobs, a self-described genderqueer “activist” and “heretic” whose “psychotherapy specialties” include “LGBTQIA+” adolescents, “BDSM,” “kink,” and “sexwork.”

It isn’t shocking that a bunch of well-funded activists could come together, give their glossy PDFs a veneer of academic credibility, and market their views as a new sexual orthodoxy. What is shocking is that they’ve managed to capture the federal bureaucracy. For HHS to uncritically platform WPATH, mandating shoddy science and destructive medicine as law, is an alarming development that deserves greater scrutiny.

Ultimately, this is a lawless effort. HHS has no power to override the states and the medical profession by imposing “standards of care” for the entire country. Nor can HHS force these standards on health care professionals in violation of their ethical and religious convictions. And purporting to delegate these tasks to billionaire-backed ideologues with no democratic accountability is worse yet. Just as racing enthusiasts don’t set speed limits and coal companies don’t set pollution rules, transgender activists shouldn’t be setting national medical standards.

Douglas G. Wilson Jr. is the chief executive officer of the Catholic Benefits Association and founding board member of the Catholic Health Care Leadership Alliance.

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Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Baked

A.F. BRANCO | on November 23, 2022 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-baked/

My, have political priorities changed, A turkey in every pot to Pot in every turkey.

Turkey Day — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2022.**

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Nine-Hour Hearing Held in Delaware County After Officials Took a Detour from Counting Center into a Closed Building for 6 Hours on Election Day

By Jim Hoft | Published November 22, 2022

As reported earlier – Pennsylvania election observers filed a complaint against the Delaware County Board of Elections after county officials took a detour on election night with the county’s ballots and v-drives into a closed building for six hours. Poll watchers were prevented from entering the building at the time.

The county also deleted 194 voter registrations that were deleted after election day whose ballots were counted.

Here are several allegations that were filed in a complaint last week in Delaware County.

The Gateway Pundit reported on this last week.

PA Voters File Lawsuit to Delay Certification After Officials Detoured from Counting Center into a Closed Building for 6 Hours on Election Day

A hearing took place Monday in Delaware County Pennsylvania.

Bill Lawrence reported on the 9-hour hearing that was held in Delaware County on Monday in front of Judge Barry Dozor on the election abnormalities.

* * * * * * * * *

Via Bill Lawrence Online.

Delco Election Concerns Aired In 9-Hour Hearing Before Judge Dozor — Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge Barry Dozor presided over a remarkable nine-hour hearing, yesterday, Nov. 20, concerning the request by Leah Hoopes, Gregory Stenstrom and Nicole Missino that certification of the Pennsylvania county’s certification of votes from the Nov. 8 election be postponed until Nov. 28 so a hearing could be held at which evidence could be presented regarding election irregularities.

Well, the hearing was basically held but limited to specific allegations made in the plaintiffs filing, namely that 2,778 records of requests for mail-in ballots were deleted by the county; at least 194 voter registration records of individuals who voted were deleted; a partisan third-party was allowed to control and tabulate mail-in ballots; and the chain of custody was adulterated by detouring the election-night journey of the county’s physical ballots and v-drives for six hours into a closed building, where poll watchers were prohibited from entering, before continuing the delivery to the centralized counting center at the Wharf Building in Chester.

These claims were generally, and reasonably, explained by the County during the course of the day but other troubling points were brought up.

Judge Dozor, who deserves great praise, is expected to rule today.

Mrs. Hoopes and Stenstrom were certified poll watchers while Mrs. Missino was the Republican candidate for the 165th District in the State House. They represented themselves. Attorneys are notably reluctant to take vote fraud cases in Delco for fear of repercussions. Deborah Silver, a previous attorney for Mrs. Hoopes and Stenstrom, faced an attempt to disbar her which reportedly cost her $20,000 to beat.

The plaintiffs lack of experience led them to make mistakes. They were unable to call expert witnesses including data expert Robert Martini, who was unable to present a report which we are including at the end of this article. Martini, as a fact witness, testified, however, that the machine tape in the 1st Precinct of Marple’s 7th Ward was missing a hashcode.

This is a legitimate concern. If it happened there it likely happened elsewhere and reveals a security issue.

Mrs. Missino was unable to get into the record the voters who told her that their votes were never tallied.

Joan Weber, an entrepreneur who had been director of finance for Conde Nast, was unable to testify regarding the strange shrinkage in the tally for mail-in ballot requests she recorded from the state’s OpenDataPa website.

Julie Yu, whose report of election day ballots being taken unexpectedly from the Springfield Library dropbox to the county-owned “Flagship Building” at 2 W Baltimore Pike, in Media, might have made the most significant claim. The ballots had been expected to go to the counting center at the Wharf in Chester. The change caused suspicion regarding the the chain of custody.

James Allen, the county director of election operations, testified the change was due to Act 88 that was passed by the state legislature in July.

To get funding provided by the act, the county had to agree to, among other things, that it post on its publicly accessible Internet website an unofficial number of absentee ballots and mail-in ballots received for the election by 12:01 a.m.

This required election night procedures for the collection of dropbox ballots to be changed for logistical reasons, Allen said.

In previous elections — and in the weeks before election night — dropbox ballots were and are collected by county employees using vans and taken directly to the counting center. The new constraints led to the election night dropboxes being collected by two-person teams using private cars, with at least one member of the team being a county employee, according to Allen. Rather than being taken directly to Chester these ballots were first gathered at the Flagship Building.

Mrs. Hoopes, in her cross-examination, got Allen to admit that the change was never made public and that the county guidelines actually called for the ballots to go to Rose Tree Park on election night.

Things like this are what causes suspicions to arise.

Laureen Hagan, chief clerk of the Bureau of Elections, testified that the county never deletes requests for mail-in ballots. It remained unanswered as to why 2,778 such requests appear to have been deleted.

Stenstrom testified that he saw a cart of between 20,000 and 30,000 pre-canvassed ballots without pedigree at the Wharf on Election Night and that at 8:05 p.m., about 25,000 votes almost immediately appeared with lopsided margin for Democrats.

The logic and accuracy testing for the scanning machines was a big issue throughout the day with attorneys Nick Centrella, representing the Election Board, and William Martin, representing the County, desperately trying to keep it out.

Mrs. Hoopes got it on record that Delco was not following state protocols in its testing. She also got it on record that the county followed directives from their information technology guy rather than what was prescribed by the Secretary of the Commonwealth.

Gavin Lawn, an observer at the counting center, testified he was inspired to become involved after receiving 13 mail-in ballots at his home in 2020. He said during his scheduled shift on Nov. 9, the door to the counting room was locked despite their being people inside.

Stenstrom said that he’d like the Judge to let him compare the ballot images from the scanner with the Department of State database to ease any concerns about the election being rigged. He said this could be done quickly and easily using off-the-shelf software without affecting the integrity of the machine.

There is no reason not to let citizens be allowed this access.

County solicitor Martin implied the plaintiffs and their supporters were merely sore losers motivated entirely by a dislike for mail-in ballots rather than legitimate concerns about the election.

About 40 people packed Courtroom 7 with another reported 80 in an overflow courtroom. About 20 stayed the whole nine hours.

Again kudos to Judge Dozor for the effort to address concerns.

Jim Hoft

Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016.

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The ‘Respect for Marriage Act’ Is an Exercise in Tyranny, And Everyone Knows It

BY: JOHN DANIEL DAVIDSON | NOVEMBER 22, 2022

Obergefell rally in front of SCOTUS — **The 12 Republicans who voted to advance the bill last week are gaslighting the American public about its real purpose.**

It’s not hard to game out what happens if the misnamed Respect for Marriage Act passes, codifying Obergefell and enshrining gay marriage in federal law. Everyone, including the dozen Republican senators who voted to advance the legislation last week, knows exactly what will happen. It’s not some big mystery.

What will happen is this: Christians, Jews, Muslims, and anyone else who dares maintain that marriage is a lifelong conjugal union between one man and one woman — the definition of marriage for thousands of years until the U.S. Supreme Court descended from Mount Sinai with Obergefell v. Hodges inscribed on stone tablets — will be branded a bigot and driven from the public square and marketplace.

Anyone who owns a small business related to the wedding industry — photographers, bakers, website designers, venue owners, caterers, florists — will be sued into oblivion if they refuse services to same-sex couples. Religious colleges and universities will lose their tax-exempt status. Religious institutions of every kind, if they hold to their teachings and traditions about marriage, will face an onslaught from the Department of Justice and the federal bureaucracy.

To paraphrase George Orwell’s famous line, if you want a picture of the future under the Respect for Marriage Act, imagine a boot stamping on Jack Phillips’ face — forever.

The untrammeled exercise of power and the vigorous crushing of dissent is the entire purpose of the proposed law. There can be no other possible justification for it. Michael New, an assistant professor at the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America, recently told The Daily Signal that Catholic colleges and universities in particular might face ruinous lawsuits and loss of federal funding if the bill is signed into law.

“Suppose a Catholic college refused to allow a same-sex married couple to live in college owned graduate student housing for families, they might be subject to all kinds of litigation,” he said. “Such a college might lose its nonprofit status. Their students might lose eligibility for federal financial aid and their faculty might lose eligibility from research grants from government agencies.”

Well, yes. Of course all that would happen. Democrats and left-wing activists hear these kinds of concerns from people like New and think, “Good. Let them face ruinous litigation. Let them lose funding. Ghettoize them. Crush them. Grind their institutions into dust. They deserve it, the bigots.”

All the more appalling, then, that 12 Republican senators voted to advance the bill knowing full well what it will do. One wishes the explanation is just that these lawmakers are too stupid to understand what the purpose of the proposed law really is and what its effect will obviously be, but that’s wishful thinking. If they’re going to support this bill, though, do they have to pretend that we’re all too stupid to understand how it will work? Does Dan Sullivan, the second-worst U.S. senator from Alaska, who once supported a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in the long-ago of 2014, really believe that the Respect for Marriage Act makes “important advances” in religious liberty? Does Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who 10 years ago as speaker of the statehouse supported a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in his state, really think the anemic amendments he and other GOP senators offered to the bill will “advance religious freedom” and “age well”?

All the Republicans who voted to advance the bill last week issued some version of the nonsense Sullivan and Tillis spouted. None of them believe a word of it. They just hope you buy it.

But you don’t have to. Roger Severino of the Heritage Foundation helpfully walked through these specious claims one by one, explaining why they’re wrong. No, the bill won’t provide religious institutions with meaningful protections. Yes, the bill could certainly be used as a basis for the Internal Revenue Service to deny tax-exempt status to religious organizations that don’t toe the line on gay marriage. Yes, it could also be used to deny grants, licenses, or contracts. No, weak language about preserving the Religious Freedom Restoration Act is not enough to prevent harm to religious liberty. And so on.

The justification for the bill is just as outlandish and offensive as the argument that it presents no danger to religious Americans. In the wake of the Dobbs decision this summer, we were warned that some future Supreme Court opinion, following Justice Clarence Thomas’s logic, could overturn Obergefell and other substantive due process rulings such as Loving v. Virginia, which struck down state laws banning interracial marriage.

The purpose of this claim, in case it isn’t bone-crushingly obvious, is to lump opponents of gay marriage in with opponents of interracial marriage, to smear them as bigots who aren’t just on the wrong side of history, but who are about to be on the receiving end of a federal government empowered to go after them.

And if you think that can’t really be how proponents of the Respect for Marriage Act think about traditional-minded Americans, go ask Jack Phillips how he’s faring after winning his Supreme Court case in 2018.

John Daniel Davidson is a senior editor at The Federalist. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Claremont Review of Books, The New York Post, and elsewhere. Follow him on Twitter, @johnddavidson.

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Republican States Move To Keep Major Trump-Era Border Policy Amid Surge In Illegal Immigration

By: JENNIE TAER, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER | November 22, 2022

AZ AG Mark Brnovich — **Screenshot/Fox News**

Over a dozen Republican states are urging a judge to keep Title 42, a major Trump-era border policy, according to court documents filed Monday. Arizona, Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming asked D.C. Judge Emmet Sullivan if they could intervene in the case in which Title 42, which has been used to expel over one million migrants to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic, was overturned, according to the request. Sullivan ruled on Nov. 15 that the Biden administration must end the policy in late December, giving them time to prepare for an expected influx of illegal migrants at the southern border. (RELATED: ‘Even Worse’: Illegal Migrants Will Flood The US Border When One Major Trump-Era Policy Ends)

When Title 42 ends, that influx will directly impact the Republican states, they argued.

“Because invalidation of the Title 42 Orders will directly harm the States, they now seek to intervene to offer a defense of the Title 42 policy so that its validity can be resolved on the merits, rather than through strategic surrender,” the Republican states wrote to Sullivan.

(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The Republican states also argued against the Biden administration’s change of tune on the policy after it previously fought against their previous attempt to keep the police in place.

“The States have sovereign and quasi-sovereign interests in controlling their borders, limiting the persons present within those borders, excluding persons carrying communicable diseases, and the enforcement of immigration law,” the filing said.

The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment.

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Media outlet revises story about Joe Biden after legal scholar exposes ‘whopper of a claim’

By: CHRIS ENLOE | November 22, 2022

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The Associated Press revised a story about the Hunter Biden scandal after constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley spotlighted the “whopper of a claim” within it.

On Saturday, the AP wrote about House Republicans and their plan to investigate President Joe Biden for potentially being involved in his son’s business dealings despite his denials. Buried deep within the story was a paragraph absolving the president of any wrongdoing. The AP reported:

Joe Biden has said he’s never spoken to his son about his foreign business, and nothing the Republicans have put forth suggests otherwise. And there are no indications that the federal investigation involves the president.

Turley quickly called out the “breathtaking but telling” claim.

“[T]he Bidens have succeeded in a Houdini-like trick in making this elephant of a scandal disappear from the public stage,” Turley wrote on his website. “They did so by enlisting the media in the illusion. However, this level of audience participation in the trick truly defies belief.”

He then detailed the circumstantial evidence that appears to contradict Biden’s claims about not being involved in Hunter’s business dealings, including voice messages, emails, and claims from Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden.

Don’t miss out on content from Dave Rubin free of big tech censorship. Listen to The Rubin Report now.

The AP later deleted its suggestion that Republicans have failed to produce evidence backing their suspicions.

“Joe Biden has said he’s never spoken to his son about his foreign business, and there are no indications that the federal investigation involves the president,” the AP story now reads.

According to Turley, the edit — which the AP does not disclose in an editor’s note — “creates a new problem.”

“Rather than simply stating the fact, AP seems to struggle to shield the President. There is every indication that ‘the federal investigation involves the president.’ Not only is the President discussed in key emails under investigation, but the grand jury heard testimony that the ‘Big Guy’ is Joe Biden,” he explained, adding a link to this story.

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Press Corps Explodes as KJP Publicly Berates Daily Caller Reporter

By: BRIANNA LYMAN, NEWS AND COMMENTARY WRITER | November 22, 2022

The White House press corps exploded after press secretary Karine Jean Pierre berated the Daily Caller's White House correspondent Diana Glebova. [Screenshot Twitter Greg Price] — **[Screenshot Twitter Greg Price]**

The White House press corps exploded Tuesday after press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre berated the Daily Caller’s White House correspondent Diana Glebova.

Dr. Anthony Fauci was partaking in a press briefing when he went to step away from the podium. Glebova said she had asked several times what Fauci had done to investigate the origins of the virus, prompting Jean-Pierre to step back to the podium and snap at Glebova.

“Hold on one second, we have a process here. I’m not calling on people who yell. You’re being disrespectful to your colleagues and you’re being disrespectful to our guest. I will not call on you if you yell, and also you’re taking time off the clock,” she said.

The Grio reporter April Ryan also told her she was “being disrespectful.”

Glebova tried to respond but Jean-Pierre immediately silenced her, saying she would not get into a “back and forth with you.” Glebova then said to Jean-Pierre that she “calls on the same people all the time.” As Jean-Pierre then tried to step away, the New York Post’s Steven Nelson tried to defend Glebova, as did Simon Ateba from Africa News Today.

WATCH: KJP did NOT like it when @DailyCaller's @DianaGlebova shouted out a question to Fauci about the origins of COVID and the @NYPost's @StevenNelson10 came to her defense pic.twitter.com/iMmU25SfuT
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 22, 2022

“She’s asking a good question, she’s asking a very good question,” Ateba said.

“You need to call on people across the room, she has a valid question, she’s asking about the origins of COVID,” Ateba said, prompting Jean-Pierre to head back to the podium and nastily say she heard the question but would not respond.

Daily Caller's @DianaGlebova tries to ask Dr. Fauci about what he did to investigate the origins of covid and Jean-Pierre shuts her down.

Another reporter yells at her for not letting Diana ask the question. pic.twitter.com/RieiEBwl2p
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 22, 2022

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Supreme Court Clears Way For Congress To Access Trump’s Tax Returns

By: TREVOR SCHAKOHL, LEGAL REPORTER | November 22, 2022

Former U.S. President Donald Trump Makes An Announcement At His Florida Home — **Joe Raedle/Getty Images**

The Supreme Court has denied former President Donald Trump’s request to block the House Ways and Means Committee from reviewing his tax returns.

The committee has long been attempting to review six years of tax returns and files in connection with Trump and eight of his businesses. Trump had appealed to the Supreme Court to stop the committee from reviewing his tax returns, but the court turned down Trump’s request Tuesday.

BREAKING: The Supreme Court REJECTS Trump's bid to prevent the House Ways & Means Committee from obtaining his tax returns. No noted dissents.

The brief order may end years of litigation over the committee's efforts to review the tax records of Trump and his businesses. pic.twitter.com/raETmlco4T
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) November 22, 2022

On Oct. 27, a three-judge panel on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Trump’s request to block the tax returns, pushing him to file the emergency appeal in the Supreme Court, CNN reported. Trump asked the court Oct. 31 to temporarily block the committee from viewing his tax returns as the court considered his case, and Chief Justice John Roberts granted that request. (RELATED: Supreme Court Okays Masks On Planes During Public Health Emergencies)

The Tuesday court ruling also vacated Roberts’ order.

Trump’s Oct. 31 application claimed the committee’s tax return review request would, if allowed to stand, “undermine the separation of powers and render the office of the Presidency vulnerable to invasive information demands from political opponents in the legislative branch.”

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Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Lyin’ Dog-Face Turkey

A.F. BRANCO | on November 22, 2022 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-lyin-dog-face-turkey/

Anything with an Identity crisis or body dysmorphia gets democrat special privileges.

Biden Thanksgiving 2023 — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2022.**

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Scrutinizing Arizona’s Election Administration Does Not Make Kari Lake An ‘Election Denier’

BY: AUGUSTE MEYRAT | NOVEMBER 21, 2022

Kari Lake clapping standing outside at campaign event — **The media’s ‘election denier’ smear is an attempt to silence Americans concerned about election integrity.**

Author Auguste Meyrat profile

AUGUSTE MEYRAT

VISIT ON TWITTER@MEYRATAUGUSTE

Even though the Arizona governor’s race has been called in favor of Katie Hobbs, Hobbs’ opponent Kari Lake has not conceded and vote counting and vote correcting are still happening. As has been reported (in mainly conservative media), many voters were turned away on Election Day because of broken printers or given provisional ballots that wouldn’t be counted. Furthermore, many ballots were not counted because of a non-matching signature or some mistake in filling out the ballot. This means voters are being contacted about their ballot being rejected and given a chance to correct or “cure” it. The window for doing this just ended on Nov. 17.

Considering how laughably convoluted this process is, along with its many vulnerabilities to fraud and error, it’s more than understandable to see why Lake, someone projected to win big and who faced a meek candidate who refused to debate her or even do much campaigning, refuses to give up. The glacially slow counting, the numerous malfunctioning printers and ballot machines, and the recent history of gross irregularities from the previous election all give ample reason for suspicion. There’s also the added wrinkle of Hobbs refusing to recuse herself from the role of supervising the election — somehow this didn’t constitute a conflict of interest.

And yet, for all this, the corporate media are blasting Lake for daring to challenge the election result, living up to her reputation as a dirty, rotten “election denier.” Here’s just a small sampling of headlines: “Election denier Kari Lake refuses to concede Arizona governor race she lost” in The Guardian, “Katie Hobbs elected Arizona’s 5th female governor, defeating election denier Kari Lake” in the Arizona Republic, “Kari Lake Is Denying Her Election Loss” in New York Magazine, and “Democrat Katie Hobbs defeats election denier Kari Lake for Arizona governor, AP projects” in Yahoo News.

As David Harsanyi has argued, this charge of election denier — that is, a person who questions and/or challenges elections — is a ridiculous criticism that stigmatizes perfectly rational behavior in a democracy. Furthermore, it’s a label that applies far more to Democrats despite being exclusively directed at Republicans. This insult (coupled with “the big lie”) became popular in 2020 after Donald Trump and many of his supporters claimed the presidential election was stolen.

It’s no secret that the left continues to call its opponents election deniers because it has been an effective tool to silence dissent. It casts people like Trump and Lake as unhinged losers who are ready to smash the whole system because they didn’t win. Thus, to give even the slightest credence to their objections is tantamount to undermining “Our Democracy.” And if anyone thinks that is an exaggeration, they should know that hundreds of Jan. 6 protesters have been thrown in prison and denied bail because they were “election deniers” who ostensibly posed a threat to the country.

However, the more successful it is to slander people as “election deniers,” the more destructive it becomes. First, it is an accusation that immediately groups the accused with every crackpot imaginable. Even though Lake has plenty of reasons to question her election, she is nonetheless associated with the QAnon Shaman and other disturbed crackpots who had their own theories about fraudulent elections and the deep state. This in turn pushes away her supporters and other conservatives who want to be taken seriously.

If the claim that an election is rigged is false, it should be easy enough for the left to simply prove it instead of delaying vote counting. But even if they can, the guilt-by-association still does more harm to conservatives who will start fighting one another instead of working together on getting accurate election results. This can be seen as Lake and her team toil away at curing votes and rooting out errors while her fellow Republicans have given up and have instead complained about candidate quality and messaging.

This attempt to move on not only demoralizes all efforts to challenge elections, but it also leads to faulty analysis. It’s completely useless to criticize the direction and composition of the GOP and its leadership when so many elections might very well be rigged. If Democratic candidates are stuffing ballot boxes and throwing out Republican ballots with impunity, it doesn’t matter who’s running for office, what they say, or even who’s voting. At the very minimum, Democrats’ relentless demands for mail-in ballots and remote voting, which are particularly susceptible to fraud, are a major threat to the integrity of our elections.

Second, and more importantly, the election denier accusation increasingly removes all recourse for justice. If an election is fraudulent, laws were broken, and large swaths of the electorate are effectively disenfranchised, there is nowhere they can turn because the well has been poisoned. As was shown in 2020, no judge, not even the U.S. Supreme Court, will dare hear the case and examine the evidence, and few conservative writers or pundits will bother talking about it. Rather, they will demand proof, knowing quite well that no amount of evidence will change their mind or any election outcome. Over time, it becomes an unprovable claim that guarantees political anathema to the conservative who makes it.

While Lake might not be able to overturn the result of her election, she should be commended for trying. Far from threatening the legitimacy of the election, she is breathing life into it, giving a voice to people who rightly want answers and accountability. Rather than being election deniers, they should be recognized as election defenders, putting their faith in the voters and the American political system.

Auguste Meyrat is an English teacher in the Dallas area. He holds an MA in humanities and an MEd in educational leadership. He is the senior editor of The Everyman and has written essays for The Federalist, The American Conservative, and The Imaginative Conservative, as well as the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. Follow him on Twitter.

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Arizona attorney general’s office wants answers about ‘myriad problems’ faced by Maricopa County voters before results are certified

By: JOSEPH MACKINNON | November 21, 2022

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Before the results are certified, the Arizona attorney general’s office wants answers about the bungled administration of the 2022 general election in Maricopa County. On Saturday, the AGO wrote to the Maricopa County attorney’s affice, raising problems voters faced in ballot tabulators and ballot-on-demand printers, along with potential election law violations.

The AGO’s demand for transparency came a day after Arizona’s Cochise County board delayed certifying the election results and amid Kari Lake’s continued insistence that she might still win.

In a Nov. 19 letter addressed to the Maricopa County attorney’s office, Arizona Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Wright noted that the AGO’s Election Integrity Unit has received “hundreds of complaints … pertaining to issues related to the administration of the 2022 General Election in Maricopa County.”

“These complaints go beyond pure speculation, but include first-hand witness accounts that raise concerns regarding Maricopa’s lawful compliance with Arizona election law,” wrote Wright.

On the basis of these complaints and the problematic administration of the election, Wright underscored how Arizonans “deserve a full report and accounting of the myriad problems” that occurred in Maricopa County on Election Day.

In addition to voters’ complaints, Wright indicated there was additional cause for concern, given that “statements made by both Chairman Gates and Recorder Richer, along with information Maricopa County released through official modes of communication appear to confirm potential statutory violations of [Arizona election law].”

Having invoked Arizona Revised Statutes Section 16-1021, which allows the attorney general to “enforce the provisions of this title through civil and criminal actions” in any election for state office, the AGO demanded answers about:

Election Day ballot-on-demand printer configuration settings;
Election Day “check-out” procedures; and the
apparent contravention of statutory guidelines and failure to segregate, count, tabulate, tally, and transport ballots that voters were otherwise unable to have tabulated using on-site tabulators.

Wright requested that a response be given on or before Nov. 28.

BREAKING: The Elections Integrity Unit of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office has officially demanded a response from Maricopa County "pertaining to issues related to the administration of the 2022 General Election in Maricopa County." pic.twitter.com/PeYMK4F8Vq
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) November 20, 2022

\u201cBREAKING: The Elections Integrity Unit of the Arizona Attorney General\u2019s Office has officially demanded a response from Maricopa County “pertaining to issues related to the administration of the 2022 General Election in Maricopa County.”\u201d

— Charlie Kirk (@Charlie Kirk) 1668907097

Wright stated that at least 60 voting locations had problems with their ballot-on-demand printers, “which appeared to have resulted in ballots that were unable to be read by on-site ballot tabulators.”

According to Votebeat Arizona, vote-counting machines had trouble tabulating ballots on Election Day “because the timing marks on the ballot — the black lines on the sides that tell the machine where the contests are located so the machine can tally the votes — were not printing correctly. As a result, the machines were rejecting the ballots.”

Nearly 27% of the voting centers (60 of the 223) were affected, generating longer wait times and confusion.

Nearly 17,000 Maricopa County voters (7% of all in-person voters) were reportedly “unable to watch machines tabulate their ballots on-site” because of printing malfunctions.

Sworn complaints submitted by election workers employed by Maricopa County indicated the printers had been tested on Nov. 7 “without any apparent problems,” Wright noted. Notwithstanding successful tests the night before, the printers started to malfunction within the first 30 minutes of voting on Election Day.

County Supervisor Chairman Bill Gates said at the time, “There is no question this is frustrating. … We don’t believe anyone has been disenfranchised.”

Gates claimed over the weekend that the printer problems did not disproportionately affect “Republican-leaning areas.”

We continue to answer your election-related questions this weekend. Here, Chairman @billgatesaz speaks about whether Election Day printer problems impacted certain areas more than others. pic.twitter.com/H8bRO682ER
— Maricopa County (@maricopacounty) November 20, 2022

\u201cWe continue to answer your election-related questions this weekend. Here, Chairman @billgatesaz speaks about whether Election Day printer problems impacted certain areas more than others.\u201d

— Maricopa County (@Maricopa County) 1668958420

The AGO’s election integrity unit expects a report detailing:

the voting centers that experienced these problems;
the specific problems at each location; any other printer issues that may have contributed to the problem;
a “comprehensive log of all changes to the [ballot-on-demand] printer configuration settings (to include the identity of individuals making changes)”;
the county’s standards for the printer configuration settings “as specified in internal technical specifications and/or manufacturer technical specifications”; and
other concerns.

Although the AGO made no claims of fraud or guilt regarding the printer errors, the questions asked appear open to the possibility of malfeasance and meddling.

Wright referenced sworn complaints received by the election integrity unit, which indicated that voters had trouble checking out of voting locations to cast their votes at functional centers.

“Not only have have poll workers reported that they were not trained and/or not provided with information on how to execute ‘check out’ procedures, but many voters have reported the second voting location required the voter to cast a provisional ballot as the [virtual pollbook] maintained the voter had cast a ballot in the original voting location,” Wright wrote in her letter.

This is troubling, suggested Wright, given “Arizona law specifically prohibits provisional ballots to be counted when a voter has signed multiple pollbooks.”

The AGO requested a report detailing whether poll workers were properly trained on how to “check out” voters so that they could “lawfully vote in another location” and all those voters who were provided a provisional ballot “due to having already signed an e-pollbook at another Election Day voting location.

Wright’s letter also presses the Maricopa County attorney’s office to report on the fate of ballots deposited at “Door 3.”

Since tabulators were malfunctioning at multiple locations, affected voters were told to deposit their ballots into a slot on a secure box at each location. According to Votebeat Arizona, the boxes were labeled with a “3” sticker, hence the name “Door 3.” From there, Wright suggested that “non-tabulated ballots were commingled with tabulated ballots at the voting location” prior to being taken to the central elections center. One sworn complaint suggested that thousands of non-tabulated ballots received at “Door 3” had been put in black duffle bags “intended to be used for tabulated ballots.”

Thomas Liddy, the civil division chief at the Maricopa County attorney’s office addressed in Wright’s letter, told Fox News Digital that he will convene with his clients “and begin the process of gathering the materials necessary to respond. As you are undoubtedly aware, Ms. Wright is still working on the AG’s Final Report of the 2020 election. I am looking forward to receiving that as well.”

After the AGO’s letter went out, Kari Lake told the Daily Mail that the “way they run elections in Maricopa County is worse than in banana republics around this world.”

The Associated Press called the race for Hobbs on Nov. 14. Lake trailed Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs by fewer than 18,000 votes and has yet to concede defeat.

“I’ll tell you what, I believe at the end of the day that this will be turned around, and I don’t know what the solution will be, but I still believe I will become governor, and we are going to restore honesty to our elections,” said Lake.

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‘We’ve changed the looks of his groin forever’: Florida deputies open fire, transitioning an armed arson suspect into a detainee

By: JOSEPH MACKINNON | November 21, 2022

**Image source: Polk County Sheriff’s Department, YouTube Video – Screenshot**

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Over the weekend, deputies from the Polk County sheriff’s office disarmed an alleged firebomber in central Florida, leaving him with a wound he won’t soon forget. Responding to a 911 call on Nov. 20, the sheriff’s office dispatched deputies to a north Lakeland neighborhood to deal with a suspected arsonist who was throwing incendiary devices at a residence.

Sheriff Grady Judd indicated that 30-year-old Luke Neely, whom he characterized as a “bad man,” had been throwing “Molotov cocktails onto a roof and at a house,” with a mother, father, and their adult daughter still inside. Deputies arrived one minute and 18 seconds after receiving the call. According to the sheriff’s office, the first deputy on the scene witnessed the suspect throwing one of seven Molotov cocktails, two of which had exploded on the house. Other incendiary devices had reportedly caught fire in the yard.

When the deputy ordered the suspect to stop, Neely reportedly got into an older-model Chevrolet pickup truck and fled the scene. The deputy attempted to pull the suspect over, but failing that, continued to give chase south down U.S. 98. On account of the arson charges, the deputy determined that a precision immobilization technique (PIT maneuver) was warranted and made two attempts, the second of which broke his wrist.

Neely managed to continue fleeing westbound on I-4. West of the county line, in the Hillsborough County area, the truck, which had sustained significant damage from the PIT maneuver, began to slow down. The deputies seized upon this deceleration as an opportunity to bring the chase to an end. Sheriff’s deputies blocked and rammed the truck, causing a vehicle crash. The arson suspect did not, however, immediately surrender.

The Lakeland resident got out of the truck allegedly brandishing an “AR-style” rifle with a fully loaded .380 handgun on his hip and 57 rounds of ammunition to spare. According to Judd, Neely began to run toward a tyrannosaurus rex statue on the perimeter of the theme park Dinosaur World. Three deputies began shooting, firing a total of 10 shots. The suspect was struck twice in the right leg, once in the left leg, and once in the groin.

Judd said, “We’ve changed the looks of his groin forever, if you know what I mean.”

The wounds are reportedly non-life-threatening, though it is unclear whether the suspect’s ego will survive.

“We’re blessed that everything turned out the way that it did. It certainly could have been a lot worse,” said Judd.

The Polk County sheriff’s office noted in a statement that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the deputy-involved use of force because the incident occurred in Hillsborough County.

Neely’s alleged firebombing spree concerns more than the Polk and Hillsborough Counties. During his weekend press conference, Judd said that the suspect had “started early” the day of the incident, setting multiple fires in Ybor City and the Tampa area. After trying to fell a tree with flame, Neely allegedly tried to set fire to the rear of the Ritz Ybor, which had nearly 1,000 people inside at the time. Judd indicated that Neely successfully set the building’s air conditioning unit on fire.

The suspect allegedly went on to set additional fires, including a trash fire at Gaspar’s Grotto around 4 a.m., just hours before his run-in with Polk County deputies. One of the incidents can be seen in this video obtained by WFLA:

Alleged arsonist caught on surveillance video in Ybor youtu.be

Neely has been charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder, one count of arson, seven counts of firebombing, and one count of resisting arrest. Judd said that Neely will also face other charges, such as fleeing to elude.

Neely was previously arrested by the Polk County sheriff’s office in 2016 and charged with disorderly conduct, using a firearm while intoxicated, and resisting arrest. He was psychiatrically admitted under the Baker Act in 2020.

News Conference – Luke Neely (November 20, 2022) youtu.be

Sheriff Judd has earned a reputation for taking a no-nonsense approach to crime.

During an October appearance on “Fox & Friends,” Judd told Florida homeowners, “I would highly suggest that if a looter breaks into your home, comes into your home while you’re there to steal stuff that you take your gun and you shoot him. You shoot him so he looks like grated cheese.”

\u201cPolk County Sheriff:\n\n”I would highly suggest that if a looter breaks into your home … to steal stuff, that you take your gun and you shoot him \u2026 so that he looks like grated cheese.”\u201d

— The Post Millennial (@The Post Millennial) 1665170608

In June, Polk County deputies shot and killed an “active shooter” who had threatened to kill his wife and members of law enforcement. According to Judd, when 56-year-old Michael Loman came outside with a rifle to make good on his threat, “He chose for us to shoot him and we accommodated his request.”

Judd added, “We shot him a lot … and that was the end of the gunfight.”

In December 2021, Judd extolled the quick thinking and just action taken by a homeowner who shot a home invader. Judd said that the homeowner “had a gun, he knew how to use it, it was loaded, and he shot him a lot. He gave him an early Christmas present. Only Santa Claus gets to come in your house — and Santa Claus is invited.”

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Today’s TWO Politically INCORRECT Cartoons by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Dirty Laundry

A.F. BRANCO | on November 19, 2022 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-dirty-laundry/

It seems Democrats may be involved in the FTX money laundering scheme that somehow has something to do with Ukraine.

FTX Democrat Fraud — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco.**

A.F. Branco Cartoon – DC Feast

A.F. BRANCO | on November 21, 2022 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-dc-feast/

What’s for Thanksgiving Day dinner in the DC Swamp? You, freedom-loving Americans.

Thanksgiving in the Swamp — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2022.**

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SUMMING UP THE WEEK OF NOVEMBER 18, 2022

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Why Is the Government Arming More Federal Bureaucrats Than US Marines?

BY: MARK HEMINGWAY | NOVEMBER 18, 2022

DSS Miami Field Office (MFO) hosts instructors from the Firearms Training Unit (FTU) to conduct the High Risk Environment Firearms Course – Pistol (HREFC-P) at the Homestead Training Center located at Homestead, — **The idea that agencies are empowered to effectively create their own laws and go out and enforce them with armed federal agents should be alarming.**

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MARK HEMINGWAY

VISIT ON TWITTER@HEMINATOR

When Congress authorized $80 billion this year to beef up Internal Revenue Service enforcement and staffing, Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy warned that “Democrats’ new army of 87,000 IRS agents will be coming for you.” A video quickly went viral racking up millions of views, purporting to show a bunch of clumsy bureaucrats receiving firearms training, prompting alarm that the IRS would be engaged in military-style raids of taxpayers. The GOP claims were widely attacked as exaggerations — since the video, though from the IRS, didn’t show official agent training — but the criticism has shed light on a growing trend: the rapid arming of the federal government.

A report issued last year by the watchdog group Open The Books, “The Militarization of The U.S. Executive Agencies,” found that more than 200,000 federal bureaucrats now have been granted the authority to carry guns and make arrests — more than the 186,000 Americans serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. “One hundred three executive agencies outside of the Department of Defense spent $2.7 billion on guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment between fiscal years 2006 and 2019 (inflation adjusted),” notes the report. “Nearly $1 billion ($944.9 million) was spent between fiscal years 2015 and 2019 alone.”

The watchdog reports that the Department of Health and Human Services has 1,300 guns including one shotgun, five submachine guns, and 189 automatic firearms. NASA has its own fully outfitted SWAT team, with all the attendant weaponry, including armored vehicles, submachine guns, and breeching shotguns. The Environmental Protection Agency has purchased drones, GPS trackers, radar equipment, and night vision goggles, and stockpiled firearms.

A 2018 Government Accountability Office report noted that the IRS had 4,487 guns and 5,062,006 rounds of ammunition in inventory at the end of 2017 — before the enforcement funding boost this year. The IRS did not respond to requests for information, though the IRS’s Criminal Investigation division does put out an annual report detailing basic information such as how many warrants the agency is executing in a given year.

More than a hundred executive agencies have armed investigators, and apparently no independent authority is monitoring or tracking the use of force across the federal government. Agencies contacted by RealClearInvestigations from HHS to EPA declined to provide, or said they did not have, comprehensive statistics on how often their firearms are used, or details on how they conduct armed operations.

“I would be amazed if that data exists in any way,” said Trevor Burrus, a research fellow in constitutional and criminal law at the libertarian Cato Institute. “Over the years of working on this, it’s quite shocking how much they try to not have their stuff tracked on any level.”

All this weaponry raises questions about whether the 200,000 armed federal agents are getting adequate weapons and safety training. HHS did not respond to a request for comment on the $14 million in guns, ammunition, and military equipment it purchased between 2015 and 2019 or its new National Training Operations Center within the Washington, D.C. Beltway. Another government agency — Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers — also declined to speak with RCI for this article.

According to Burrus, recent history helps explain the militarization of the federal government. “This is 20 years of the war on terror, with the production of an excessive amount of access to weaponry,” he says.

The Homeland Security Act of 2002 extended law enforcement authority to special agents of 24 Offices of Inspectors General in agencies throughout the government, with provisions to enable other OIGs to qualify for law enforcement authority. As a result, even obscure agencies such as the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board’s Office of Inspector General now have armed federal agents. This summer, before the expansion of the IRS was approved by Congress, Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz singled out the RRB as an example of the excesses of an armed bureaucracy. He introduced a bill to stop federal agencies from stockpiling ammunition.

Federal agencies doing their own criminal investigations raises important constitutional and civil rights questions. Last year, the EPA raided a number of small auto shops across the country for allegedly selling equipment that helped car owners circumvent emissions regulations.

“It was 12 armed federal agents, and they had little EPA badges on and everything,” John Lund, the owner of Lund Racing in West Chester, Pennsylvania, told the Washington Examiner. The EPA did not respond to a request for comment.

While it’s hardly a new complaint that federal bureaucracies are overstepping their rulemaking authority, the idea that executive agencies are broadly empowered to effectively create their own laws and go out and enforce them with armed federal agents is another matter.

“So many of the regulations that can be enforced at the point of a gun have almost nothing to do with what people would normally call dangerous crime, that would be the kind of thing where you might want armed agents there,” said Burrus. “And especially coming from agencies such as the EPA and other agencies that are more quality-of-life agencies dealing with regulatory infractions, rather than involved in solving real crimes.”

This article was adapted from a RealClearInvestigations article published Oct. 6.

Mark Hemingway is the Book Editor at The Federalist, and was formerly a senior writer at The Weekly Standard. Follow him on Twitter at @heminator

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Conservatives Can’t Run and Hide from The Left Anymore. They Have to Stand and Fight

BY: JOHN DANIEL DAVIDSON | NOVEMBER 18, 2022

abandoned church — **A tale of two parades in a small Texas town illustrates why conservatives can’t hide from the left. Not anymore.**

Author John Daniel Davidson profile

JOHN DANIEL DAVIDSON

VISIT ON TWITTER@JOHNDDAVIDSON

One of the comforting fictions conservatives are increasingly tempted to tell themselves is that if they just move to a red state or county, the insanity of the woke left won’t affect them and their family. Ensconced in safely Republican communities, perhaps they’ll be free not just from disastrous Democrat policies but also from the pernicious sexual propaganda of the left. For conservatives with children, this is especially important.

But it’s a mirage. There is no American town or hamlet remote or red enough to prevent the infiltration of leftist ideology, which today often comes from institutions that in an earlier era would have been seen as the guardians of a decidedly Christian civic virtue. Not only are left-wing activists taking over these institutions, but they are also working to ban conservatives, and especially Christians, from the public square altogether.

There is nowhere today that conservatives can run and hide from the left. They can either surrender or stand and fight.

Consider what’s playing out in the small town of Taylor, Texas, population 16,807. Situated about 40 miles northeast of deep-blue Austin, it has long been precisely the sort of place conservative families might move to raise their children — a quiet and peaceful town full of churches in a deep-red part of the Lone Star State.

For decades, Taylor has staged a Christmas — not “holiday” — parade down Main Street. The Taylor Christmas Parade of Lights is a beloved tradition that for the past 10 years or so has been organized under the auspices of the Taylor Area Ministerial Alliance, or TAMA, a coalition of local churches.

Last year, as a result of an oversight in the application process, an LGBT advocacy group called Taylor Pride was included in the parade. The oversight in this case was that the old ladies who volunteer to organize the parade and process float applications had never heard of a group called Taylor Pride and didn’t realize what it was. (And no wonder, before the summer of 2021 the group had never staged a public event.)

By the time parade organizers found out, it was too late. Two men dressed in drag, one as a female Santa and the other scantily clad in glitter, were suggestively gyrating to dance music on the Taylor Pride float as it rolled down Main Street in the annual Christmas parade — as it happened, right in front of a float for Saint Mary’s Catholic School, which was full of children.

Parents and attendees were understandably outraged. Soon after the parade, TAMA decided that in the future, parade entries must be consistent with traditional biblical and family values, and made an announcement to that effect ahead of this year’s parade. The point, as TAMA’s statement made clear, was not to exclude any individuals or groups from attending or even participating in the parade, but to ensure the floats were family-friendly and not contrary to Christian teachings.

In response, the Taylor City Council announced it would stage a separate, city-sponsored parade, calling it the “Very Merry Holiday Parade and Celebration” — on the same night as the traditional TAMA parade, following immediately behind it on the same route, for the express purpose of giving Taylor Pride and other LGBT groups a parade of their own. As a recent post on the City of Taylor’s official Facebook page explained, the city is doing this because “we are committed to being inclusive and diverse in the City of Taylor.”

A spokesman for the city has since falsely characterized the situation to at least one local news outlet, saying TAMA had “made it clear that they did not want certain people to be a part of the parade,” and, “They were going to go in a little bit of a different direction … and make it a little bit more exclusive.”

This is exactly the opposite of what’s happened. The only thing that’s changed is that TAMA has realized that LGBT groups like Taylor Pride have targeted their town and attempted, with some success, to infiltrate and undermine their traditional civic celebrations of Christmas. So they decided to push back and insist on the survival of their traditions. Good for them.

The point here is that Taylor might as well be every conservative community in America. It’s located in Texas’s 31st Congressional District, one of two congressional districts in Texas that have never been represented by a Democrat. Voters there just reelected Republican Rep. John Carter for the 11th time. He ran unopposed. Taylor also sits in Williamson County, where nearly every elected office is held by a Republican.

Indeed, Taylor is the last place in the country where a family attending a Christmas parade organized by a coalition of local churches would expect to see two men in drag dancing inappropriately on a float rolling down Main Street. Yet like many such towns across the country, the city council and municipal staff are eager to prove just how enlightened and woke they are. Send in the drag queen holiday floats.

By now, Christians in Taylor must surely know that next year, there will be only one parade down Main Street in December — and it won’t be the Taylor Christmas Parade of Lights. Unless they vote the city council out of office and clean house in City Hall, traditions like the Christmas parade will soon be a thing of the past there, another lost battle in a never-ending war of attrition waged by the left. Same goes for the public library and the public schools. If conservatives don’t take them over, the left will.

It might just be one small town in Texas, but Taylor stands as a cautionary tale. It isn’t enough to move to a red state or a Republican district. You are going to have to fight the left, and win, or surrender to them. There is nowhere left to hide.

John Daniel Davidson is a senior editor at The Federalist. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Claremont Review of Books, The New York Post, and elsewhere. Follow him on Twitter, @johnddavidson.

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Attempted murder suspect freed from jail after allegedly plowing through 25 LA sheriff’s recruits and leaving behind ‘bodies everywhere, bones sticking out and bleeding’

By: JOSEPH MACKINNON | November 18, 2022

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The driver accused of plowing through a large group of 75 law enforcement recruits in Los Angeles County on Wednesday has been named, charged, and released. Investigators now believe the incident to have been intentional.

In a statement on Nov. 17, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department indicated that 22-year-old Nicholas Joseph Gutierrez was charged with attempted murder on peace officers and that additional charges were pending.

CNN reported that while investigators have strong suspicions that the suspect meant to inflict harm on the recruits, they first need to shore up those suspicions with substantial evidence.

Since the department is usually required to present a case to the district attorney within 48 hours of a suspect’s arrest, they provisionally cut Gutierrez loose after his initial arrest. According to the Los Angeles Times, Gutierrez’s original arrest was deemed a detention.

LASD Deputy Deanna Mares told CNN: “It’s not like they arrested the wrong suspect. … They just want to make sure the investigation is going to be complete.”

Don’t miss out on content from Dave Rubin free of big tech censorship. Listen to The Rubin Report now.

Sgt. Gerardo Magos similarly suggested that there was ample evidence but that law enforcement just wanted “to make sure it’s properly presented.”

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva suggested that part of the reason investigators are taking more time is that they don’t trust the leftist district attorney to do his job.

The sheriff told NewsNation, “We operate under prosecutor George Gascón. We definitely have grave concerns about his ability to prosecute. We are actually going to provisionally release him (Gutierrez) until we can have the case ironclad, iron-proof, and submitted to the DA for filing consideration. Right now, we want to tie up all the loose ends on the case and then present it to the DA.”

Gutierrez is reportedly due in court on Friday.

Gutierrez allegedly drove 30 to 40 mph the wrong way up a street near the sheriff’s STARS Center Academy in Whittier, California, where 75 sheriff’s deputy recruits were jogging. The suspect is said to have mowed down 25 recruits, some of whom reportedly lost limbs.

Twenty of the victims are with the LASD; two are with the Glendale PD; two are with the Bell PD; and one is with the Pasadena PD.

The Independent reported that were it not for a light pole, even more people could have been injured.

Captain Pat MacDonald said, “Thank God for that light pole, because the vehicle ultimately hit it and stopped, as opposed to possibly hitting more recruits.”

Five recruits were left in critical condition. According to the Los Angeles Times, over a dozen others suffered “life-altering” injuries of varying severity.

Villanueva described the aftermath to NewsNation: “It was a bedlam, chaos, you know, there were bodies everywhere, bones sticking out and bleeding profusely. It was a pretty traumatic scene.”

“In fact, the paramedics that were there had never seen something of that scale. It was almost like an airplane accident, but everyone was alive, thankfully,” added Villanueva.

#Whittier Aftermath video of the 25 LA County Sheriff's recruits injured in Whittier crash yesterday.

The driver, 22-year-old Nicholas Joseph Gutierrez of Diamond Bar, was taken into custody near the scene of the crash. pic.twitter.com/cdobXHpjsU
— The Aftermath™️ (@aftermathvids) November 18, 2022

As of Thursday night, seven recruits were reportedly still in the hospital, two of whom remained in critical condition.

The LASD noted that homicide investigators would present the case to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office on Friday for filing considerations.

Villanueva believes the vehicular attack to have been a “deliberate act.”

In one video of the incident caught on a nearby security camera, it appears as though the suspect oriented his vehicle toward the victims:

Surveillance video shows moment of horrific Whittier crash that injured 25 recruits youtu.be

The sheriff said on Wednesday that there were no skid marks at the scene, suggestive of a failure or a refusal to apply the brakes when driving toward the recruits. After allegedly mowing down the prospective deputies, Gutierrez allegedly remained in the Honda CR-V with his foot still on the accelerator.

A field sobriety test indicated that Gutierrez was not drunk on the morning of the brutal incident. The Los Angeles Times indicated that marijuana may have been recovered from the suspect’s vehicle.

Two dozen LA sheriff recruits injured after car plows into group youtu.be

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Law

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Dem Challenger Concedes to Lauren Boebert in Razor-Thin Colorado House Race

By: ARJUN SINGH, CONTRIBUTOR | November 18, 2022

ezgif.com-gif-maker (74) — **Joe Raedle/Getty Images**

Democratic candidate Adam Frisch conceded to Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado Friday after a razor-thin House race that saw Boebert leading with just a few hundred votes.

As of Friday, Boebert led Frisch by 551 votes, which is a margin of 0.17% of the total votes cast, with 99% of precincts reporting. Frisch, in a Zoom call, said that “The voters have spoken…The likelihood of this recount changing more than a handful of votes is very, very small.”

Two remaining counties in the District have about 200 outstanding ballots, Ben Stout, Boebert’s communications director, told the Daily Caller News Foundation, who also confirmed that a recount is due to occur under state law. He noted that Boebert’s margin would still allow her to win, even if all ballots weren’t in her favor.

HAPPENING NOW: Adam Frisch concedes #CO03 race to Lauren Boebert. "The voters have spoken," Frisch says. "The likelihood of this recount changing more than a handful of votes is very, very small." #copolitics pic.twitter.com/OPUAr8mLMr
— Ernest Lee Luning (@eluning) November 18, 2022

Boebert’s reelection campaign to a second House term had been unexpectedly competitive and illustrates a decline in support for her within the district, which has a Cook Partisan Voting Index score of R+7. In 2020, she defeated Rep. Scott Tipton in the district’s GOP primary by 9.2%, a major upset, which was the first time in 48 years an incumbent Colorado congressman had been defeated in a primary election.

Boebert was later elected by a 5.85% margin and joined the House Freedom Caucus upon election. She has been a strong ally of former President Donald Trump in the House, co-chairs the Second Amendment Caucus and has attracted attention for her Second Amendment advocacy, having first gained popularity after operating a restaurant, named “Shooter’s Grill,” where patrons were encouraged to carry firearms in public. (RELATED: Rep. Boebert Pushes To Ban Abortion Clinics On Federal Lands)

Additionally, Boebert faced controversy for interrupting President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in March 2022, shouting that “You put them in. Thirteen of them!” in relation to thirteen U.S. servicemembers killed during the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the heckle occurring when Biden was discussing his son Beau’s death.

Frisch, an agricultural goods manufacturer, had made Boebert’s conduct as a Member a primary focus of the campaign, calling her “lying, self-serving, and morally compromised,” as well as claiming that she did not pay attention to local issues, and instead was obsessed with her popularity among conservatives nationally.

The race stood out in 2022’s midterm elections, where an incumbent and high-profile Republican representative was significantly challenged for their seat by a Democrat despite the GOP being forecast to win a majority. Though the Democrats flipped some House seats previously held by Republicans, their incumbents either lost primary challenges by Trump-backed candidates, such as Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler of Washington.

Wednesday was the deadline for voters in the district to resolve problems with mail-in ballots or their provisional ballot eligibility, as well as for precincts to receive overseas and military ballots, per NBC 9 News. County clerks must complete all counting by Friday, while the Secretary of State of Colorado must verify all results by Dec. 5 or order a recount. Under Colorado state elections law, a mandatory recount is conducted if the margin of victory is 0.5% or smaller.

Regardless of the race’s outcome, control of the House of Representatives in the next Congress has already been decided, with Republicans winning the required 218 seats for a majority.

Frisch did not respond to a request for comment.

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Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Cut Off

A.F. BRANCO | on November 18, 2022 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-cut-off/

Nancy Pelosi has lost her position as Speaker of the House and given up her position as Democrat leader.

Nancy Pelosi Is Out — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2022.**

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PA Governor-elect Josh Shapiro charges former Democratic political consultant with ‘wide scale’ ballot fraud – more than 1,000 signatures allegedly forged

By: CANDACE HATHAWAY | November 17, 2022

**Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images**

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Current Pennsylvania Attorney General and Democrat Governor-elect Josh Shapiro arrested a former political consultant on Wednesday for allegedly forging ballot signatures in the state’s 2019 Democratic primary races.

Rasheen Crews, a Democratic campaign consultant, was hired by multiple candidates to assist in gathering the required number of signatures for nomination petitions to run in the Democratic primary races in 2019. According to an investigation launched by the office of the attorney general in September 2019, Crews was charged with the “wide scale forgery of signatures” on his clients’ nomination petitions. The investigation involved several of Crews’ clients, including five candidates running for the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, three running for Philadelphia Municipal Court, and three running in both elections.

Crews allegedly enlisted individuals to assist in his petition work by having them write names and addresses and forge signatures on multiple petitions. He is then accused of having the petitions notarized and filed with the Pennsylvania Department of State.

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\u201cBREAKING\n\nMy Office has arrested Rasheen Crews, a political consultant, on charges related to forging signatures on nomination petitions in municipal elections.\n\nAn important reminder that interfering with the integrity of our elections is a serious crime.\nhttps://t.co/ApxmufLWdk\u201d

— AG Josh Shapiro (@AG Josh Shapiro) 1668612399

Shapiro, who has been critical of Republicans who have questioned election integrity and repeatedly denied voter fraud in Pennsylvania, said in a Wednesday statement that Crews’ arrest is “an important reminder that interfering with the integrity of our elections is a serious crime.”

“By soliciting and organizing the wide scale forgery of signatures, the defendant undermined the democratic process and Philadelphians’ right to a free and fair election,” Shapiro said. “My office is dedicated to upholding the integrity of the election process across the Commonwealth, to ensure everyone can participate in Pennsylvania’s future.“

The investigation discovered that more than 1,000 of the signatures were allegedly duplicates. The office of the attorney general found that many of the names and addresses were repeated on several petition pages, while other pages appeared to be photocopied. Additionally, some individuals listed claimed they never signed the petitions.

All of Crews’ clients denied knowledge of the forgery scheme. As a result of the petitions’ questionable authenticity, some candidates withdrew from the election.

Crews was charged with criminal solicitation to commit forgery and theft by failure to make required disposition. Senior Deputy Attorney General Thomas Ost-Prisco is prosecuting the case against Crews.

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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried admits masquerading as ‘woke Westerner,’ says ESG has been ‘perverted beyond recognition,’ reveals biggest regret

By: PAUL SACCA | November 17, 2022

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Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of collapsed ,exchange FTX, revealed that the woke appearance that he and his company displayed was all a “dumb game.” In a new interview, Bankman-Fried confessed that the fake window dressing of altruism was mostly a front and that the performance was done “so everyone likes us.”

FTX CEO Bankman-Fried saw his company collapse on Election Day. The 30-year-old also saw his net worth of nearly $16 billion wiped out in days.

Until last week, FTX was the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange and was valued at $32 billion in February. However, the digital coin exchange filed for bankruptcy last Friday after a failed takeover by rival Binance. In addition, between $1 billion and $2 billion in customer funds reportedly vanished from the FTX cryptocurrency exchange.

Investigations into FTX have been launched by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice.

Bankman-Fried was a Democrat megadonor. He reportedly contributed more than $5 million to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential campaign. He was the second-biggest individual donor to Democrats in the 2021-2022 election cycle – donating $37 million. In May, Bankman-Fried said he planned to donate “north of $100 million” to Democrats in the 2024 presidential election, but pledged to have a “soft ceiling” of $1 billion in donations to Democrats if former President Donald Trump ran again.

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SBF became the biggest donor to the Democratic Protect Our Future PAC that only launched in May. Gabe Bankman-Fried, SBF’s brother, who handles the billionaire’s political operations, declared that the PAC was formed to “stop the next pandemic.”
In February, the Bankman-Fried brothers gave a $5 million grant to ProPublica to financially “support investigations into ongoing questions about the COVID-19 pandemic, biosecurity and public health preparedness.”
Until this week, FTX was promoted on the World Economic Forum’s website.
In May, SBF was one of the featured speakers at World Economic Forum 2022 in Davos, Switzerland. Topics at the event included sustainability, diversity, equity, inclusion, cryptocurrency, and Web 3.0.
In September, Bankman-Fried was a featured speaker at the annual meeting for the Clinton Global Initiative. The event covered subjects such as vaccine development, the implications of climate change, and transforming philanthropy for “equity, justice, and impact.”
SBF is slated to be a featured speaker at a summit hosted by the New York Times on Nov. 30, along with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D), and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Tickets for the event cost $2,499.
Bankman-Fried, a self-proclaimed “effective altruist,” was hyped up by the media.
CNBC investment personality Jim Cramer championed SBF as “the JP Morgan of his generation.”
“Shark Tank” star investor Kevin O’Leary previously said of FTX, “If there’s ever a place I could be, that I’m not going to get in trouble, it’s gonna be at FTX.”
CNBC reporter Kate Rooney lauded Bankman-Fried as the “Michael Jordan of crypto.”
Bloomberg previously said of the FTX founder, “Sam Bankman-Fried drives a Corolla, sleeps on a beanbag, and has a Robin Hood-like philosophy.”
In a new interview, Bankman-Fried confessed that he used his virtuous stances as a front to win the game.
Vox reporter Kelsey Piper – who interviewed Bankman-Fried through direct messages on Twitter – said to the former FTX CEO, “You were really good at talking about ethics for someone who kind of saw it all as a game with winners and losers.”
SBF responded, “Ya, hehe. I had to be, it’s what reputations are made of, to some extent. I feel bad for those who get f***ed by it. By this dumb game we woke westerners play where we say all the right shiboleths [sic] so everyone likes us.”
When asked if his “ethics stuff” was “mostly a front,” SBF replied, “Yeah. I mean that’s not all of it but it’s a lot.”
In the summer, SBF said that companies should not engage in unethical practices. However, when pressed by the Vox reporter, he admitted, “Man all the dumb s**t I said.”
Speaking about investors focusing on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), he declared, “ESG has been perverted beyond recognition.”
SBF exclaimed, “F*** regulators. They make everything worse. They don’t protect customers at all.”
Bankman-Fried said it was “never the intention” to squander away investors’ money, but “sometimes life creeps up on you.”
“I f**ed up big multiple times,” he added.
SBF said his biggest regret was FTX filing for bankruptcy. He believes that “everything would be 70% fixed right now” if he hadn’t declared bankruptcy. He calls the bankruptcy his “biggest single f***up.”
Bankman-Fried said if he could do it all over again, he would have “more careful accounting” and separated his hedge fund Alameda Research from FTX.
John Jay Ray III – a bankruptcy expert with more than 40 years of restructuring experience who liquidated Enron – was appointed the CEO of FTX.

In a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, Ray said, “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.”

“In the Bahamas, I understand that corporate funds of the FTX group were used to purchase homes and other personal items for employees and advisors,” Ray wrote in a 30-page document. “I understand that there does not appear to be documentation for certain of these transactions as loans, and that certain real estate was recorded in the personal name of these employees and advisors on the records of the Bahamas.”

Bankman-Fried is reportedly selling his Bahamian penthouse dubbed “the Orchid” in the exclusive private community of Albany, located in Nassau, for nearly $40 million.

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Ann Coulter Op-ed: The Leech Dismount

Ann Coulter | Nov 16, 2022

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com, and WhatDidYouSay.org.

Trump’s been called a lot of things in recent years, but I’m going to call him something new.

First, a refresher. In 2015, the Republican Party was on life support, with a “Do Not Resuscitate” order pinned to its chest and a priest called to administer last rites. Voters kept telling the party they wanted less immigration, less tax-cutting and less warmongering, but the GOP kept giving us more immigration, more tax-cutting and more warmongering. (For a detailed account of this state of affairs, see my columns and books — they make great Christmas gifts — free shipping for Amazon Prime members!)

Only when all other treatments had failed did we turn to an ancient medical treatment: the leech.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Donald J. Trump. There was no greater leech in all the land!

No insult intended. Leeching is a time-honored medical tradition, dating back to the Stone Age, for every conceivable ailment — an overabundance of peccant humors, convulsions, flatulence, scarlet fever, pleurisy, inflamed eyes and diseases of the throat, to name a few. Even today, leeches are the best treatment, as I understand it, for certain anticoagulant purposes. But because they are worms and bloodsuckers, not all patients find the treatment especially tasteful.

Trump was our parasitic worm.

Though any doctor will tell you leeching rarely works, the next time you hear someone say we didn’t get anything from Trump, I respectfully suggest you reply: “I’ve got five words for you: Gorsuch. Kavanaugh. Coney F—ing Barrett.”

True, the only reason we got them is that neither Jared Kushner nor Kim Kardashian had any interest in the judiciary, so the Federalist Society picked Trump’s judges without interference. Albeit completely by accident, the leech still gave us a generation of solid Supreme Court justices. If that sounds like cold comfort, please recall that we just lost the Senate, and barely won the House by the skin of our teeth.

Moreover, without our leech, we would currently either be in Year Six of the Hillary administration, or Year Six of Jeb!’s presidency (who would have given us justices equal in stature to Harriet Miers and David Souter).

But you don’t leave the leech on the body forever. In leechery, once the parasite has served its purpose, it must be carefully removed and submerged in a solution of 70% alcohol to ensure that it is dead. (A common but incorrect method of performing the dismount is to set the leech on fire.)

Naturally, I am not suggesting we burn Trump or submerge him in a 70% alcohol solution.

If we’re coming up with a master list of possibilities after a few drinks, we might consider a traditional game of our dear Afghan allies, who play polo using a severed human head as the ball.

I submit it would be bad for the office for Trump’s head to be used in a polo match.

Another idea to come from our perpetual wars is to model the dismount on the de-Ba’athification after Saddam. This workable, but harsh, method would require sending troops to rout Trump from whatever underground bunker he’s hiding in.

I have to reject that, too, for reasons of dignity.

But the one method that I am absolutely, positively, 100% sure will not work is to attack Trump supporters as deplorable, white supremacist insurrectionists.

You will notice that this is the precise method settled on by Biden, the Democrats and the media, for utterly cynical reasons. At this stage, Trump is poisonous to the conservative agenda, so he and the media have exactly the same agenda: Promote Trump.

Liberals want Trump more than we ever did.

Leeching as a medical treatment is not based on the leech’s inherent nobility. Trump was a desperation move.

Our idea was that Trump, for narcissistic reasons, would occasionally do things that we wanted. That was more than we were getting from the Republican Party. I defy anyone to name any of the other 16 GOP presidential candidates who could have beaten Hillary.

We hadn’t planned to get to that point, but there’s no use arguing with the GPS. That’s where we were.

The people who gave Trump more primary votes than any Republican in history weren’t idiots, haters or racists. To the contrary, anyone who withstood the slings and arrows to make Trump president in 2016 is not deplorable, but honorable. Not duped, but clear-eyed. They didn’t screw up; they did the right thing.

It may take some of them a little longer to figure out that we’ve gotten everything out of the leech that we’re ever going to get. But they are good and decent people and will realize soon enough: It’s over. We got our parasitic worm, and it’s time to move on. Sometimes the worm turns; sometimes we turn on the worm.

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JUST FOUND

November 17, 2022

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Joe Biden

Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Stop The Burn

A.F. BRANCO | on November 17, 2022 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-stop-the-burn/

Biden and the Democrats setting America and the world on fire has motivated Donald Trump to enter the 2024 Presidential race.

Trump Is Back In It — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2022.**

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Shocker! Democrat Candidate Wins Election by Single Vote Following Recount

By Jim Hoft | Published November 15, 2022

Maxine Mosley was trailing her Republican opponent Larry Gagne in the Hillsborough 16 House District race last week by 23 votes.

But the machine recount gave the win to Mosley the Democrat.

Imagine that!

Shocker in Manchester’s Ward 6 @NHHouseofReps race — after she congratulated Gagne, there was still counting left & it turns out Maxine Mosley won by a single vote. A flip for the Democrats. #NHPolitics #WMUR
— Adam Sexton (@AdamSextonWMUR) November 14, 2022

Manchesterlink reported:

Following a recount, Democrat Maxine Mosley has now defeated Republican Larry Gagne in the Hillsborough 16 House District, consisting of Manchester’s Ward 6, by a final total of 1799 to 1798.

Heading into Monday, Mosley trailed Gagne, 1797 to 1820.

On Monday evening, Mosley said she was overwhelmed by the result, and was told by Secretary of State representatives that a swing of more than nine votes is rare, so this result was historic.

“I did not really anticipate that I could pull it off, but I wanted to use the process of recount to make sure that everyone that supported me knew I was doing everything in my power to have the most verifiable vote at the end,” she said. “I will take today as a win with great, great gratitude.

“It’s very unusual, especially in Manchester with the machines we have to make up 24 votes, we were winning by 23. I don’t know what happened,” said Gagne.

Jim Hoft

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October’s Border Arrests Are The Third Highest In U.S. History

BY: SOPHIA CORSO | NOVEMBER 15, 2022

Despite a general lack of concern among Democrats and corporate media, the U.S.-Mexico border continues to spiral out of control, setting new records for illegal border crossings nearly every month now. In October, more than 230,000 illegal immigrants were arrested along the southwest border, the third-highest monthly total in U.S. history, according to new data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Only May and April of this year have been worse than October, with 235,785 and 241,136 arrests, respectively.

Prior to the Biden administration, monthly arrests at the border rarely exceeded 100,000. In October 2020, for example, roughly 45,000 illegal border-crossers were arrested by CBP. But now it has become commonplace. Every month since March, arrests have surpassed 200,000.

For some historical perspective on the October 2022 numbers, consider that in all of 2017 there were only about 303,000 border arrests, total. And just 46,000 in October of that year.

Since President Joe Biden has taken office, more than 5 million illegal immigrants, including so-called “gotaways” whom Border Patrol wasn’t able to arrest, have crossed the southern border. And unlike previous years, there is no sign of a seasonal ebb and flow at the border. At a time of year when crossings are typically slow, we are now seeing a massive surge.

Apologists for President Biden’s border crisis in the corporate press tend to dismiss these shocking figures and attempt to explain them away by claiming the high monthly totals represent the same people crossing illegally, being expelled under Title 42, and attempting to cross again.

What they don’t mention is that border data has always reflected this phenomenon. Of the 230,000 arrests last month, about 19 percent “had at least one prior encounter in the previous 12 months,” according to CBP. This is only a 5 percent rise compared to the average 14 percent reencounter rate from 2014 to 2019.

Despite these outrageous statistics, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has doubled down on his claim that the border is “secure.”

Asked recently whether he “continue[s] to maintain that the border is secure” by Rep. Dan Bishop, R- North Carolina, Mayorkas responded, “Yes, and we are working day in and day out to enhance its security.”

Sophia is an intern at The Federalist and a student at Le Moyne College. She majors in English and intends to pursue a career in journalism.

Author Sophia Corso profile

SOPHIA CORSO

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Dr. David Harsanyi Op-ed: ‘National Conservatism’ Is A Dead End

BY: DAVID HARSANYI | NOVEMBER 16, 2022

Pat Buchanan presidential campaign, 2000 — **A rant.**

Author David Harsanyi profile

DAVID HARSANYI

VISIT ON TWITTER@DAVIDHARSANYI

Since a civil war is about to break out and destroy the modern Republican Party — fingers crossed — let me tell you what grinds my gears.

Young NatCons, many of whom I know and like, seem to be under the impression that they’ve stumbled upon some fresh, electrifying governing philosophy. Really, they’re peddling ideas that already failed to take hold 30 years ago when the environment was far more socially conservative and there were far more working-class voters to draw on. If Americans want class-obsessed statists doling out family-busting welfare checks and whining about Wall Street hedge funds, there is already a party willing to scratch that itch. We don’t need two.

“National conservatism”— granted, still in an amorphous stage — offers a far too narrow agenda for any kind of enduring political consensus. It lacks idealism. It’s a movement tethered to the grievances of a shrinking demographic of rural and Rust-Belt workers with high school degrees at the expense of a growing demographic of college-educated suburbanites.

The “New Right” loves to mock “zombie Reaganism.” Well, the ’80s fusionist coalition, which stressed upward meritocratic mobility, free markets, federalism, patriotism, and autonomy from the soul-crushing federal bureaucracy, was by all historical measures more successful than the Buchananism that followed or Rockefellerism that preceded. Zombie Reaganism was a dramatic success not only in 1980 but also in 1994 and again in 2010 and 2014. The “shining city on a hill” might sound like corny boomerism, but it’s still infinitely more enticing than the bleak apocalypticism of Flight 93.

Too many conservatives misconstrued Donald Trump’s slim 2016 victory as a national realignment. It was a mirage. Trump, a uniquely positioned celebrity candidate, benefitted not only from Obama fatigue but, more than anything else, the cosmic unlikability of Hillary Clinton. Yes, the GOP needed an attitude adjustment, a stiffening of the spine. There is no denying Trump’s presidency achieved some positive results (most of them, incidentally, also on the “zombie Reaganism” front with deregulation and the judiciary), and he made inroads with working-class voters and Latinos. But Republicans have now blown three elections catering to largely incoherent NatCon populism.

There is no one reason or person culpable for the right’s failures in 2022, but there are certain types of candidates finding success. Ron DeSantis, Brain Kemp, and (in 2020) Glenn Youngkin can call out crony capitalism without sounding like Ralph Nader’s comms director. All of them have been highly critical of lawlessness of illegal immigration, but none of them come off like chauvinists. All of them supported heartbeat bills and election integrity laws, and above all, they are competent administrators of government.

The white-collar worker in Virginia or North Carolina, living in a multi-use neighborhood, probably isn’t as preoccupied with drag queen story hour or the intrigues of Big Tech or the Justice Department or Chinese tariffs — as important as those issues might be — as Josh Hawley seems to believe. The suburban voter might be more socially liberal these days, but they are still dispositional conservative. And one strongly suspects they would rather see public school reform, bigger retirement accounts, and lower property tax bills than a commissar regulating the internet or some protectionist policy killing economic dynamism.

Of course, the New Right would like to claim DeSantis as one of their own. Allie Beth Stuckey, like many on the “New Right,” maintains that the Florida governor’s impressive win tells us: “we’re done with the old, corporate tax cuts GOP. We want you to use all the power available to you to crush the entities crushing us.”

That’s a Twitter reality. In the real world, hundreds of thousands of people flock to Florida (and Texas and Arizona) to enjoy an inviting regulatory environment, low taxes, and relative freedom — not to watch the governor teach Disney a lesson. A politician who cuts taxes and opens schools and businesses, despite pressure from the federal government, isn’t “crushing” anyone, he is freeing them. A politician who insists that state-run elementary schools should teach kids math, science, and history rather than identitarianism, myths, and sexuality has a compelling story to tell parents.

DeSantis is also a politician. So he shows up at trendy NatCon conferences, in the same way he used to chase trendy Tea Party endorsements from Club For Growth and FreedomWorks. Despite the left’s claims, DeSantis doesn’t strike me as an ideologue, but rather a champion of normalcy. Maybe incumbents were successful in 2022 because people are sick of drama?

What about J.D. Vance, though, David? Different types of candidates appeal to different regions. No one is arguing that Zombie populism is without any traction. Before Vance, there was Rick Santorum, whose message also had a limited allure. Yes, Vance can win in Ohio. Mike DeWine, about the most milquetoast moderate imaginable, can also win in Ohio, and by a bigger margin. Does Vance win Arizona or Nevada? Probably not. Does Blake Masters win in Ohio? Probably. But Americans are moving to Henderson, Nevada, and Boise, Idaho, not Akron, Ohio.

In the meantime, the New Right’s intellectual movement is a Trojan horse for a bunch of corrosive authoritarian “post-liberal” ideas. If a malleable “common good” means jettisoning limiting principles, well, no thank you. Plenty of secular right-wingers like myself have been defending religious freedom on neutral, classical liberal grounds. Today, the New Right tells me those notions are dead. If that’s true, I wonder who will be left to defend them 10 years from now?

By the way, if you’re under the impression that the New Right think-tankers and technocrats who rail against “elites” and “libertarians” and romanticize lunch-pail unionism are going to send their kids to work in warehouses for minimum wage, I have news for you. That’s reserved for the plebs. It’s no surprise that Compact, the New Right magazine standing athwart the “libertine left and a libertarian right,” employs a Marxist editor or that so many anti-woke socialists feel comfortable allying with the New Right. That’s a Twitter realignment, however, not a real-world one.

Fortunately, it’s highly unlikely that the average Republican with a small business is as antagonistic to the notion of individual liberty as the average First Things editor. The average voter tends not to treat every loss as if it were the end of Rome. It’s bad out there. But people who tell you this is the worst era in history or that we’re facing insurmountable unique problems are just as hysterical as the people who tell you democracy is over. Most Americans realize politics is a grind. I’d love to live in a minarchist paradise, but I’m a realist. There are approximately 349,999 million people who think differently. That’s how it shakes out in a diverse, sprawling nation. A national party needs to broaden its message to convince — not just follow the whims — of as many voters as possible. NatCons are headed in the wrong direction.

My friends believe the Republican Party establishment is incompetent and cowardly. Maybe. Thankfully, we don’t have a binary choice. May both factions fail.

David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books—the most recent, Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent. His work has appeared in National Review, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reason, New York Post, and numerous other publications. Follow him on Twitter, @davidharsanyi.

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New Mexico Town Votes Unanimously to Become Sanctuary City for Unborn Despite Governor’s Abortion Radicalism

BY: JORDAN BOYD | NOVEMBER 16, 2022

pregnant belly — **The pro-life movements in Texas and New Mexico have been so effective recently that they’ve even earned the wrath of the Biden White House.**

Author Jordan Boyd profile

JORDAN BOYD

VISIT ON TWITTER@JORDANBOYDTX

In a direct rebuke to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s radical abortion agenda, the City Council of Hobbs, New Mexico, unanimously voted last week to become a sanctuary city for the unborn. Overwhelming support for and passage of the ordinance mean abortion is now classified as murder and outlawed within Hobbs city limits. It also means that any blue politicians or abortion facilities that try to go against the city’s wishes could face an uphill legal battle.

The vote was vehemently opposed by Lujan Grisham, who called the architects of the ordinance “out-of-state extremists.” The governor’s reaction is no surprise considering her own history of abortion extremism.

Shortly after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision, Lujan Grisham signed an executive order designating $10 million in taxpayer funds toward the development of an abortion facility in Doña Ana County, an area that shares a border with El Paso, Texas. That was just a couple of months after Lujan Grisham signed an executive order “protecting medical providers from attempts at legal retribution” for granting abortions and refusing to comply with other states’ abortion extradition laws.

“As more states move to restrict and prohibit access to reproductive care, New Mexico will continue to not only protect access to abortion, but to expand and strengthen reproductive health care throughout the state,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “Today, I reaffirm my resolve to make sure that women and families in New Mexico — and beyond — are supported at every step of the way.”

Since then, abortion dominated the state’s political scene and even became a focal point in Lujan Grisham’s re-election race against Republican challenger Mark Ronchetti.

Amy Hagstrom Miller, the CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, one of the nation’s largest dealers of abortion, previously told Reuters that Lujan Grisham’s friendliness toward abortion led her to consider relocating some of their Texas facilities closer to the border with New Mexico.

The goal was to offer abortion to women in neighboring Texas cities such as Lubbock, which voted to become a sanctuary city for the unborn in May of 2021, following the Lone Star State’s ban on abortion via the Texas Heartbeat Act.

Residents of Hobbs, a nearly 40,000-person town, however, weren’t taking any chances on getting swept up in Lujan Grisham’s pro-abortion executive spree. The pro-life community in Hobbs as well as the nearby city of Clovis revolted with the introduction of ordinances designed to protect unborn babies.

The threat of legal challenges thanks to widespread support for those sanctuary city ordinances, Hagstrom Miller confessed, “has given her pause about operating in eastern New Mexico.”

“In this post-Dobbs era, where anti-abortion folks are emboldened, I want to be sure we’re in a place where our patients can be safe, where our doctors and our staff can be safe,” she said.

The Clovis City Commission postponed its vote on the ordinance allegedly so it can “perfect the language to better protect against litigation.” “We hope this sends the message to our state legislature that there are pro-life cities out there and we want to self-determine on this issue,” Clovis Mayor Mike Morris said shortly after a vote to advance the ban.

If Clovis passes the ordinance, it will join Hobbs and a myriad of other towns that all recently decided to push back against Democrats’ abortion extremism.

“Between Governor Abbott’s resounding defeat of Robert Francis O’Rourke to four more municipalities joining over fifty towns with existing sanctuary city for the unborn ordinances, this is an exciting time for Texans as we work to end abortion,” Texas Right to Life President Dr. John Seago told The Federalist. “Additionally, as the abortion industry looks to target Texas women from just outside our borders, it is equally exciting that Hobbs, New Mexico has joined the fight and passed the ordinance to keep the desperate abortion industry out of their city limits.”

The pro-life movements in Texas and New Mexico have been so effective recently that they’ve even earned the wrath of the Biden White House.

“We have been very clear about what MAGA extreme Republicans are trying to do when it comes to a woman’s rights to choose,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a recent trip to New Mexico with President Joe Biden. “They’re trying to take that away, clearly, and in the most extreme ways. What it’s doing is it’s putting women — women and girls’ lives at risk.”

This article was updated on 11/16 to reflect that members of the Clovis City Commission are no longer unanimously “expected to vote in favor of the ban.”

“The Ordinance, as it stands now, is ready. The commission, however, is unready and unwilling,” Mark Lee Dickson, founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn Initiative, told The Federalist.

Dickson also said that Clovis Mayor Mike Morris is facing backlash after he was “pressured by several Republicans to push things past the election and even past the legislative session.”

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire and Fox News. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.

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Why Did Gen Z Turn Out to Vote for Democrats and Against Their Own Interests?

BY: AUGUSTE MEYRAT | NOVEMBER 16, 2022

girl in red sweater holding her phone sitting next to a girl friend — **No one challenges the kids, so they grow up soft and slow, making them the perfect sheep to be manipulated en masse.**

AUGUSTE MEYRAT

VISIT ON TWITTER@MEYRATAUGUSTE

There’s plenty of blame to go around for the disappointing results of the last week’s election: the current post-Covid rules (or lack thereof) for voting, mismanaged ballot collection and counting, Republican leadership, and American voters. Naturally, all of these factors played a role in helping a party that has failed on multiple fronts to stay securely in power.

However, one major reason for Democrats winning was Gen Z voters coming out in large numbers to vote for them — though this was not quite as big a reason as Democrats believe. This cohort was responsible for electing cognitively impaired man-child John Fetterman and incompetent shrew Kathy Hochul as well as reelecting Covid tyrant Gretchen Whitmer. Less unsurprisingly, they’re also responsible for supporting the legalization of marijuana and expanding abortion.

Why did these young people feel motivated enough to go and vote against their interests and keep the country on a downward trajectory? Do they like rising crime, high inflation, mass illegal immigration, homeless encampments, high gas prices, and a shrinking economy? Did they really think Biden would pay off their student loans? Are they just brainwashed zombies who comply with the narratives of TikTok?

Based on my extensive experience as an English teacher, I would say that yes, the average Gen Z American is largely indifferent to important issues that affect the country, even ones that affect their general quality of life. Every day, I witness their lack of reasoning skills and personal drive. This in turn causes them to be disturbingly introverted and handle most of their interactions with people through social media. Many have no real community or deep-seated beliefs and act more on feelings than principle.

Instead, they spend most of their waking life on the internet, consuming mindless content and dreaming up fake personas for themselves. And as a result, they are largely immature, lonely, and neurotic.

This much is argued by writer and former English professor Mark Bauerlein, who writes that Gen Z, “will be the most conformist cohort in American history, already favoring cancellation more than any other age group, and politics will be a primary mode of grouping.” This generation is told what to think by various online influencers, and they passively comply. Because of screen addiction, they will never learn to think or act for themselves, nor will they ever really want to.

The propagandizing effect of heavy social media usage cannot be overstated. For young people, nearly every narrative and social phenomenon now originate from the internet. This means that it’s the dumb and disturbed “influencers” online, not parents or teachers, informing this next generation about politics, economics, and culture. And the algorithms of popular social media sites are designed to curate and amplify this same defective messaging a million times over. The subversive effect on people with still-developing frontal cortexes is not all that different from the “Ludivico technique” in “A Clockwork Orange” in which criminals are forcibly bombarded with images and music in order to condition them against misconduct.

Why is Gen Z so glued to their screens? Two friends and fellow teacher-writers Jeremy Adams and Shane Trotter have examined this question in depth. In his book “Hollowed Out,” Adams argues how the breakdown of family, schools, and the culture at large has left today’s young people morally and intellectually adrift: Not working? Not supporting oneself? Playing video games all day on somebody else’s dime? Not feeling a crumb of shame about it — even describing such a state as happy? That is hollowness.

The many norms and standards (these things that would “fill in” a person) that used to be reinforced by their parents, pastors, teachers, politicians, entertainers, and artists simply aren’t anymore. Should it surprise people that the kids carelessly withdraw from the world and play on their phones?

In Trotter’s book “Setting the Bar,” he attributes the failures of Gen Z to low standards and a permissive parenting culture that coddles kids:

The typical modern youth experience — from the school environment, to the parenting norms, to the broader cultural value structure — is ingraining limiting beliefs and destructive habits that leave our kids ill-equipped for the challenges that lie ahead of them.

No one challenges the kids, so they grow up soft and slow, making them the perfect sheep to be manipulated en masse.

Adams and Trotter demonstrate how circumstances have turned many Zoomers into sad, confused individuals doomed to have an impoverished adulthood. Instead of receiving lessons on independence, critical thinking, and disciplined living, too many of them are protected from all forms of adversity and given an iPad to keep them pacified. This treatment insulates them so much from reality that they never come to know themselves and are bored to the point of despair.

Ironically, understanding this dark reality may be the key to generational reform. True, it might be easy to agree with Bauerlein that Gen Z is hopeless and will probably bring the rest of the nation down with them, but this theory assumes that the Gen Z lifestyle is actually sustainable. The students in my classes all share a natural desire to be better people. I do what I can to offer them a way out; that is, I talk to them and push them to do more. At first, they resist and resort to their phone for comfort but this attitude changes when they feel the profound joy of actually learning and accomplishing something.

Conservatives can shake their heads at today’s young adults refusing to grow up, or they can actually try to reach these kids. It’s not like they want to be lonely, ignorant, or “neurodivergent.” And most, if they’re being honest, don’t want to be slaves to their smartphones. Rather, like everyone else, they want goodness, beauty, and truth. They want loving relationships, authentic experiences, and some degree of mastery over their emotions and impulses. Above all, they want meaning.

If they have those things, then they will stop voting for corrupt mediocrities and suicidal social policies. More importantly, they will stop wasting away their lives on frivolity and enjoy a fruitful and fulfilling adulthood. Although election results are technically a political matter, what they reveal about voters is a cultural and moral one. We should treat this midterm as the Gen Z cry for help. It’s time for us to go out and save them.

Auguste Meyrat is an English teacher in the Dallas area. He holds an MA in humanities and an MEd in educational leadership. He is the senior editor of The Everyman and has written essays for The Federalist, The American Conservative, and The Imaginative Conservative, as well as the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. Follow him on Twitter.

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Biden can’t redefine Title IX to include LGBT mandate: court

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor

A court has ruled against the Biden administration’s requirement that healthcare providers perform sex-change procedures, concluding that federal Title IX’s definition of sex discrimination does not include sexual orientation or gender identity. The case centered on two Texas physicians who filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Notification of Interpretation and Enforcement of Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which interpreted Title IX’s definition of sex to include sexual orientation and gender identity. The physicians sued, arguing that the Notification forced them to provide services such as body-mutilating surgeries on people suffering from gender dysphoria, such as castration and double mastectomies, and that it violated federal administrative procedures.

In a decision released Friday, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas, Amarillo Division, ruled that “Title IX operates in binary terms — male and female — when it references ‘on the basis of sex.’”

“If ‘on the basis of sex’ included ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity,’ as Defendants envision, Title IX and its regulations would be nonsensical,” Kacsmaryk ruled. “Title IX expressly allows sex distinctions and sometimes even requires them to promote equal opportunity.”

“Defendants’ reinterpretation of Title IX through the Notification imperils the very opportunities for women Title IX was designed to promote and protect — categorically forcing biological women to compete against biological men.”

Kacsmaryk also rejected the claim by the defendants that their reinterpretation of Title IX was justified in light of the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court v. Clayton County, in which the high court concluded that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects against employment discrimination, applies to sexual orientation and gender identity.

“Title IX is not Title VII,” Kacsmaryk continued. “The Court will not reflexively apply new Title VII precedent in the Title IX context.”

In May 2021, the HHS announced that it was going to interpret Title IX’s explicit prohibition on sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Under the new interpretation, the HHS Office for Civil Rights would enforce Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act to protect “the civil rights of individuals who access or seek to access covered health programs or activities” and stop discrimination “against consumers on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.”

The proposed reinterpretation of Title IX was met with multiple lawsuits, with a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit unanimously deciding to block the implementation of the rule back in August.

Follow Michael Gryboski on Twitter or Facebook

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Ivanka Trump does not plan to jump back into politics: ‘While I will always love and support my father, going forward I will do so outside the political arena’

By: ALEX NITZBERG | November 15, 2022

**DOMINIQUE JACOVIDES/AFP via Getty Images**

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Ivanka Trump, who is one of former President Donald Trump’s daughters, has said that she does not plan to jump back into the political world.

“I love my father very much. This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family,” she told Fox News Digital. “I do not plan to be involved in politics.”

“While I will always love and support my father, going forward I will do so outside the political arena,” she said, according to the outlet. “I am grateful to have had the honor of serving the American people and will always be proud of many of our administration’s accomplishments.”

“I’m very proud of what I was able to accomplish,” Ivanka Trump noted. “I left it all on the field and I don’t miss it.”

The former president announced on Tuesday that he will run for president again. Donald Trump previously served from early 2017 through early 2021 after defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election — but he lost the 2020 contest to Democrat Joe Biden.

Don’t miss out on content from Dave Rubin free of big tech censorship. Listen to The Rubin Report now.

Ivanka Trump told Fox News Digital that she is “extremely close” to her dad. “That hasn’t changed and will never change,” she noted. “I’ve had many roles over the years, but that of daughter is one of the most elemental and consequential.” She also said, “I will always love and support my father, just outside of the political arena.”

“My focus is prioritizing our young children and the private life we’re creating as a family,” she said. “I am loving this time with my kids, loving life in Miami, and the freedom and privacy with having returned to the private sector — this has been one of the greatest times of my life.”

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McConnell Wins Senate GOP Leadership Vote After Rick Scott Challenge

By: ARJUN SINGH, CONTRIBUTOR | November 16, 2022

ezgif.com-gif-maker (71) — **Bill Clark/Getty Images**

Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has been reelected the Leader of the Senate Republican Conference after a last-minute challenge from his colleague, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, on Wednesday. McConnell won the support of 37 members of the conference to continue as leader of the Senate GOP, a role he has held since 2007. He will continue as the Senate Minority Leader in the 118th Congress after Republicans failed to oust Democrats from the Senate majority in this year’s midterm elections.

McConnell had been challenged by Sen. Rick Scott, who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, for the job after Scott announced on Tuesday, during a luncheon with other GOP Senators, that he would do so. The move, part of a long-running feud between Scott and McConnell, caught many members of the conference by surprise.

Rick Scott spent approximately $200 million of his own money to beat Bill Nelson by approximately 10,000 votes in 2018 & just got defeated 37-10 by McConnell to lead Senate Minority. Trump supported Scott
— Daniel Uhlfelder (@DWUhlfelderLaw) November 16, 2022

The McConnell-Scott feud stems from a dispute over the funding of battleground Senate candidates in this year’s midterm election. McConnell’s affiliated Super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), raised and spent over $250 million this electoral cycle to elect Republicans, and was the top outside spender (i.e., not contributing directly to candidate committees, but spending independently to influence the race) on Senate elections in the United States. The SLF withdrew funding from Republican Senate candidates in New Hampshire and Arizona, which were widely seen as critical-to-win races for the GOP to gain a majority in the Senate. Both Republican candidates, Blake Masters in Arizona and Don Bolduc in New Hampshire, lost to Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly and Maggie Hassan even as pre-election polls showed them in close races. The SLF also spent significant amounts of money in Alaska, seeking to defend Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a close McConnell ally who was being challenged by Republican candidate Kelly Tshibaka in the general election under the state’s new Ranked Choice Voting system. Tshibaka and the Alaska Republican Party later criticized the SLF for wasting resources on opposing her candidacy.

McConnell had openly mused that “there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate,” in an appearance in Kentucky in August, which was widely reported. He lamented that “candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome,” which was interpreted as criticism of former President Donald Trump, who endorsed candidates who won GOP Senate primaries in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Nevada yet, later, lost the general election. Shortly after McConnell’s comments, Scott acknowledged in an interview with Politico that he had a “strategic disagreement” with McConnell about funding races, and later implicitly criticized him for “treasonous…trash-talking our Republican candidates” in an op-ed for the Washington Examiner.

Scott’s bid to become Senate Republicans’ leader had been endorsed by Republican Sens. Mike Braun of Indiana and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, while Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said that he does not support McConnell’s continuance in office, though he didn’t expressly endorse Scott. Other GOP Senators, such as Ted Cruz of Texas, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Marco Rubio of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah, had called for the vote to be delayed until after Georgia’s Senate runoff election.

McConnell and Scott’s offices did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Payday

A.F. BRANCO | on November 16, 2022 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-payday/

Mitch McConnell stabbed America in the back in order to keep his job as GOP leader in the Senate.

Mictch McConnell Payoff — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2022.**

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Perspectives; Thoughts; Comments; Opinions; Discussions

Archive for November, 2022

BY: STELLA MORABITO | NOVEMBER 29, 2022

Collectivists Hope to Destroy Private Life and Regulate Relationships

We Become Atomized Individuals in the State’s Eyes

Such Atomization Is a Totalitarian Necessity

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By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter | November 30, 2022

Scripture engaged Americans donated more than $100 billion to charity last year, giving more on average to churches and other charitable organizations than the other subgroups surveyed, according to a new report.

Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com

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By: PHILIP LENCZYCKI, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER | November 30, 2022

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BY: JORDAN BOYD | NOVEMBER 29, 2022

Twelve Republicans disregarded their constituents’ wishes and aided Democrats in deriding the First Amendment rights of religious Americans by passing the deceptively-named Respect For Marriage Act without including any of their colleagues’ proposed protective amendments.

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A.F. Branco Cartoon – Big Guy in Chief

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BY: NATHANAEL BLAKE | NOVEMBER 29, 2022

Likewise, many of the formerly respectable gatekeepers of medicine and scientific research have been deeply compromised by transgender ideology. From medical associations to hospitals, there is a multitude of people who are in too deep to admit error, even as transgender ideology collapses.

Nathanael Blake is a senior contributor to The Federalist and a postdoctoral fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

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BY: DAVID THALHEIMER | NOVEMBER 29, 2022

David Thalheimer is a graduate of George Washington University, Harvard University, the Air War College, and the National Intelligence University. He retired from the U.S. Air Force as a colonel and now works as an engineer in the field of cybersecurity.

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A.F. Branco Cartoon – Hogwash

The green agenda lies are all just hogwash that the media and Wall Street eat up.

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By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor | November 28, 2022

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By: PAUL SACCA | November 26, 2022

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BY: KYLEE GRISWOLD | NOVEMBER 28, 2022

Wisconsin’s premier children’s hospital has had its fair share of scandal, particularly with regard to religious liberty and leadership, but the bar just keeps getting lower: Children’s Wisconsin is now hiring trans activists as chaplains and “spiritual care interns.”

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By: CHRIS ENLOE | November 28, 2022

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A.F. Branco Cartoon – Something Smells

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By C. Douglas Golden | November 26, 2022

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A.F. Branco Cartoon – Horn of Calamity

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BY: TRISTAN JUSTICE | NOVEMBER 23, 2022

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BY: DOUGLAS WILSON | NOVEMBER 23, 2022

‘Standards’ Reflect Radical Backers

This isn’t medicine. It is the destruction of healthy bodies, the indoctrination of children, and the dissolution of parental rights. It is radical sexual ideology under the guise of science.

Rest of the World Backs Away

Douglas G. Wilson Jr. is the chief executive officer of the Catholic Benefits Association and founding board member of the Catholic Health Care Leadership Alliance.

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A.F. Branco Cartoon – Baked

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By Jim Hoft | Published November 22, 2022

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BY: JOHN DANIEL DAVIDSON | NOVEMBER 22, 2022

John Daniel Davidson is a senior editor at The Federalist. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Claremont Review of Books, The New York Post, and elsewhere. Follow him on Twitter, @johnddavidson.

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