Monthly Archives: November 2022

Where Did The Money Go?

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On Sunday, Just the News posted an article about as much as $400 billion in COVID-19 unemployment relief that was probably lost due to fraud.

The article reports:

Reports indicate as much as $400 billion in COVID-19 unemployment relief were likely lost to waste and fraudsters. Lawmakers want answers.

Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Labor demanding documents and information related to the unemployment fraud.

“Since the Summer of 2020, repeated alerts from federal law enforcement agencies warned of targeted efforts involving organized cybercrime, foreign actors, and international crime rings using stolen identities of American citizens to obtain fraudulent unemployment benefits,” the letter said. “Fraud estimates range from $80 billion to as much as $400 billion, which is nearly half of all the COVID-19 unemployment aid.”

The Department of Labor’s Inspector General released a report in October showing that fraud varied by state but was significant nationwide.

“We found ETA and states did not ensure pandemic-related UI funds were paid only to eligible individuals promptly. Of the 4 states we tested, from March 28, 2020, through September 30, 2020, we estimated $30.4 billion of the $71.7 billion in PUA and FPUC benefits were paid improperly (42.4 percent),” the report said. “We estimated $9.9 billion of that was paid to likely fraudsters (13.8 percent). Notably, in the 4 states, 1 in 5 dollars initially paid in PUA benefits went to likely fraudsters.”

The article concludes:

The IG did lay out some reasons this waste and fraud occurred.

“ETA and states made significant efforts; however, they did not protect pandemic-related UI funds from historic levels of improper payments,” the report said. “We attribute this to four causes: states did not perform eligibility testing, ETA’s oversight was not timely enough, PUA initially allowed claimants to self-certify their eligibility, and ETA suspended 1 of their primary oversight tools for the first 3 months of the CARES Act. Furthermore, ETA’s interpretation of its regulations hindered the OIG’s timely and complete access to state UI claims data to assist in detecting and deterring fraud.”

There is no excuse for this.

If You Had Any Doubts About The Uni-Party…

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Like him or not, President Trump represents an ever-present threat to the status quo in Washington. Under President Trump we had four years of no new war, higher wages for the middle and lower class, a growing economy, manufacturing jobs returning to America, and low inflation. The average American prospered. The uni-party in Washington can’t afford to let that happen again–we might get used to it. The real question is whether or not anyone other than President Trump is willing to fight the corruption in Washington and in other areas of our country. I don’t know the answer to that question.

On Sunday, BizPacReview posted an article about the latest strange bedfellows to try to stop Americans from having their voices heard.

The article reports:

With the ruling D.C. establishment having successfully beaten back the midterm election challenges to their unchecked power by congressional candidates who were supported by former President Donald J. Trump, the job now turns to snuffing out the MAGA movement and, in the eyes of many, two former leaders with much in common will be spearheading the effort.

Two of Trump’s fellow White House alumni Barack Obama and George W. Bush will be holding back-to-back “democracy” conferences following the expected announcement that he will be officially declaring a 2024 presidential run, something that the corrupt uniparty appears to be determined to prevent at all costs.

According to a report from Axios, the two conferences will highlight “rising threats from authoritarianism and disinformation — and how to combat them globally and at home,” which will inevitably lead to increased demands for censoring of dissenting voices on social media and the further demonization of the “MAGA Republicans” who were effectively designated as enemies of the state by President Joe Biden in his disgraceful “Soul of a Nation” speech.

On Wednesday, the George W. Bush Institute will hold “The Struggle for Freedom” event in Dallas to be highlighted with an appearance by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who will converse with Dubya.

The article concludes:

In addition to turning the system intended to protect the American populace against those who hate us for our way of life upon law-abiding citizens as documented by the evidence of domestic surveillance programs leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden, Obama took particular relish in droning innocent civilians, further contributing to animosity against Americans.

Both men are also bonded by their hatred of Trump, with it being intensely personal for Bush after Trump emasculated his younger brother Jeb during the 2016 primaries, single-handedly sparing the nation from a third Bush presidency.

According to Axios, “Bush and Obama — a Republican and a Democrat respectively — didn’t coordinate their timing, organizers say. But their events — Bush’s is Nov. 16 in Dallas and Obama’s is Nov. 17 in New York — are happening the week after the U.S. midterm elections.”

I am amazed at the embrace of Zelensky after the recent failure of FTX and the claims that FTX was a Crypto laundromat for the Ukrainian Government (article here). I don’t believe that the mainstream media has picked up the details of this story yet.

It is sad that two former presidents are claiming to work for freedom and democracy with those currently in power who are working to move the average American away from freedom and prosperity.

Is The Covid Emergency Really Over?

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On Friday, The Daily Caller reported the following:

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Finally Backing Down’: Border Patrol Lifts Vaccine Mandate For Personnel

The article notes:

  • U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has lifted its vaccine mandate, according to a memorandum exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
  • “CBP is halting the COVID-19 screening program, and employees may choose to withdraw their pending reasonable accommodation requests for screening exemption,” an internal CBP memorandum stated.
  • Several agents who fought for vaccine exemptions are both happy and frustrated over the new decision, they told the DCNF.
  • “Management is finally backing down because this is a fight that they’re not going to win. I think this is a huge win for people that didn’t get the vaccine. It’s almost like a relief,” one Border Patrol agent said.

Don’t get too confident yet. The emergency status will be renewed in January. It is not going to be allowed to expire.

The article notes:

“It’s a joke because we’re so worried about COVID that we’re letting in all these aliens unvaccinated, untested, we’re not doing anything for them, right? We’re not testing them when they come across. We’re not giving them the vaccine when they come across, but COVID is such a big deal,” they added.

The record surge in illegal migration in fiscal year 2022, when CBP encountered roughly 2.3 million migrants, has only made matters worse for the workforce, especially those threatened for not getting the jab.

“It doesn’t even feel like we’re the sworn agents that we were developed and made out to be … we’re the guys that are protecting the border. It’s like they don’t even care. We’re not even like people to them. At this point. It’s just a statistic,” a third agent requesting a religious accommodation said.

The border is wide open and we are concerned about whether or not Americans are vaccinated? Common sense has taken a vacation.

A Decision That Upholds The Constitution

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On Friday, The Washington Free Beacon posted an article about President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program. The program represents the federal government interfering in a signed contract–similar to the government’s interference in contracts between renters and landlords during the Covid pandemic.

The article reports:

The United States government has stopped taking applications for student debt relief, after a federal judge blocked President Joe Biden’s loan forgiveness plan, according to a notice on a government website.

A judge in Texas who was appointed by former President Donald Trump ruled on Thursday that Biden’s plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt was unlawful and must be vacated. The Biden administration is appealing the ruling.

In July 2021, The New York Post reported the following:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi disputed the notion that President Biden has the authority to unilaterally ​cancel students’ federal loans.​

“People think that the president of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness,” Pelosi said during her weekly news conference on Wednesday.

“He does not. He can postpone, he can delay, but he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress.”

However, the President signed an Executive Order providing student loan forgiveness, and applications have poured in.

The student loan forgiveness program, even if it does not move forward, has served its purpose.

On Wednesday, Breitbart reported the following:

Voters between the ages of 18 and 29 cast their ballots in favor of Democrats 63 percent of the time in the 2022 elections, exit polling data found.

Data from NBC exit polls found that the demographic, comprised of Generation Z and the Millennials, voted 63 percent for Democrats and just 35 percent for the Republicans.

Generation Z and the Millennials were promised free stuff and do not have the education or the critical thinking skills to understand that free stuff isn’t free. The government has no source of revenue other than printing money or taxing Americans. I suspect we will see more promises of free stuff for this group in the future as this group traditionally does not come out and vote at election time. This time Generation Z and Millennials made the difference.

Additional Information About The Battle For The Republican Party

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On Friday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article about the battle between the Republican Club and Republican voters.

The article notes:

The Republican Club has no interest in Ron DeSantis becoming President of the United States.  The Republican Club has interest in Donald Trump NOT becoming President of the United States.  Ron DeSantis is the foil, nothing more.  It’s not about Ron DeSantis, it’s about the Club, the mechanism behind Ron DeSantis – the same mechanism that put $200 million into his campaign as enticement for his usefulness.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis -vs- California Governor Gavin Newsom in 2024 is simply two clubs playing the illusion of choice game.

Ultimately, using history and modern politics as the perspective, if you really boil down the political sauce to its reduced state, what you find is… With DeSantis the DNC Club needs less ballot collection to defeat him. However, that’s irrelevant to the intent of his usefulness for the GOP club.

The article concludes:

For the professional GOP Club, as openly expressed by the establishment politicians within it, the donors behind it and the media who promote it, the goal is to remove the populism within the club and bring back the multinational Club alignment with the corporations.  That alignment was severely damaged by President Trump and the America First economic agenda.

The core of the Big Ugly battle is a Club motive based on money, power and boardroom affluence, in essence, GREED.

For ten plus years on these pages, I have written extensively about how there was always, always, going to be a point where the Big Ugly battle was going to have to be waged.  We have waited and waited, looking at each moment, each conflict, each disparagement, each slight and snub, in hope the spark would ignite.

If the Big Ugly arrives in a contest between President Trump and Governor DeSantis, well, great; it needs to happen.

The bottom line is we need this Big Ugly fight.  Not only does the future of the GOP reside in the outcome, the future of a constitutional republic free from corporatism is contingent upon it.

Yes, this fight is going to be big, and it’s going to be ugly… and in the aftermath, hopefully lots of free footballs.

Bring it!

Keep all of this in mind as you watch the media and the Republican Club promote Ron DeSantis as the answer to America’s and the Republican Party’s problems.

Why Ron DeSantis Should Not Run In 2024

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On Friday, PJ Media posted an article explaining why Florida Governor Ron DeSantis should not run for President in 2024. The reason have much more to do with the election corruption currently running rampant most of our country. Florida had a red wave because Governor DeSantis made sure the election was honest. On November 8th, The Daily Caller reported that Governor DeSantis blocked Department of Justice monitors from inside polling places on election day. Considering the recent actions of the Department of Justice, that was a wise move. Unfortunately, as a national candidate the Governor would have no way of assuring an honest election. Unless the current corruption in our elections is dealt with, we will never have another Republican President.

The article at PJ Media concludes:

Rather, this would be the time to rally the troops and to work indefatigably, as I argued previously, toward cleaning up the Augean Stables that are now the condition of American politics. Trump is still “the Donald.” Republicans need to get their act together instead of unintentionally justifying the betrayal of the RINO Machiavellian elites and foolishly consolidating the Democrat campaign against the very nation they presumably hold dear.

The Conservative Treehouse posted an article on Friday about the battle for America.

The article notes:

Ever since the professional Republican apparatus decided to target, eliminate and destroy the grassroots movement known as the Tea Party, there was always going to come a time when the battle for the heart and soul of the GOP Club would take place.

CTH has been calling this battle ‘The Big Ugly‘ for around a decade.

The Big Ugly battle is essentially the fight between the grassroots working class base of MAGA voters and the professional political snobs in control of the Republican Club boardroom.

Some call it the ‘base’ -vs- the ‘establishment’.  There are other names and catchphrases, but the essence of the dynamic is the same.  A scruffy voting base, who, prior to Donald Trump, had no visible leader to represent their internal interests around the mahogany table.

Ordinary voters were in an abusive relationship with the people around the GOP boardroom.  The Club needed our votes, and our money (less so after the Citizens United decision) but had no intention of ever actually delivering on the priorities of the voters.  The Republican political establishment played Lucy with the football for years, and We The People always ended up flat on our backs, continually frustrated and feeling used.

In the same year the Tea Party rose up, the Supreme Court gave the GOP Club legal access to unlimited corporate money with the 2010 Citizens United decision.  Mitch McConnell used the newly unrestrained campaign finance mechanism to further diminish the influence of the unwashed masses and eliminate the movement; it’s all well documented.

For the next several years we watched and participated in a political pantomime with highlights to include the 2012 installation of Club member Mitt Romney to represent our interests.  Yeah, whatever…. It was a hot mess.   

Please follow the links above to read both articles. Just analyzing where the Republicans spent their money in the mid-terms tells you all you need to know. The Republican Club is much more interesting in holding on to power than they are in representing the voters.

When Is An Emergency Not An Emergency?

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On Friday, MSN reported that President Biden plans to renew the COVID-19 pandemic status as a public health emergency in January. The public health emergency was expected to expire in January. The article notes that the extension will provide free tests, vaccines and treatments. What the article does not mention is that fact that the Covid vaccine is only authorized under emergency use. If the emergency goes away, then any vaccine mandates that are still remaining will also have to go away.

The article reports:

The possibility of a winter surge in COVID cases and the need for more time to transition out of the public health emergency to a private market were two factors that contributed to the decision, the official said.

The public health emergency was initially declared in January 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic began, and has been renewed each quarter since. But the government in August began signaling it planned to let it expire in Jan.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has promised to give states 60 days notice before letting the emergency expire, which would have been on Friday if it did not plan on renewing it again in January.

Doesn’t it make more sense to declare an emergency when there actually is one instead of when there might be a possibility of one? It should also be noted that many of those in government are enjoying the extra authority the public health emergency gives them. That is another reason we need to end the emergency.

Why The Red Wave Was A Trickle

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On Friday, The American Thinker posted an article explaining the forces that blocked the overwhelming Republican victory that should have happened in the mid-term elections.

The first headwind that the red wave encountered was the Republican Elites who do not want to give up their power (despite the fact that they have not used their power to help average Americans in any way).

The article notes:

What response did the Republicans make to the Dems’ constant drumbeat about Republican fascism leading up to the election? As far as I can tell, it was mostly crickets. They were overconfident and complacent. They spent three weeks beating their chests about the “red wave” and talking big about what they’d do when they took control of Congress. While they were doing that, the Democrats and their media allies were scaring the bejesus out of their base and, as a result, they turned out in droves.

When I read that Mitch McConnell called Joe O’Dea, a Colorado Senate candidate, “the perfect candidate,” I shuddered because conservatives dislike McConnell almost as much as they dislike Nancy Pelosi. That statement probably cost O’Dea support among rural conservatives.

There was also the matter of denying money to candidates that McConnell knew would not support him as Senate majority or minority leader.

The second headwind was the garbage the media was constantly feeding Americans.

The article reports:

…Americans don’t see the threat to our freedoms that vaccine and mask mandates and lockdowns were and are. They also don’t understand that someone must pay the bill for government handouts, either directly as confiscatory taxes or indirectly as rampant inflation or hyperinflation.

As a result, they tend to vote for the person who promises them something for nothing. Many are mush-heads who will be gobsmacked with the business failures, job losses, foreclosures, bankruptcies, shortages, and other chaos that will inevitably result from the Biden administration’s policies.

The third headwind was early voting. It skews the results by letting those who engage in stuffing ballot boxes how many ballots they need to create.

The article notes:

Early voting is the sleeper contributor to last night’s losses. It gives both parties an advance detailed picture of how many people voted, who voted, who is likely to vote but hasn’t yet, and what party voters support or belong to. With all the massive databases out there and modern computers, they have a pretty good idea of how many votes they need to produce to win an election and where to go to get them, days before election day.

The Democrats have turned early voting and stuffing drop boxes into a science.

Please follow the link to the article to read the details. The Republicans who still believe in the Republican platform need to get their heads out of the sand and change their Washington leadership.

Politicizing Law Enforcement

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I suppose politicizing law enforcement is nothing new. There are some cities in American where who you know is more important than what you did. However, some of our federal law enforcement agencies are acting on the advice of Lavrentiv Beria, the longest-serving secret police chief in Joseph Stalin’s term of office, who said, “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.”

On Thursday, Just the News reported:

Governments worldwide are voicing threats against Twitter’s new owner if he doesn’t censor narratives they dislike, as financially struggling Facebook gets even cozier with global authorities.

President Biden, who has been trashing Twitter since Elon Musk’s takeover and warning about the dangers of unfettered communication, even floated a national security review into Musk’s purchase.

The ire of the unpopular incumbent, whose approval ratings lagged far behind exit polls for Democratic Senate candidates in the midterms, may have been stoked by Twitter’s Birdwatch program adding a reader note about inflation to a since-deleted White House claim that President Biden is responsible for “the biggest increase in their Social Security checks in 10 years.”

Twitter also “froze” content moderation and policy enforcement tools for several Trust and Safety team employees ahead of the midterm elections, letting them penalize only “the most high-impact violations that would involve real-world harm,” Bloomberg reported Nov. 1.

I don’t mean to be difficult, but unfettered communication is called The
First Amendment.

The article reports:

One might believe Musk is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t with Germany’s ruling Social Democratic Party, based on members’ comments to the German business newspaper Handelsblatt.

Party leader Lars Klingbeil called on authorities to “take consistent action” to stop Twitter’s attack on “diversity of opinion,” while MP Jens Zimmermann called on the Federal Office of Justice to hold Musk himself financially responsible if Twitter can’t meet German moderation requirements due to staff cuts.

Stay tuned. There are those in America who appreciate free speech.

A Totally Different Perspective

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On Wednesday, The Gateway Pundit posted an article that provides a very different perspective on the election than what I have heard elsewhere. The article points out that on election night 174 of the candidates backed by President Trump won and 9 lost. That totally contradicts the stories in the media claiming that President Trump was a drain on the election. Another thing that the media fails to mention is that the establishment Republicans gave very little (if any) money to non-establishment Republican candidates. We need to remember that the Republican establishment is part of the uni-party and does not want to give up power.

Carroll Quigley was an American historian who lived from 1910 to 1977. At one point in his career, he stated the following:

The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can throw the rascals out at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy. Then it should be possible to replace it, every four years if necessary, by the other party, which will be none of these things but will still pursue, with new vigor, approximately the same basic policies.

That’s exactly where we are now.

The Gateway Pundit reports:

Trump-endorsed candidates for U.S. Senate were 21-0 in primary elections during the 2022 election cycle

When President Trump endorsed J.D. Vance on April 15, 2022, he was polling in 5th place for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. His endorsement led to a resounding 8% margin of primary victory by Vance among a 7-candidate field. In the general election, Vance was outspent by $35 million.

President Trump endorsed Blake Masters on June 2, 2022, when Masters was polling in 3rd place for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. His endorsement led to a tremendous 12% margin of primary victory by Masters among a 5-candidate field. In the general election, Masters was outspent by nearly $70 million.

These are some of the candidates President Trump backed:

Most of them did pretty well.

The article concludes:

Remember this: “If you’re a RINO, you get the campaign funding. If you’re MAGA, they don’t even return your calls. RINO leadership intentionally sabotaged the Red Wave to hurt Trump and the MAGA faithful. Don’t let them twist what actually happened,” DC_Draino wrote.

Those in power in both parties are more interested in maintaining their little clique than in representing the voters who put them if office. It really is time to throw the bums out. The Republicans currently in Congress feared the ‘red wave’ because those in leadership would likely be voted out. Unfortunately, the Republicans did not elect enough patriots to change the leadership. We can expect more of the same ineffectiveness from the establishment Republicans that we have seen in the past.

The Cancel Culture Continues

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On November 2nd, The Daily Signal posted an article about a conference held last month by The American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM).

The article reports:

Medical organizations in the birthing field have vocally endorsed abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade. A prominent group of pro-life obstetricians and gynecologists found itself excluded from a national midwifery conference over its views on abortion, The Daily Signal can exclusively reveal. The pro-life group is also raising the alarm about the potential decertification of medical professionals who refuse to toe the line on abortion.

The American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) held its Midwifery Works Conference last month, but the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) had no presence there for the first time in six years.

AAPLOG, a nonsectarian organization, operated as a “special-interest group” within the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) for 40 years before ACOG discontinued the designation. Now, ACNM, ACOG, and the organization responsible for certifying OB-GYNs, the American Board of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ABOG), have embraced pro-abortion stances.

“One of the greatest threats to maternal health care is the rabid pro-abortion activism currently being displayed by both ABOG and ACOG,” AAPLOG CEO Dr. Donna Harrison told The Daily Signal. “Three national studies have revealed that somewhere between 75% and 93% of OB-GYNs do not perform abortions in their practices.”

…Harrison also raised the alarm about a July statement from ABOG, which she characterized as a threat to decertify pro-life OB-GYNs.

“Physicians and midwives who care for both of their patients, both the pregnant mother and the human being in her womb, are being systematically bullied and eliminated from being able to practice medicine, at a time when maternity care deserts are worsening around the country,” Harrison added. “ACNM has recently joined in the bullying by refusing to allow midwives who care for their in-utero patients to even speak or exhibit at the recent ACNM national conference.”

The article concludes:

Harrison, the AAPLOG CEO, predicted more struggles ahead.

“The threats to decertify OB-GYNs who do not participate in killing their patients will not only worsen the existing maternity care deserts but also completely ignore the fact that many women do not want to be treated by an abortion provider,” Harrison told The Daily Signal. “Many women want a physician who cares as much about the human being in their womb as they do, so that they can trust that the recommendations for treatment are being given in consideration of the best outcome for both the mother and her child. This is good obstetrical care.”

I don’t think killing babies is good medical practice nor is it good for society as a whole.

This Is Not A Good Idea

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On Tuesday, One America News reported that Maryland had voted to legalize recreational marijuana and possession up to 1.5oz for people 21+.

The article notes:

It will also create a path to expunge or re-sentence convictions. In MD, police are ~3x more likely to arrest Black people for marijuana despite equal use among white people.

The article includes the following tweet:

ChudsOfTikTok@ChudsOfTikTok
Missouri voted to decriminalize & have recreational sales of marijuana at a 6% sales tax!! Legalize, Tax, Regulate! Congrats Maryland & Missouri!

Image

This is NOT good news. In October 2018, I posted an article based on a New York Times story of a man who was addicted to marijuana. Please follow the link to read the entire article. This is not a harmless drug.

The article at rightwinggranny notes:

On October 6, Neal Pollack posted an opinion piece in The New York Times. The title of the opinion piece is, “I’m Just a Middle-Aged House Dad Addicted to Pot.”

The opinion piece details the author’s journey from using marijuana regularly in his 20’s to the realization that he was hooked on the drug.

Here are some highlights from the article:

I started smoking regularly in the ’90s, when I was in my mid-20s. Pot made everything better — food, music, sex, cleaning — and it made nothing worse. I got depressed less often. I laughed all the time.

But I also lost my temper for no reason. Did I yell at strangers in public? Probably. I barely remember, because I was stoned. But I do remember that once, high as a promotional blimp, I got into a bar fight with a former friend and broke his tooth with a beer bottle.

Back when my writing career was booming, I got invited a couple of times to do readings in Amsterdam, a bad gig for a pot addict. Once, after ingesting a couple of THC pills, I dumped a pitcher of water over my head and insulted the Iraqi representative to National Poetry Day Amsterdam. Another time, I pulled down my pants and flashed a crowd of several hundred. If I had any boundaries, weed erased them thoroughly. The boom ended fast.

…In early November (2017), I had the chance to fulfill my lifelong dream of attending a Dodgers World Series game. I spent way too much money on a ticket that turned out to be fake. So high that I couldn’t remember where I’d parked, I started screaming outside the stadium. If I’d been sober, I would have just called the vendor and gotten a refund. That’s what I ended up doing, eventually. But not before security guards surrounded me.

I looked into a car mirror and saw an old man, sobbing over a baseball game. That was the moment I accepted that I had a problem. Three weeks later, I quit.

The author goes on to say that he believes marijuana should be legal. I disagree.

In January 2019 Imprimis reported:

Most of all, advocates have told you that marijuana is not just safe for people with psychiatric problems like depression, but that it is a potential treatment for those patients. On its website, the cannabis delivery service Eaze offers the “Best Marijuana Strains and Products for Treating Anxiety.” “How Does Cannabis Help Depression?” is the topic of an article on Leafly, the largest cannabis website. But a mountain of peer-reviewed research in top medical journals shows that marijuana can cause or worsen severe mental illness, especially psychosis, the medical term for a break from reality. Teenagers who smoke marijuana regularly are about three times as likely to develop schizophrenia, the most devastating psychotic disorder.

After an exhaustive review, the National Academy of Medicine found in 2017 that “cannabis use is likely to increase the risk of developing schizophrenia and other psychoses; the higher the use, the greater the risk.” Also that “regular cannabis use is likely to increase the risk for developing social anxiety disorder.”

Legalizing marijuana for any reason will not solve problems–it will only cause more problems.

Ballots vs. Votes

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On Wednesday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article analyzing Tuesday’s election. The article notes that there is a distinction between the Republicans view voting and the way the Democrats view voting. The Republicans emphasize votes; the Democrats emphasize ballots.

The article notes:

As the political discussion centers on the 2022 wins and losses from the midterm election, one thing that stands out in similarity to the 2020 general election is the difference between ballots and votes. It appears in some states this is the ‘new normal.’

Where votes were the focus, the Biden administration suffered losses. Where ballots were the focus, the Biden administration won.

Perhaps the two states most reflective of ‘ballots’ being more important than ‘votes’ are Michigan and Pennsylvania.  Despite negative polling and public opinion toward two specific candidates in those states, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman achieved victories.

Whitmer and Fetterman were not campaigning for votes, that is old school. Instead, the machinery behind both candidates focused on the modern path. The Democrat machines in both states focused on ballot collection and ignored the irrelevant votes as cast.

Since the advent of ballot centric focus through mail-in and collection drop-off processes, votes have become increasingly less valuable amid the organizers who wish to control election outcomes.  As a direct and specific result, ballot collection has become the key to Democrat party success.

The effort to attain votes for candidates is less important than the strategy of collecting ballots.

It should be emphasized; these are two distinctly different election systems.

The system of ballot distribution and collection is far more susceptible to control than the traditional system of votes cast at precincts.

A vote cannot be cast by a person who is no longer alive, or no longer lives in the area.  However, a ballot can be sent, completed and returned regardless of the status of the initially attributed and/or registered individual.

While ballots and votes originate in two totally different processes, the end result of both “ballots” and “votes,” weighing on the presented election outcome, is identical.

While initially the ballot form of election control was tested in Deep Blue states, through the process of mail-in returns under the guise and justification of “expanding democracy,” a useful tool for those who are vested in the distinction, I think we are now starting to see what happens on a national level when the process is expanded.

The article concludes:

Campaigning, advertising, promoting, debating, hand-shaking, crowd attendance and venues for rallies, along with physically meeting people and convincing them of your worth, are only important if you are trying to win votes. Fortunately for Democrats, modern electioneering via ballot collection does not require these arcane efforts. So, in the larger picture of what you now see in elections, Democrats have stopped wasting time doing them.

Republicans are running around trying to convince people and win votes. Meanwhile, who needs voters? Democrats have skipped all of that old fashioned stuff and modified all of their electioneering systems to quietly and efficiently collect ballots. Yesterday you saw the outcome.

Haven’t you noticed?

It really is that simple.

Obviously election fraud is much easier when counting ballots than when counting votes. I think it’s time to go back to what we used to do–vote on one day and mail-in ballots for military and those who truly cannot make it to the polls.

Will Fiscal Sanity Return To Congress?

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On Thursday, Breitbart posted an article illustrating the path to fiscal sanity for Congress (assuming Congress actually wants fiscal sanity).

The article reports:

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) stated that the best way Congress can fix the economy is to get back to the regular appropriations process…

…Donalds said, “[I]f our economy doesn’t get back on track, we’re all in trouble. And the number one way we can do that from Capitol Hill is…we’ve got to get back to regular order in Congress. We have to have real appropriations, not smoke-filled room foolishness. We’ve got to get all that COVID money out that was appropriated, still not spent. Our economy can’t take it. And then, you have to get to the hard stuff. Yes, we have to have border security. You can’t have fentanyl in our streets. Yes, we’ve got to make sure our military is strong because the Chinese are…a clear threat to global security, especially in Taiwan. All these things are happening at warp speed. We’ve got to get serious. No more games.”

Congress has not followed the regular budget process since 2009. The chart below shows what has happened since then:

The second column is revenue; the third column is spending; the fourth column is the  surplus or deficit. The chart represents trillions–not billions.

How much is a trillion?

Let’s get back to a budget process that works.

 

 

This Is What Is Planned

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On Wednesday, Breitbart posted an article that included a question to President Biden from Zeke Miller of the Associated Press and President Biden’s response.

Here are the question and the response:

Miller: As you mentioned, you mentioned that Americans are frustrated. In fact, 75% of voters say the country is heading in the wrong direction, despite the results of last night. What, in the next two years, do you intend to do differently to change people’s opinion of the direction of the country, particularly as you contemplate a run for president in 2024.

Biden: Nothing. Because they’re just funding out what we’re doing. The more they know about what we’re doing, the more support there is. Do you know anybody who wants us to get rid of the change we made on prescription drug prices and raise prices again? Do you know anyone who wants us to walk away from building roads and bridges and the Internet and so on? I do not know — I think that the problem is, the major piece of legislation that we passed, some of it bipartisan, takes time to be recognized. For example, you’ve got over a trillion dollars worth of infrastructure money. Not that many spades have been put in the ground. It’s taking time — for example, I was on the phone congratulating a Californian recently, and then someone up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the congressman who got elected, he said, “Can you help us make sure that we are able to have high-speed rail service from Scranton to New York City?” I said, “Yeah, we can. We can.” First of all, it’ll make it a lot easier, take a lot of vehicles off the road, and we have more money in the pot now, already out there, that we voted for, than the entire money we spent on Amtrak to begin with. And it’s the same way — for example, I talked about during the campaign, that we’re going to limit the cost of insulin for seniors to $35 a month instead of $400 a month. Well, it doesn’t take effect until next year. So we there’s a lot of things that are just starting to kick in. And the same way with what we’ve done in terms of the environmental stuff. It takes time to get it moving. So I’m not going to change — matter of fact, you know, there are some things i want to change and add to. For example, we had passed the most bipartisan, we passed the most extensive gun legislation, you know, rational gun policy in 30 years, but we din’t ban assault weapons. I’m going to ban assault weapons. I’m going to try like the devil. So I’m not going to change the direction. I said I ran for three reasons. I’m going to continue to stay where I am now. I fully understand the legitimate concern that what I’m saying is wrong, okay?  One is, that I said we were going to restore the soul of the country, begin to treat each other with decency, honor and integrity. And it’s starting to happen. People are — the conversations are becoming more normal, becoming more — how can I say it? — decent. The second thing I said was I want to build the country from the from the middle out, the bottom up, and that way everybody does fine. I’m tired of trickle-down. Not a whole lot trickles down when you trickle down to hard-working folks. The third thing I know is still very hard, I’m going to do everything in my power to see to it that we unite the country. It is hard to sustain yourself as a leading democracy in the word if you can’t generate some unity. So I”m not going to change anything in any fundamental way.

Lord, help us.

Where The Democrats Went Wrong

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The red wave never happened, but that doesn’t change the fact that we are headed in the wrong direction. There was probably fraud in some areas, but unless it can be proved, it will continue. There were not enough Republicans elected to change the direction we are heading. On Monday, The Washington Examiner posted an article detailing some of those problems.

The article reports:

If there were a way to illustrate the beginning, middle, and end of this election cycle in four powerful moments, I’d start with the faces of the men and women working on the construction of the Keystone pipeline, and the owners of the small businesses who supported them, that I witnessed days after President Joe Biden terminated their livelihoods.

These are people who work with their hands in the harshest of weather conditions digging trenches, cleaning feeder pipes, laying concrete, ensuring the proper fittings on the connecting pipes, and loading and unloading heavy materials by hand. That’s not including the faces of the people who run the motels, diners, machine shops, and barber shops and the mechanics who make sure they are fed, housed, cleaned, and able to get home when the job is done.

The next image in my coverage of these first two years of the Biden administration captured the true beginning of his descent away from the public. It happened while I was driving past the town square in Independence, Missouri, and saw 13 empty chairs sitting in a semicircle at the base of the lowered American flag in front of the Old Jackson County Courthouse, with each chair bearing the name of one of the 13 soldiers lost in Afghanistan during Biden’s bug-out from that country.

It was in the days and weeks after Aug. 26, 2021, when the nation lost those service members during Biden’s botched withdrawal, that the media and the Democratic Party as a whole failed to understand the mark that moment had on the American psyche. It was a shift away from the party in power and the president, whose credibility since then has never stopped slipping away.

…The final image of this election happened last week when someone snapped an iPhone photo of Michael McGuire, who just got off of work at the local coal mine and rushed to Rupp Arena at the University of Kentucky so he could watch an event with his son.

The article concludes:

The Democratic Party and the cultural curators in this country that run our institutions, academia, national media, corporations, Hollywood, and our sports entities have forgotten that these people vote — no matter how much pressure you place on them, no matter how much you look down on them or call them names or believe you know better than them or think they should just deal with high prices or accept dangerous crime in their communities.

They feel much more connected to the values and work ethic of the McGuires in this world than the Hollywood actors sent out in droves to bring the votes home for the Democratic Party.

The Democrats need a much better message to appeal to voters the next time a big election is held — one that is aspirational, nondivisive, and truly inclusive.

That wasn’t their message this year.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. It is extremely insightful.

A Very Confusing Policy

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On Monday, Townhall posted an article about President Biden’s recent statements on his administration’s energy policies. The statements are very confusing.

The article reports:

The latest off-the-cuff statement putting pressure on the White House to explain what Biden meant came as the president campaigned in New York for endangered Democrat incumbent Governor Kathy Hochul Sunday night.

Speaking to what must have been some kind of climate protester in the crowd, Biden says “No more drilling. There is no more drilling. I haven’t formed any new drilling,” the president reiterated.

…As Katie (Katie Pavlich)  pointed out on Twitter, Biden’s words contradicted what White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre said on Saturday when she tried to brag that the Biden administration has “increased” the production of oil and natural gas

…The “no more drilling” stance is not new for Biden, who trotted that out as a primary campaign refrain in 2020. While attempting to win his party’s nomination, Biden said he would ensure there was “no ability for the oil industry to continue to drill — period.” When asked to clarify by moderator Dana Bash if there would be any room for “coal or fracking” in a Biden administration, he said “no” and pledged he would “make sure it’s eliminated.”

But his 2020 rhetoric and this Sunday’s apparent admission that he’s banned oil drilling contradicts Biden’s previous attempts to label complaints from oil and gas companies being strangled by Democrats’ energy independence-killing policies as “simply not true.”

The article also notes:

Senator Manchin called Biden’s comments “outrageous and divorced from reality” for ignoring the “severe economic pain” being felt by Americans due to rising energy costs. The West Virginia Democrat said comments like those from Biden “are the reason the American people are losing trust in President Biden.”

That caused the White House, through Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, to rush out a statement on Saturday claiming Biden’s words had “been twisted to suggest a meaning that was not intended,” despite Biden’s words being perfectly clear (for once), as Katie reported here. 

I don’t know if a Republican Congress can reverse the damage President Biden has done to the American energy industry. I am hoping they will try.

Societal Suicide by R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D

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The pied piper Joe Biden and the Left in this country are leading us off a cliff. The only question is whether we will continue to follow. The tune that are playing is “The War on Fossil Fuels. “ First of all, the Left has always used the axiom of “Never let a crisis go to waste” in their efforts to turn this country Marxist. When there is no real crisis, they invent one. The current crisis they have invented and many people are gleefully following is manmade global warming. Predictions like the world ending in 12 years, rising sea levels, increasing intensity of storms are repeated endlessly. The cause of these predictions of doom and fear mongering is, of course, fossil fuels. Sadly, many otherwise rational people are buying into this fake crisis.

Let’s take a rational look at this hoax, which if not stopped, will result in the self- inflicted destruction of our society.

First, as I have documented in prior articles, there is no scientific evidence that climate change is a result of man’s actions. The temperature of the earth has never been fixed; it has always varied. These variations can be mild, or if severe, produce the several cycles of ice ages and warming periods way before mankind could have had any effect. We are currently in a warming period following the last ice age ten thousand years ago. The Left’s conclusion that the earth’s temperature variation is caused by CO2 emissions is based on computer models and pure speculation. If someone (even climate scientists) dispute the Left’s crisis mongering , that person is demonized and called a “climate denier”. Other facts such as plants consume CO2 as food, and the more CO2 the better plants flourish, and therefore act as a control on the CO2 levels is never mentioned. With a world population at 8 billion, and each person emitting 4 lbs of CO2 a day, this amounts to 6 billion tons of CO2 from humans breathing. I guess we will soon be asked to reduce the human population or take fewer breaths.

As for fossil fuels, the Left never talks about the advantages of fossil fuels only the negative effects. The truth is that modern civilization would not exist without fossil fuels. They have provided the energy that has made our standard of living possible. Fossil fuels have saved the lives of millions of people by providing abundant energy for producing food and allowing machines to expand our ability to produce clothes, housing , heating/air conditioning and transportation essential to our survival. Fossil fuels have allowed us to live in an otherwise hostile, unforgiving natural world. Abundant, cheap energy is essential to our survival. Just wait and see what happens in Europe this winter as a result of their failed “green agenda” and reliance on other countries for their energy. Imagine America as a third world country with insufficient food, few cars, supply crises, rationed electricity for heating/air conditioning, no energy when the wind does not blow or the sun does not shine, heating with wood like they are doing in Germany, etc. The abundance of food we have enjoyed in this country relies on fossil fuels for farm implements, fertilizer, and getting food to market. This is what is coming. We cannot let that happen here in America where we have hundreds of years of fossil fuels including natural gas if only we stop the Left’s war on fossil fuels. Do you think our country can be militarily strong without abundant fossil fuels? Well, it can’t. China is laughing at us for our stupidity, as they continue to expand their use of fossil fuels.

Sadly, some of our conservative polititians are going along with this green scam. They need to stand up and take action to keep this country energy independent. We need to contact them and insist they do so. THIS MADNESS MUST BE STOPPED!

 

Sometimes The Police Are Just Wrong

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Not every American is polite. Not every American willingly hands over identification when unjustly stopped by the police. However, police have a responsibility to do their jobs professionally rather than using a person’s bad manners as an excuse to arrest them. On Monday, Hot Air posted an article telling the story of an arrest that I believe should never have been made.

The article reports:

According to the arrest report, the deputy stopped 61-year-old James Hodges, because she thought he may have had a gun in his back pocket.

Hodges objected to being stopped, and shortly after deputies confirmed he was carrying a walking stick. Hodges refused to provide his ID to the deputies, while objecting to being detained.

“He repeatedly refused to allow identification of the object in his his pocket as well as refusing to identify himself,” the arrest report says.

Do police have the right to stop you and question you because they are suspicious of what you have in your pocket?

The story continues:

That’s what happened but it really doesn’t convey the sense of the encounter. Things started off civil with a “Hi there” from the female officer and a “Hey” in response from Hodges. “What’s this in your back pocket?” the officer asked. At that point, Hodges got a bit hostile. “It’s a navigational aid. What’s the problem are you a tyrant?” he replied.

The officer also seems to have abandoned her professionalism by responding in kind “Yeah, I am actually,” she said. It’s downhill from there.

Hodges does some sidewalk lawyering, refusing to give his name and asks what probably cause the officer had to stop him. She explained that it appeared he might have a gun which was not being carried properly. At this point, Hodges pulled out his folded walking stick and showed it to the officer. It turns out he is legally blind though officers didn’t know that at the start of the encounter.

Having established that there was no gun or other weapon involved (and therefore no probably cause to suspect a crime), that ought to be the end of it. Hodges seems content to walk on but the officers aren’t willing to let it go. Instead they handcuff Hodges and pull out his ID. He asks for their names and badge numbers but he’s not resisting in any way. Other than turning his head he’s not moving at all.

When police realized he’s legally blind they asked why he wasn’t using the stick to walk. Hodges replied that he doesn’t have to use it all the time but did need it earlier when he walked to jury duty because it was dark out.

After running his license a voice on the radio says the word “green.” The female officer then said to Hodges, who was still in handcuffs “All right Mr. Hodges was that that hard?”

“It’s gonna be. I want your name and your badge numbers,” Hodges replied. Now he’s not letting it go but he’s still perfectly calm.

The second officer snaps, “You know what, put him in jail for resisting.” And that’s what they did.

The local sheriff’s office says they are investigating the incident. I hope they are. I also hope that Mr. Hodges sues Columbia County Florida for arresting him. Generally I support the police, but I think they were wrong here. Please follow the link to the article to see the video of the arrest.

Things Learned At The European Parliament Hearings

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On October 24th, Technocracy posted an article about the COVID hearing in the European Parliament.

The article reports:

> The premise behind COVID shot mandates and vaccine passports was that by taking the shot, you would protect others, as it would prevent infection and spread of COVID-19

> In early October 2022, during a COVID hearing in the European Parliament, Dutch member Rob Roos questioned Pfizer’s president of international developed markets, Janine Small, about whether Pfizer had in fact tested and confirmed that their mRNA jab would prevent transmission prior to its rollout

> Small admitted that Pfizer never tested whether their jab would prevent transmission because they had to “move at the speed of science to understand what is happening in the market … and we had to do everything at risk”

> We’ve known for well over two years that the shots were never tested for transmission interruption. In October 2020, Peter Doshi, associate editor of The BMJ, highlighted that trials were not designed to reveal whether the vaccines would prevent transmission. Yet everyone in government and media insisted they would do just that

It was never about science or protecting others. It was always about following a predetermined narrative that sought to get experimental mRNA technology into as many people as possible

If you have had the COVID vaccine and feel the need to detox from the vaccine, there is a site that explains how to do that. I have no idea how reliable the information on the site is, but the site is open to the public.

The article at Technocracy reports:

February 9, 2021, I published an article that clarified the medical and legal definitions of a “vaccine.” In the article, I noted that mRNA COVID-19 jabs did not meet those definitions, in part because they don’t prevent infection or spread. In reality, they’re experimental gene therapies. In July that year, The New York Times published a hit piece on me citing that February 9 article:1

…Fast-forward to early October 2022, and my claims were officially confirmed during a COVID hearing in the European Parliament. Dutch member Rob Roos questioned Pfizer’s president of international developed markets, Janine Small, about whether Pfizer had in fact tested and confirmed that their mRNA jab would prevent transmission prior to its rollout.

As noted by Roos, the entire premise behind COVID shot mandates and vaccine passports was that by taking the shot, you would protect others, as it would prevent infection and spread of COVID-19. Small replied:

“No. We had to really move at the speed of science to understand what is happening in the market … and we had to do everything at risk.”2

As noted by Roos, “This means the COVID passport was based on a big lie. The only purpose of the COVID passport: forcing people to get vaccinated.” Roos added that he found this deception “shocking — even criminal.”3

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. The truth is starting to come out, and there are some very angry people out there. Many people are saying that Covid amnesty is not an option–Covid accountability is what is needed.

Was This Money Wisely Spent?

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On October 25th, WattsUpWithThat posted an article about spending on green energy and the results of that spending.

The article reports:

Economist Jeff Currie of Goldman Sachs (Global Head of Commodities Research in the Global Investment Research Division): “Here’s a stat for you, as of January of this year. At the end of last year, overall, fossil fuels represented 81 percent of overall energy consumption. Ten years ago, they were at 82. So though, all of that investment in renewables, you’re talking about 3.8 trillion, let me repeat that $3.8 trillion of investment in renewables moved fossil fuel consumption from 82 to 81 percent, of the overall energy consumption. But you know, given the recent events and what’s happened with the loss of gas and replacing it with coal, that number is likely above 82.” … The net of it is clearly we haven’t made any progress.”

The article includes the following graph:

The article also includes the following Tweet:

I think it is time to go back to the drawing board.

One Practical Way To Curb Pollution

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On November 2nd, a website called Utility Dive posted an article about a planned move by AES Indiana, an American utility company providing electric service to the city of Indianapolis. It is a subsidiary and largest utility of AES Corp.

The article reports:

AES Indiana plans to convert two coal-fired units totaling 1,052 MW at its Petersburg power plant to natural gas in 2025, which the utility estimates would be $381 million less expensive over 20 years compared with replacing the generating station with renewable energy and storage.

Notice that the implication in the above paragraph is the renewable energy requires storage. The wind does not blow all of the time and the sun does not shine all of the time, so green energy producers need a place to store the energy. The chemicals in the storage batteries are environmentally damaging, and the storage batteries do not last forever.

The article continues:

Like many other utilities, AES Indiana regularly develops a road map for its resource mix, with input from stakeholders. The utility expects to file its latest plan for review at the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission on Dec. 1.

The plan envisions adding 1,450 MW of stand-alone solar in the first half of the next decade, plus 450 MW of solar combined with storage and 300 MW of wind.

At the end of the 20-year plan, AES Indiana would have a generating portfolio that is 87% solar, wind and storage, according to the utility. AES Indiana owns and contracts for 3,634 MW, with its coal plants constituting about half its portfolio.

The utility retired one unit at the four-unit Petersburg plant last year and is set to retire its 401-MW Unit 2 next year.

Under the plan, AES Indiana’s carbon dioxide emissions would fall 69%, to about 4 million metric tons, in 2030 from about 12 million metric tons in 2018, according to the presentation.

AES Indiana expects the power plant’s use will fall sharply if it is converted from coal to gas, helping reduce its air emissions and water use.

Natural gas is a clean-burning fuel that could easily meet the needs of American consumers if drilling were to resume. I hope everyone who votes today will remember the joy of being able to heat your house with whatever fuel you prefer to any temperature you like.

Why I Am Grateful For America’s First Amendment

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On Sunday, Breitbart reported that Greek footballer Vassilis Tsiartas has been given a 10-month suspended prison sentence over comments critical of child sex changes.

The article reports:

Tsiartas, who played a key role in the Greek national team’s shock victory in the UEFA European Football Championship in 2004 and finished his career without receiving a single red card, was prosecuted under a supposed anti-racism law which, somewhat perversely, includes provisions against public incitement to violence or hatred on the basis of gender identity.

Evidently America is not the only country the transgender activists have been targeting.

The article continues:

In Tsiartas’s case, brought to the courts by the Transgender Support Association (SYD), the supposed incitement took the form of a Facebook post from 2017, in which the athlete remarked that he “hope[d] the first sex changes are carried out on the children of those who ratified this abomination” in reference to new legislation on gender identity, Greek media reports.

…Tsiartas, for his part, has vowed to appeal the decision.

In August, Breitbart reported:

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s (WPATH) new guidance lowers the recommended age for cross-sex hormones from 16 to 14 years, according to a guidance draft obtained by The Post Millennial this week. The age for double mastectomies, the removal of breasts, has been lowered to 15. Sixteen-year-old boys may seek breast augmentations, facial surgeries and tracheal shaves to reduce the appearance of an Adam’s apple.

Does anyone actually believe that a 15-year old has the emotional and mental maturity to make such a life-changing decision? Being a teenager is difficult enough without the current peer pressure from social media affirming the idea of being transgender.

In December 2017, PsyPost reported the following:

The National Post recently covered the CBC’s cancellation of a BBC documentary about transgender children (Why CBC cancelled a BBC documentary that activists claimed was ‘transphobic’).  In that coverage, the Post shared claims made by some activists criticizing some scientific studies, but did not apparently fact-check those claims, so I thought I would outline the studies here.  For reference, in a previous post, I listed the results of every study that ever followed up transgender kids to see how they felt in adulthood (Do trans- kids stay trans- when they grow up?).  There are 12 such studies in all, and they all came to the very same conclusion: The majority of kids cease to feel transgender when they get older.

So what happens to the children who have had permanent life-altering surgery as teenagers when they want to detransition? I really think we need to rethink this entire transgender thing. Gender dysphoria is a mental illness. We need to treat the mental illness rather than do surgery that confirms it.