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Prominent Psychologist Talks Nonstop About Gender-Transitioning 3-Year-Olds During Medical Training Course

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By The Daily Caller

Psychologist Dr. Wallace Wong argued that three-year-olds know their gender better than their parents while defending transitioning young children, according to a video obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

In November 2022, Wong was featured in a training video for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), an international organization that trains medical and mental health professionals on how to treat transgender patients, including minors. Wong told the trainees that kids “are at your mercy” when it comes to convincing their parents to transition them, and claimed that three-year-olds “know their authentic self” better than their parents, according to a video the DCNF obtained through a public records request.

Parents are so nervous and don’t know what to do when [their] three-year-old kid presents this kind of problem,” Wong said in the video. “They may think that ‘my child is gonna have a vasectomy or phalloplasty,’ but that’s not true. We need to let them know that our goal is helping the kid move step by step, one step at a time, getting to what is their authentic self. Where that will be I don’t know, the parents don’t know. The kids will know when it is time.”

WPATH’s Global Education Institute (GEI) Online Foundations courses teach medical professionals how to treat transgender patients in line with its Standards of Care. In the standards section on adolescent treatment, WPATH argues that while current research supports “early medical intervention” for transgender youth, there is a lack of studies to show the effects long-term.

Wong is also listed as the co-lead for WPATH’s GEI Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement committee, which is designed to “find creative ways to include marginalized or under-utilized contributors to the curriculum development and/or course delivery in every topic area,” according to its website.

WATCH:

Wong said that he had “quite a few” three-year-old patients, and that the “first thing” many children say is not “‘Mommy, I love you,’ but ‘Mommy I am not a boy’ or ‘Mommy, I’m not a girl.’”

“[Parents] really have that wishful thinking that ‘this is not true and I cannot let that happen.’ So they have a lot of different irrational thinking to deny it, undermining it, so having equal time with the parents is important,” Wong later said in the presentation.

During the training, Wong explains that when medical professionals work with families, it is very important that they “always” reassure parents that it is good to talk about sex and transgender issues with their young children. He said that often parents express fear that by introducing their children to these concepts that young they will “really become transgender” but Wong argued that is not the case.

“I wish it was that easy but it’s not,” Wong said to a laughing audience.

Wong also discussed the role schools must play in helping kids transition during the end of his lecture, saying that they need to accept using preferred pronouns and have resources for transgender students. He dismissed the idea that using pronouns like “they” would be confusing for other children.

“They need to learn,” Wong concluded. “They just need to learn. I’m sure [people] are confused when they call me by my Chinese name, I’m sorry … you cannot pronounce it, learn it, just like you have to learn [to] use they.”

Wong previously said in 2019 that he had treated a patient younger than three years old with gender dysphoria, according to a transcript of an event hosted by Vancouver Public Library.

In 2021, a Canadian father was arrested after refusing to consent for his teenage daughter to transition, according to City Journal. Wong was the doctor who encouraged the child to begin socially transitioning with the school’s help, despite the father not being informed and later encouraged her to go on cross-sex hormones.

Wong and WPATH did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.

AUTHORS

MEGAN BROCK AND KATE ANDERSON

Contributors.

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POST ON X: WARNING GRAPHIC

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Abortion, Trump And Censorship Headline Supreme Court’s Docket In The New Year thumbnail

Abortion, Trump And Censorship Headline Supreme Court’s Docket In The New Year

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By The Daily Caller

  • The Supreme Court will grapple with issues involving former President Donald Trump, the Biden administration’s communication with social media companies to censor speech online and the abortion pill in the lead up to the 2024 election. 
  • Abortion is back at the Supreme Court just two years after it issued a major ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, with two cases on the issue.
  • The justices will hear oral arguments on Trump’s eligibility for office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment in February.

Issues involving the chemical abortion pill, former President Donald Trump and the Biden administration’s encouragement of censorship online top the Supreme Court’s docket in the New Year.

Though only one decision has been released so far this term, the justices have already heard arguments on gun restrictions for subjects of domestic violence restraining orders, government officials blocking constituents on social media and Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy settlement. Other pending cases will require the Supreme Court to grapple with multiple hot-button issues in the lead up to the 2024 election.

Abortion

Just two years after overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022, the justices agreed to hear another major abortion case challenging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the chemical abortion pill mifepristone.

U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled in April that the FDA must reverse its approval of the pill. The Fifth Circuit later declined to fully remove the pill from the market, but upheld the portion of the decision rolling back FDA rules issued in 2016 and 2021 that had expanded access, allowing the pill to be sent via mail and used later in pregnancy.

However, due to an emergency order issued by the Supreme Court in April, both decisions are paused until the Supreme Court rules on the case.

The Supreme Court also agreed Friday to hear a second big case considering whether the federal law requires emergency room doctors to perform abortions in violation of Idaho’s law, which prohibits abortions unless the mother’s life is in danger. The Biden administration argues the that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which instructs doctors not to turn away patients in need of “emergency stabilizing care,” preempt’s Idaho’s ban and requires doctors to perform emergency abortions.

On Friday, the Court agreed to allow Idaho’s ban to remain in effect until it could hear the case in April.

Censorship

The Supreme Court will weigh in on the Biden administration’s coordination with social media companies to suppress speech online in Murthy v. Missouri. District Court Judge Terry A. Doughty called the government’s censorship efforts “Orwellian” in his July 4 ruling finding the Biden administration likely violated the First Amendment, noting the Republican attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri “produced evidence of a massive effort by Defendants, from the White House to federal agencies, to suppress speech based on its content.”

The Supreme Court paused the ruling in October pending its consideration of the appeal. Justice Samuel Alito dissented, along with Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, writing the decision could be construed in the meantime as “giving the Government a green light to use heavy handed tactics to skew the presentation of views on the medium that increasingly dominates the dissemination of news.”

Election officials in eight states filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to reject the appeals court’s ruling, expressing dismay that communications made with platforms during the 2020 and 2022 election season have “essentially ended” ahead of “a critical and hotly contested 2024 election season.”

The Supreme Court will also hear a case considering former superintendent of New York’s Department of Financial Services Maria Vullo pressuring banks and insurance companies not to do business with the National Rifle Association. Aaron Terr, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) director of Public Advocacy, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in November there are “clear parallels” between the cases.

“Each case involves government officials exceeding constitutional boundaries by coercing private companies to censor or dissociate from speakers expressing views those officials dislike,” he said.

Trump

As the 2024 election draws near, issues surrounding former President Donald Trump are creeping into the court’s docket.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Feb. 8 to consider Trump’s appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision finding him ineligible to appear on the state’s primary ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. The justices decision will clarify whether other states can take similar actions to remove Trump from the ballot, as Democratic Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows did in a Dec. 28 ruling finding Trump ineligible to appear.

The justices also agreed to hear a case on the scope of an obstruction statute used to charge hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants, as well as Trump.

The statute, Section 1512(c)(2), threatens fines or up to 20 years in prison for anyone who “obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding.” It is connected to two of the four charges in Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump for alleged election interference.

If the Supreme Court limits the scope, it could shake up Jan. 6 cases along with impacting the former president’s case.

Special counsel Jack Smith already asked the justices in December to consider Trump’s presidential immunity appeal before the lower court had a chance to weigh in, a request they ultimately denied. Still, the issue will likely be back before the justices soon, as the D.C. Circuit is slated to hear oral arguments on the issue Jan. 9 and issue a decision sometime after.

Other coming cases to watch

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Jan. 17 for a pair of cases that challenge “Chevron deference,” a legal doctrine that instructs courts to defer to executive agency interpretations of statutes when the language is ambiguous. Critics argue the doctrine enables federal agencies to adopt expansive interpretations of statutes that broaden their power while evading the checks and balances of the judicial branch.

In February, the Supreme Court will hear a case challenging a Trump-era federal ban on bump stocks, along with a pair of cases considering red state laws aimed at preventing viewpoint censorship on social media.

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

CDC Champions Addressing Racism, ‘Injustices’ Over Jailing Criminals To Prevent Violence thumbnail

CDC Champions Addressing Racism, ‘Injustices’ Over Jailing Criminals To Prevent Violence

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By The Daily Caller

The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) maintains that putting more criminals in jail does not prevent violent crime but that addressing the “root causes” of violence, like racism, will make communities safer, according to internal documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The CDC is set to release new guidance, titled the Community Violence Prevention Resource for Action, on how to address community violence in the coming weeks, according to documents obtained by the DCNF. In a section of a document detailing the CDC’s planned responses to potential questions from the public on its upcoming recommendations, the agency claims that “increasing punitive measures, including incarceration, does not reduce community violence” and that “we can work to prevent violence by addressing the underlying conditions that contribute to violence,” like racism.

The community violence recommendations are based on the “best available evidence,” according to the CDC, and will identify firearm violence as a “public health problem,” in line with the CDC’s past guidance on viewing gun violence and community violence broadly as public health concerns.

The new guidance will “[weave] health equity concepts throughout” and is intended to help “address structural inequities.” Youth impacted by violence are at a higher risk for “mental health challenges, such as substance use, obesity, high-risk sexual behavior, depression, traumatic stress, low educational attainment or suicide,” according to the CDC’s document.

However, the CDC’s internal communications strategy, obtained by the DCNF, sheds further light on how the CDC views criminal justice. The strategy indicates the CDC views crime as the product of underlying social factors like racism and economic inequality, and that it views incarceration as an ineffective means of reducing crime.

“Isn’t community violence caused by criminals who make poor decisions?” and “Shouldn’t we just lock these people up to keep communities safe?” are among the possible questions the CDC is “hoping against hope” it is not asked about their forthcoming guidance, according to the document.

“Racism, economic injustices, and other systemic inequities contribute to the current and persistent increased risk of violence experienced by some communities,” the CDC’s pre-written answer to those questions reads.

“Dominant public narratives” surrounding crime and race “often consider violence primarily a problem of personal responsibility,” the CDC continues. Focusing on personal responsibility as a way to reduce gun crime “invokes images of youth and young adults, and especially Black or African American youth and young adults, as aggressors, troublemakers, or worse,” the CDC says.

“Harmful narratives around race and violence” are “biased and inaccurate” and can “rob youth and young adults of their humanity by failing to value them as complete people and valued members of communities,” the CDC document states.

Instead of buying into these narratives, stakeholders should work toward addressing root causes of violence, according to the CDC. The CDC identifies things like “structural racism” and “historical injustices” as among these root causes.

“The resource and its supporting materials are still undergoing CDC review,” a CDC spokesperson told the DCNF.

“The resource will be a compilation of examples of the best available evidence to prevent community violence based on research showing effects on violence or the behaviors or conditions that affect risk for violence,” they continued. Among the evidence cited in the upcoming guidance will be “meta-analyses or systematic reviews and other rigorous evaluations.”

Though the CDC asserted that putting more criminals in jail would not reduce community violence, it did not provide evidence to support its claim when asked to do so by the DCNF.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SCHMAD

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: New CDC Director Teases Annual COVID Shots

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Joe Biden is calling Trump a “dictator” while simultaneously supporting his chief political opponent getting kicked off the ballot pic.twitter.com/dER9htucqu

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 5, 2024

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

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California to Provide Free Sex Changes for Illegals

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By The Geller Report

G-d help us.

A state memo regarding Medi-Cal stipulated that “gender-affirming care” is a covered benefit only “when medically necessary.”

By: Jarryd Jaeger, The Post Millennial,  Jan 4, 2024:

It has been revealed that sex changes and hormone therapy will be included in the healthcare coverage offered to illegal immigrants in California. As of January 1, everyone, regardless of whether they entered the country via legal means, will qualify for Medi-Cal, the state‘s public health insurance program. This program had typically been reserved for low-income individuals, families with children, seniors, persons with disabilities, people in foster care, pregnant women, and low-income people with diseases such as tuberculosis, cancer, or HIV/AIDS.

Prior to the new rules, illegal immigrants were only able to access emergency and pregnancy-related care, however surgical and non-surgical procedures that “bring primary and secondary gender characteristics into conformity with the individual’s identified gender, including ancillary services, such as hair removal” are now covered as well.

According to the Daily Caller, a state memo regarding Medi-Cal stipulated that “gender-affirming care” is a covered benefit only “when medically necessary.”

“Requests for gender-affirming care,” it added, “should be from specialists experienced in providing culturally competent care to transgender and gender diverse individuals and should use nationally recognized guidelines.”

The decision to include illegal immigrants in Medi-Cal was made in May of last year. State Sen. Maria Elena Durazo called it a “historic investment” that “speaks to California’s commitment to health care as a human right.”

“In California, we believe everyone deserves access to quality, affordable health care coverage – regardless of income or immigration status,” Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said in a statement to ABC News at the time. “Through this expansion, we’re making sure families and communities across California are healthier, stronger, and able to get the care they need when they need it.”

The children of illegal immigrants first became eligible to receive free healthcare in the state in 2015 thanks to former governor Jerry Brown. That was expanded to those 19 to 25 years old in 2019. Now, all undocumented residents under 50 will have access to the program.

Keep reading.

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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The TikTok Spiral

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By Faith Kuzma

Trauma dumping on the “for you page” sucks young girls into a pit of self-loathing.

The winning TikTok formula is videos produced by teens for their peers. In that sense, it is hugely kid-friendly. Yet in 2019, TikTok paid a settlement for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. Then in 2021 TikTok users were notified by the app they were due compensation after an Illinois lawsuit charged TikTok of using a “complex system of artificial intelligence to recognize facial features in users’ videos.” How might that face data be used as part of what’s called the TikTok spiral? And how does this female-dominated platform affect girls?

Spiraling is an actual psychological term for becoming mentally dizzy. TikTok’s “for you page” (FYP) is overwhelming, piping a steady stream of the most viral videos to kids—a big departure from the social media norms of yesteryear, which mostly shared amateurish updates from kids’ subscribed channels. Girls who would normally say hi to friends and show off their pets now get adult content and other non-age appropriate material direct to their inbox. Feeding “smash-innocence” content to kids is part of the TikTok spiral.

From its inception as a lip sync app, TikTok is based on the inherent kid fun of mimicry. The fast-paced stream of exciting music and dance videos is contagious. Creative collaboration is further encouraged not just by hashtags but through such collaborative interactions as duets, which allow multiple users to record one another’s videos and create mashups. Some hit song is constantly being refashioned or repurposed; interpretative boundaries are endlessly exercised. No one sleeps on TikTok.

It’s a world saturated with an over-abundance of consciousness: self-consciousness, body-consciousness, identity-consciousness. Ideal for getting girls to spiral. Videos designed to provoke envy are common, showing off piercings, tattoos, clothes, a new hair style, making grimaces and grins in the digital mirror. Humor, novelty, and intimate sharing attract a mostly female viewership, and body image content related to gender can be especially compelling.

People have compared “likes” on social media to a continuous dopamine drip, but TikTok is more jacked up: it tightens the emotional screw. It can do this because as Teen Magazine observes: “Every second you hesitate or re-watch, the app tracks you.”

This screenshot shows a comment in response to a post with 314.9K likes by London trans influencer channel tatedalton. TikTok gathers data from the user’s digital face print to push videos from creators with similar demographic indicators, including gender identity. Additional cues TikTok uses are the video’s hashtags, which in this case include #trans #transmasc #nonbinary #dysphoria #lgbt #lgbtq.

In this screenshot, user “Cave” is a bit mystified as to why a video from a trans influencer reappears on each return to the app. But it’s no great mystery: re-watching a video, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation, helps determine which kind of videos will be sent to the person’s feed in the future. Digitally captured user data tells TikTok to keep pitching this video to Cave. TikTok zeros in on emotional response in order to push similar but more intense content: “every second you scroll or re-watch a video on the app counts. It takes less than 3 minutes or until the 15th video for the algorithm to understand what a person is feeling and what videos should be recommended next.”

The TikTok spiral, as described in a special Wall Street Journal series, is like digital cocaine. More than just a successful business model, it’s a mode of mental capture. Munmun De Choudhury, an associate professor at the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, notes that TikTok is scraping “trajectories of people’s behavior” and tying that to such things as mental health cues and affective cues—in other words, charting how people react to video content emotionally. Face print technology may collect data for the user’s FYP.

Summarizing a 2018 study of facial images online, Christopher Bergland writes: “Disgust is associated with one facial expression that is universally understood in every culture they examined. According to this study, humans use three different facial expressions to convey fear across cultures. The study also showed that we have four ways to convey surprise, five facial expressions for sadness, and five cross-cultural facial expressions that convey anger.”

TikTok provides the perfect milieu for body-image stressed girls to fixate on their perceived flaws and spiral into pathological habits. The Center for Countering Digital Hate set up two 13-year-old female accounts, one of which they pushed toward dieting videos. The researchers found TikTok responded by serving up mental health and body image content, “and the research indicated that the more vulnerable accounts—which included the references to body image in the username—were served three times more harmful content and 12 times more self-harm and suicide-related content.” Already prone to anxiety and depression, girls become disoriented. Spiraling perpetuates a cycle of negative thoughts.

Young girls typically have not yet developed defenses against spiraling. Ash Eskridge said that as a 13-year-old, she and her peers were “brainwashed” by the videos they saw: “I notice that the demographic [trans identification] most affects is teen girls around 12 to 14, as they’re the most vulnerable since they aren’t matured yet.” TikTok parasitizes the typical rhythms of girlhood friendship. David C. Geary, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, notes that social networking platforms exploit patterns of female friendship such as over-sharing: “The social dynamics of girls’ and women’s friendship groups, including a desire to fit in and avoid conflict, may make them more susceptible to social contagion.” We tend to sync ourselves with others without even realizing it, and this creates bonds of affiliation over time. The TikTok spiral involves addictive sharing, imitating gestures and movements, and lip-syncing lyrics from pop songs.

TikTok’s spiral exacerbates the roller coaster of upswings followed by depressive states. Dr. Julie Albright, an expert on social media and the brain, explains: “In psychological terms [it’s] called random reinforcement…sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And that’s how these platforms are designed…they’re exactly like a slot machine. What that’s doing is rewiring their neuropathways in their brains.” This addictive spiral misdirects stress into an internal loathing that can be seen pretty clearly within the female demographic.

TikTok thus represents a bigger threat than other platforms, because it encourages reposting highly relatable videos and sharing deeply personal information with strangers—even the vocal affirmation within the #LGBTQ milieu does not alleviate the distress. Mental health professionals are increasingly speaking out about such effects. For instance, Yim Register, mental health and social media researcher, points out the particular danger to mental well-being posed by the over-sharing tendency on TikTok. Whereas in clinical settings, personal information and disclosure is safeguarded, “The platform spirit of TikTok seems to be about posting very loudly about very intimate and intense things. And people are encouraged to be vulnerable to fit that spirit.”

In a manner analogous to an anorexic’s self-disgust at seeing her own body in a photograph, a gender-questioning girl can begin to hyper-focus on her female body with intensifying animus. Embodiment itself becomes triggering. One popular sound effect features an older woman’s voice musing, “I miss the girl you were,” before a voice representing the user replies, “I gutted that b**ch from the inside out.” Ironically, many videos featuring this audio clip are are glow ups (videos tracking positive transformations), not limited to but very much including trans-influencer videos showing a transformation from female to “male.”

Even factoring in youth posturing, there is something extremely disturbing about “gutting” the sexed childhood self, and those curious about gender issues (i.e., every kid living) can get channeled into harmful spiraling that includes videos by trans influencers. TikTok’s pop music layering and lip-syncing, tailored to attach the most personal meanings to lyrics, seem designed to produce what one Canadian Millennial calls “trauma dumping.”

The TikTok hashtag “I gutted that b**ch from the inside out” includes 226.3 thousand videos. A casual review of the videos for this hashtag will convince you of the universality of female body image issues, but those created by trans influencers are unforgettable for conveying extreme self-hatred. A small sampling of “gutted” videos is enough to suggest typical female dissatisfaction with body image.

In one notable example, a Scottish trans influencer with a 38.5k-follower account called “psychedelicody” flashes a timeline photo as a young girl while lip-syncing the “gutted” sound effect. Cody’s style is cyber punk, but the mood is particularly dark, with Cody literally “giving the finger” to show absolute contempt of the younger self.

Within this viral TikTok trending video category, trans influencer videos show striking antipathy toward an earlier embodied self.

Trans suffering spirals outward, much like the TikTok tics identified as a new disorder spread by watching Tourette syndrome videos on the app. One person talks about self-disgust and gutting her girl-self, and others sympathize, internalizing the mindset that female embodiment was insufferable. The responses and comments to Cody’s videos readily demonstrate that viewers are perceiving life struggles through the eyes of the content creator. Mimetic engagement on TikTok gets kids to adopt others’ dysfunctions before they have fully learned the skills necessary for self-protective emotional gatekeeping. Lacking the experience and wisdom to foresee and foreclose compelling claims on their attention, kids are vulnerable. TikTok encourages them to take on the thoughts and perceptions of those expressing body hatred.

Concerns about invasion of privacy are at the heart of spiraling. Researchers warn that TikTok‘s new user agreement includes biometric data collection that can be used for active full-time surveillance. This goes beyond capturing audio for captioning and visual data for geolocation.

How might TikTok face data, in particular, be used to induce spiraling? Beyond uploaded videos, the app can utilize video capture, which the user agreement apparently classifies as adware used for “other non-personally-identifying operations.” U.S. Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission Brendan Carr has said: “TikTok collects everything from search and browsing histories to keystroke patterns and biometric identifiers, including faceprints…and voiceprints.” Using TikTok permits access to data including camera and microphone.

Internationally, people are beginning to ask why a Chinese-owned company with no separation from its government might invest the latest technologies in an app that is increasingly recognized as a precision instrument for burrowing into and splitting open the psyches of young users. Well might we wonder—and consider whether this is an influence we want in our homes.

*****

This article was published by The American Mind and is reproduced with permission.

Image credit: Pixabay

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House GOP Raises the Stakes: ‘Shut the Border Down or Shut the Government Down’

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By Family Research Council

While the rest of Congress is soaking up the last few days of holiday recess, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) decided to cut his vacation short, opting instead to take 60 House Republicans on a detour to the southern border before Congress resumes next week. If the goal was to remind them what they’re fighting for in the standoff on immigration with Joe Biden, it succeeded.

With December’s record-breaking migrant crossings as a backdrop, this “show of force,” as many are calling it, aims to put more pressure on the White House to negotiate on reforms in real faith. “Life along the border is turned upside down,” host Congressman Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) told reporters, “and that’s exactly what the speaker and my colleagues are going to see.”

The trip comes as a growing chorus of Democratic leaders plead with Biden to act. From big cities like Denver to small communities like 15,000-population Whitewater, Wisconsin, even liberal politicians say they’re at “a breaking point.” “…[T]here’s just not enough work or housing in the city to support this ongoing [flood],” Mile High City mayor Mike Johnston admitted from his sanctuary city. “… [W]e know we can’t keep growing at this pace,” he warned. “When I took the oath of office six months ago, we had about 400 migrants in shelter[s]. We have more than ten times that number right now. We’ve brought 35,000 through this year.”

Republicans, who know they have the upper hand tying border reforms to less-popular Ukraine aid, are dangling even more drastic measures before the president after seeing Eagle Pass — including a government shutdown. “No more money for this bureaucracy of his government until you’ve brought this border under control,” border state Representative Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) insisted. “Shut the border down or shut the government down.”

That extreme approach might get a warmer reception than Democrats think, given the latest polling. Incredibly, the new Associated Press-NORC numbers show that the emergency at the border has supplanted the economy and inflation in voters’ top concerns. Thirty-five percent now list immigration and the border wall as their biggest worry — up eight points from last month. Making matters worse for this president, only a handful of Americans — 32% — trust Biden to make “wise decisions about immigration policy.”

Speaker Johnson is hoping to change that, telling reporters on the ground in Texas that if the president wants a supplemental bill with aid for Ukraine and national security, “it better begin with defending America’s national security. We want to get the border closed and secured first.”

That commitment was on display Wednesday, Gonzales insisted, in the mere size of the GOP delegation. Convincing 60 members of Congress to go on a border trip “two days after New Year’s … is a small miracle,” he said. And as Johnson pointed out, it was a diverse bunch. “We have everybody from California to Maryland, from Michigan to Florida,” he explained at the group’s afternoon press conference. “We represent over half the U.S. states because every state in America is now a border state. We’ve seen that on vivid display today.”

Frankly, Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) pointed out, this is rapidly becoming a bipartisan issue. From the airport, where he was boarding a plane to Eagle Pass Tuesday, the Alabama congressman told “Washington Watch” that the urgency “is across the party lines.” “This is not just a Republican thing or Democrat issue,” he insisted to Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. “… Democrats are hearing from their constituents, just as Republicans are. And obviously, we want a system where people can come freely into the United States of America, but we want it in a situation where people [come] legally. And that’s what we’re trying to do here. … [H]opefully, this will call some media attention to it, and we can try to put some pressure on the Democrats to come together and find some solution[s].”

This situation is “unsustainable,” Perkins agreed, pointing to the soft target America is becoming by not adequately vetting the people crossing the border. “I understand that people want to come here to the United States of America,” Aderholt said, “but we’re in a situation right now where we have to make sure that the people [who] are coming here are coming for the right reason. When they come here illegally … you don’t know why they’re coming. Some of them may be coming because of good reasons, and they’re just trying to provide for their family. But at the same time, there’s a lot of folks that also may be coming illegally that are trying to do harm to the United States. … And that’s what we’ve got to put a stop to. … It’s the people that would want to come for nefarious reasons that we want to keep out.”

Already, House Republicans are showing their sincerity, scheduling its first impeachment hearing on Biden’s embattled Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The fireworks kick off January 10, when the debate over how to couple massive border reforms with overseas aid will be well underway. A fuller investigation may be on the horizon if the president continues to play coy about the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants disappearing into every corner of our country.

“I very much think that Speaker Johnson will move forward on this [impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas] if the Biden administration doesn’t act responsibly,” Aderholt cautioned. As he should, his colleague Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) argued. “For three years, the Biden admin has fed the American people lies.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Alejandro Mayorkas Claims Biden Admin Has Removed ‘Record Number’ Of Illegal Immigrants — But There’s A Problem

SHOCKING! Biden Rushing more Illegal Aliens into the U.S. than American Babies Being Born!

‘This Stuff Is Gonna Haunt Biden’: Larry Kudlow Predicts ‘Crisis’ Will Wreck Support For Biden Among Key Voting Blocs

POST ON X:

There are almost no deportations https://t.co/YdrYvnbOyh

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 4, 2024

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

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Stop Funding ‘Rights for Migrants’ Legal Scam

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By Betsy McCaughey

As a record number of migrants invade the U.S., wreaking pain on New York City and other communities, one group is winning big-time: the public advocacy lawyers. Their business is to constantly sue to win more so-called rights for migrants. Rights to shelter, rights to meals, rights to health care, and even the right to vote in local elections.

Who pays the bills on both sides of these lawsuits? You do. Taxpayer money largely funds these legal combatants, which include the Coalition for the Homeless, Legal Aid Society, and Vera Institute of Justice.

You’re paying to be legally coerced into providing more for migrants, even at the cost of cutting vital city services—kind of like hiring your own assassin. It’s absurd, but it’s about to get worse.

On Dec. 14, the New York City Council passed Resolution 556, calling on the state Legislature to guarantee, as a right, that all migrants have lawyers paid for by taxpayers when they go to immigration court. It would be a “first-in-the-nation” guarantee.

Resolution 556 would give migrants more rights than American citizens have. No one else is guaranteed a publicly funded lawyer in civil court matters such as housing court issues or divorce.

Yikes, the City Council’s proposal would make the Big Apple even more of a magnet for migrants than it already is.

Who’s behind this push? The Vera Institute of Justice, for one.

Vera claims we “need a federally funded universal legal defense service” for migrants. In short, a national army of left-wing lawyers paid by you. What better place to launch this lunatic idea than at the New York City Council?

The Vera Institute is not the only organization cashing in on migrants’ rights.

In October, Mayor Eric Adams went to court for temporary relief from the rigid rules and settlements that define what the city must provide the homeless, as tens of thousands of homeless migrants arrive. Immediately, the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless swooped in, claiming his plan would “gut” the long-standing rights of the homeless.

These lawsuits are largely funded by you, through grants and contracts from the city and state. Manhattan Judge Gerald Lebovits urged the parties to compromise and arranged for the lawyers on all sides, representing the city, the state, and the migrants, to meet in his chambers several times.

This scam is being repeated all over the nation. The Justice Action Center—also publicly funded—is suing the Biden administration on behalf of Haitian asylum-seekers whose rights it claims were violated by U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback trying to stop them as they crossed the Rio Grande.

Lawyers for the migrants and lawyers for the Biden administration will cross swords. Never mind who wins. They’re all being paid by us.

It’s a free country. Anyone can sue. But why should we be paying for these legal boxing matches?

Disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently wrote that the remedy for New York City’s mounting woes is to sue the federal government for more money. Wrong. That would send more wasted funds down the litigation rathole.

Cuomo also argues that the “right to shelter” should apply to all the counties, instead of just Gotham, and that state lawmakers should “fairly distribute” the migrant burden statewide. Spoken like a pol who is eyeing a city position and no longer cares about the rest of the state.

The notion that there is a “right to shelter” in the state Constitution was concocted by the Coalition for the Homeless in a lawsuit in 1981. It has tied the hands of city leaders ever since. It should be legally challenged. Extending that questionable right to migrants who just arrived here, and then imposing it statewide, would compound the wrong.

Tell lawmakers to stop funding the legal advocacy industry with our money. It’s time to break the stranglehold these publicly funded lawyers, under the guise of doing good, have on our city and nation.

*****

This article was published by Daily Signal and is reproduced with permission.

TAKE ACTION

As we move through 2023 and into the next election cycle, The Prickly Pear will resume Take Action recommendations and information.

BEST INSPIRATIONAL FILM 2023: OUTRAGE: The Life and Times of Al Katz thumbnail

BEST INSPIRATIONAL FILM 2023: OUTRAGE: The Life and Times of Al Katz

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By Beverly Newman

OUTRAGE: The Life and Times of Al Katz, winner of the World Cinema Awards for BEST INSPIRATIONAL FILM, is the powerful story of the life of the real hero who survived seven years as a Jewish slave in Nazi Europe at the beginning of his life and 70 years later survived human bondage as an elder Ward in Florida’s vast abusive professional guardianship industry along with tens of thousands kept in isolation until their miserable deaths ensue.

As a Jewish slave in his youth, Al Katz was forced into many concentration camps across Europe, starving and working outdoors in frigid conditions of 52 degrees below zero with little clothing; yet, he always kept his faith and knew that he had to survive to warn the world of the depravity of antisemitism.  As a Jewish Ward of the State of Florida, Al Katz once again lost everything – his belongings, house of worship, and all civil rights, trapped in isolation for months, while being forbidden from visits, calls, cards, letters, and all contacts with his family.

Al Katz’s life is an exclusive look into a unique life lived in two worlds of human depravity, unseen and unknown by the masses, and the extraordinary courage to survive with faith in the face of fear and unimaginable terror.  OUTRAGE, winner of the BEST INSPIRATIONAL FILM, will inspire audiences around the world as a once-in-a-lifetime movie of miracles and monsters, hero and unbearable sorrow.

OUTRAGE, by award-winning filmmaker, Stan Moore, has also been nominated for numerous other awards across the globe, including BEST JUSTICE FILM.  Al Katz’s story is featured in the book, Florida Guardianships: Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die? by Dr. Beverly Newman and in the Holocaust education book series, Holocaust Babies, sold in bookstores around the world.

For interviews, book and film orders, and community and school presentations, contact Dr. Beverly Newman, helpelders@hotmail.com.

©2023. All rights reserved.

Biden Admin Caught And Released Enough Illegal Immigrants At The Border To Fill More Than 17 Yankee Stadiums thumbnail

Biden Admin Caught And Released Enough Illegal Immigrants At The Border To Fill More Than 17 Yankee Stadiums

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By The Daily Caller

  • There were enough illegal immigrants caught and released into the country in 2023 to fill more than 17 Yankee Stadiums, according to federal data.
  • Not a single year of encounters under the two previous presidential administrations came close to what federal authorities recorded in 2023, according to the data.
  • “In retrospect, 2023 at the border was a progressively worse version of 2022,” former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The number of illegal immigrants caught and released into the country in 2023 would be enough to fill Yankee Stadium more than 17 times, according to federal data.

Border Patrol recorded more than 1.7 million encounters with migrants crossing the southern border illegally in 2023, with more than 824,000 released into the interior of the country with future court appearances, according to the data, which doesn’t account for December. Yankee Stadium has the capacity to hold 46,537 people, according to Ticketmaster.

Federal authorities at the southern border also seized more than 229,000 pounds of drugs, roughly 22,000 pounds of which were fentanyl.

During the Obama and Trump administrations, not a single year reached one million encounters, according to federal data.

“In retrospect, 2023 at the border was a progressively worse version of 2022,” former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Biden continued to double down on his failed border policies, illegal immigration continued skyrocketing to unimaginable levels, the cartels made more money than most people can fathom with less risk than at anytime in history, Customs and Border Protection suspended legal trade and travel to decrease the time in custody for illegal aliens, and the US Border Patrol shut down checkpoints and deployed nearly zero proactive patrols.”

“Biden’s only response was to send Mayorkas and Blinken to Mexico and asks them to control their border,” he said.

The House Homeland Security Committee is preparing to conduct impeachment proceedings against Mayorkas early in the new year, a committee staffer recently told the DCNF.

“The Biden Administration is breaking records everyday and none of them are good. Enough. Time to impeach Mayorkas. No more excuses. This country needs action now,” Homan said.

Despite the record flows of illegal migrants across the southern border, ICE has left thousands of detention beds empty, according to the DCNF’s previous review of agency data. As of Dec. 11, ICE had seven individuals on average in custody each day at its processing center in Adelanto, California, where there is bed space for 640 people, according to agency data.

Court orders limit ICE’s use of bed space in the California facility to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

The situation is only expected to worsen in the coming year, J.J. Carrell, who served as a deputy patrol agent in charge for Border Patrol, told the DCNF.

“We have never experienced this type of invasion in the history of America,” Carrell said. “And when you look at the totality of the data, meaning Special Interest Aliens, Russian nationals, Chinese nationals, terrorists, criminal aliens, major cities crumbling, social welfare, states of emergencies, I believe that when we look back on 2023 from the viewpoint of 2024, I think 2023 is gonna look tame, and that’s scary. I think that should scare America.”

AUTHOR

JENNIE TAER

Investigative reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: ‘Breaking Point’: Sanctuary City Mayors Beg Biden Admin For More Help In Addressing Migrant Crisis

RELATED VIDEO: Tucker Carlson Visits Julian Assange

POST ON X:

Hispanic voters TURN on Joe Biden on LIVE TV after Trump crushes him in latest polls— It’s starting… pic.twitter.com/zmOEUJPAku

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 2, 2024

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PODCAST: A predictable “earthquake” – Surrendering our sovereignty to the WHO thumbnail

PODCAST: A predictable “earthquake” – Surrendering our sovereignty to the WHO

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By Center For Security Policy

A devastating earthquake in Japan yesterday may symbolize a New Year marred by geostrategic tectonic shifts. Some are predictable – and their effects can, therefore, be attenuated if we act in time.

Consider the creation of so-called “global governance” mechanisms that would subordinate us to the dictates of unaccountable international entities like the World Health Organization.

Largely secret negotiations are expected by May to produce agreements that will give the WHO the authority to declare what constitutes a public health emergency here – and what must be done about it. Three Biden administration officials appear to have perjured themselves in testifying last month that would not diminish our sovereignty.

The House of Representatives has voted to cut off funding for the WHO and require Senate approval of any such accords. To prevent irreparable harm to our public health – and America, Congress must concur.

This is Frank Gaffney.

AUTHOR

Frank Gaffney, Jr.

Founder and Executive Chairman

EDITORS NOTE: This Center for Security Policy podcast is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Communist California Rings In the New Year with $2.6 Billion For Illegal Immigrants thumbnail

Communist California Rings In the New Year with $2.6 Billion For Illegal Immigrants

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By Geoff Ross

The Communist state of California will overlook its massive deficits, fiscal instability and unconstitutional legislation to become the first state in our once free Republic to give free health insurance to all the illegal aliens that criminally entered our republic in violation of congressional federal immigration laws.

So commencing January 1st 2024, if you are a criminal illegal immigrant who has violated US immigration laws by entering California from let’s say Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Communist China, Yemen, Iraq, Syria etc., no matter which country or how old you are if you are low income, now you qualify for Medi-Cal, a mirror copy of the federal Communist government controlled Medicaid program.

In 2015, illegal immigrant children could join Medi-Cal under a bill signed by then Gov. Communist sympathizer Jerry Brown. Then in 2019, the Communist dictator of California, Gavin Newsom signed a new law upping the age to use the tax dollars from hard working Americans to fund free health care for illegal immigrants age 19-25.

Then it was expanded to adults age 50 and older. Full benefits folks for all illegal immigrants that have criminally invaded our republic. The best way to maintain a Communist Democrat voter base in California is to give illegal immigrants free stuff.

So on Jan. 1 2024. approximately 700,000 plus more illegal immigrants who have violated congressional immigration laws aged between ages 26 and 49 will be added to the free handouts of full coverage.

This according to full blown Marxist and California State Senator Comrade María Elena Durazo the daughter of two illegal immigrants and the former National Co-Chair of the Barack Obama Presidential Destroy America Campaign. Remember Obama forced nuns in Catholic Charity hospitals to perform abortions.

This statement is from Comrade Newsom’s politburo in Sacramento.

“In California, we believe everyone deserves access to quality, affordable health care coverage – regardless of income or immigration status,” Gov. Newsom’s Communist politburo office said in response to a News request for comment.

“Through this expansion, we’re making sure families and communities across California are healthier, stronger, and able to get the care they need when they need it.”

Basically what the communist dictator of California is saying is criminal illegal immigrants that broke congressional immigration laws (that actually must be deported) will be given priority over American citizens and homeless veteran’s.

And – the do nothing weak spineless useless waste of tax payer money California Senate Republican Caucus only criticized the move in their an analysis of the 2022-23 governor’s budget. Cheap words from a none functioning Republican political party.

What did they do about it ? Not a darn thing.

Because California is being turned into a Communist government dependency nanny state over one third of California’s population is now sucking off the Newsom mammary gland.

This is about 14.6 million Californians. So why not add another 764,000 criminal illegal immigrants to the free stuff list.

So instead of enforcing U.S. congressional immigration law by denying any benefit to an illegal immigrant at the detriment of American citizens including homeless veterans the Communists running the California Health and Human Services Agency is going to spend $835.6 million in 2024 and $2.6 billion thereafter to keep these illegal immigrants fit and healthy.

I am not sure where the Golden Shower State of California is going to get this money from to fund all this healthcare for criminal illegal immigrants but it sure is interesting to watch the slow financial demise of this once prosperous and beautiful economically viable state.

Maybe in the future an American ran California legislature could write a bill to charge the illegal immigrants consulate or embassy in Washington DC for their emergency healthcare costs and a bill to totally deny all benefits to the rest of these criminals instead of using American tax payers dollars.

©2023. Geoff Ross. All rights reserved.

‘I’m Finished With This Stiff’: Trump Blasts Mike DeWine For Vetoing Ban On Child Sex Changes thumbnail

‘I’m Finished With This Stiff’: Trump Blasts Mike DeWine For Vetoing Ban On Child Sex Changes

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By The Daily Caller

Former President Donald Trump blasted Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio Saturday over the governor’s veto of a bill banning child sex changes.

DeWine announced the veto of the legislation, House Bill 68, Friday despite its overwhelming passage by the state legislature. The bill not only banned child sex changes, but it also prohibited biological males from competing in women’s sports. “DeWine has fallen to the Radical Left,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “No wonder he gets loudly booed in Ohio every time I introduce him at Rallies, but I won’t be introducing him any more. I’m finished with this ‘stiff.’”

“What was he thinking,” Trump continued. “The bill would have stopped child mutilation, and prevented men from playing in women’s sports. Legislature will hopefully overturn. Do it FAST!!!”

The issue of biological males competing in women’s sports after identifying as transgender became controversial in the United States following University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas’s participation in the 2022 NCAA championships. The biological male, who previously ranked at #462 as a male swimmer, won the 500-yard women’s final and placed highly in other events.

Many Republicans criticized DeWine over the veto, including Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose of Ohio.

Trump endorsed DeWine during his reelection bid in 2022.

Some detransitioners, including Chloe Cole, who transitioned as a teenager before stopping, have filed lawsuits against medical professionals who carried out so-called “gender-affirming” procedures.

AUTHOR

HAROLD HUTCHISON

Reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: ‘This Boils Down To Money’: Fox News Guest Blasts GOP Gov Who Vetoed Child Sex Change Ban

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Grand Inquisitor Says Oops [A Covid Story] thumbnail

Grand Inquisitor Says Oops [A Covid Story]

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By Jeffrey Tucker

Francis Collins was head of the National Institutes of Health – Anthony Fauci’s parent bureaucracy – during the wreckage caused by the Covid response. Ultimately, Dr. Collins bears a huge measure of the responsibility for the disaster, even if he played the role of the stooge.

It was he who wrote Fauci with the demand for a “quick and devastating takedown” of the Great Barrington Declaration, a statement that merely reasserted traditional public health wisdom in the midst of an insane science experiment being conducted on the whole population.

Five months ago, an organization that seeks political consensus hosted him for some frank talk about what happened. Here is what he had to say:

There is a sense in which he didn’t need to say this at all. We all knew it. They were thinking only about New York City. The rest of the country never had anything approaching a crisis. The government under Collins emptied hospitals out from coast to coast to reserve them for Covid patients who only arrived much later and never came close to overwhelming healthcare services.

Meanwhile, the entire country was plunged into a grave crisis at every level – a man-made crisis of the worst sort. 

Nor did they think about anything other than this one pathogen. It was a wild fanaticism that seized the whole of the ruling class for the better part of two years. None of it made sense but those who objected could hardly get a hearing. Instead, they were smeared, censored, and often fired for non-compliance.

Even as late as December 2021, Collins was still fear-mongering. He told NPR concerning Christmas celebrations: “We were planning to invite some of the trainees at NIH who are far from home to come for a brunch on Christmas Day at our house if they’re all fully vaccinated and boosted. Still planning to go forward, very carefully, with a small group, and everybody will be wearing masks except when they’re eating.”

Note that Collins doesn’t apologize. He takes no responsibility. He just continues his masquerade as a tennis-shoe wearing, guitar-strumming, Jesus-loving grandpa who is open and broad-minded, never mind that he wielded absolute power over all our lives only a few years ago.

Later in the interview, he is singing hosannas to the glorious vaccines and how perfectly they worked. We are nowhere near approaching the point where people like this tell the truth. It’s almost like they cannot bear it.

Even in this interview, Collins’s nonchalant delivery is infuriating. You want to scream back: you wrecked the lives of hundreds of millions of people! And no one ever gave you the authority to do so!

Meanwhile, it was incredibly obvious to many at the time that disaster would be the only result of lockdowns. The bit about masking was never serious; no one in the know seriously believed these things would protect anyone from a tiny pathogen with an animal reservoir. The only solution was the traditional one from public health wisdom: preserve normalcy, treat the sick with known therapeutics, and alert the vulnerable to stay away from large crowds until the virus becomes endemic.

Collins directly attacked this solution and demanded that the government attack it and ultimately censor it!

As we approach the end of the year, we are surrounded by a cultural and economic darkness this generation has never seen before. Most incredibly, public health itself is wrecked. 

Let’s just count the ways. Each consequence dates from the beginning of the lockdowns. That was the turning point, the end of innocence, the great reset, the moment when the choice between freedom and despotism weighed heavily in the most inhumane direction.

Consider:

Homeless people are everywhere at record highs (650K), stemming from rampant mental disorder, substance abuse, and incredibly tight leasing standards stemming from the eviction moratorium.

The middle class can no longer afford to buy a home thanks to high rates from the Fed, deployed in an attempt to mitigate against inflation which is still running hot.

Every merchant has hidden fees in everything, struggling to find some way to hide the hot potato of inflation that has eaten 20-plus percent of the dollar’s purchasing power since 2019.

Shoplifting is a major national problem to the point that thousands of stores have closed.

Shrinkflation affects everything. The groceries have shrunk and the bills have soared – a direct consequence of some $8 trillion in stimulus and money printing.

Office real estate in large cities is approaching an accounting crisis because people are not returning to work, their routines totally shattered by lockdowns.

Travel is uncertain with endless delays and cancellations due to pilot shortages stemming from stay-at-home orders, vaccine mandates, and rampant illness.

The “great reset” is all around us, as we are constantly nudged to drive EVs, live without comforts, buy less meat, and even eat bugs.

A wide-open Southern border has created an immigration crisis as government neglected its core duties in favor of insane methods of virus control.

Restaurants are unaffordable for most people.

Dependency on government handouts is 28 percent higher than in 2019.

All stores close an hour or two earlier because they cannot get workers to stay later.

The learning losses among the kids are unfathomable, two years and rising, and perhaps an entire generation is lost.

There is a population-wide mental-health crisis in addition to rampant substance abuse.

The federal budget has been blown to smithereens.

Political divisions are festering as never before, with neither party willing to discuss the Covid elephant in the room.

Our conception of what it means to live in freedom with a government that knows limits to its power has slipped away.

Arts venues are struggling for dear life to survive.

World trade is shattered, with new trading blocs replacing the old ones.

The rise of maniacal gender dysphoria of the young is probably connected with this: endless hours online, loss of confidence in the world as it is, plus loneliness.

One could argue that even the war in Israel and Gaza is a result: security concerns were neglected in favor of microbial activism and shot mandates, and the loss of a moral center to policy then unleashed successive rounds of violence.

Finally, there is the loss of trust in everything: government, public health, pharmaceuticals, academia, science, media, and each other. Society cannot function without trust. Not even churches are immune from broad incredulity since most went along with the Covid response in every detail.

This only begins to scratch the surface of what we’ve lost and what has replaced it. Ultimately all such tragedies come down to individual lives. These days you hear them only among friends and families. And they are terrible stories of sadness and personal despair. The pain is only intensified by the silence on the part of all corporate media, government, and other commanding heights. Because of the news block on the whole topic, there is mass and festering anger beneath the surface.

And yet here is this granddad – the man ostensibly in charge over the whole operation – telling us old war stories of mistakes that were made. Does he [Francis Collins] have any idea of the carnage he caused? Does he even care?

In Dostoevsky’s version of the Grand Inquisitor, the nemesis predicts: “In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us.”

*****

This article was published by The Brownstone Institute and is reproduced with permission.

Image Credit: YouTube Screenshot PBS

TAKE ACTION

As we move through 2023 and into the next election cycle, The Prickly Pear will resume Take Action recommendations and information.

Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. and Pope Francis two ‘Catholics’ who are followers of Karl Marx more than Jesus of Nazareth thumbnail

Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. and Pope Francis two ‘Catholics’ who are followers of Karl Marx more than Jesus of Nazareth

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By Dr. Rich Swier

“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.” — Pope John Paul II

“If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.” ― Saint Augustine of Hippo

As a Catholic I expect my fellow Catholics to live, love and act like, well, Catholics.

Today we have two world leaders who are professed “Catholics” but are acting very much un-Catholic, if not anti-Catholic.

These two Catholics act much more like followers of Karl Marx than followers of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Saint Augustine of Hippo wrote, “The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.”

Letting Loose the Truth about Sodomy

The truth about sodomy is contained in the Old Testament in the Book of Genesis.

Genesis 18:21 reads, “I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.”

What does Genesis 18:21 mean?

The Lord continues explaining to Abraham His plans for Sodom and Gomorrah. In the previous verse, God states that outcry over the sins of those cities had reached His ears. Now the Lord says that He intends to go down to the cities to see for Himself if such an outcry is justified. The Lord already knows exactly what sins have occurred. He intends to visit the cities to make the case for executing His judgment on them, much as a parent who already knows exactly what a child has done says they are going to “go look” at the situation.

We will tell the truth about Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. and Pope Francis based upon their actions, not their words.

in a video about Pope Francis and sodomy reported, “Has it appeared “odd” to anyone else that there are so many promoters of sodomy around Pope Francis?…Pope Francis at the beginning of his pontificate created international headlines when he admitted privately there was a gay lobby inside the Vatican. Of course, many people became very concerned when the Holy Father appointed Msgr. Battista Ricca to head up the Vatican Bank. Ricca was reported to have carried on a gay relationship with a captain in the Swiss Army during his time in Uruguay  — so notorious in fact that clergy there appealed to the Vatican to have him removed. It was Battista, as a sidebar, that Pope Francis was talking about back in 2013 when he gave his well-documented comment, “Who am I to judge?”

Recently in Wisconsin a Catholic Diocese halted LGBTQIE+ efforts by two liberal Catholic churches.

Like Francis, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. has, since his inauguration, become the most vocal proponent of sodomy. Biden and his administration have pushed their diversity, equity and inclusion agenda from the school house to the White House and from the school board to every major corporate board in America and beyond.

On June 10, 2023 Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. and his wife Jill hosted a “Pride Celebration” at the White House. Biden stated, “The Pride Celebration is always one of the most exciting events at the White House. But this year, we wanted to do something a little different than before — not just a reception that recognizes the leaders and the activists of this movement, but an all-American picnic here on the South Lawn celebrating you, America’s LGBTQ families.”

At the June, 2023 Pride Celebration Jill Biden said, “Today, we say loud and clear that you belong, that you are beautiful, that you are loved. That’s the miracle that carry us — carries us through the darkest times, that gives us hope for the future that we all want, that strengthen us for the fights ahead. And when you leave here to go back to the place that needs so much change, take that miracle with you. Let it remind you that you don’t have to face these battles alone. You are never alone, and you are loved. Thank you for celebrating with us today.”

Sodomy is a mortal sin in the Old Testament, the New Testament and in the Qur’an.

You cannot be a Catholic and promote, endorse or support sodomy.

Adding More to the Marxist Fire

Not only do Biden and Frances support sodomy they are also fellow followers of the myth of global warming as a threat to mankind.

Both support one world governance, a.k.a the new world order.

Both support massive migration of illegals, primarily from the Middle East, into Europe. Biden has opened America’s Southern Border which created an immigration crisis of untold proportions.

Both have embraced craven images, with Frances actually having pagan statuettes displayed on the Vatican grounds.

Both refuse to defend Catholics and Christians who are being persecuted globally, but primarily in the Muslim controlled Middle East.

Both Biden and Frances do not want citizens to own guns for self-defense. Both are anti-2nd Amendment advocates, except when it comes to their personal bodyguards.

The Biden Administration has gone as far as filing a lawsuit that targets largest Christian University in the United States.

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil.

Neither Biden or Francis are Catholic. They are the followers of Karl Marx.

Their actions speak louder than words.

Today the Vatican is Sodom and the White House in Washington, D.C. is Gomorrah.

God will judge them both as He did those in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Beware the wrath of God al mighty.

©2023. Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

Authoritarian? Conservatives Want to Restore the Constitution. The Left Can’t Handle It. thumbnail

Authoritarian? Conservatives Want to Restore the Constitution. The Left Can’t Handle It.

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By Tyler O’Neil

The Constitution created three branches in the federal government: the legislature to make the laws, the executive branch to enforce the laws, and the judiciary to settle disputes about the laws. Yet the federal government we know and very much do not love doesn’t operate the way the Constitution says it should.

Instead, unelected bureaucrats write more rules than Congress does, the president cannot fire bureaucrats who oppose his efforts to keep his promises to the people, and the Supreme Court has unilaterally rewritten the Constitution on issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, and gender ideology.

Conservatives have launched many efforts to restore the federal government to the way the Constitution says it should work, but the Left has increasingly demonized those efforts as backward, racist, or—more recently—a form of authoritarianism.

In The New York Times, Maggie Haberman wrote: “Why a Second Trump Presidency May Be More Radical Than His First.” Among other things, Haberman warned that former President Donald Trump, were he to win the presidential election next year, “would seek to expand presidential power in myriad ways—concentrating greater authority over the executive branch in the White House, ending the independence of agencies Congress set up to operate outside of presidential control and reducing civil service protections to make it easier to fire and replace tens of thousands of government workers.”

Haberman seems not to remember how Trump’s administration fought against him in unjustified ways, operating as a “deep state” to prevent him from fulfilling his campaign promises. Preventing the executive branch from operating in this way is not a form of authoritarianism but an effort to bring bureaucrats back under the control of the voters’ elected representatives.

Trump’s Agenda 47 and Project 2025, a conservative movement project led by The Heritage Foundation, aim to empower a conservative president to fire executive branch workers who would oppose the president’s goals. (The Daily Signal is The Heritage Foundation’s news outlet.)

Another key conservative reform, the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act, or REINS Act, would require Congress to pass regulations that would significantly impact the U.S. economy.

President Joe Biden’s White House pledged to veto the REINS Act if Congress were to pass it. The Office of Management and Budget said the act “would undermine agencies’ efforts by inserting into the regulatory process an unwieldy, unnecessary, and time-consuming hurdle that would prevent implementation of critical safeguards that protect public safety, grow our economy, and advance the public interest.”

While the Left frames these conservative reforms as “authoritarian,” Biden tried to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for certain borrowers, with the stroke of his pen. The Education Department estimated that this would cost $305 billion in the next 10 years. Had the Supreme Court not ruled the plan unconstitutional, the student loan bailout would have inflated college costs, hindered economic growth, rewarded increasingly woke universities, and benefitted upper-income earners at the expense of those who didn’t go to college or who paid off their loans.

Biden has made similarly unilateral moves to push his transgender orthodoxy and his climate alarmist agenda. Ironically, the president faces his own kind of “deep state,” bureaucrats who are opposing his pro-Israel rhetoric.

Meanwhile, the Left has orchestrated a campaign to delegitimize the Supreme Court, with outfits like ProPublica targeting justices such as Clarence Thomas.

The Left has attacked Thomas in part because the court’s majority now supports originalism, the view that the Supreme Court should uphold the original public meaning of the Constitution, as opposed to reinterpreting the text to achieve the Left’s goals.

Originalism grew as a reaction to the court’s decisions in cases such as Roe v. Wade (1973) and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), which twisted passages in the Constitution out of recognition to create new rights that the Founders and those who later amended the Constitution at the time of the 14th Amendment would have opposed.

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., unwittingly revealed why the Left opposes originalism. He tweeted in 2020, “Originalism is racist. Originalism is sexist. Originalism is homophobic. Originalism is just a fancy word for discrimination.”

Markey’s problem isn’t Originalism—it’s that he isn’t willing to get his efforts opposing “racism,” “sexism,” “homophobia,” and “discrimination” through Congress, the body that makes law, according to the Constitution. He’d rather have the Supreme Court dictate his preferred agenda, and he opposes the good-government reforms that make it harder for nine unelected judges to create new laws.

The Left’s attacks on the Supreme Court represent an obnoxious tantrum after the nation’s highest court has—at least for now—rejected its old modus operandi of writing the Left’s agenda into the Constitution. Now, the court increasingly calls balls and strikes, in ways that frustrate both sides of the aisle but more closely represent the Founders’ vision.

Efforts to rein in the deep state and encourage Congress to make laws, rather than passing off that duty to bureaucrats, echo the originalist movement in the judiciary. These reforms aren’t aimed at authoritarianism or gumming up the works—they’re aimed at making the federal government more accountable to the people once again.

*****

This article was published by Daily Signal and is reproduced with permission.

TAKE ACTION

As we move through 2023 and into the next election cycle, The Prickly Pear will resume Take Action recommendations and information.

The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in America, December 2023 Update thumbnail

The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in America, December 2023 Update

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By Wolf Richter

Down from 2022 highs: San Francisco -12%, Seattle -11%, Portland -6%; Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas -5%; Dallas -4%, San Diego -2%, Los Angeles -1%. But new highs in 8 metros.

Today’s S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index for “October” is a three-month moving average of home prices whose sales were entered into public records in August, September, and October. That’s the time frame here. It uses the “sales-pairs method,” comparing the sales price of the same house over time, thereby eliminating the issues associated with median prices and average prices (see “Methodology” toward the end of the article). But it lags.

The story here is about the individual metros of the 20 metros covered by the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index where home prices soared to ridiculous levels, multiplying by factors of three and four since 2000.

The “most splendid Housing bubbles,” we started calling them since about 2017 to track their astounding surge – and what their fate is now.

Nine of the 20 metros in the Case-Shiller Index were below their peaks in mid-2022. Nine metros had month-to-month declines (Seattle, Denver, Tampa, Washington DC, Portland, San Francisco, San Diego, Dallas, and Minneapolis). And 8 of the 20 metros set new highs.

Prices below their 2022 peaks in 9 of the 20 metros in the Case-Shiller index (% from their respective peak, Case-Shiller month of peak):

  1. San Francisco Bay Area: -11.7% (May 2022)
  2. Seattle: -10.9% (May 2022)
  3. Portland:  -5.8% (May 2022)
  4. Las Vegas: -5.3% (July 2022)
  5. Denver:  -5.2% (May 2022)
  6. Phoenix:  -5.1% (June 2022)
  7. Dallas: -4.4% (June 2022)
  8. San Diego: -2.1% (May 2022)
  9. Los Angeles: -0.8% (May 2022)

Prices set new highs in 8 of the 20 metros in the index (% year-over-year):

  1. New York metro: +7.1%
  2. Detroit: +8.1%
  3. Chicago: +6.9%
  4. Boston: +6.6%
  5. Miami: +6.7%
  6. Cleveland: +6.4%
  7. Charlotte: +6.0%
  8. Atlanta: +5.3%…..

*****

Continue reading this article at Wolf Street.

TAKE ACTION

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Satanic Temple Unveils First High School Student-Led Club thumbnail

Satanic Temple Unveils First High School Student-Led Club

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By The Daily Caller

The Satanic Temple (TST) announced Tuesday that it will be opening its first high school club in Kansas.

The club is an affiliate of TST’s After School Satan Club (ASSC) program, which only opens a club if a school has a religious club on campus, and has locations in Colorado, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York, according to its website. This latest club is TST’s first move into high schools and the first time it’s going to be student-led, according to a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“The first ASSC-affiliated High School Satan Club is debuting in Kansas,” the post reads. “This student-led club has completed all the required steps to be an officially registered on-campus student club and will operate alongside other student-led religious clubs.”

The first ASSC-affiliated High School Satan Club is debuting in Kansas! This student-led club has completed all the required steps to be an officially registered on-campus student club and will operate alongside other student-led religious clubs.
Learn: https://t.co/l7FycZq3FJ pic.twitter.com/6tIAvCmb0u

— The Satanic Temple (@satanic_temple_) December 26, 2023

TST did not disclose the high school that the club will be located at, only noting that it will officially debut in January 2024, according to the post.

The ASSC program says that kids who partake in club activities will have a “safe and inclusive alternative to the religious clubs that use threats of eternal damnation to convert school children to their belief system,” according to the website. A video on the TST’s YouTube page shows a goat, TST’s mascot, in school with a voice in the background that sings “Satan is not a bad guy” and “Satan looks for truth.”

“Unlike our counterparts, who publicly measure their success in young children’s ‘professions of faith,’ the After School Satan Club program focuses on science, critical thinking, creative arts, and good works for the community,” TST’s website reads. “While engaged in all of these activities,  we want clubgoers to have a good time.”

TST came under heavy scrutiny recently after revealing its statue of Baphomet in the Iowa state capitol building in December. The display was destroyed a few weeks later after Christian veteran Michael Cassidy beheaded the statue.

TST did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

KATE ANDERSON

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: Christian Military Vet Says He Decapitated Satanic Statue In State Capitol

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

‘Climate Solutions’: Biden Admin Sent 65 Million Condoms Abroad As Part Of ‘Family Planning’ Program thumbnail

‘Climate Solutions’: Biden Admin Sent 65 Million Condoms Abroad As Part Of ‘Family Planning’ Program

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By The Daily Caller

American taxpayers paid for more than 65 million condoms sent to foreign countries in fiscal year 2022 as part of a program for “family planning,” which the agency touts in other documents as a climate change solution.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) sent 65.5 million condoms, 9.8 million injectable birth control products and 334,000 IUDs abroad in fiscal year 2022 as part of its efforts to facilitate family planning, especially in the third world, according to an agency document overviewing the program. That document specifically cites “[mitigating] the impact of population dynamics on natural resources and state stability” as one of the benefits of the family planning program, while a 2023 USAID document directly asserts that “climate vulnerability, population growth and unmet need for family planning often occur together,” touting family planning as a climate solution.

USAID Issues High-Risk Fraud Alert For Biden’s $100 Million Gaza Aidhttps://t.co/gF92fuCrUV

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 3, 2023

The USAID sends the contraceptives to many different countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Guatemala, Haiti, Pakistan and Uganda, according to the agency’s website. The agency also distributes the contraceptives with an eye toward reducing the prevalence of AIDS, improving educational outcomes for women and decreasing abortion rates, according to the overview document for the program.

For example, the agency sent 500,000 condoms to Yemen as part of the “Strengthening Family Planning Services in Yemen” program over several years. Of those more than 500,000 condoms, 438,801 were “consumed,” according to the USAID’s report on the program in Yemen.

“Today, in the 41 countries where USAID focuses its support, modern contraceptive prevalence has increased to 34 percent, and the average family size has dropped to 3.9,” according to the agency’s program overview document.

USAID links climate change and the importance of family planning, asserting in its 2023 primer on the subject that “access to rights-based planning and girls’ education are among the most impactful climate solutions,” and that “climate change-related displacement can worsen already entrenched gender inequalities” like “disruptions in access to essential health services, poor maternal health outcomes, and an increase in gender-based violence and child marriage.”

Proponents of sweeping government action on climate change often assert that unchecked population growth is detrimental to the environment because a swelling population necessitates the consumption of more resources, and some even argue explicitly that population decline will make for a better world on that basis.

USAID did not respond immediately to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

NICK POPE

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: US Taxpayers Paid For Hundreds Of Thousands Of Condoms To Be Sent To Terrorist Hotbed

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Planned Parenthood’s Trans Hormone Business Is Booming, Creating Thousands Of New Patients ‘For Life’ thumbnail

Planned Parenthood’s Trans Hormone Business Is Booming, Creating Thousands Of New Patients ‘For Life’

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By The Daily Caller

The number of transgender services performed at Planned Parenthood clinics exploded over the past few years as the transgender medical industry became increasingly lucrative, according to data published by the organization’s regional branches.

Planned Parenthood first began providing hormone treatments for transgender patients in 2005, and since then 41 out of 49 regional branches have provided transgender services as of 2022. However, in just the last three years, Planned Parenthood has become dramatically more involved in the gender hormone industry.

Between 2020 and 2022, the number of transgender services performed and/or visits related to transgender treatments at Planned Parenthood clinics increased by roughly 125%, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of available data. Regional branches that made their data available collectively saw 17,036 visits in 2020 compared to 38,337 in 2022, a staggering increase in such a short period of time.

Michael Artigues, president of the American College of Pediatricians, told the DCNF that the increase seen over the last few years is likely due to a number of factors such as transgenderism becoming a growing “social phenomenon,” as well as potential financial incentives.

“You have to be concerned about the fact that there’s always money involved, for sure,” Artigues said. “And you’ve got to question whether or not they’re discerning if someone, in particular minors, have a legitimate condition that requires treatment like gender-affirming therapies, as opposed to a social phenomena and or simply mental health problems.”

While the national Planned Parenthood organization does not publicize data on visits related to transgender medical services, such as gender hormone therapy, 12 of the 41 regional Planned Parenthood branches have released relevant data over the past three years. The remaining branches did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

The regional offices varied in how they tracked gender services, with some tracking gender hormone therapy appointments and others tracking visits to their “gender-affirming care” programs; however, many of the regional Planned Parenthood organizations who published their data saw a substantial increase in visits and/or services performed for transgender individuals. Many clinics currently offer “Transgender Hormone Therapy” including estrogen, testosterone and puberty blockers.

Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, which has clinics located in California and parts of Nevada, had 1,041 “gender-affirming care visits” in 2020 before jumping to 4,378 visits in 2022 and eventually hitting 9,288 in 2023, according to its annual reports. The clinic offers hormone therapy for patients who are 18 years and older, or for patients 16 to 17 years old who obtain parental consent, according to its website.

Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, located in Oregon, recorded 344 transgender medical visits in 2018-2019 and 533 in 2019-2020. That number of visits went up to 1,066 in 2020-2021, and the following year it was nearly four times higher at 4,129 visits.

Nationwide, Planned Parenthood saw over 35,000 patients for hormone replacement services appointments in 2021, NPR reported. The organization did not disclose the exact number of gender-related visits in its 2022 annual report but instead listed them under “other procedures,” which totaled 256,550 appointments and included services like “pediatric care … other adult preventive care, and high complexity visits, including infertility services.”

Click here to view the Planned Parenthood Transgender Healthcare Services annual totals for Gender Hormone Therapy Infographic.

NOTE: The graphic includes Planned Parenthood’s annual totals for “Gender Hormone Therapy,” “gender-affirming” or transgender visits and services at 12 affiliates with reports from 2020 to 2022. (Megan Brock/Kate Anderson)

Several branches said that their transgender services were some of the fastest-growing areas for their clinics. Planned Parenthood Illinois said in its 2022 report that its transgender hormone therapy is “growing faster than any other service.” The report also noted that “gender-affirming care requires a lifelong continuum of social, psychological, behavioral and medical care.”

Stella O’Malley, psychotherapist and executive director of Genspect, an international group that advocates for a “healthy approach to sex and gender,” told the DCNF that she believes Planned Parenthood has gone from the “medical model, where doctors are bound by the principle to ‘first, do no harm,’ to a more business-like approach that lets the buyer beware.”

“The problem with this is that very vulnerable people who are at their lowest often need guidance and support, not a business-like exchange,” O’Malley said. “Doctors aren’t shopkeepers. They are paid very well because they’re in positions of responsibility, and so they need to meet these responsibilities by being sensitive to the needs of the patient. A one-size-fits-all approach that fast-tracks most patients onto a medicalized pathway is profoundly inappropriate.”

Overall, the cross-sex surgery market is projected to be worth $5 billion in 2023, according to Grand View Research, thanks in large part to more and more Americans identifying as transgender. The cost of routine medical visits for a patient on gender hormones would also be significant.

Only a few of the affiliates reviewed by the DCNF list prices for their gender services; Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri lists a “self-pay fee for a visit” at $250, with additional costs added for any lab work, according to its website. All follow-up visits are $200, plus costs to cover lab work as needed.

Planned Parenthood Pasadena & San Gabriel Valley estimates costs of up to $262 for the first visit, as well as $35 for hormone injection training and up to $48 for lab work, according to its website. Any follow-up visits can cost up to $202.

As of 2022, Planned Parenthood Metropolitan New Jersey said that its new patient consultation for transgender hormones ranged anywhere from $92 to $206, while follow-ups were slightly lower, going from $65 to $173, according to a welcome packet.

Scott Newgent, a detransitioner and founder of TReVoices, an organization that works to stop the medical transitioning of children, told the DCNF that the nature of gender hormone treatments, which must be taken continuously for the remainder of a patient’s life, creates potential repeat customers for organizations like Planned Parenthood.

“It doesn’t matter if they decide to transition or stay trans or whatever,” Newgent said. “They’re going to need those synthetic hormones for life. That’s a huge business model.”

Doctors have also raised concerns over the ease with which one can get a prescription for hormone treatments at Planned Parenthood; the Columbia Willamette affiliate, for instance, says on its website that it provides hormone treatments for patients 18 years and older and does not require a letter from a counselor or doctor recommending hormones for gender dysphoria. Patients can get a prescription after the initial hour-and-a-half appointment.

Erica Anderson, who is transgender and the former president of the U.S. Professional Association for Transgender Health, said that patients have circumvented more traditional methods of getting hormones because it takes too long, opting to go to Planned Parenthood instead, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

Click here to view Planned Parenthood Trangender Healthcare Services Infographic.

NOTE: The graphic includes Planned Parenthood’s totals for “Gender Hormone Therapy,” “gender-affirming” or transgender visits and services at 20 affiliates from 2020 to 2022. (Megan Brock/Kate Anderson)

The DCNF also reviewed an additional eight branches that released only partial data in their annual reports between 2020 and 2022. Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest recorded only 22 “gender-affirming” hormone therapy telehealth visits in 2020 but did not include any data regarding in-person health care center visits for hormone therapy in its annual report.

In 2021, the branch saw 829 telehealth and health care center visits for gender hormones, and in 2022 had 2,426, according to its annual reports.

Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri saw 238 visits between July 2020 and June 2021 as it rolled out its “transgender care program,” according to its annual report. Between July 2021 and June 2022, visits for hormone therapy jumped to 1,657.

Click here to view the Planned Parenthood Transgender Healthcare Services 2020 – 2022 Infographic

NOTE: The graphic includes Planned Parenthood’s totals for “Gender Hormone Therapy,” “gender-affirming” or transgender visits and services at 20 affiliates from 2020 to 2022. (Megan Brock/Kate Anderson)

Planned Parenthood California Central Coast reported 299 “gender-affirming care” initial and follow-up visits for the fiscal year 2019-2020 but logged 746 only two years later in its annual report for 2021-2022. Planned Parenthood Wisconsin in 2020-2021 had 488 hormone therapy visits, but that number jumped to 730 in 2021-2022.

Planned Parenthood Great Northwest reported only 659 “gender-affirming hormone care” visits in 2018 within the first six months of opening its gender program. However, in 2022, the number increased to a staggering 12,814 visits among 5,926 patients. While the Great Northwest branch absorbed the Indiana and Kentucky regions in 2021, those organizations did not list the number of transgender services they provided in their previous annual reports.

There are serious health risks from transgender hormone treatments; minors can become infertile if they receive puberty blockers, while those who transition later could suffer from other conditions such as bone deterioration after trying to come off testosterone.

“Women that get on testosterone for a long period, and then get off of it, their bones deteriorate,” Newgent said. “So I have to get back on testosterone to have my bones safe, but then I have to deal with the other sides of it. So there’s all these medical complications that come with it.”

Planned Parenthood published a series of videos in July acknowledging that patients who take estrogen hormones are at a higher risk of blood clots in the lungs, brain and legs.

Risks for testosterone therapy include blood clots, low blood sugar, high cholesterol and liver issues, according to the videos. Planned Parenthood also suggests that patients receiving hormone therapy should look into “family planning” options, noting that infertility is a potential side effect.

Planned Parenthood should “prioritize evidence-based medicine” and encourage patients, specifically children, to get “intensive psychiatric assessment and care” instead of offering puberty blockers, Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of Do No Harm, a group of medical professionals that oppose “radical” ideology in health care, said in a statement to the DCNF.

Planned Parenthood did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

AUTHORS

MEGAN BROCK AND KATE ANDERSON

Contributors.

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: School Staff Appeared To Hide ‘Gender Identity’ Of Bullied Student Being Told To Commit Suicide

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

‘War On Families’: Federal ‘Home Visiting’ Program Classifies Parents Who Don’t Let Young Kids Cross-Dress As Potentially Abusive thumbnail

‘War On Families’: Federal ‘Home Visiting’ Program Classifies Parents Who Don’t Let Young Kids Cross-Dress As Potentially Abusive

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By The Daily Caller

A federally funded “home visiting” program advises service providers to watch for signs of abuse against “gender-diverse children,” citing parents who deny their young child the “right” to cross-dress as an example, a document shows.

The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program is intended to combat abuse and neglect while promoting “positive parenting” and school readiness among “pregnant people and families” with young children who are at-risk for “poor maternal and child health outcomes,” according to its website. The guidance offered to government workers who visit homes at the request of families categorizes steering a child away from “gender expression” that does not correspond with his or her biological sex as abuse.

One document titled “Parental Acceptance of Gender Expression in Young Children” tells home visitors it is important for them to “recognize and address the abuse and neglect that may result, either directly or indirectly, from rejection of a child’s gender expression.”

“Gender-diverse children are frequently the targets of violence or harm — by other children, caregivers, or family members,” the document states.

Abuse need not be “overt,” it explains, but can look like “denying a child the right to play, dress, and act as they would like.”

“Home visitors are uniquely positioned to support family acceptance of children’s gender expression,” the document instructs. “Home visiting, at its core, is dedicated to building strong parent-child bonds in all families. Acceptance of gender expression is key to forging and maintaining these bonds.”

The document further claims that accepting a child’s gender expression can “protect against depression, suicidal thoughts, and suicidal attempts.” However, studies have cast doubt on the idea that affirming a child’s gender identity leads to better mental health outcomes.

Doctors have also expressed concerns that statistics about transgender suicide rates are not only inflated, but that activists’ frequent focus on the numbers may actually drive children with gender identity issues to suicide by creating a “self-fulfilling prophecy.”

“It is insane to vilify parents simply for wanting their gender-confused children to feel comfortable in their own bodies,” American Principles Project president Terry Schilling told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “If anyone is guilty of abuse, it is the gender ideologues who feed kids the pernicious lie that they can somehow change their sex, setting them on a pathway to destructive body modifications.”

The program is run by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), which is part of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), a subagency of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). It awards grants to states that carry out approved “home visiting” programs for at-risk “pregnant people and families” with young children.

An HRSA spokesperson told the DCNF that programs report suspected child abuse “consistent with relevant federal, state and local laws, regulations and policies.”

“Home visitors support parents and caregivers by providing information and guidance on a wide range of topics intended to promote child well-being, including safe sleep practices, injury prevention, and nutrition,” the spokesperson said. “Home visitors also conduct screenings for caregivers and provide referrals to address postpartum depression, substance use, and family violence, and other risk factors associated with child maltreatment.”

The agency awarded $434,721,579 in 2023 to home visitors in 50 states and six territories in fiscal year 2023, according to its website. The program provided over 840,000 home visits in fiscal year 2022, according to a report.

The agency said resources like the “Parental Acceptance of Gender Expression in Young Children” document are “developed to provide background information, research and data, and strategies for program recipients to support improved health and development for all children served by MIECHV programs.”

Schilling said this is “just the latest chilling example of the Biden administration’s war on families.”

“We are rapidly headed down a road where every parent in this country who opposes the transgender agenda risks losing custody of their kids,” he told the DCNF. “The grave threat to families posed by this administration cannot be ignored. Pro-family Americans must fight it at every turn: in Congress and the state legislatures, in the courts, and most importantly, at the ballot box next year.”

A recent rule proposal by the Biden administration’s HHS would transfer children out of foster families that do not affirm their “gender identity,” excluding families with religious objections from their definition of a “safe and appropriate placement” for LGBT youth.

Under the rule, foster care agencies “must not place LGBTQI+ identifying children with a provider who unreasonably limits or denies a child’s ability to express their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.”

“For example, to be considered a safe and appropriate placement, a provider is expected to utilize the child’s identified pronouns, chosen name, and allow the child to dress in an age-appropriate manner that the child believes reflects their self-identified gender identity and expression,” the rule continues.

AUTHOR

KATELYNN RICHARDSON

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLES:

EXCLUSIVE: District’s LGBTQ Lesson Plans For Kindergarteners Include Resources From Pro-Sex Change Organization

VIDEO: ‘Why DEI Must End for Good’—Bari Weiss Gets a Lot Right Here

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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