‘Gender-Industrial Complex’ Worth Billions Annually: Report thumbnail

‘Gender-Industrial Complex’ Worth Billions Annually: Report

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By Family Research Council

The most mysterious feature of the 2023 SAFE Act Wars was that virtually every major hospital system — across 20+ states — lobbied vehemently against the bills. At nearly every public hearing, the speaking roster was saturated by three groups speaking in opposition: transgender activists, families with trans-identifying youth who hadn’t yet come to regret the procedures, and medical professionals, typically associated with a local hospital system.

Yet 2023 was a tipping-point year, in which the number of states with laws protecting minors from gender transition procedures increased from four to 22. This dramatic shift occurred because the dangerous, experimental nature of these surgeries became increasingly apparent. Otherwise progressive European countries such as the U.K., Norway, and Denmark pulled back on providing gender transition procedures to minors. Even state legislators, many of whom lack a medical background, were able to clearly grasp the lack of medical evidence and the potential for harm with these procedures, often articulating those reasons in the legislation they passed.

This raises the question, if the fundamental unsoundness of providing gender transition procedures to minors was evident to everyone from Norway to North Dakota, why couldn’t hospitals see it? A recent report from the American Principles Project suggests an explanation: hospitals and drug manufacturers were blinded by the Benjamins — billions of dollars’ worth.

The American Principles Project (APP) commissioned business consulting firm Grand View Research to conduct a market analysis measuring the volume of the gender-reassignment surgery industry. They recently estimated its value at a whopping $4.12 billion in 2022, with a compounded annual growth rate of 8.4% through 2030. The APP published those numbers this summer in an 88-page report.

Estimate Is Likely an Undercount

Due to various complications in data collection, nearly all estimates of the U.S. gender transition industry will be conservative (tending to undercount rather than overcount), the APP report stated, including the one they commissioned. American health care lacks the comprehensive, centralized data collection of socialized medicine, so researchers must compile data in other ways. For instance, a 2022 study by Komodo Health analyzed insurance claims and found 42,000 minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 2021, but this necessarily excluded all medical activity not covered by insurance.

Other studies have also struggled to find complete datasets. For example, studies that analyze gender transition procedures based on their medical code will necessarily fail to detect gender transition procedures labeled with a generic medical code. In a 2019 video, Dr. Shayne Taylor explained that this was a deliberate strategy. “For the patient who gets a big bill because their insurance doesn’t cover any transgender-related codes, I usually write ‘endocrine disorder not otherwise specified’ to allow me to order the labs that I want,” Taylor said.

Taylor was influential in convincing Vanderbilt University Medical Center to practice gender transition procedures because “these surgeries make a lot of money.” Based on figures from the Philadelphia Center for Transgender Surgery, “female-to-male chest reconstruction could bring in $40,000,” and “around $20,000 for a vaginoplasty,” Taylor cited. “That doesn’t include your post-op visits. That doesn’t include your anesthesia, your OR. So I would think this has to be a gross underestimate. I think that’s just, like, the surgeon’s piece of it.”

Leaked video of the profit rationale behind the gender transition program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center may have played a role in Tennessee enacting legislation to protect minors from gender transition procedures in March 2023.

Another reason to believe these numbers represent an undercount is that estimates of the number of trans-identifying people in America are significantly higher. The pro-LGBT Williams Institute estimated in June 2022 that 1.6 million Americans identify as transgender, including approximately 300,000 youth aged 13-17. While it’s possible that the Williams Institute has a political motive to inflate these numbers, it still yields a much larger estimate than studies that look at medical data.

Transgender activist Robbi Katherine Anthony “(who prefers going by RKA),” APP notes, multiplied the number of transgender-identifying Americans with the “average cost of transition,” estimated at $150,000, to speculate that the potential gender transition market could be valued in excess of $200 billion, “larger than the entire film industry.”

Even if these studies are significant undercounts, they do serve to show the trend. Every study shows a dramatic increase over time in people seeking treatment for gender dysphoria, especially among young people. One study reviewed for the APP report showed that “health system encounters for gender identity disorder rose from 13,855 in 2016 to 38,470 in 2020.”

Costly Procedures

Why such staggering costs? Gender transition surgeries are attempting to reshape — or more accurately, war against — a person’s natural biology. Advanced plastic surgery techniques can recreate the appearance if not the function of different organs. But, as Taylor suggested, the price tag for each individual procedure can be pricey. The APP includes a list of common procedures and their prices:

  • Augmentation Mammoplasty, $6,000-12,000
  • Voice Feminization Surgery, $5,000-9,000
  • Reduction Thyrochondroplasty, $3,500-7,000
  • Orchiectomy, $5,000-8,000
  • Vaginoplasty, $10,000-40,000
  • Chest Masculinization Surgery, $6,000-10,000
  • Scrotoplasty, $4,000-6,000
  • Hysterectomy, $9,500-22,500
  • Phalloplasty, $20,000-150,000
  • Mastectomy, $15,000-50,000
  • Metoidioplasty, $20,000-30,000
  • Facial Feminization Surgery, $20,000-50,000+
  • Electrolysis, $50-200 (one-hour session)
  • Laser Hair Removal, $200-1,000
  • Vocal Training, $50-200 per hour

In general, these are surgeries to a person’s face, throat, chest, or genitalia that result in him or her looking more like the opposite sex. Readers who want more specificity can do their own research. It will not be family-friendly or conducive to good digestion. You have been warned.

These costs add up as trans-identifying individuals pursue multiple procedures. The APP estimated that the “total cost of fully transitioning” ranges from $87,300-410,600 for males and from $66,500-605,500 for females. This assumes five years of puberty blockers (at $3,000-$25,000 per year) and 60 years of cross-sex hormone use (from age 16 to age 76, the average life expectancy, with estrogen estimated at $240-2,400 per year and testosterone at $200-4,200 per year).

These cost estimates do not factor in related medical costs, such as hospital stays and anesthesia. Nor does it factor in the potential for secondary surgeries. “A study in the medical journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery found that up to a third of patients ‘undergo secondary surgical revision to address functional and aesthetic concerns after penile inversion vaginoplasty,’” cited the report. “A similar study in Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reported that revisions for transfeminine vaginoplasty are frequent. These are lifetime, repeat customers, and there are more of them all the time.”

Market Competitors

Whether the market is worth $4 billion annually or a somewhat larger amount, that’s a large pot to split between relatively few players.

According to the market analysis from Grand View Research, 11 hospital and surgery systems account for nearly half (48.7%) of the sex reassignment market revenue in 2022, with other medical systems comprising the rest. Seven of these are in California and New York (including Cedars Sinai, Mount Sinai, and Kaiser Permanente), and the other four are: Regents of the University of Michigan, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, and The Johns Hopkins University.

(Keep in mind, however, that hospital and surgery centers operate in somewhat location-specific markets; coastal surgery centers are likely not competing for clients with, for instance, Sanford Health, the pro-transgender hospital giant of the upper Plains states.)

Grand View Research also attempted to construct a snapshot of the top drug companies providing gender transition hormones. However, this picture was far less complete; many puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones are prescribed off-label, making them harder to track, the APP explained.

The research only accounted for an estimated 14.6% of the market, totaling $234 million in 2022. The top five companies Grand View Research tracked were Pfizer, Inc. (4.6% estimated market share), AbbVie, Inc. (3.2%), End International plc (2.9%), Novartis AG (2.1%), and Lilly (1.8%).

Disaggregated data such as these contribute to the reliability of Grand View Research’s overall estimates. It shows their work, demonstrating that the overall estimates were not invented out of thin air, but represent the aggregate of more minute and concrete estimates, which are more likely to be accurate.

Lobbying Incentive

With such large potential profits on the line, it puts in perspective the efforts by hospital lobbyists seeking to defeat bills protecting minors from gender transition procedures.

If hospitals view gender-confused children as potential lifelong patients, then state laws protecting children from the depredations of gender transition procedures are a direct threat to their business model. Not only does it delay their ability to profit off these children for five years or so, but it also threatens their ability to recruit that child as a lifelong patient at all. Research cited by the Indiana State Medical Association in 2023 has shown that 60% to 95% of minors with gender dysphoria will eventually embrace their biological sex, if puberty is allowed to occur normally, whereas 95% of children who begin puberty blockers will proceed to cross-sex hormones and surgery.

These lobbying campaigns cannot be reduced to the simple question, what is the best practice medical care for children? The APP report notes, “There lurks beneath the surface of ‘best practices’ an incentive structure and a market, both real and potential.” That incentive structure and market are preventing medical systems from seeking the best interest of their gender-confused patients.

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

RELATED VIDEO: On the ‘Weaponization of U.S. Healthcare System’ from FDR to Today by Dr. Tamzin Rosenwasser

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.

National Epidemic Reported thumbnail

National Epidemic Reported

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By Dr. Tamzin A. Rosenwasser, M.D.

Events compel me to sound a public alarm about a disease that has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, and that threatens the stability of the nation.

I speak of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and springing, as I do, from a long line of hand-washers, list-makers, and stove-checkers, I consider myself eminently qualified to make the diagnosis—despite my lack of Board Certification in Psychiatry, Participation in Recognized Psychiatric Quality Improvement Activities, Demonstrations of Continued Competence in Psychiatry, Letters of Recommendation from Peers in the psychiatric field, a satisfactory score on a Certifying Examination in Psychiatric Diagnosis, completion of Physician Self-evaluations or Practice Assessments, or documentation of Psychiatric Patient Satisfaction Surveys.

After all, I do make up for it in Home Study.

Indeed, I began the study of this fascinating but insidiously deadly disorder as a child, when I observed male members of the immediate and extended family not only compiling lists of people’s birthdays—harmless enough, even useful—but also dates on which light bulbs had been changed, and other small mechanical tasks completed. On two occasions, female members of the family perceived a deficit in their stove-checking, and insisted, once by phone from 12 miles out at sea, on having the fire department check. A friend of mine who is a former administrative law judge informs me that the obsessive-compulsive characteristic of saving newspapers is the most common problem cited by people who put their relatives into institutions.

Currently, our national obsessive-compulsive neurosis takes the form of an urgent quest for total cleanliness, absolute safety, and complete uniformity and conformity, usually to government directives that seek to force people to “comply” with rules and regulations covering ever more minute areas of life.

Recently, upon encountering efforts to make us “safer” in the United States, I have pondered such things as this warning on a child’s Halloween “Batman” costume: “Warning: Cape does not enable user to fly.” On a college campus, “Warning: Unpaved pathways may contain ruts, obstacles or ice.” Multiple warnings on ladders. All these, I suppose, are from the sage, widely respected luminaries in Congress to the idiots who populate the remainder of the nation. True, it is also an obsessive retreat from militaristic lawyers; but I note that it is a retreat, rather than a defense.

On the other side of the coin, I read in the Wall Street Journal that some place in Germany performed an experiment to cut down on road sign clutter; they eliminated all road signs, and found that the number of accidents went down. I theorize that this occurred because it made drivers rely more on being watchful themselves, than rather counting on road signs to substitute for their own senses and judgment, and that the sheer number of commands on the signs distracted drivers. I would cite the article, but with all the newspapers around here, I cannot find it.

On contemplating the journey of Lewis and Clark from St. Louis to the Pacific Northwest in 1800, it has been a puzzle to me how they did it without the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to tell them that their boat was designed for several fewer people than crossed various rivers in it, and that without personal flotation devices, they were subject to fines and impoundment; that Seaman, Lewis’s Newfoundland dog, was not up to date on his rabies shots; that the guns should have trigger locks on them; and Sacajawea’s newborn baby would have to be given its hepatitis B shot forthwith, or the expedition would not be allowed to proceed.

A.J. Liebling, the correspondent for The New Yorker who covered World War II, reported the American soldiers’ ingenuity and initiative when they encountered the famed hedges of Normandy, planted on berms, which exposed their tanks’ undersides as they attempted to punch through in pursuit of the Germans. The soldiers went down to the beaches, cut up the hideous Belgian gates the Germans had fruitlessly used to fortify the beaches, and attached them to the tanks, so that they could slice right through the hedges, berm and all. Likewise, he described what he termed the “lordly Negroes” who, understanding that the jeeps full of soldiers racing alongside their quartermaster corps trucks on the way to Paris would need food, simply took the initiative: They made the decision on their own to distribute the provisions in the most efficient way, by tossing boxes of food expertly into the jeeps as they passed by.

Contrast those stories with the accounts of those who raced to the assistance of fellow Americans after hurricane Katrina. Trucks full of supplies were turned away because government functionaries wanted to control every aspect of the situation. Refugees from the hurricane in University City, Missouri, were harassed because they did not have an “occupancy permit” for the house in which they were sheltered, which the government considered to be not big enough for the number of people in it. Policemen in New Orleans went from house to house, illegally confiscating guns, leaving citizens defenseless, even as other New Orleans policemen went AWOL.

True leaders inspire by example. George Washington developed great self-control, worked industriously, and stayed with his troops. He did not, from a distance, simply tell others what to do. We now have a woman running for President who says she has a vision for America. Well, I have a vision for myself, and it does not include having her obsessions foisted on me. The other 299,999,999 or so of us also have our own visions of our own America.

The candidate says that says she has a lot of plans for America, but the country cannot afford them all. She is quite right about that. We cannot afford to have any of them foisted on us. She says she has a national “Health Care” plan, and that we will all be forced to subscribe to it, whether we want to or not. There will be an “enforcement mechanism,” she concedes. However, medical care is not a proper function of government. Citizens should not be wards of the state, whether voluntarily or not. She does not own us. We are not stock on her ranch, and our nation is not her ranch.

On a narrower but still nationwide matter, the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) frets and fusses about ways to make certain, by expanding their revenue stream and usurping power, that physicians “retain skills throughout their careers.” I have a good idea: Harass the physicians enough, and they will give up their careers in medicine before their skills atrophy, or before they even fully develop. Maybe even before they enter medical school, they will think better of a decision to subject themselves to the nagging of the FSMB and all the state apparatchiks, and a life of frustration and annoyance.

FSMB members seem to imagine that physicians, who have demonstrated drive, initiative, industry, and responsibility through a very rigorous educational process, will become deadheads without their nagging. They want “self-evaluation,” and “practice assessment,” letters of recommendation, patient satisfaction surveys, home study courses, some demonstration of “continued competence” in patient care and medical knowledge, more exams. This seems reminiscent of the attempts to ensure loyalty in the old Soviet Union: a vast bureaucracy dedicated to busywork, to enchaining the creativity and energy of professionals, and distracting them from their work.

The FSMB claims to be responding to “a greater public demand for physician accountability” and a call for “greater attention to patient safety.” This is a manifestation, once again, of obsessive- compulsive neurosis. Americans have the best medical care in the world. They live in a safety unheard of until very recent times. They themselves also must take responsibility for their own safety.

Of course, we can expect the criticism that “You’re against safety!?” “You don’t think safety is a good thing!?” That is a logical fallacy. It is just that the pursuit of safety above all else will not be worth any marginal benefit, because it is destroying freedom.

The freedom to learn, invent, attempt, and investigate, free of the nagging restraints of tyrannical regimes, has made our nation the leader in world medicine just 232 years after our founding. Europe sneered at us as rubes, but we have left them far behind, and we did it without the FSMB, or the nagging interference of government, which is a more recent phenomenon.

Our earlier freedom still yields dividends, but it may be the dividend that the waning western light of day still yields those working in the late afternoon. There is no guarantee that the Gulliver of our nation’s energetic and inventive people will survive being fettered by government Lilliputians’ niggling, wearying, degrading rules and regulations, hedges, and leashes not fit for fourth graders. We have “followed after knowledge and excellence.”1 We are not slaves, or commodities, even though we and our care and services are taken for granted, as a given to which all are entitled.

My best-loved professor once told me a story of a farmer who was trying to get ahead in life. He worked hard on his farm, and he had two mules to help him. Since he controlled the mules’ freedom and food supply, he gradually took advantage of them, without regard for their need for rest, or their general well being. He reached a point of equilibrium, where he gave the mules just enough food and rest to enable them to do the work he wrung out of them by force and blows. One day, he had hitched the mules to an overloaded wagon, to take his harvest to market, but the exhausted mules stopped on an incline, too spent to go further. Despite his whip, they would not budge, so he got out and built a fire under the mules’ bellies. That induced them to begin hauling again; they hauled the wagon just far enough that it rested above the fire, and the wagon and the farmer’s produce burned up.

It is past time for us to realize that the major obsession, regardless of its named excuse, among all the petty bureaucracies, the municipalities large and small, and the many branches of the Federal government, as well as quasi-governmental bodies, is to extend power over us in all our life activities. In considering these matters, I had recourse to Alexis de Tocqueville, whose masterpiece Democracy in America I had never read. He foresaw the kind of oppression with which democratic peoples are threatened:

…[A]n immense tutelary power is elevated, which alone takes charge of assuring their enjoyments and watching over their fate. It is absolute, detailed, regular, far-seeing, and mild. It would resemble paternal power, if, like that, it had as its object to prepare men for manhood; but on the contrary, it seeks only to keep them fixed irrevocably in childhood; it likes citizens to enjoy themselves provided that they think only of enjoying themselves. It willingly works for their happiness; but it wants to be the unique agent and sole arbiter of that; it provides for their security, foresees and secures their needs, facilitates their pleasures, conducts their principal affairs, directs their industry, regulates their estates, divides their inheritances; can it not take away from them entirely the trouble of thinking and the pain of living?

So it is that every day it renders the employment of free will less useful and more rare; it confines the action of the will in a smaller space and little by little steals the very use of free will from each citizen …

Thus, after taking each individual by turns in its powerful hands and kneading him as it likes, the sovereign extends its arms over society as a whole; it covers its surface with a network of small, complicated, painstaking, uniform rules through which the most original minds and the most vigorous souls cannot clear a way to surpass the crowd; it does not break wills, but it softens them, bends them, and directs them; it rarely forces one to act, but it constantly opposes itself to one’s acting; it does not destroy, it prevents things from being born; it does not tyrannize, it hinders, compromises, enervates, extinguishes, dazes, and finally reduces each nation to being nothing more than a herd of timid and industrious animals of which the government is the shepherd. 2

©2024. Dr. Tamzin A. Rosenwasser, M.D. All rights reserved.

REFERENCES

1 Dante Alighieri. The Divine Comedy.

2 Alexis de Tocqueville. Democracy in America. Mansfield HC, Winthrop D., ed., trans. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press; 2002:663.

A Short History of American Medicine, 1955 – thumbnail

A Short History of American Medicine, 1955 –

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By Dr. Tamzin A. Rosenwasser, M.D.

In one of Mark Twain’s masterpieces, Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher wandered deeper and deeper into a cavern, and got lost. It is much easier to penetrate deeply into such a labyrinth than it is to find the way out. Such appears to me to be the history of the plight of modern American medicine from about 1955 on.

By1955 wewere10yearspost-war,emerging from what seem now to be primitive medical practices. I would venture to say that most of what we know in science and medicine we have learned in the last 65 years or so. Our nation entered a long period of relative prosperity, and we far surpassed there’s to the world in medical and scientific research and practice.

But just as a stupid idea to enter a cavern with only a few candles can lead to disaster, so can a stupid or immoral idea in politics. Once we realize we are stuck in a figurative labyrinth, we are so lost that we do not even identify the decision(s) that led to it.

When “leaders” in prewar/wartime Germany came up with ideas for which they needed scientists, they used the scientists’ expertise to help them to destroy their nation, and to stain its name. The scientists became like zombies, acting in their own bodies, but controlled by outside, evil forces. The scientists abdicated their human responsibilities to these false leaders, and were complicit in their crimes.

Meanwhile in America, a disastrous immoral idea took hold. It shunted our founding principle aside in a malignantly insidious fashion. Our law contains no “duty to rescue” for a very good reason—it could and would totally drain citizens. If you see someone in need, and have something to give, you are perfectly free to give all you wish—but it is your decision, not a duty.

Until Franklin Delano Roosevelt, no American president dared to lay a claim on one citizen for some other favored citizen. A coup d’etat took place in the 1930s when the Constitution was traduced. Instead of the single category, “American citizen,” citizens were de facto divided into officially favored and disfavored groups. Some citizens were statutorily burdened with the duty to rescue others, not necessarily from disaster, but from responsibility for their own lives.

The Entitlement Labyrinth

Lyndon Baines Johnson went further down this path in 1965, when he bestowed Medicare/Medicaid on favored groups, thus relieving old people and poorer people from responsibility for their decisions about education, work, and health. Politicians who “give” things to citizen groups give other people’s things, not their own. With other people’s labor, and other people’s money, they give favors in exchange for votes. We live in a transfer society now, where government forcibly transfers some citizens’ property and the fruit of their labors to other people. Those other people are not necessarily even in need. Many of them are quite well off. To help the fleeced citizens accept this, politicians excite envy among groups.

Many of the politicians who currently practice the politics of envy are millionaires, but they engage in vilifying others who have done useful work, who created jobs and wealth, not to mention useful products and services, and who freely bestowed voluntary charity on others The politicians who do this may be trying to deflect envy, which they may fear might be directed toward themselves, onto the producers in the nation, such as . “corporations” and “doctors.”

When LBJ decided to make political hay by pretending to “save” the groups now called “seniors” and “the poor,” his chosen method enlisted physicians. Despite early resistance, due to recognition of the destruction socialized medicine would cause, physicians were nevertheless eventually seduced, just as scientists had been by other regimes. By the time many of us currently practicing medicine came of age, Medicare and Medicaid were firmly entrenched, and we were enrolled into them, barely knowing they existed, while we were in medical school.

The original Medicare/Medicaid legislation provided that there would never be interference in the practice of medicine. We were reassured that the programs would never cost more than $9billion a year, maximum. So much for predicting the future: the cost was up to $406billion in 2006. The sage, widely respected luminaries who came up with the $9 billion figure do not seem to have been acquainted with human nature.

In this process, true charity was greatly diminished. Why give to the needy when your labor and money are already being confiscated by government, which pretends to “take care of” so many needs and problems?

Wolf Crying

An interlocking chain of events ensued. As patients realized they could get medical care that was free to them, or almost free, they stepped up their use of the emergency room(ER), they went to physicians’ offices for ever slighter reasons, and they did such things as having their joints replaced not just to keep walking, but to keep playing tennis. All fine, except that the people burdened with the bills for their care might want time and money to play tennis and lead their own lives, with the money that they earned. It wasn’t just the spending. Once, if a person presented at the ER with, say, a headache, we could presume that there was a real problem: a headache out of the ordinary. No more. Since it costs many people little or nothing to come to the ER, they come in for the slightest of reasons. Maybe they could have taken some aspirin. But

maybe in the ER they can get Tylenol with codeine, which has a resale value, or maybe the headache is connected with family problems, and they can score some points against the other side by taking on the sick role.

Maybe they have just learned to be dependent. Maybe they don’t feel as important if they treat the headache themselves as they do if they “have to” go to the ER for it. So we are now faced with an influx of the mildly indisposed, “just wanted to be sure” people drowning out the truly sick, making decision-making much more complicated for the physician. There is a limit to how many people can get head CTs and MRIs. Also gone unremarked is the likelihood that physicians are not immune to the mindset induced by people crying “Wolf!” After a certain number of false-alarm headaches, the physician may be more likely to overlook, for example, a leaking berry aneurysm.

False Turns

Physicians, whose motto has been “First, do no harm,” at first resisted government interference in medicine, but eventually they saw no harm in making taxpayers pay the bills for the medical care their patients received. Naturally, the bills mounted.

As things got out of hand, the politicians got scared. Most of them are too cowardly to face reality. Instead of forthrightly stating that the Medicare/Medicaid system was out of control because there is no brake whatsoever on the medical desires of the population segments the system favors, they attacked the physicians and hospitals.

There was no appreciation of how much worse they could make the problem of giving people total personal discretion in spending their fellow taxpayers’ money by distorting medical care with perverse incentives.

The diagnosis-related group (DRG) system was imposed sometime in the 1980s to pay hospitals a flat rate per diagnosis, regardless of the actual cost of the care of the patient. It provided incentives to make hospital care more efficient—or at least speedier. Discharge planning became more important, with a kind of game to figure out the best (most remunerative) way of stating the diagnosis, and the quickest discharge, ready or not.

As John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis has pointed out, there is a tuning fork-shaped graph that results from tracking all the fixes government has tried. Without radical surgery on the entitlement system that bestows favors on some at the expense of others, tinkering with it can reset the point on the graph showing what our present spending is, but it has no effect on the growth rate.

When DRGs did not work, a big “waste, fraud and abuse” hunt was launched, with Medicare patients told their physicians might be committing fraud, and to look over their “Medicare Beneficiary Notices.”

In order to recover some money, the government now employs “bounty hunters”—people who get part of the loot when they “find” overcharges. Unlike defense contractors, physicians have no big money sluice for sliding cash to politicians, so we mean nothing to them.

With the burdens mounting, and fewer willing to carry them, politicians have decided—again without clearly stating their aims—that we need a huge influx of foreigners to shoulder the burden. And to meet the demand for taxpayer-funded medical services, physicians began using “physician extenders” (sounds like “hamburger helper,” doesn’t it?). Nurse practitioners, a new category, got into the act, supposedly to take care of the less sick, the worried well, the slightly indisposed. Of course, sometimes things did not work out that way. Sometimes the truly sick ended up with a nurse practitioner unable to handle the problem.

An explosion of “initiatives” has been designed to corral people, force vaccinations on their children, monitor their prescriptions, visit their babies at home, and have them beg for permission to take drugs that the government does not approve of.

Instead of studying diseases and therapeutics, physicians waste time learning “correct coding.” Not for their patients, but for the bureaucrats. Some physicians have retired early. Others have fled to an area not “covered”—especially cosmetic surgery—where there is freedom, but which removes them from the heavy lifting in medical care. Some just game the system, meeting absurdity with dishonesty. Some over-treat the patients paid for by government in order to make more money. Now that there is such an outcry about spiraling costs, some under-treat patients, because government has made it a money-losing proposition to treat Medicare and Medicaid patients, by paying less and less for that care.

Very few people saw where this path was leading, as they voted for politicians who promised to give them money taken from their fellow citizens. It supposedly represents some kind of pact between the generations, except that members of the younger generation never gave their permission. But now the giant Ponzi scheme is unraveling, and the nation is going bankrupt.

There’s no guarantee at all that the U.S. will not end up like a Third-World nation. As long as we do not recognize that medical care is not, and never can be, free of charge, people will continue to respond to perverse incentives, and never recognize that third-party control is the whole problem with our medical care. Things can get a lot worse than they are now. To some, the house of medicine may look fine, but it is like a house riddled with termites.

Away Out

But there is good news. We could fix things overnight, by seceding, dropping out of the system. Tom and Becky survived being lost in the cave because they saw a gleam of light, and found a way out. We can do the same. No need to retrace our steps in this Byzantine labyrinth of “compliance” and control. At some point, Medicare and Medicaid will implode, just as the U.S.S.R. did. When it happens, people will still need medical care.

In the meantime, every physician should think about a fallback plan for an alternate livelihood. We should be ready to be independent. We can grow food, modify a house for passive solar heat, install windmills, save money, invest in some other thing to learn or do to support ourselves, and take care of our patients without Big Brother in the room with us.

©2024. Tamzin A. Rosenwasser, M.D. All rights reserved.

Going Full Orwell: Harris-Walz Equate Fighting ‘Climate Change’ With ‘Freedom’ thumbnail

Going Full Orwell: Harris-Walz Equate Fighting ‘Climate Change’ With ‘Freedom’

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By Marc Morano from Climate Depot

Shh. A moment of ‘climate silence’ being observed on live TV – Morano on Fox & Friends on Harris-Walz ‘climate silence’ & pushing climate solutions as ‘freedom’

Harris Goes Full Orwell! 

NYT: Harris’s New Strategy: Equate Fighting Climate Change With ‘Freedom’ – Framing As ‘Patriotism’ – ‘A novel way of framing climate change’

New York Times – Aug. 23, 2024: Vice President Kamala Harris mentioned climate change just once in her speech before the Democratic National Convention on Thursday, wrapping it into her larger campaign theme of freedom. … Ms. Harris declared that along with reproductive choice “many other fundamental freedoms are at stake” in the November election. Those include “the freedom to breathe clean air, and drink clean water and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis,” she said. …

Via Study.com’s Analysis of George Orwell’s 1984 & the meaning of ‘Freedom is Slavery:  “The slogan coined by Big Brother goes on to explain that freedom is slavery…Big Brother justifies this confusion by saying that someone who is free under the typical conception, able to operate according to their own will, is ultimately unsuccessful. Rather, true freedom is serving the state, which allows one to operate with more freedom than they ever would have had if they went out into the world on their own.”

Marc Morano: This is this is the biggest con I’ve seen in modern politics. Kamala Harris in 2019 was the co-sponsor of The Green New Deal — the AOC original Green New Deal, and as you mentioned, Harris cast a breaking vote in 2022 for the Inflation Reduction Act. Climate is supposed to be an existential threat. Climate is supposed to be in crisis —  an emergency. The Biden-Harris Administration was talking openly — as The Washington Post and Associated Press reported — declaring a National Climate emergency — and all of a sudden, summer of 2024, everything went silent. And why is that? Because according to the Washington Post, the New York Times, they have found in focus groups, they have found in polling, they have found this across the board — that there’s just no concern over climate change in America. It’s dropped even in these polls by the mainstream media, out of the top 20 issues, it’s not even in the top half, and so what’s happened is they’ve just moved on, and they’re framing it now, according to the New York Times, as an issue of ‘freedom’ —  climate ‘solutions’ will bring ‘freedom.’ This is after they talked about banning gas-powered cars, restricting meat eating, banning gas stoves and thermostat controls, and CNN promoting ‘carbon passports’ for travel. But now they’ve just gone silent on this existential threat of the 21st century. We’re being conned.

Partial Transcript: 

Rachel Campos-Duffy: Even the Washington Post has taken notice, saying the split-screen approach suggests that Democrats see talking about the environment as a lose-lose proposition. Here to discuss is Climate Depot publisher Marc Morano. Marc, it is really interesting she cast the deciding vote on the Big Green New Deal, or some call it a scam, and she should be bragging about it, and no one’s talking about this issue. Why, what’s happened?

Marc Morano: This is this is the biggest con I’ve seen in modern politics. Kamala Harris in 2019 was the co-sponsor of The Green New Deal — the AOC original Green New Deal, and as you mentioned, Harris cast a breaking vote in 2022 for the Inflation Reduction Act. Climate is supposed to be an existential threat. Climate is supposed to be in crisis —  an emergency. The Biden-Harris Administration was talking openly — as The Washington Post and Associated Press reported — declaring a National Climate emergency — and all of a sudden, summer of 2024, everything went silent. And why is that? Because according to the Washington Post, the New York Times, they have found in focus groups, they have found in polling, they have found this across the board — that there’s just no concern over climate change in America. It’s dropped even in these polls by the mainstream media, out of the top 20 issues, it’s not even in the top half, and so what’s happened is they’ve just moved on, and they’re framing it now, according to the New York Times, as an issue of ‘freedom’ —  climate ‘solutions’ will bring ‘freedom.’ This is after they talked about banning gas-powered cars, restricting meat eating, banning gas stoves and thermostat controls, and CNN promoting ‘carbon passports’ for travel. But now they’ve just gone silent on this existential threat of the 21st century. We’re being conned.

Morano: This is a huge opening for Trump. They need to ridicule what Harris has said and done. Remember, she was the one who said climate change was the root cause of immigration on the southern border, and she actually went down to investigate. They can’t let her get away with this.

Gov. Tim Walls, by the way, is the exact same way. He was actually —  going back a decade — trying the same tactic of avoiding climate change by telling Minnesotans to support then Pres. Obama’s climate bills because ‘we would all be rich from it’ — they’re all emphasizing this fake government-supported green jobs so-called, and they’re getting labor unions involved and the ideas we’re going to subsidize through trillions of dollars. Remember, the Inflation Reduction Act was only a couple hundred billion dollars, but now the latest estimates are without Congressional authorization of spending of over $1 trillion and rising. So this money is being pumped in. That’s how they’re trying to sell climate change now,  as some kind of cash scam for people to get rich off of.  No longer do we face the tipping point 12 years or the existential threat. They know the public’s not buying that scientific claptrap.

Morano: 2030 was AOC’s climate tipping point deadline, and the clock is ticking, but usually, when it expires, they cross it out and put a new date.

Rachel Campos-Duffy: Tick-tock, tick-tock. Thank you, Marc. So great to have you on.

Morano: Thank you, Rachel. Appreciate it.

RELATED ARTICLES:

NYT: ‘Harris Goes Light on Climate Policy. Green Leaders Are OK With That’ – ‘If she takes a strong position on climate…it will make her look too progressive’

Harris-Walz push ‘climate silence’! WaPo: ‘Why Democrats are so quiet about climate change right now’ –

Dem ‘Party leaders appear to have calculated that climate silence is the safest strategy’ as ‘most voters rank other issues as more important’

‘Third Rail’: Here’s Why Team Kamala Isn’t Peddling The Typical Dem Climate Panic This Election – Morano: ‘No one is buying their ‘climate emergency’ claptrap anymore’

Shhhh. Despite climate silence, Harris Planning ‘Bold Action’ on Climate Change, Adviser Says

Kamala Harris Barely Mentioned Climate at the DNC

Harris, Walz frame climate change in context of ‘freedom’ as only ‘glancing references to climate’ made by Harris & Walz – ‘Climate was muted’

Watch: Interior Sec. Deb Haaland says Kamala Harris will ‘fight climate change’ in speech to DNC

Climate is missing from climate groups’ $55 million ad splurge! – Part of new ‘strategy from Democrats & allies’ –

Ads ‘don’t mention climate change or global warming’

Harris & Walz Are ‘Climate Champions’ Says Former Obama EPA chief Gina McCarthy

Harris’ VP Pick Walz Has Pushed Green Energy Mandates More Aggressive Than Gavin Newsom’s – ‘Walz signed over 40 climate-related initiatives into law’

©2024. Marc Morano from Climate Depot. All rights reserved.

CO2 Has Been Indicted by Consensus, Not Real Science or Critical Thinking thumbnail

CO2 Has Been Indicted by Consensus, Not Real Science or Critical Thinking

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By John Droz, Jr.

When asking those who believe that CO2 is a major climate antagonist to make their strongest argument, their most common response is: “CO2 has been identified as the primary Climate culprit by the majority of experts (e.g., climatologists) and scientific organizations (e.g., the IPCC).” This is clearly a consensus claim.

I’ve repeatedly warned that one of the major fights we are in, is to defend genuine Science, as its enemies are actively trying to replace it with political science. This situation is a dead giveaway, as consensus is the currency of politics, NOT Science!

Put another way, the claim of consensus is deference to authority. They are saying don’t ask any questions! Just be quiet as others know a lot more about this matter than you do. Further, they continue, it’s not possible that all those experts would be lying to us!

Both of these are very reasonable viewpoints. However, whether or not they should end the conversation is the question. Let’s look at a recent very close Science parallel for enlightenment. Here is a layperson’s history of what happened…

There are roughly 8 Billion people on the planet who periodically experience stomach ailments (i.e., gastrointestinal distress). The concern often is: will these common human pains turn into something much more major — like an ulcer?

An ulcer is a perforation of the stomach lining, which is a serious matter, and there are about 4 Million cases of these in the US, every year — so it is relatively common.

For nearly 200 years the medical establishment believed that stomach ulcers (technically peptic ulcers) were caused by stress. The hypothesis was that stress produced excess (gastric) acid in the stomach, which (in turn) eventually ate away some of the stomach’s lining. (The first connection between these was made in 1822.)

In this case when I say “medical establishment” I mean worldwide 100% of relevant PhDs, MDs, RNs, PAs, etc. Also 100% of hospitals (like the Mayo Clinic). Also 100% of universities and medical schools (like Johns Hopkins). Also 100% of medical textbooks. Also 100% of medical journals (like the Lancet, and NE Journal of Medicine). Also 100% of medical organizations (like the AMA). Also 100% of government medical agencies (like the FDA, CDC, DOH). Also 100% of pharma-ceutical companies (like Pfizer, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Bristol Myers Squibb). This was also the position of the MD’s bible: the Physician’s Desk Reference.

As a point of reference, the combined number of worldwide medical experts here is roughly a hundred times the amount of worldwide anti-CO2 experts.

The basic reason that these many thousands of highly educated people were wrong, is that none of them actually applied the Scientific Method to the accepted and sensibly sounding hypothesis about the cause of stomach ulcers! Instead of taking the time and effort to perform a genuine Scientific assessment of this common worldwide issue, they relied on intuition — plus the fact that other experts were on board. (This is very similar to what is going on regarding Climate and the faulting of CO2.)

The Truth regarding stomach ulcers was discovered when two Australian scientists (Dr. Robin Warren and Dr. Barry Marshall) decided to apply the Scientific Method (!) to the medical establishment’s ulcer hypothesis. (Note that what we still have regarding CO2 is a scientifically unproven hypothesis as to its full relationship with Climate.)

The short story is that in 1982 Drs Warren and Marshall proved that most stomach ulcers are caused by a bacteria: H. pylori — NOT stress-induced excess acid production! (Read sample stories here, here, and here.) Note that this scientific finding is not even remotely similar to the stress/acid hypothesis that tens of thousands of medical experts had fully bought into, for many decades…

This was a VERY BIG DEAL. This NIH study says about their work: “Advances in drug therapy for peptic ulcer have had a significant impact on quality of life and work potential of many millions of affected persons and have contributed to a remarkable decrease in the prevalence of the disease, frequency, and severity of complications, hospitalizations, and mortality.”

This failure is particularly hard to understand regarding pharmaceutical companies, which have thousands of qualified experts (e.g., PhD Biologists and Chemists). Why didn’t those scientists figure out the truth through scientific experiments, since they have the experts, labs, and money?

Because, exactly like the IPCC, they started with an unproven assumption. In this case, it was that excess acid was causing most ulcers (and that stress was causing the acid)… A cynic would say that there is a second major reason: they didn’t want to get to the Truth, as that was not in their financial best interest!

In any case, following the unproven ulcer hypothesis, pharmaceutical companies produced two types of “solutions”: 1) drugs to reduce stress (anti-anxiety meds like Xanax and Valium) plus 2) drugs to reduce stomach acid (Nexium, Tums, etc.). But neither of these do anything meaningful to address the primary cause of ulcers!

There is an exact parallel with industrial wind energy and solar proposed (by experts) as “solutions” for the climate issue, as neither of those has genuine scientific proof that they work (i.e., save a consequential amount of CO2).

What followed Drs. Warren’s and Marshall’s published peer-reviewed study is also instructive.

To begin with, there was great skepticism by the medical establishment (aka the “experts” who have been wrong for many years).

In 1996 (14 years after Drs. Warren’s and Marshall’s findings were published and verified) the FDA finally approved the first antibiotic for treatment of ulcer disease.

In a 1997 study (15 years after their findings were published and verified), data show that about 75 percent of ulcer patients were still treated primarily with antacid type medications, and only 5 percent receive antibiotic therapy!

This shows the powerful resistance by “experts” to accept the Truth — especially when it exposes the fact that said experts were totally WRONG, for decades…

Prompted by this study, in 1997 the CDC, with other government agencies, academic institutions, and industry, launched a national education campaign to inform health-care providers and consumers about the link between the H. pylori bacteria and ulcers.

Drs. Warren and Marshall subsequently won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Medicine for following the Science.

Please reflect on the original question: can tens of thousands of well-educated experts, universities, medical journals, textbooks, medical organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and government agencies, be dead wrong? Absolutely YES!!!

Is this because they are ignorant? (Not in general, but they certainly were ignorant about how Science works.) Is this due to a conspiracy? (Hard to say.)

Summary: the experts were wrong as they lazily went with intuition, plus the comfort of consensus of their peers Furthermore, they decided it was too much trouble to apply scientific rigor via the Scientific Method to their ulcer hypothesis. Lastly, for some of the medical experts, it was in their financial interest to not reveal the truth.

Today we have an almost identical situation with the hypothesis against CO2…

PS — A strong argument can be made that the same departure from Science (short-cutting) happened with COVID-19. That will be another commentary.

©2024.   All rights reserved.

Here are other materials by this scientist that you might find interesting:

Check out the Archives of this Critical Thinking substack.

WiseEnergy.org: discusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.

C19Science.info: covers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.

Election-Integrity.info: multiple major reports on the election integrity issue.

Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not do, on issues from COVID to climate, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2024 Archives. Please send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time – but why would you?

The 16 Most Extreme and Exotic Moments of the 2024 Democratic National Convention thumbnail

The 16 Most Extreme and Exotic Moments of the 2024 Democratic National Convention

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By Family Research Council

The 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC) has closed but, like its candidate’s views on the issues, much has not been reported. Here are 16 of the most significant events not covered by the legacy media.

1. Planned Parenthood Carried Out Eight Abortions and Nine Vasectomies at the 2024 DNC

Like official statistics about the jobs created by the Biden-Harris administration, the number of abortions and vasectomies carried out during the 2024 Democratic National Convention has been revised downward.

Pro-life sources on the ground reported that Planned Parenthood carried out 25 abortions in a mobile unit near Chicago’s United Center during the first two days of the DNC, which nominated Kamala Harris for president and Tim Walz for vice president. Thankfully, abortion officials have subsequently clarified that they dispensed the abortion pill mifepristone to fewer than half that many mothers.

“The 25 you refer to was the approximate number of available patient slots,” the Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, based in St. Louis, told The Washington Times via email Wednesday. “We served [sic] 9 vasectomy and 8 medication [chemical] abortion patients between the two days.” The organization claims it did not commit any surgical abortions on site.

Of course, that’s nine more abortions than took place in conjunction with the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, the Constitution Party convention in Salt Lake City, and the Libertarian Party convention in Washington, D.C., combined.

The 2024 DNC became so abortion-focused that Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) wondered at one point, “Will any abortions be performed on stage?”

2. A U.S. Senator Praised a Riot that Tried to Burn Policemen Alive

Vice President Kamala Harris has attempted to distance herself from her administration’s record by ignoring the last three years (except scattered discussion of her appointees’ sex or ethnicity) and focusing her campaign almost exclusively on her time as California Attorney General — a position she left nearly eight years ago. In her acceptance speech, she asserted (inaccurately) that voters should reject Donald Trump, because he “sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol, where they assaulted law enforcement officers.”

Yet speakers at her own convention praised a crowd that assaulted police and attempted to burn them alive.

“I believe in America, because our fighters fought at Stonewall,” said Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) on Wednesday night. He was referring to the Stonewall riots, often considered the birthplace of the so-called Gay Liberation movement (which actually originated in Bethlehem, Pa.). On June 29, 1969, the Stonewall Inn became the site of anti-police violence as thousands of LGBT rioters attempted to burn the seedy, Mafia-run bar to the ground … with six New York City police officers inside. “I wanted to kill those cops,” said rioter John O’Brien.” Then-President Barack Obama, who spoke at the DNC Tuesday night, named the Stonewall Inn a national monument in 2016.

It seems only fitting the party of the 2020 BLM/Antifa riots salutes the Woke anti-police rioters of old, as well.

Speaking of incitement …

3. Al Sharpton Accused Former President Donald Trump of Racial Incitement

Few people embody racial incitement as fully as Al Sharpton, the founder of the National Action Network (NAN). His accusation that President Donald Trump fans “racial flames” must qualify as one of the greatest acts of projection in modern American political history.

Sharpton described Trump as “a fellow New Yorker I’ve known for more than 40 years.” He claimed when Trump took out a full-page ad calling for the execution of whomever brutally raped Central Park jogger Trisha Meili in 1989 that “it was then that I saw Trump love to fan racial flames.”

If Al Sharpton considered Donald Trump a racial arsonist in 1989, he should have told Al Sharpton. Before the last presidential election, Sharpton tweeted a photo of himself and Trump at the 2006 NAN convention holding a pleasant conversation with soul singer James Brown and Jesse Jackson. Trump described Sharpton as “[j]ust a conman at work!”

But it takes more than a con’s shamelessness to accuse others of your sins; as Bill Clinton said at a previous Democratic convention, that “takes a lot of brass.” As this reporter has noted:

“Al Sharpton founded the National Action Network shortly before the racially charged August 1991 Crown Heights riots. Sharpton led crowds in chanting, ‘No justice, no peace’ before rioters claimed the life of rabbinical student Yankel Rosenbaum. Sharpton’s ‘vile rhetoric incited the rioting,’ said Rosenbaum’s brother, Norman. A month earlier, Sharpton challenged New York’s Jewish community, ‘If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.’ In 1995, Sharpton would lead months-long demonstrations against Jewish ‘white interlopers’ at Freddy’s Fashion Mart, who raised the rent of a black business owner; ultimately, a protester burned the store and killed eight people, including himself.”

This record has earned Sharpton the revulsion of most decent society, as well as appointments to the Biden-Harris administration’s National Parents and Families Engagement Council and a council allegedly dedicated to keeping churches safe.

Sharpton, who was ordained a minister at age nine before becoming a protégé of James Brown, engaged in aggressive rhetoric later in his 2024 DNC speech, promising, “We are going to join with whites and browns and Asians, and we going [sic] to do a job on those that have done a job on us.”

4. Kamala Harris Is ‘Tough as Nails’ on Border Security

As part of the Projection Party’s extreme makeover, Kamala Harris now presents herself not only as a prosecutor but a border hawk. “For 20 years, Kamala Harris has been tough as nails when it comes to securing our border,” stated Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) without proof. “Kamala on the other hand has been fighting border crime for years,” alleged Sheriff Javier Salazar of Bexar County, Texas (D). “She’s taken on gangs trafficking across the border,” insisted former President Bill Clinton.

In hailing Harris, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) praised the Biden-Harris administration’s latest quasi-amnesty, as the president in June promised to allow half a million illegal immigrants married to legal residents to Parole in Place (PIP). “We don’t have to choose between a secure border and building an America for all,” he said. “As president, she will fight for pathways to citizenship.”

In reality, “Biden-Harris-Mayorkas open border policies have facilitated the escalation of human trafficking for both sex and labor in the United States. Modern-day slavery and ultra-violent gangs,” noted Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies. The Office of Inspector General reported that, as of May, ICE had lost track of “more than 291,000” minors who crossed the border during the Biden-Harris administration. Just as the DNC kicked off, officials uncovered a new sex trafficking program of Venezuelans in the United States.

Yet the worst years for illegal immigration before the current administration transpired during years when a president or presidential candidate promised amnesty to illegal immigrants, in 1986 (1,692,544) and its close second in 2001 (1,676,438). The Biden-Harris administration has presided over three record-breaking years of illegal entries at the U.S. southern border:

  • Fiscal Year 2021 saw a historic 1,734,686 illegal entries at the southern border (not including other means of entry).
  • FY 2022 (2,378,944)
  • FY 2023 (2,475,669)

Border Czar Kamala Harris will go down as “one of the most catastrophic failures in American history,” said Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.).

Even some of Harris’s fellow Democrats felt the party had ignored the border. “Clearly, the Democratic Party, my party, is not interested in talking about what matters,” Chicago City Council member Alderman Raymond Lopez (D) told Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “How are you going to keep people safe? How are you going to secure the border? And how are you going to deal with the eight million undocumented individuals that they let in on Kamala Harris’s lead?”

5. Planned Parenthood CEO Tells Democrats, ‘We Will Decide This Election’

As part of the Democratic Party’s most abortion-centric election to date, the leaders of the abortion industry addressed the DNC on Wednesday; one of them declared bluntly, “We will decide this election.”

“We trust Kamala Harris!” exclaimed Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson during her address at the DNC on Wednesday. Planned Parenthood believes this is a pivotal election for its survival. “Our future is on the ballot,” she declared. “And come November 5, we will decide this election.”

Planned Parenthood Action enthused at her participation, posting on X, “That’s our President and CEO! ?’? #WeDecide.”

PPAct need not have exulted; the DNC indulged the entire abortion apparatus. Earlier in the day, former Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards said abortion makes American women “unstoppable.” EMILY’s List President Jessica Mackler insisted, “In 2022, Democrats didn’t just run on reproductive freedom; we won on reproductive freedom. And in 2024, we are coming back to the polls to finish the job.”

All the abortion leaders agreed Harris was sycophantic on maintaining their murderous source of income. Johnson vouched that Harris “has always and will always” hew to the abortion industry’s party line. “Her record shows it.” EMILY’s List posted on social media. “She’s with us, always.” Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) — whose CEO, Mini Tammaraju, spoke at the DNC, as well — stated, “We can’t wait to vote for @KamalaHarris and @Tim_walz in November.”

Being in favor of a candidate is not enough: Alexis McGill Johnson bashed the 45th president, falsely stating that “Donald Trump wants women to be less free and pregnancy to be more dangerous.”

She seemed concerned about the industry’s survival. “Our future is on the ballot,” said the Planned Parenthood CEO.

6. School Lockdown Advocates Endorse Kamala Harris

Aside from the abortion industry, the Harris-Walz ticket has the full-throated support of the organization responsible for ruining the lives of the second-largest number of children: those responsible for prolonging school lockdowns, the teachers unions. The leaders of the largest two teachers unions, Becky Pringle of the National Education Association (NEA) and Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), addressed the DNC on Thursday.

“Donald Trump and J.D. Vance can’t claim they’re pro-child while gutting funding for public schools. That means that being pro-family means we support access to good union jobs, affordable housing, health care, and higher education,” said Weingarten. Gutting funding for public schools seems less hostile to children than dismemberment abortion, which the Biden-Harris administration has pledged to legalize in all 50 states.

“We are all in” for Harris, declared Weingarten.

7. Dem Rep: We Must March for Abortion for Our Daughters and Granddaughters

Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) told the convention they must preserve abortion for their children. When it comes to “our reproductive freedom,” Meng told the DNC, “our mothers and grandmothers marched for us. Because of them, my husband and I were able to choose if and when to start a family. … Now, it is our turn to take up the torch for our children and grandchildren.” President Donald Trump, she implied, would be bad for the abortion plans they have for their children and grandchildren. “He will not stop at banning abortion. He will let states track pregnancies. He’ll put birth control and fertility treatment at risk,” she said without proof. “Trump’s plan is cruel. It’s dangerous,” she said, giving a limp thumbs-down sign. “But it is not inevitable.”

In fact, it’s not even his plan.

8. Openly Gay Governor Tore a Book Defining Marriage as the Union of One Man and One Woman

The Democratic National Convention repeatedly turned the nation’s focus to Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation document produced for more than four decades, as though it represents the Republican Party’s platform. While no president has ever implemented the policy-dense guidelines, Donald Trump has actively disparaged it.

Not only did one governor discuss the project, but he tore out a page that defines a family as the union of one man and one woman.

“Tonight, let’s talk about freedom, including our most intimate freedom,” which is “choosing if and when to have children,” said Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D), who is openly gay. He held up an oversized prop book of Project 2025. “Page 451 says the only ‘legitimate’ family is a married mother and father where only the father works. You know what, I’m going to take that one out; I’m going to put it in my pocket so I can share it with undecided voters, so they can better understand what’s at stake this election. Project 2025 would turn the entire federal government and bureaucracy into a giant machine. It would weaponize it to control our reproductive and personal choices.”

The actual page from Project 2025 says nothing about “legitimate” families, stating:

Goal #3: Promoting Stable and Flourishing Married Families.

Families comprised of a married mother, father, and their children are the foundation of a well-ordered nation and healthy society. Unfortunately, family policies and programs under President Biden’s HHS are fraught with agenda items focusing on “LGBTQ+ equity,” subsidizing single-motherhood, disincentivizing work, and penalizing marriage. These policies should be repealed and replaced by policies that support the formation of stable, married, nuclear families.

Working fathers are essential to the well-being and development of their children, but the United States is experiencing a crisis of fatherlessness that is ruining our children’s futures. In the overwhelming number of cases, fathers insulate children from physical and sexual abuse, financial difficulty or poverty, incarceration, teen pregnancy, poor educational outcomes, high school failure, and a host of behavioral and psychological problems. By contrast, homes with non-related “boyfriends” present are among the most dangerous place for a child to be. HHS should prioritize married father engagement in its messaging, health, and welfare policies.

In the context of current and emerging reproductive technologies, HHS policies should never place the desires of adults over the right of children to be raised by the biological fathers and mothers who conceive them. In cases involving biological parents who are found by a court to be unfit because of abuse or neglect, the process of adoption should be speedy, certain, and supported generously by HHS.

Another book also defines marriage exclusively as the union of a man and a woman. Jesus said, “a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh. … What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:1-6).

9. Dem Governor: ‘Democrats Welcome Weird’

The same governor, Jared Polis of Colorado, stated forthrightly, “Democrats welcome weird.” He went on to contrast the Democratic Party’s form of “weird” — which featured transgender delegates and an abortion unit — with “these Project 2025 people like Trump and Vance” who allegedly “aren’t just weird; they’re dangerous.” He referred to Taylor Swift song: “We’re not going back, like ever-ever-ever.”

10. Oprah Calls Kamala’s Marxist Dad ‘Idealistic’

Oprah Winfrey called Harris’s parents “idealistic.” The New Yorker described Harris’s father, Donald J. Harris, as “a renowned Marxist economist” and professor at the University of California at Berkeley. Marxist “idealism” claimed the lives of 100 million people in 100 years — and counting. Americans have gratefully been spared their murderous rampage in this country.

11. Former Republican: Vote for Kamala, because the GOP ‘Is No Longer Conservative’

Despite such a radical convention, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) made a pitch for Republicans to support the Harris-Walz ticket, because “The Republican Party is no longer conservative.” Apparently, he believes conservatives should instead vote for the candidate promising price controls, open borders, abortion until birth, pornographic books in school libraries, and transgender surgeries for children.

Kinzinger’s former colleagues expressed disappointment with his about-face. “I served with Adam Kinzinger in Congress when we voted for the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act requiring medical care for babies surviving abortions,” replied former Congressman Mark Walker, who served as a Republican from North Carolina. “How sad to now see Adam speaking at the DNC where abortions are available on the street in the back of a truck.”

12. Dem Raised Possibility of Invalidating Donald Trump’s Election?

Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) of th Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) touted the benefits of giving Democrats control of the House of Representatives. Americans “don’t want tax cuts for the wealthy, not a national abortion ban,” DelBene said. “And yes, a Democratic House means a Speaker Jeffries will certify the 2024 election.”

That dogwhistle hinted Democrats may not certify a Trump victory. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said in an online clip that the Supreme Court seemed poised to fail its “very clear duty to disqualify Donald Trump from the ballot, under Section three of the 14th Amendment.”

“And what that might mean, if their decision says that it’s really up to Congress, on January 5th – or January 6th, 2025, to disqualify him at the counting of the Electoral College votes,” he said.

13. Democrats Mispronounce ‘Kamala’

Kamala Harris’s grand-nieces taught the crowd how to pronounce the name properly. They could have instructed Al Sharpton, who mispronounced the nominee’s name earlier in the evening. So did President Bill Clinton on Wednesday, as he dubbed her the “president of joy.”

14. The Democratic National Convention Featured the National Anthem as a Performance Piece?

The band formerly known as the Dixie Chicks (now “The Chicks”) sang the national anthem — a few hours into the proceedings. Typically, the national anthem opens any public meeting. Former President Barack Obama regularly treated the United States like just another nation. Apparently, the Democratic Party treats the national anthem like just another tune.

15. A Country Singer Crooned a Trump-like Anthem

The DNC featured a performance by country singer Mickey Guyton singing, “All American.” Yet the lyrics seem to fit the Trump campaign better than that of Harris. The lyrics state:

“We’re the stars in the Texas sky
And the jukebox vinyl
We’r? the New York City lights
And a hotel Bibl? …

millionaires, spare some change
And everything in between

“We got the same stars, the same stripes
Just wanna live that good life
Ain’t we all?
Ain’t we all all-American?

“We’re different in a million ways
But at the end of the day
Ain’t we all?

Ain’t we all all-American?”

The message seems an inexact fit for the DNC, which began its morning sessions by holding meetings that segregated delegates by race and ethnicity. The lyrics read more like a refrain from one of Donald Trump’s stump speeches:

“There’s one allegiance that unites us all, and that is to America — America; it’s the allegiance to America. No matter our background, or income, or geography, we’re all citizens of this blessed land. And no matter our color or the blood, color of the blood we bleed, it’s the same red blood of great, great patriots — remember great patriots. We all salute with pride the same American flag, and we all are equal, totally equal in the eyes of Almighty God.”

Ultimately, our true unity comes from being children of God.

16. As Democrats Sounded Patriotic Themes, Protesters Burned the American Flag

As Democratic strategists told friendly media outlets the 2024 Democratic National Convention intended to “reclaim” patriotism, protesters representing the Democratic Party’s base burned the American flag and assaulted a man who tried to stop them. Reporter Ben Bergquam attempted to intervene as demonstrators set Old Glory ablaze while chanting, “Free, free Palestine!” only for a masked man wearing a keffiyeh to shove him. He attempted to reason with the mob, saying the flag represents America herself.

“It’s our country!” said Bergquam.

“F*** this country! Burn it down! Burn it down!” shouted a masked protester. As he threw the stars and stripes on the fire, he yelled, “This is what we think of your rag.”

Perhaps it’s not surprising that his assault, on America and the patriotic citizens who tried to defend her, received no coverage from the legacy media, which refused to cover the proceedings taking place inside the convention hall — many of which you likely learned about for the first time in this article.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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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LGBT Group Walz Founded Wants to Trans Kids, Defund Police, and Abolish Borders

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By Family Research Council

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has boasted of founding the local chapter of an organization that demands the “abolition of the police, abolition of borders,” “reparations for all indigenous and black peoples,” placing males in female correctional institutions, and transgender procedures for minors without parental consent — all while concealing children’s transgender identity from their parents. An LGBTQ website has said Walz’s behavior toward his students would get him labeled a “groomer” today. Walz’s wife, Gwen, is equally supportive of indoctrinating children in this group’s agenda, because she considers it part of her religious faith that “God created … some people gay.”

Tim Walz founded the local chapter of the GSA Network at Mankato West High School in the late 1990s. Numerous delegates highlighted Walz’s connection to the organization as he prepared to speak on the third night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

“I want to hear from the man who stepped up to create the Gay-Straight Alliance in the late ‘90s — the coach who stood up for the kids who needed him,” a teary-eyed Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told MSNBC’s Joy Reid early Wednesday evening. In a video that night, the Minnesota governor’s wife, Gwen Walz boasted, “When one of our students started the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, Tim agreed to serve as faculty adviser, because he knew how impactful it would be to have a football coach involved.”

Both called the group by its former name, the “Gay-Straight Alliance.” But the organization renamed itself the Genders & Sexualities Alliance Network (GSA Network) in 2015 to prove that its 4,000 affiliates “have moved beyond the labels of gay and straight, and the limits of a binary gender system.” (The Mankato West chapter has also changed its name.)

The GSA Network codified its political beliefs in a document on its resources page titled “Truth Nine Point Platform.” The platform calls for “the Abolition of the Police,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), “Borders and the Judicial System”; “an End of the Cisgender Heterosexual Patriarchy”; “Reparations for all Indigenous and Black Peoples,” including “Indigenous reclamation of stolen lands”; and “free and non-compulsory education for all ages.”

“We demand abolition! Abolition of the police, abolition of borders and ICE, abolition of the current punishment-based justice system. [sic.] We demand for our communities to be empowered to take care of themselves, for no borders, for rehabilitation and healing justice,” the manifesto declares.

The diminutive revolutionary screed claims that it “builds upon the Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program,” although the FBI has confirmed that the Black Panther Party “advocated the use of violence and guerilla tactics to overthrow the U.S. government.”

“We are in a moment which calls for us to bravely and ferociously fight for our communal liberation,” which will be launched “in the name of our transgender and gender nonconforming ancestors who struggled before us,” proclaims the GSA Network’s document. “The revolution is a relationship.”

The Walz family signaled its solidarity with the George Floyd/BLM riots, which touched off in Minnesota in May 2020. Gwen Walz said she inhaled the smell of burning tires through her open window in order to feel close to the revolutionary BLM movement. Whistleblowers say Tim Walz ordered police to abandon the third precinct to arsonists, whom Kamala Harris urged her followers to bail out of jail.

The organization’s revolutionary platform, adopted in 2018, is anything but a dead letter: The GSA Network referred to “our TRUTH Nine-Point Platform” last November (specifically, its call for reparations) and quoted the manifesto in its most recent press release in March. (The November press release also demanded U.S. taxpayers furnish “aid to Gaza” and decries “the ongoing colonization and cultural genocide of black and brown peoples.”)

The GSA Network’s Extreme Transgender Agenda

The GSA Network believes in promoting transgender ideology and facilitating children’s transgender “transitions” with or without parental consent. “Know the laws in your state around students’ privacy rights and what you do and don’t have to tell parents/ guardians/families. This is important so you don’t inadvertently out a student as a member of the GSA,” states the GSA Advisor Handbook, aimed at public school teachers like Walz. “When calling youth, it may not be safe to mention ‘GSA club’ or another trans or queer reference.”

The Nine-Point Platform also states “trans youth” should have “self-determination” over “all aspects of our lives.” The GSA Network slammed state laws that protect children from the predatory transgender industry. Laws against “providing gender-affirming healthcare to trans youth … effectively deny trans youth basic human rights and dignity,” claimed GSA in 2020.

At the local level, Mankato West High School’s GSA chapter walked out of class in April 2022 to protest Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, which says teachers should not “encourage classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity” before the fourth grade.

The GSA Network also believes in placing teenage boys who say they identify as transgender in female juvenile detention facilities. In a 2017 report co-authored by the Soros-funded Center for American Progress, the GSA Network complained, “LGBTQ youth are frequently placed in facilities according to the sex on their birth certificate or based on their genitalia. … [T]ransgender youth should be housed based on the gender identity they express rather than based on anatomical sex or the sex on their birth certificate.”

Tim Walz has put many of the GSA Network’s political priorities into action as governor of Minnesota. He signed a bill (House File 146) that would take minors into state emergency custody if the child has been “unable to obtain gender-affirming health care” because his parents objected, as well as banning compassionate therapeutic care for people suffering from unwanted transgender feelings. The roots of these policies date back to Walz’s days as a teacher.

Walz’s Action Would Get You Called a ‘Groomer’: LGBT Website

Walz has said publicly that Mankato students came to him about founding a GSA chapter — but his advocacy of the LGBT agenda predates his time at Mankato West High School. While teaching at a high school in Nebraska in the early 1990s, Tim and Gwen Walz took a student who identified as homosexual to a concert by the Indigo Girls, an openly lesbian folk rock group.

The LGBTQ website Them stated that, today, the Walzes’ behavior would be “liable to get you called a ‘groomer.’”

In 1997, two years before the founder of Mankato West’s GSA chapter ever thought of the idea, Gwen Walz announced “out of the blue” on the first day of her 10th grade English class that it would be “a safe space for gay and lesbian students,” according to former student Jacob Reitan. He reportedly told Mrs. Walz about his sexual preference before he told his own parents.

Tim Walz also encouraged children to have frank discussions about adult subject matter at school. One of Walz’s former students, 2004 graduate Seth Elliot Meyer, remembered that Walz “wanted me to be OK with who I was” by embracing a bisexual identity as an impressionable teenager. Another of Walz’s former pupils — Micah Kronlokken, who described himself as “a young, closeted, queer kid” when Walz coached him in the seventh grade — said Tim Walz believed that teenagers should be “treated a little more like adults and trusted to have tricky conversations, and that high school is a microcosm for our world at large.”

Walz later confessed, “To create a culture in a school that was welcoming, open, and understanding” of the LGBTQ movement and its aims “was something that Gwen and I always strove for.”

“Both Tim and Gwen were incredibly supportive of their gay students,” said Reitan, who is now a lawyer and LGBTQ activist. Walz “showed the bully a better path forward, and I can think of no one better than Tim Walz to show that better path forward for America.”

Walz did not defend these policies during his debut on the national stage Wednesday night. Instead, the Harris-Walz campaign appears to be relying on media tropes that brand their political enemies as intolerant hatemongers. In the DNC video, Walz’s former student Noah Hobbs said Walz “stands up to bullies,” repeating the common LGBTQ activist tactic of bullying people of faith, who do not celebrate extreme transgender ideology or sinful sexual relationships, as “bullies.”

Walz has used the same language throughout his political career. While running for governor, Walz asserted that he — as “an older, white, straight, married football coach” — could assure “that there’s no bullying.” During his 2023 his State of the State address, Walz alleged that Republicans “want to put bullies in charge of your health care,” while he would “put bullies in their place. And that’s why we protected access to gender-affirming health care.”

Walz, who has been accused of opportunism, may believe his association with the GSA Network boosts his standing with the Democratic Party’s left-wing base. In a 2018 campaign ad for governor, Walz cited his founding of his school’s GSA chapter as proof that he “can actually deliver on those progressive promises,” because he had “done it in the past.”

Walz’s ties to GSA would send a more concerning signal to the parents of children suffering from Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD). Yaeli Martinez first encountered transgender ideology at an LGBTQ high school club. In time, she began to identify as a boy named “Andrew” and ran away from home. Upon learning that her mother, Abigail Martinez, did not support her gender transition, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services put the underage Yaeli into a group home. In 2019, Yaeli committed suicide by stepping in front of a moving train. (Her heartbreaking story is illustrated in the movie “Gender Transformations: The Untold Realities,” an original production of The Epoch Times.)

The Walz Family: ‘God Creates People … Gay or Straight’

Stories such as these, or those of other detransitioners left with the scars of poor adolescent decisions facilitated by adults, seem unlikely to sway Tim Walz and his wife, who appear to have a religious devotion to LGBT ideology.

“For Ms. Walz, being an ally for gay students was a matter of living up to the tenets of her Christian faith,” reported The New York Times. A spokeswoman for Gwen Walz, Claire Lancaster, told the newspaper that Mrs. Walz holds a “strong belief that God creates people in the way they are supposed to be, whether that is gay or straight.” President Joe Biden has expressed similar sentiments.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has described Tim Walz as “steeped in the Catholic social justice traditions of his parents.” However, the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that sodomy is a grave sin that can never be approved:

“Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”

If Tim Walz rejects the Roman Catholic Church’s binding doctrine on faith and morals, he is also out of step with U.S. voters. Earlier this month, former President Donald Trump contrasted Walz’s extreme views with the mainstream of the American electorate. “This is a ticket that would want this country to go communist immediately, if not sooner,” said Trump. “He’s very heavy into transgender — anything transgender he thinks is great.”

“He’s not where the country is on anything,” Trump concluded.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLES:

American Voters Don’t Like Dems’ Plans to Reshape SCOTUS

Court Rules in Favor of Christian Teacher Forced to Use Trans Pronouns

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.

Kamala Harris Promises to Impose Abortion on All 50 States as President thumbnail

Kamala Harris Promises to Impose Abortion on All 50 States as President

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By Family Research Council

Kamala Harris promised to use the federal government to expand abortion nationwide, because Americans cannot “truly be prosperous” without abortion, and pro-life Americans are “out of their minds,” said Harris while accepting the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday night.

Harris basked in the glow of the audience as she stood at the podium of the United Center in Chicago to deliver an acceptance speech long on personal history but slight on policy specifics, aside from a vow to extend the abortion industry into all 50 states, irrespective of each state’s individual laws.

“When Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom, as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law,” candidate Harris vowed.

Jarringly, as Harris made those remarks, the official DNC video feed of the acceptance speech panned out to feature a baby in the crowd.

Although Harris did not name a specific bill, the Biden-Harris administration has endorsed, the so-called “Women’s Health Protection” Act, which goes far beyond the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling by striking down more than 1,300 state pro-life protections including laws:

  • Prohibiting sex-selective abortions;
  • Barring many abortions after viability;
  • Preventing abortions on babies 20 weeks or older, who are capable of feeling pain;
  • Disallowing abortions undertaken without parental consent or notification;
  • Prohibiting telemedicine abortion drug prescriptions, which involve no in-person medical examination;
  • Banning unlicensed individuals from carrying out abortions;
  • Allowing pregnant mothers to receive scientifically accurate information about their babies’ development, or to see an ultrasound or hear the child’s fetal heartbeat; and
  • Allowing pro-life medical professionals the right to refuse to participate in an abortion.

A more modest national abortion expansion bill, dubbed the Reproductive Choice Act co-sponsored by Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), would reestablish the guidelines of the Roe and Casey decisions. However, Senate Democrats and the Biden-Harris administration have favored the more sweeping, top-down WHP bill.

The abortion issue emerged as the convention’s defining issue, referred to by one speaker after another. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), an outspoken advocate of national abortion expansion and regulation of pro-life pregnancy resource centers, promised earlier in the evening that Kamala Harris will “take on the right-wing extremists who think they should decide who has access to abortion or IVF. Kamala will protect abortion rights nationwide.” Warren inadvertently put abortion in a separate category from health care, stating that the Democratic Party’s agenda consisted of “groceries, gas, housing, health care, taxes, abortion.” Earlier in the evening, former Rep. Gabrielle Gifford of Arizona, who was shot while in office, said, “Kamala can beat the gun lobby. … She will protect abortion access!”

Harris’s acceptance speech signaled a further break with past candidates such as President Bill Clinton, who spoke on Wednesday night; as candidate, Clinton said abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.” Harris, who has spent much of the last two years since the Dobbs decision as the White House point person on abortion, extolled abortion as a vital component of American liberty.

“I believe America cannot truly be prosperous unless Americans are fully able to make their own decisions about their own lives,” said Harris moments before invoking “reproductive freedom,” the convention’s preferred euphemism for abortion-on-demand. Her words echoed those of Oprah Winfrey on Thursday night that abortion is part of “the American dream.”

Pro-life advocates pushed back forcefully on the notion. “Not being allowed to kill your child does not equate to slavery,” responded Bryan Kemper, an Ohio-based pro-life advocate.

In office, Harris has seen her administration give the green light for abortionists to mail the abortion pill, mifepristone, to pro-life states in violation of federal law and furnish taxpayer-funded leave to pregnant members of the military who travel out of pro-life states to undergo an abortion.

Moments after promising to allow surgical abortion throughout the country, Harris slammed her political opponents for pro-life positions they never adopted. “We know, and we know what a second Trump term would look like. It’s all laid out in Project 2025,” insisted Harris, although CNN’s fact-checker ranked Democrats’ continual references to the Heritage Foundation project — which President Trump has publicly disdained — false.

Trump “and his allies would limit access to birth control, ban medication abortion, and enact a nationwide abortion ban, with or without Congress,” Harris claimed. “And get this — get this! He plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator, and force states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions.”

“Simply put, they are out of their minds,” Harris thundered.

The demur 2024 Republican Party platform does not promise to enact any federal pro-life protection and leaves all new legislation protecting the unborn to the states, a position President Trump has reiterated consistently. His campaign and allies denied Harris’s allegations. “Fact Check: there is no circumstance in which Trump wants to track and monitor miscarriages,” retorted Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah). “President Trump has REPEATEDLY stated he will not sign a federal abortion ban. Kamala is a liar,” said Trump 2024 National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Yet Harris’s speech indicates efforts to distance the GOP from the pro-life issue have failed, and that the Democrats see abortion as anything but a state issue.

In economic policy, Harris vowed, “We will pass a middle-class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans.” To date, the Biden-Harris administration has proposed $7 trillion in tax hikes, according to the Republican-controlled House Ways and Means Committee.

She also promised “to create jobs, to grow our economy and to lower the cost of everyday needs like health care and housing and groceries,” as well as to “end America’s housing shortage, and protect Social Security and Medicare.” The Biden-Harris administration presided over near-record inflation levels that peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, increasing the prices of all household staples. “A loaf of bread costs 50% more today than it did before the pandemic,” admitted Harris last Friday. “Ground beef is up almost 50%.” The price of a gallon of gasoline has increased from $2.33 in January 2021 to $3.62. “It costs a family an extra $13,300 per year for the same house compared to January 2021,” reported Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation.

Harris accused President Trump of seeking to enact “a national sales tax, call it a Trump tax, that would raise prices on middle-class families.” She is referring to his statement that he may consider an across-the-board tariff on foreign-made goods.

Like the Democratic campaign before President Joe Biden exited the race, much of the party’s rhetoric aims at demonizing President Donald Trump and placing him beyond the pale as a figure committed to overturning “our democracy.”

“The consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious,” Harris insisted on Thursday night. “He sent an armed mob to the U.S. Capitol, where they assaulted law enforcement officers. When politicians in his own party begged him to call off the mob and send help, he did the opposite — he fanned the flames.” In fact, President Trump encouraged marchers to walk to the Capitol “peacefully” and posted a video online asking them to disperse — a video online platforms later suppressed or removed.

“Consider what he intends to do if we give him power again. Consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the Capitol; his explicit intent to jail journalists, political opponents, and anyone he sees as the enemy; his explicit intent to deploy our active-duty military against our own citizens,” said Harris.

The threat her opponent may lock up journalists rang hollow to investigator David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress. Daleiden and Sandra Merritt published undercover videos showing officials at the highest levels of Planned Parenthood describing how they perform a potentially illegal partial birth abortion to harvest and sell aborted babies’ organs to scientific researchers. After pushback from the abortion industry, then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris prosecuted the undercover reporters for filming Planned Parenthood without their express permission—something Daleiden’s lawyer, Harmeet Dhillon, likened to “60 Minutes” investigations.

Daleiden accused Harris of being “‘unburdened by what has been’ in 2016.” Daleiden reminded Harris, “As a citizen journalist, I had my home raided, work product seized at gunpoint, and spent an afternoon behind bars because of your fealty to” Planned Parenthood.

Harris attempted to appeal to moderate and undecided voters, promising to abide by the rule of law. “I know there are people of various political views watching tonight. And I want you to know, I promise to be a president for all Americans. You can always trust me to put country above party and self,” Harris proclaimed.

That echoes a promise repeatedly made at the outset of the Biden-Harris administration, which critics say turned out to be false. “I will work as hard for those who didn’t vote for me as those who did,” Biden promised just one day after the media declared him winner of the 2020 election. Biden made the same promise in his inaugural address.

Once in power, the Biden-Harris administration oversaw the first FBI raid on the home of a former president, prosecuted peaceful pro-life advocates such as Mark Houck, and attempted to recruit informants inside traditional Roman Catholic churches. This administration’s targeting of its political enemies has become so outlandish that the House Judiciary Committee formed a subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government to investigate it on a case-by-case basis.

Harris’s critics, especially her Republican opponent, noted that Harris has attempted to distance herself from her own record over the last three years, and to feign powerlessness as the sitting vice president of the United States.

“Why didn’t she do the things that she’s complaining about?” asked Trump immediately after the speech on Fox News “She could have done it three and a half years ago … and she could still do them. She’s got four-and-a-half, five months left.”

“She didn’t talk about China. She didn’t talk about fracking. She didn’t talk about crime. … She didn’t talk about housing really, the trade deficit. She didn’t talk about child trafficking that she’s allowed to happen, because she’s the Border Czar and she’s presided over the weakest border.”

“She talks, but she doesn’t do. There’s no action.”

Harris’s speech concluded the 2024 Democratic National Convention. You can read The Washington Stand’s coverage of day one, day two, and day three.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLES:

American Voters Don’t Like Dems’ Plans to Reshape SCOTUS

Court Rules in Favor of Christian Teacher Forced to Use Trans Pronouns

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.

Tim Walz Doubles Down on Pornographic Books in School at DNC thumbnail

Tim Walz Doubles Down on Pornographic Books in School at DNC

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By Family Research Council

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz sided with radical LGBTQ activists and public school administrators in their bid to make pornographic books available to minors during his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Wednesday night.

Walz, the governor of Minnesota, told the assembled DNC delegates he happily opposed parents’ wishes to protect their children’s innocence. “While other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours,” said Walz.

The book “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, which is consistently reported as the book parents object to the most, contains multiple graphic images illustrating homosexual sex, sometimes between adolescents.

Another controversial book, “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison, features a character who casually reveals that, as a child, he performed fellatio on a grown man. “I was in fourth grade. It was no big deal,” the character said. “It wasn’t terrible.”

Concerned parents would like to see these books, which are often available to minors of any age, moved to an age-restricted area of the library, where they would be available to minors only with their parents’ permission. But Democrats have repeatedly accused them of censorship and voted to keep the books on school shelves.

“This is a big part of what this election is about: freedom,” said Walz in a 17-minute address. “When Republicans use the word freedom, they mean the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office.” It was not clear if Walz’s comments referred to transgender procedures for minors or abortion-on-demand until the moment of birth, both of which he favors.

Accusing parents who refuse to furnish pornography to their children of supporting “book bans” has been a leitmotif of the 2024 Democratic convention, with former First Lady Michelle Obama sounding similar themes on Tuesday. Just before Walz took the stage, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D) — whom Harris ruled out as a potential running mate to avoid offending anti-Israeli protesters — defined children’s ability to override their parents’ wishes vis-à-vis reading sexually explicit material as an essential component of freedom.

“It’s not freedom to tell our children what books they’re allowed to read. No, it’s not!” said Shapiro. “And it’s not freedom to tell women what they can do with their body.”

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg concluded his speech Wednesday night by shouting that Democrats “embrace the leaders who are out there building bridges and reject the ones who are out there banning books!”

Longstanding talk show host and New Age practitioner Oprah Winfrey made her first appearance at a Democratic convention Wednesday night and joined in on the “book ban” bandwagon, decrying “people who want to scare you, who want to rule you, people who would have you believe that books are dangerous.” She also warned about “tricks and tropes meant to distract us from what really matters.” Democrats often define GOP opposition to left-wing culture wars as a “distraction.”

Walz and his fellow Democrats went on to include the ability to take unborn life as an unalienable aspect of “freedom.” Walz boasted, “We also protected reproductive freedom” in Minnesota, where he signed a bill essentially codifying abortion until birth, with no protections for the unborn child at any stage of development.

“We are the party of real freedom,” Shapiro declared to his fellow Democrats. “Real freedom comes when [an American] can join a union, marry who she loves, start a family on her own terms,” a euphemism for abortion-on-demand. In a video aired at the DNC on Wednesday evening, a man said he defined freedom as being able to love his “husband.”

Winfrey tied the availability of abortion to the American dream. “If you do not have autonomy over this,” she said, gesturing to her midsection, “if you cannot control — women — how you choose to bring your children into this world and how they are raised and supported, there is no American dream.”

Walz and others went further, comingling their support for the taking of unborn life (and, at times, for sodomy) with the Golden Rule and other biblical themes. “We respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make — even if we wouldn’t make these same choices for ourselves. We’ve got a Golden Rule: Mind your own damned business,” said Walz, misquoting the Golden Rule laid down by Jesus to love all human life.

Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who acted as emcee for the evening, also invented Bible verses as he vowed Kamala Harris would support “LGBTQ rights, reproductive rights, the right to marry who you love, the right to be free.”

“We’re not going to lose our faith,” Booker said. “I believe in America, because our elders told us, as the Gospel says, ‘We shall overcome.’” The Bible does not say, “We shall overcome,” which is the title of a Gospel song that became associated with the 1960s civil rights movement.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who would be the next Speaker of the House if Democrats take control of the lower chamber, alternately quoted Taylor Swift and the Book of Psalms as he promised to “protect our DREAMers, and always protect a woman’s freedom to make her own reproductive health care decisions.”

“We are one nation under God,” said Jeffries just moments later. “In the Old Testament, Book of Psalms, the Scripture tells us that weeping may endure during the long night, but joy will come in the morning.”

His predecessor, Speaker of the House Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) saluted Kamala Harris as “a person of deep faith,” a trait for which Harris has not been known. “She is a leader of strength and wisdom and eloquence on policy, most recently demonstrated fighting for a woman’s right to choose” abortion on demand. Pelosi also saluted Harris for “quickly securing the nomination.”

In a speech MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow called “weird and meander-y,” 78-year-old former President Bill Clinton put the fight for abortion and sexual liberation in a different worldview. “We know that we’re being asked to fight the same fight that the forces of progress have had to fight for the last 250 years,” he insisted.

Buttigieg, who often accused his opponents of using “faith as a cudgel” during the 2020 primaries, said Wednesday night that his Republican foes support “darkness — darkness is what they are selling.”

“I believe in a better politics,” he said, citing his Episcopalian church background. Proof of a brighter future, to him, came in the nation’s rapid about-face on redefining marriage. The legal recognition of same-sex marriage “was literally impossible” 25 years ago, he noted. “This kind of life went from impossible to possible … in less than half a lifetime.”

Buttigieg also claimed same-sex marriage triumphed through “persuasion” and “politics.” In fact, voters in 31 states (including California) protected natural marriage, only to have their elections overturned by judicial activists on the Supreme Court in 2015’s Obergefell opinion.

Kamala Harris will deliver her acceptance speech on Thursday night.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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.

ROOKE: Looks Like Trump Has Plans To Flip The Script On Kamala’s Big Week thumbnail

ROOKE: Looks Like Trump Has Plans To Flip The Script On Kamala’s Big Week

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By The Daily Caller

With the countdown to Nov. 5 quickly approaching, both candidates are vying to stay on top of the narrative race.

That’s hard to do for former President Donald Trump this week while Vice President Kamala Harris enjoys wall-to-wall coverage from sympathetic media at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago. Still, Trump reportedly has a plan to end the week with the focus on him, and if it’s true, it’s brilliant.

Reports circulated on Wednesday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had decided to withdraw from the presidential race and endorse Trump. Shortly after the rumors spread, Kennedy released a statement on his presidential website announcing that he would address the nation in a live-streamed press conference on Friday to discuss “the present historical moment and his path forward.”

Trump and Kennedy will both be in Phoenix, Arizona, on Friday. Nothing would erase the last five days of DNC speeches and momentum more from Americans’ minds than the optics of having a former Democratic presidential candidate currently running the most prominent third-party candidacy in history drop out to endorse a Republican.

Kennedy has a unique perspective on Democrats, being one his entire life. He initially ran as a primary opponent against President Joe Biden. Still, members from his own party worked against him (Biden even went as far as denying him a Secret Service protection detail) to prevent him from being successful.

When Kennedy dropped out of the primary race to run for president as an independent, his polling showed he took votes almost equally from Democrats and Republicans. But now, with Biden out and Harris the Democratic nominee, he was siphoning more support from Trump than Harris. Having Kennedy drop out and endorse him would help Trump with the polling and controlling the narrative.

If Kennedy stands on stage with Trump in Arizona on Friday and tells Americans that they should be voting for the man the establishment hates, the one they all claim will end our democracy, it will be a moment too big for even the Harris sycophants in regime media to ignore. They’ll have to cover it. No one will be talking about the DNC. The nation will be focused on Trump and Kennedy. Harris will be an afterthought on the biggest week of her political career.

Every time Trump seems to be knocked down to the point of failure, he stands right back up, yelling, “FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!”

AUTHOR

Mary Rooke

Commentary and analysis writer.

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

WATCH VIDEO: Dr. Malone lays bare the globalist plan for total control over all human behavior thumbnail

WATCH VIDEO: Dr. Malone lays bare the globalist plan for total control over all human behavior

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By Leo Hohmann

Dr. Robert Malone is calling for people to “rise up” and resist the evil powers that are using “psychological warfare” to fundamentally change human nature.

Malone, one of the inventors of mRNA technology, warns that those behind the push to unleash monkeypox as the “next pandemic” are driving humanity to “the end of the line as we know it.”

Speaking during an interview with Alex Jones of Infowars, Malone declared that people must resist the pressure from globalists to strip the public of their freedoms and humanity.

Dr. Malone likened the situation to a “fight between good and evil.” That’s true, but I would take it a step further and say we are living at a time of intense spiritual warfare, not just between good and evil, but between Christ and the forces of anti-Christ. Everyone will at some point be forced to pick a side.

Dr. Malone also used the term “surveillance capitalism.” That’s a key component of the global deception.

We conservatives tend to lump all of the world’s evildoers into the category of “Marxist” or “socialist” or “communist,” but there are plenty of the devil’s minions working under the banner of “capitalism.” You find them at the World Economic Forum. You find them within the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations (remember George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and that crew? They did every bit as much to destroy freedom in America as Barack Obama.)

WEF Founder and Chairman Klaus Schwab is a big proponent of what he calls “Stakeholder Capitalism.” Others call it “corporate capitalism.” Whatever you wish to call it, it is extremely authoritarian in the way it involves both the public and private sectors to lord power over people. It’s a form of modern feudalism using the lure of technology to create digital zombies.

It’s all the same in the end, whether it’s a Marxist government, or public-private partnerships in which large and very powerful private corporations work with the government to control and oppress the people. They’re in the business of stealing human souls, canceling their God-given free will for the purpose of manipulating them, then selling off the spent husks of formerly human souls for profit. Sounds like a line right out of Revelation 18:11-13.

The end-times Babylonian system, according to this scripture, will commercialize, commoditize and monetize all manner of goods and services, including “cargo of gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls; of fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet; of all kinds of citron wood and every article of ivory, precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble; cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and bodies and souls of men.”

BODIES AND SOULS OF MEN = Digitized human slaves, whose most personal data gets sold and resold among governments and corporations, then bet upon like house chips on a casino table.

We cannot allow ourselves to be used and abused by these globalist techno-predator capitalists anymore than we can allow ourselves to be used/abused by the communists.

Resist man’s ever-encroaching, ever-invasive and intrusive system of control. Become ungovernable.

©2024. Leo Hohmann. All rights reserved.

Please visit LeoHohmann.com.

Tim Walz Went To War On Zyn While Pushing Free Needles, Legalizing Pot thumbnail

Tim Walz Went To War On Zyn While Pushing Free Needles, Legalizing Pot

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By The Daily Caller

Tim Walz has legalized pot, pushed free needles and is open to psychedelic drug legalization, all while taxing nicotine pouches at a 95 percent clip during his tenure as Minnesota’s Governor.

Democrats are attempting to sell Walz as a friend to the working class, praising his “Midwestern values.” His policy history, however, indicates a Walz-Harris Administration may be in favor of crushing the vices of blue collar and traditional America.

Walz, who Vice President Kamala Harris tapped in early August to be her running mate, amended the state’s Tobacco Tax law in May to categorize tobacco-free nicotine products like Zyn as “moist snuff,” rendering it eligible for a 95 percent tax rate.

Use of adult smokeless tobacco, which includes Zyn nicotine pouches, skew heavily towards midwestern, low-income men living in rural areas, according to data from the CDC and the UK’s National Institute of Health (NIH).

Zyn has also become a popular emblem among proponents of traditional masculinity, with popular voices like Joe Rogan and Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson championing them.

The product also became an unlikely political battleground after Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for a federal crackdown on the pouches.

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are more concerned with policing working class vices like Zyn than dealing with the crisis on the border, Republican Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville told the Daily Caller.

“Democrats would rather exert more government authority over Americans instead of addressing the surge of deadly drugs pouring into our country,” Tuberville said.

Besides adding tobacco-free pouches like Zyn to the state’s Tobacco Tax, Walz also attempted to further increase the 95 percent tax on vape devices in 2021, according to Americans for Tax Reform.

He also presided over a number of policies seemingly geared towards legalizing and decriminalizing illicit drug use.

Walz signed a bill in May 2023 legalizing the recreational use of cannabis in the state. The bill mandates a ten percent tax rate on the retail sales of cannabis.

A few days later he signed the House Omnibus Judiciary and Public Safety Finance appropriations bill, a bill that expanded access to “harm reduction” services and bolstered the state’s Syringe Services Program (SSP).

The program, funded through the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), provides sterile syringes and supplies, containers for safe disposal of used syringes and overdose drugs like Naloxone at no cost to users.

While removing all language criminalizing the possession of syringes, the bill also legalized the possession of all drug paraphernalia, even that which contained residue.

In May 2024, Walz announced his plans for grants providing $100 million for combatting homelessness. One recipient of the grant was Southside Harm Reduction Services, an organization whose services include “syringe exchange, naloxone distribution, education, rapid HIV testing and referrals to social services including housing,” according to the announcement.

Walz’s pro-drug policies follow a left-wing trend of decriminalizing and legalizing drugs at the state level that are federally illegal under The Controlled Substances Act.

After Oregon became the first state to decriminalize possession of all drugs in 2020, the state’s Democratic Governor Tina Kotek reversed course, signing a bill that re-criminalized the possession of hard drugs in April 2024.

Citizens who voted yes on the bill to decriminalize drugs quickly changed their mind. In 2020, 58.46 percent of voters supported Oregon’s Measure 110, a referendum bill which made the maximum penalty for possession of drugs for personal use $100. But in 2023, 56 percent of voters believed it should be repealed as the state’s largest city, Portland, saw a surge in overdoses. The number of people who died of overdoses jumped from 610 in 2019 to nearly 1200 in 2022, according to KOIN 6 News.

Drug overdose deaths across the country have risen at a prodigious rate, jumping from 52,404 in 2015 to 107,941 in 2022, according to data from the National Institute for Drug Abuse.

While some analysts argue the decriminalization of hard drugs like heroin can drive revenue that can be used for education and rehabilitation programs, others say the costs of decriminalization far outweigh the benefits.

Widespread availability of illicit drugs is “the mother of use,” former United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Joseph A. Califano Jr. argued in a U.K. National Institute of Health head to head.

Califano referenced Switzerland’s “needle park,” a government initiative meant to restrict heroin users to a small area. The project “turned into a grotesque tourist attraction of 20,000 addicts and had to be closed before it infected the entire city of Zurich.”

He also noted that Italy, which decriminalized possession of small doses of drugs like heroin, has one of the highest rates of heroin addiction in Europe.

In addition to legalizing pot and making it easier for citizens to use needles, Walz green-lit a Psychedelic Medicine Task Force to study the effects of psilocybin mushrooms, MDMA and LSD.

“The task force is mandated to explore both the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics and the legal pathways by which Minnesota’s government can help patients successfully navigate the labyrinth of federal laws and regulations in order to get access to these potential medicines,” Kurtis Hanna, a drug law reform lobbyist, told Marijuana Moment.

The bill calls for $338,000 of appropriations in 2024 and another $171,000 to fund the task force in 2025. It calls for “statutory changes necessary for the legalization of psychedelic medicine” and “state and local regulation of psychedelic medicine.”

Walz signing the bill cleared the way for other leaders in his state to follow suit. In June 2023, Minneapolis’ Democratic mayor Jacob Frey ordered law enforcement to deprioritize the use of city resources to enforce laws that criminalize buying psychedelics.

Frey’s executive order stated “that the investigation and arrest of persons for planting, cultivating, purchasing, transporting, distributing, engaging in practices with, or possessing Entheogenic Plants or plant compounds which are on the federal Schedule 1 list shall be the lowest law enforcement priority for the City of Minneapolis.”

The psychedelics task force will deliver a final report to the state with findings and recommendations by January 1, 2025, according to the bill. Advocates believe that these steps are clearing a path for the legalization of all psychedelic substances in Minnesota.

“If—and hopefully when—I’m re-elected and this task force gives their final report..my hope is to bring that legislation in that session,” Democratic State Rep. Andy Smith told Marijuana Movement.

AUTHOR

Robert McGreevy

Reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: D.C. Bureaucrats Have Unleashed A Hell On American Men They May Come To Regret

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

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Johnson: Don’t Believe the Hype; Americans See Harris as the ‘Common Denominator’ for Their Problems

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By Family Research Council

The summer hasn’t been a relaxing one for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). With Republicans desperately fighting to keep and expand their majority, August has been less of a recess and more of a sprint. From the car, where he’s spent most of the month, the Louisianan said he’d been to 20 states this month alone campaigning with his party’s candidates. “And I tell you what,” he said, “I don’t really think this Democratic National Convention is going to have much of an impact at all on our chances of growing the House majority.”

The speaker’s optimism comes in part from the shockingly leftist platform draft released by Kamala Harris’s party. Clocking in at 80 pages, the Democrats’ document is five times longer than the “streamlined” GOP version and easily five times more radical. To Johnson, Harris’s party is finally “saying the quiet parts out loud.” In other words, Democrats are openly broadcasting the unpopular extremism that they’ve tried for so many years to hide. “I mean, if we compared the party platforms of the Republican and Democratic parties decades ago, 40 years ago,” he told Family Research President Tony Perkins on Saturday’s “This Week on the Hill,” maybe there wouldn’t have been that much difference. Both parties had the same ideals in mind. They wanted what was best for America. They wanted to preserve the Republic.”

Of course, the Democrats “generally wanted a lot more government involvement in our lives, and Republicans wanted less,” Johnson acknowledged, “but that was really the crux of the disagreement. Now, however, there is a wide chasm that’s developed between the two parties.” On the Republican side, he insisted, there are the “founding principles,” values like “individual freedom, limited government, the rule of law, peace through strength, fiscal responsibility, free markets, [and] human dignity. We believe all of us are made by our Creator and given our rights by him, and so every life has value. Those are principles that used to define all of us, all Americans. But now, if you talk about those founding principles in a room full of progressives, socialist Democrats, they snarl at you. They have disdain for those principles. They want to trade them in.”

This platform, the speaker believes, will reveal an agenda that is “directly the opposite” of what most Americans are fighting to defend and preserve.

Perkins, who made no secret of his frustration over the Republican Party Platform’s watered-down language as a delegate, pointed out that what Donald Trump’s camp decided to deemphasize is exactly what the Democratic Party is emphasizing. “I mean, they’re talking about abortion. They’re talking about the whole transgender push for children — all the things that really are on the minds of many Americans, especially conservative voters. Republicans are going to have to address those issues.”

His fellow Louisianan agreed, pointing to several conversations he’s had in towns across America where people are “very concerned” about transgenderism, for example. “It’s a top issue,” Johnson insisted. “They don’t want men competing in women’s sports. They don’t want as [Tim] Walz infamously did in his state, they don’t want tampons put in the boys’ bathrooms and all the rest. That really does resonate with people. All of these issues really are still very important.”

But as important as it is for Republicans to raise these issues, it’s just as crucial to understand how to talk about them. “We can be passionate,” the House leader said, “but at the same time respect people that we disagree with. … In fact, we’re supposed to have compassion for the people who don’t understand the truth. That’s kind of the whole principle of evangelism. And when you’re sharing the truth, the eternal truth, or the truth about these temporal policies, you’ve got to do it in the right way. We’re supposed to be winsome…”

Unfortunately, he conceded, “[W]e’ve devolved into this society [that’s] toxic. Politics is a blood sport right now. We are [on] the happy warrior side. Our principles are good. [They’re] for human flourishing, and we have to be able to present that in a way that’s compelling, so that people will listen and understand and come along to our way of thinking. … I call on our members, our colleagues, to go out there into the campaign trail and speak with clarity and consistency and with conviction, because we are fighting for the things that matter — that will preserve the republic and help individuals, families, and communities.”

And right now, the speaker told Perkins, what we see from the Democratic ticket is so completely outside the mainstream that it’s “working [to] our benefit.” Harris is, “quite literally, the most progressive left, the most liberal person to ever run for president [for] any major party. And she has chosen someone who matches her almost exactly. I mean, Tim Walz is a far-leftist. He’s on video in the last couple of years giving sanction to socialism. He thinks it’s a great idea. He says that we ought to have sanctuary cities and that illegal aliens ought to have driver’s licenses. … In his own words, [he] champion[s] radical abortion … with almost no limits at all. I mean, this guy does not line up with the values of the American people. … And I think what Kamala Harris did was cement her legacy as a far-left San Francisco radical.”

She can get away with that for a while, thanks to the loss of all journalistic integrity. As long as the press keeps covering for Harris, her polling honeymoon may continue. “They’re going to try to keep her quiet,” Johnson agreed. “They’re going to try to keep her in a basement. She’ll go to rallies, and she’ll speak from a teleprompter, but she won’t give any difficult interviews — if any at all. And I think if she goes off the teleprompter, they’ll be very nervous about it, because Kamala Harris has shown herself to be a failure in public policy and an empty suit in almost every regard.”

In the meantime, don’t believe all the hype, the speaker warned. As someone who’s crisscrossed the country in the last several weeks, he wants conservatives to know, “There is a real energy out there. It doesn’t always register accurately in the polls, but I’m telling you that people are very animated right now. They are fed up with the situation that they see in the country. They’re fed up with the cost of living. … They’re having a difficult time with the rising crime rates everywhere. And they’re so frustrated about the open border and all the problems that have come from that, and the weakness that we’re projecting on the world stage. They see the common denominator for all of those things as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.” Americans, he added, “are ready for grown-ups to fix these problems.

Until then, his advice to Trump is something he hopes the former president already knows: “This election has to be about policies, not personalities. It has to be about the records of both candidates and not rhetoric. The great thing we have here is an actual comparison. We had a Trump administration. We’ve had a Biden-Harris administration. And there’s not a single American who can say they’re doing better now under this team than they were under the Trump administration. And so, I think that speaks for itself. I think it’s going to give us a remarkable November.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

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

RELATED ARTICLE: Pro-Hamas Protests Greet Democratic National Convention in Chicago

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.

The 6 Most Notable Moments from Day 1 of the DNC thumbnail

The 6 Most Notable Moments from Day 1 of the DNC

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By Family Research Council

The Democratic Party opened its 2024 national convention in Chicago’s United Center on Monday, adopting its platform, setting its agenda, and hearing the first day of speeches from Hillary Clinton, abortion activists, and President Joe Biden. The first day of the DNC featured a prayer without Christ, politicians citing Bible verses moments after promoting abortion-on-demand, and insisting pro-life protections violate “basic decency.”

Here are a few of the most memorable events of day one:

1. A “Christian” invocation without Jesus or a cross?

The Democratic National Convention began its first day in prayer — but not one that mentioned the Name of Jesus Christ or displayed the symbol associated with His death and resurrection. The invocation, offered by Roman Catholic Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of the Archdiocese of Chicago, exhorted the faithful “to root out ongoing injustices in our national life, especially those created by moral blindness and fear of the other” and to forge a “new chapter of our nation’s history.” Although Cupich did not mention Jesus, he did, however, quote Pope Francis.

“Hiding his pectoral cross, and never once [m]entioning the name of Jesus, Cdl. Blase Cupich gave the invocation at an event providing free abortions and vasectomies,” noted The Lepanto Institute, a conservative Catholic organization. Catholic Vote said simply, “The DNC is demonic.”

In April 2022, Cardinal Cupich was booed off the stage of the Chicago March for Life, where he said protecting the unborn is “not our only goal.”

2. Citing the Golden Rule, the death penalty, and love for children discussing abortion

While most of the speakers shied away from even uttering the word “abortion,” some invoked the gruesome procedure while invoking the Bible or claiming those who protect the unborn lack humanity. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (D), who made the shortlist for vice president after party leaders persuaded President Joe Biden to step down as his party’s presumptive nominee, referred to two passages of the Good Book while bashing former President Donald Trump and vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance over their openness to pro-life arguments.

“Trump says people are absolutely thrilled that women had their basic rights eliminated,” said Beshear. Trump and J.D. Vance’s “policies give rapists more rights than their victims,” he alleged, before turning to the Scriptures.

“My faith teaches me the Golden Rule: love your neighbor as yourself. The Parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us that we are all each other’s neighbors. We believe in an America that lives out these values. Let’s end anger politics and remember we are all Americans,” he said.

Those remarks contrast with his view of anyone who supports pro-life laws. Advocating for the right to life “fails any test of humanity, any test of basic decency, any test of whether you have any underlying empathy,” said Beshear (whose father, Steve, also served as Kentucky’s governor).

“Hey maybe the party that promotes abortion through all nine months until birth and all kinds of sexual degeneracy shouldn’t be quoting from the Bible that condemns both,” suggested Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life of America.

Another speaker also insisted supporting abortion proves one’s empathic nature. Kamala Harris “sees each person as just that: a person. … She sees the humanity in everyone.” said Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) in a vitriolic speech. “As women are dying, [President Trump] is bragging about overturning Roe. … Right now in Texas, they want to institute the death penalty — that is a problem — while Kamala Harris is fighting for our reproductive rights to be restored.”

Former Secretary of State and failed 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton took a similar rhetorical approach. “Kamala cares about kids and families,” Clinton insisted, while saying Harris would sign a bill nationalizing abortion-on-demand. “Women fighting for reproductive health care are saying, ‘Keep going,’” stated Clinton. “Yes, she will restore abortion rights nationwide!” Abortion activist Hadley Duvall, who spoke alongside Behsear, also stated, “Kamala Harris will sign a national law to restore the right to an abortion.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) declared, “Together, we must protect abortion rights!” She seemingly complained about the existence of President Donald Trump, saying New Yorkers are tired of him, as “we’ve had to deal with him for 78 long years.” Hochul’s remarks came 37 days after a gunman came within a fraction of an inch of killing the 45th president in cold blood.

Although abortion pervaded the proceedings, most speakers did not use the phrase at all, preferring the euphemism “reproductive rights” or “reproductive freedom” in its place. Beshear told delegates to “elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and protect reproductive freedom!”

“Reproductive rights” places the “right” to take an innocent life through abortion on the same constitutional level as the unalienable right to life protected in the 5th and 14th Amendments. The language shift away from naming the life-taking procedure to promoting a nebulous “freedom” mirrors the tactics of the abortion industry itself. The organization once known as the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) recently rebranded itself as “Reproductive Freedom for All.” Harris, a longtime ally of the abortion industry who prosecuted investigative journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt for exposing Planned Parenthood’s trafficking in aborted babies’ organs, has centered her campaign around “freedom” (and “joy”).

The rhetoric proved too much for many viewers. “The Democrats have become a singularly single issue party. It is all about murdering babies, and that is their definition of freedom,” observed David Limbaugh, a conservative commentator and author of numerous Christian books.

3. Planned Parenthood carries out 10 abortions and an unknown number of vasectomies during DNC

Planned Parenthood Great Rivers in St. Louis announced it would offer free abortions and vasectomies in a mobile truck not far from the Democratic National Convention. A local hot dog shop, The Wieners Circle, posted on the social media platform X that it would give anyone who had a vasectomy or abortion a coupon for a free hotdog.

“Planned Parenthood staff is saying that on the first day of the DNC, they did ten free abortions,” reported Lila Rose, founder of the pro-life organization Live Action, on Monday. “Ten helpless babies have been sacrificed so far at the DNC death cult. There are no words to express the sheer horror.”

In response, Democrats for Life held a pro-life event to give baby items to local mothers. “While Planned Parenthood is providing free abortions at the DNC, Democrats For Life is conducting a diaper drive to support local Chicago families,” said Kristen Day of Democrats for Life. She later noted the Democratic Party, which prides itself on its diversity and inclusion, “is inclusive only if you take an oath to Planned Parenthood’s pro-abortion agenda.”

4. Began with a ‘land acknowledgement’

As the party of Woke activists, the Democratic National Convention began with a land acknowledgement, a statement that all American territory once belonged to American Indian tribes. “Our country was built on indigenous homelands,” they stated, naming numerous areas tribes.

5. Trump would ‘weaponize’ the government?

In a curious about-face, Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow (D) warned, “Under Project 2025, Donald Trump would be able to weaponize the Department of Justice to go after his political opponents. He could even turn the FBI into his own personal police force.” Of course, House Republicans convened a formal investigation into the Biden-Harris administration’s multipronged attempt to weaponize government against its political foes, including instigating a now-tenuous special prosecutor case into the former president’s actions.

6. Joe Biden’s farewell speech

Joe Biden’s farewell speech to the 2024 DNC combined familiar themes from his previous speeches with the sound of Biden regularly shouting his words or rushing them together. He stumbled trying to say women were not without “electoral power” (saying, “Women are not without electrical” power) and appeared to lose his train of thought when discussing Medicare and Big Pharma.

Yet perhaps most concerning were his recycled tales about President Donald Trump, which fact-checkers have found to be inaccurate:

  • President Trump allegedly claimed there were “very fine people on both sides” of Charlottesville’s Unite the Right protest, Biden said, taking the Lord’s Name in vain afterwards. Yet Trump said moments later he is not talking about white supremacists and neo-Nazis, but instead about local citizens who wanted to preserve their history.
  • President Trump allegedly called Americans who died in uniform “suckers and losers,” although eyewitnesses of his trip to Europe insist the event did not occur.
  • That President Trump said, unless he is elected, America will experience a “bloodbath,” an economic term the 45th president applied to the automobile industry.
  • Biden also alleged, “We saved democracy in 2020, and now we just save it again in 2024.”

Biden concluded his speech after midnight. The second day commenced Tuesday morning.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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.

Automakers Once Again in Meltdown Mode: GM announces layoffs of 1,000 tech workers thumbnail

Automakers Once Again in Meltdown Mode: GM announces layoffs of 1,000 tech workers

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By Leo Hohmann

Poised for another government-funded bailout because they followed government mandates and produced cars nobody wanted. 

GM announces layoffs of 1,000 tech workers who wasted time and money designing expensive EVs and self-driving autonomous vehicles that average American consumer can’t afford and doesn’t want.

General Motors is laying off more than 1,000 salaried tech employees in its software and services division in an effort to streamline the unit’s operations.

The layoffs include roughly 600 jobs at GM’s tech campus in Warren, Michigan, just outside of Detroit, CNBC is reporting.

The cuts come as automakers attempt to reduce costs during an industry downturn and as they’re spending billions of dollars on super-expensive all-electric vehicles and so-called software-defined vehicles. These include self-driving autonomous vehicles that are continuously gathering up and sending all your personal data to a central computer, then they sell it off to third parties. These cars will also include remote kill switches.

In other words, the auto industry is pouring all of its R&D money into vehicles that nobody in their right mind would want to own.

In fact, GM is being sued for illegally selling more than 1.8 million drivers’ personal driving data to insurance companies.

Only a digital slave to Klaus Schwab’s Fourth Industrial Revolution would want a car that spies on them, reports their driving habits to the insurance companies, and offers the government the opportunity to shut their car down.

It would be nice to see some new automobile manufacturers spring up to fill the niche of consumers who would like to remain free. Free of tracking, free of those nagging beeping reminders to put your seatbelt on, free of cameras checking your every move, and with no online connection to the socialist nanny state. The time for such a car company has arrived. Will anyone answer the bell? I hope so.

What about you? Would you buy a car that’s made in America, specifically for freedom-loving Americans, who want nothing more than to be left alone, free of the entangling web of Big Brother surveillance?

©2024. Leo Hohmann. All rights reserved.

Please visit Leo’s Newsletter Substack.

Elon Musk points to THIS video of Kamala Harris thumbnail

Elon Musk points to THIS video of Kamala Harris

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By NEWSRAEL Telling the Israeli Story

Musk “quoted” this video on X as a warning for what her presidency would look like!

“Good afternoon. I want to welcome these leaders for coming in to have this very important discussion about some of the most pressing issues of our time,” she began.

“I am Kamala Harris. My pronouns are she and her. I am a woman sitting at the table wearing a blue suit,” she continued.

“Just awful,” is all Dave can say.

Elon Musk, who also saw the video, tweeted: “Imagine 4 years of this….”

WATCH:

RELATED VIDEO: Kamala Harris EXPOSED for paying influencers $20,000 and MORE to support her

EDITORS NOTE: This Newsrael News Desk column with video is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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DNC Attendees Will Have Opportunities For Free Vasectomies, Abortions

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By The Daily Caller

Attendees at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago will have the opportunity to receive free vasectomies and abortions blocks away from the proceedings at the United Center.

Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, which operates in parts of Missouri and Illinois, will park its mobile health clinic near the DNC on Aug. 19 and Aug. 20, according to The New York Times. Medication abortions are reportedly available on both days, with vasectomies being exclusively offered Monday.

Appointments on the vasectomy vehicle are in high demand, with eager registrants forming a waitlist, according to the outlet. Those hoping to be sterilized must fill out a Google Form, providing their name, birthdate and contact information to secure their spot in line.

Appointments on the vasectomy vehicle are in high demand, with eager registrants forming a waitlist, according to the outlet. Those hoping to be sterilized must fill out a Google Form, providing their name, birthdate and contact information to secure their spot in line.

“Services will be provided on a sliding-fee scale — pay what you can and get the healthcare you need,” Planned Parenthood’s Google Form reads.

Persons seeking medication abortion can register online as well, but there is not yet a waitlist for either day, meaning they could also walk in without an appointment, according to the outlet.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, has been an outspoken advocate for abortion following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 24, 2024 overturning of Roe v. Wade.

As vice president, Harris kicked off a nationwide pro-abortion tour in Wisconsin on Jan. 22, 2024, the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade. She referenced abortion as one of America’s “fundamental freedoms,” according to a White House release announcing her “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms.”

Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are expected to speak on abortion and IVF at the DNC.

Pro-abortion groups plan to demonstrate the night before the DNC. Abortion rights activists sued Chicago in May after the city announced permits to march outside the convention would not be issued, according to ABC7 Chicago.

Among the demonstrations will be a large “inflatable IUD,” a form of birth control activists will nickname “Freeda Womb,” The New York Times reported.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen local businesses in Chicago have barricaded their windows and doors with plywood in anticipation of destructive protests outside the DNC, according to WGN9.

The DNC is scheduled to start Monday and will end Thursday.

AUTHOR

Julianna Frieman

RELATED ARTICLES:

Our take on the DNC Convention featuring Comrade Kamala Harris & the Commissar of Tampons Tim Walz

‘Are You Kidding Me?’: Former ‘The View’ Co-Host Slams Kamala Harris’s ‘Lack Of Ability’

Iran is Helping the Kamala Campaign

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

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Supreme Court Denies White House Bid To Reinstate Part Of New Title IX Rule

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By The Daily Caller

The Supreme Court declined the White Houses’ emergency request to partially reinstate Biden’s new Title IX rule on Friday.

The 5-4 decision upholds lower court injunctions in nearly half of states that block a new rule that includes, for the first time, sexual orientation and gender identity in Title IX, according to the high court. The administration sought to narrow these injunctions, which prevent the enforcement of rules concerning gender identity.

The White House argued the injunctions should not obstruct the enforcement of other revised elements of Title IX, including enhanced protections for pregnant students and improved processes for handling retaliation and record-keeping, the document revealed. The court’s unsigned order stated the government did not provide adequate grounds to overturn the lower courts’ decisions, which found the disputed provisions were intertwined with other parts of the new rule.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, with three other liberal justices and conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, wrote the dissent. Sotomayor criticized the lower courts’ injunctions as overly broad. “By blocking the Government from enforcing scores of regulations that respondents never challenged and that bear no apparent relationship to respondents’ alleged injuries, the lower courts went beyond their authority to remedy the discrete harms alleged here,” Sotomayor wrote, The Hill reported.

The decision is not the final word on the new Title IX rules, as the ongoing legal challenges will return to lower appellate courts for further review. This ongoing litigation follows a 2020 Supreme Court ruling that established protections against employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, according to The Hill.

AUTHOR

Mariane Angela

Entertainment and news reporter.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Biden Admin Releases Finalized Rules Expanding Title IX Protection To Transgender Students

‘Demonic Force Behind It’: Mary Rooke Rips Harris’ Pronoun ‘Nonsense,’ Says Parents Will ‘Push Back’

‘Just a Disaster’: Biden’s Title IX Rule Empowers LGBTQ Movement, Erases Women and Justice

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

‘Quantum Adventures in Sparksville: Stories about the Quantum World for Kids’ by Amil Imani thumbnail

‘Quantum Adventures in Sparksville: Stories about the Quantum World for Kids’ by Amil Imani

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By Editorial Board

We believe that children must understand and embrace the truth via scientific study. It is for this reason that we recommend every parent purchase a copy of Quantum Adventures in Sparksville: Stories about the Quantum World for Kids for their children and grandchildren.

We believe in creating a new generation of critical thinkers. This book does that.

The author of Quantum Adventures in Sparksville: Stories about the Quantum World for Kids Amil Imani writes,

Welcome to the enthralling world of quantum possibilities! Within the pages of this book, you will embark on a journey of scientific wonders and mind-bending concepts that will stretch the limits of your imagination.

From the eerie superposition of objects existing simultaneously in multiple states to the perplexing phenomenon of quantum entanglement, these short stories offer glimpses into the enigmatic realm of quantum mechanics. Each tale encapsulates the essence of this captivating field, presenting you with characters who grapple with its intricacies and face extraordinary circumstances.

As the author, I have sought to blend scientific accuracy with the thrill of storytelling, immersing you in the strange and fascinating world of the quantum. These tales aim to ignite your curiosity and leave you pondering the profound implications of quantum phenomena on our perception of reality.

Reality is the path to the truth.

We hope you will buy Quantum Adventures in Sparksville: Stories about the Quantum World for Kids to keep them on track as the next “great generation.”

©2024. Editorial Board. All rights reserved.

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Your children are more important than your dreams

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By MercatorNet – Navigating Modern Complexities

The phenomenon known as Ballerina Farm on Instagram is one of the most popular moms in America. With her eight children, a gaggle of hogs, endless Instagram videos of baking from scratch, and her 10 million followers, Hannah Neeleman is a mom to be reckoned with. Oh, and she also wins beauty pageants like a boss. And is a Julliard-trained ballerina.

A recent article on Hannah and her husband, Daniel, threw the digital world into hysterics. A main source of outrage is that Hannah gave up her dreams of being a ballerina to be a wife and a mother. Many are also horrified that Hannah has little time to herself and sometimes works to the point of exhaustion.

Newsflash: All mothers of young children have little time to themselves and work to the point of exhaustion frequently.

Giving up dreams 

But let’s get back to the ballerina thing. When Hannah put on her first pair of ballerina slippers, did her parents think, “Hallelujah! No motherhood for her! No wifehood for her! We want our daughter to remain a single, solitary soul dancing into old age wearing tutus and toe shoes forever!” Not likely.

Here’s the thing. Hannah is not alone in “giving up her dreams” to raise a family. Almost everyone does this. And it is not a shame, a tragedy, or a sign of oppression. It’s called growing up. And women are not the only ones who regularly “give up their dreams” for the sake of their families. Most men give up their boyhood dreams of becoming professional athletes to do something far less glamorous.

My dad is such a man. He was a great football player in high school. In fact, some might say he was phenomenal. The local newspapers ran stories about him, football was his life, and he seemed destined for greatness.

Then he met my mom. They got married and soon there was a baby on the way. My dad was practicing with the college football team of his dreams at the time. My dad realised there wasn’t time in the day for him to go to school, go to work, and go to practice, and nurture his marriage. So, he gave up football.

He gave up football.

He poured himself into work and school and caring for my mother, who was throwing up multiple times a day. He eventually graduated from college. My mother eventually had the baby and then had three more. One of them was me.

My parents both worked like crazy keeping our family afloat, and it floated. Barely. I had an absolutely stellar childhood full of camping trips and backyard swings and never enough money. But that last part isn’t what mattered the most. What mattered the most is that I knew my parents loved me. I knew they’d make any sacrifice for me.

My parents when they were dating, 1966

Sacred sacrifice 

Parenthood is a position of sacrifice. Author and psychoanalyst Erica Komisar says parenthood comes with “the sacred obligation of nurturing.” To nurture others requires sacrifices of self. This does not mean we fail to care for ourselves or that we never pursue hobbies or do anything for fun ever again, but it does mean we offer humongous amounts of time, energy, resources, sleep, and emotional investment in the name of our children’s wellbeing.

All decent parents do this. All decent parents make sacrifices so that their children can eat, sleep in a bed, and possibly even take dance lessons or join a basketball club. Only a tiny sliver of the population will dance or play ball professionally, and even that won’t last forever. But family relationships will last — if we’re wise enough to forge them. And somehow, amid all the sacrifice, we end up the better for it.

If no one moved on from their dreams of throwing footballs or tying on their toe shoes in order to bear, raise, nurture, and support children, the world would be full of old people with bad knees, concussed heads, and empty homes. And the world would collapse in one generation because no one would have kids. There would be a whole lot of lonely has-beens out there without their own little cheering squad (these are known as families) to remember they used to be something — and to see that they still ARE something.

Pink tights and varicose veins 

So, should Hannah Neeleman have rejected the marriage proposal so she could “follow her dreams?” Well, if she had, she would have had the great pleasure of pulling her pale pink ballet tights on over her varicose veins when she turned 60, without an adoring audience to laud her fading grace and beauty.

But instead, she had kids. And she’s having the time of her life raising them. And when she’s 60, she’ll be surrounded by people who exist because she exists, and those people will laugh and cry and dream and dance with her.

Hannah and her family

My dad “gave up” football, but did he? He passed his love of the game on to my brothers. He spent countless hours playing catch with them and watching their games and playing football with them and the neighbourhood boys on frosty Thanksgiving mornings. His new dream was to watch them — and me — excel not just at football, or chess, or soccer — but to excel at life. His new passion became us and my mom. That is not a tragedy. It is a triumph.

My Dad and his family

A wrecked life? 

At a recent family gathering that included one of his infant great-grandsons, my dad was reflecting on walking away from football. He said,

“I’m happy I did it. It was the right choice. I know what it’s like to score a winning touchdown, but laughing with babies is better.”

If you had told the 18-year-old version of my dad that someday he’d think babies were more interesting than football, he would have laughed his head off. But the truth is, as life pushes on, we don’t just abandon our dreams; our dreams change. They mature, they grow, and they become better than we could have imagined.

Did giving up professional ballet wreck Hannah Neeleman’s life? Did giving up football wreck my dad’s life?

You decide.

What do you think of Hannah’s choice to be a mother instead of a professional ballerina? Leave your thoughts below.

AUTHOR

Kimberly Ells

Kimberly Ells is the author of The Invincible Family. Follow her at Invincible Family Substack.

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

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