Category Archives: Federalist

Sen. Josh Hawley pressured U.S. Department of Defense Under Secretary for Defense Policy Colin Kahl to answer questions about the alleged lack of vetting that occurred when the U.S. evacuated mass numbers of people from Afghanistan.

In a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, the Missouri Republican revealed that an August 18 email fromthe consul general in Kabul claimed that President Joe Biden authorized officials to err on the side of excess when bringing people onto rescue planes.

This guidance provides clear discretion and direction to fill seats and to provide special consideration for women and children when we have seats, the email read. I expect that C-17 flight volume will increase.

Kahl claimed that this guidance was justified.

We had excess capacity to bring people out, Kahl said. And so what the president was signaling was if there were other clearly Afghans at risk, that we can safely bring into the airport and get off the airfield we should do that.

Hawley said he was not aware of evidence that U.S. officials vetted the 116,700 people who were not citizens and not special immigrant visa holders, but were packed onto planes and evacuated from Afghanistan after the Biden administrations hasty withdrawal

What Im driving at is, we know that weve got major problems of vetting of the people who were brought to this country, who were evacuated and brought to this country,said Hawley. So, you testified in September that those evacuated, about 6,000 American citizens, you testified in September that the SIVs were about 1,200 to 1,300, that leaves about 116,700 people, based on the 124,000 neo-number that youve been offering, 116,700 who were not citizens, who were not SIVs, and we just dont know much about who were those people?

Its a mix-mash of a lot of different categories, Kahl said About 84 percent of the people we brought out were Afghans at risk of various kinds.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Hawley Presses Pentagon Official On Why Administration Prioritized Packing Planes Over Vetting Afghan Evacuees - The Federalist

The name Federalists was adopted both by the supporters of ratification of the U.S. Constitution and by members of one of the nations first two political parties. Alexander Hamilton was an influential Federalist who wrote many of the essays in The Federalist, published in 1788. These articles advocated the ratification of the Constitution. Later, those who supported Hamiltons aggressive fiscal policies formed the Federalist Party, which grew to support a strong national government, an expansive interpretation of congressional powers under the Constitution through the elastic clause, and a more mercantile economy. (Image via Wikimedia Commons, painted by John Trumbull circa 1805, public domain)

The name Federalists was adopted both by the supporters of ratification of the U.S. Constitution and by members of one of the nations first two political parties.

In the clash in 1788 over ratification of the Constitution by nine or more state conventions, Federalist supporters battled for a strong union and the adoption of the Constitution, and Anti-Federalists fought against the creation of a stronger national government and sought to leave the Articles of Confederation, the predecessor of the Constitution, intact.

The Federalists included big property owners in the North, conservative small farmers and businessmen, wealthy merchants, clergymen, judges, lawyers, and professionals. They favored weaker state governments, a strong centralized government, the indirect election of government officials, longer term limits for officeholders, and representative, rather than direct, democracy.

Faced with forceful Anti-Federalist opposition to a strong national government, the Federalists published a series of 85 articles in New York City newspapers in which they advocated ratification of the Constitution. A compilation of these articles written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay (under the pseudonym Publius), were published as The Federalist in 1788.

Through these papers and other writings, the Federalists successfully articulated their position in favor of adoption of the Constitution.

In light of charges that the Constitution created a strong national government, they were able to argue that the separation of powers among the three branches of government protected the rights of the people. Because the three branches were equal, none could assume control over the other.

When challenged over the lack of individual liberties, the Federalists argued that the Constitution did not include a bill of rights because the new Constitution did not vest in the new government the authority to suppress individual liberties.

The Federalists further argued that because it would be impossible to list all the rights afforded to Americans, it would be best to list none.

In the end, however, to ensure adoption of the Constitution, the Federalists promised to add amendments specifically protecting individual liberties (Federalists such as James Madison ultimately agreed to support a bill of rights largely to head off the possibility of a second convention that might undo the work of the first).

Thus upon ratification of the Constitution, Madison introduced 12 amendments during the First Congress in 1789. States ratified 10 of these amendments, now designated as the Bill of Rights, in 1791. The first of these amendments contains guarantees of freedom of religion, speech, press, peaceable assembly, and petition and has also been interpreted to protect the right of association.

Although the Bill of Rights enabled Federalists and Anti-Federalists to reach a compromise that led to the adoption of the Constitution, this harmony did not extend into the presidency of George Washington; political divisions within the cabinet of the newly created government emerged in 1792 over national fiscal policy, splitting those who previously supported the Constitution into rival groups, some of whom allied with former Anti-Federalists.

Those who supported Alexander Hamiltons aggressive fiscal policies formed the Federalist Party, which later grew to support a strong national government, an expansive interpretation of congressional powers under the Constitution through the elastic clause, and a more mercantile economy.

Their Democratic-Republican opponents, led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, tended to emphasize states rights and agrarianism. In 1798, during the administration of John Adams, the Federalists attempted to squelch dissent by adopting the Sedition Act, which restricted freedom of speech and the press, but opposition to this law helped Democratic-Republicans gain victory in the elections of 1800.

Although the Federalist Party was strong in New England and the Northeast, it was left without a strong leader after the death of Alexander Hamilton and retirement of John Adams. Its increasingly aristocratic tendencies and its opposition to the War of 1812 helped to fuel its demise in 1816.

This article was originally published in 2009. Mitzi Ramos is an Instructor of Political Science at Northeastern Illinois University.

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Federalists | The First Amendment Encyclopedia

Attorney General Merrick Garland admitted on Thursday that the basis for targeting and potentially charging parents concerned about what their children are learning in schools with domestic terrorism was a letter from the National School Boards Association, not real evidence.

When did you first review the data showing this so-called disturbing uptick? Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan asked during a House Judiciary hearing on Thursday.

I read the letter, and we have been seeing over time Garland began before Jordan interrupted him.

So you read the letter? Thats your source? Jordan asked incredulously. Is there some study, some effort, some investigation someone did that, said theres been a disturbing uptick, or you just take the words of the National School Board Association?

Garland then confirmed it wasnt until NSBA contacted him that his department began to investigate claims of violence and terrorism.

Well, the National School Board Association, which represents thousands of school boards and school board members, says that there are these kinds of threats. When we read in the newspapers reports of threats of violence Garland said before Jordan interjected again.

The source for this was the National School Boards Association letter, Jordan reiterated before his time expired.

The NSBA sent a letter to the Biden administration last month begging federal law enforcement to use domestic terrorism laws to target parents who oppose anti-science mask mandates for children and the infiltration of racist curriculum in schools. The school board organization claimed federal action was warranted to deal with the growing number of threats of violence and acts of intimidation occurring across the nation.

Most of the incident examples the NSBA used to justify intervention by the Biden administration did not escalate to a level that even yielded arrests or charges on the local level, yet Garland quickly directed the FBI and state attorneys to address a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff who participate in the vital work of running our nations public schools.

Multiple state school board associationsreported that they were not consulted before the NSBA sent its letter to the Biden administration. While a handful of the state associations simply said they were unaware of the NSBAs letter until it was published, most state groups condemned the national associations request to use domestic terrorism laws to target parents and said the protests theyve experienced have not warranted law enforcement involvement beyond the local and state level.

The Pennsylvania School Boards Association voted unanimously to withdraw from its parent organization in protest of the national organizations political war on parents.

During his hearing, Garland also confirmed that no one involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot has been charged with insurrection.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Garland Admits War On Parents Sprang From NSBA Letter, Not Evidence - The Federalist

President Joe Bidens White House colluded with the National School Boards Association to launch a war on parents who want to hold their school districts accountable by sharing information the administration thought could be used to justify domestic terrorism charges.

Emails obtained byParents Defending Education through the Freedom of Information Act indicate that NSBA President Viola Garcia and CEO Chip Slaven conspired and exchanged information with the White House before releasing an official demand from the Biden administration to get federal law enforcement involved in targeting parents.

In a Sept. 29 email to the board, Slaven explained that there were talks over the last several weeks with White House staff who requested additional information on some of the specific threats, so the letter also details many of the incidents that have been occurring.

Garcia also wrote an email to the board on Oct. 2 saying the NSBA communicated with the White House for several weeks to gather examples of acts of protest against school boards across the nation.

We felt compelled to say something when we started hearing about the threats, harassment, and acts of intimidation at school board meetings, she wrote.

The emails also show that the NSBAs board of directors, much like the state school board associations that condemned the national organization over the letter, were not consulted about the plea before it was released to the public.

On Sept. 29, the NSBA sent a formal letter to the White Housebegging the Biden administration and federal law enforcement to use domestic terrorism laws against concerned parents to deal with the growing number of threats of violence and acts of intimidation occurring across the nation. The corporate media quickly amplified the letter, framing it as a genuine plea for help against an intense and growing threat.

Most of the incidents the NSBA cited to justify federal intervention did not even escalate to arrests or charges on the local level, yet Attorney General Merrick Garland quickly directed the FBI and state attorneys to address a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff who participate in the vital work of running our nations public schools.

This prompted outrage from some of the directors who said the letter, which was sent without their knowledge, may have fanned those flames of hostility and division [r]ather than helping our cause and calming the waters.

Many of us have been put in a position now of explaining or defending this action of our association as we are asked by members of our community if we consider them domestic terrorists for showing up to our meetings and expressing their opinions, a central region director, John W. Halkias, wrote in an email on Oct. 1.

Halkias indicated that he was just one of many of my colleagues who believed they should have known about and reviewed the letter before it was sent.

I also agree that the letter took a stance that went beyond what many of us would consider to be reasonable and used terms that were extreme, and asked for action by the Federal Government that many of us would not request, he wrote. Local control has been a stalwart of our principles, and we do not want to abandon that concept now.

Garcia tried to justify her actions in an email on Oct. 11 by claiming that the pattern of threats and violence occurring across state lines and via online platforms quickly required the federal governments assistance.

In a House Judiciary hearing on Thursday, Garland admitted that the basis for targeting and potentially charging parents concerned about what their children are learning in schools with domestic terrorism was the official letter from the NSBA, not real evidence.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Biden Admin Colluded With School Boards Association To Attack Parents - The Federalist

Upon taking office in January, Joe Bidens administration promised to bring transparency and truth back to the government. No one seems to have told Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Two weeks ago, the attorney general decided to weaponize the FBI against parents speaking out at school board meetings when he issued a memorandum directing an investigation of a disturbing spike in alleged harassment and threats. Neither the memo nor any Department of Justice spokesperson cited any examples or evidence of this alleged spike to justify treating parents speaking to their school boards like terrorists.

Now, according to reporting from The American Prospect, Garland and the White House have been obscuring the political leadership of the Office of Legal Policy (OLP), one of the most powerful offices in the executive branch.

Susan Davies, a former corporate lawyer who spent years defending Facebook from antitrust lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny, has apparently been running the OLP since September 3, and will continue to do so until a permanent replacement is confirmed by the Senate. Remarkably, it took multiple Freedom of Information Act requests and queries over a span of roughly six months for the American Prospect to shake this information loose.

The presence of Davies, and her role as senior official and deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy, was only added to the OLPs website on October 7, a day before the information was shared with American Prospect. The obvious question is: Why was it hidden in the first place?

As American Prospect put it, How is this secrecy even possible? Was Davies secretly working at DOJ in some other capacity before September 3? And are other officials whose presence has been kept from the public secretly calling the shots within DOJ?

Its not like Davies is playing an insignificant role. The OLP, housed at DOJ, is the clearinghouse for virtually every action the department takes. It also advises the Office of Management and Budget on regulatory development and plays a major role in selecting judicial nominees. And Davies isnt simply working there. Shes running the place.

Why would the DOJ go to lengths to avoid disclosing this information? Perhaps because Davies long history of representing corporate clients, including Facebook, might raise some eyebrows over how her work might conflict with the stated priorities of the Biden administration, particularly its stated desire to take on the Big Tech platforms.

Davies was reportedly one of Garlands preferred choices to lead the DOJs antitrust division, the office tasked with bringing and litigating the governments major antitrust cases. In other words, Garland wanted a former Facebook attorney to be the one who decided whether to bring cases against the countrys major tech platformsand to continue overseeing the DOJs case against Google, to boot. Seems dubious.

Perhaps for that reason, the nomination instead went to antitrust lawyer Jonathan Kanter, instead, whose deep experience representing litigants against the countrys tech giants won him plaudits and respect from both Republicans and Democrats. Garland appears to have installed Davies within DOJ anyway, but would apparently prefer to avoid revealing her presence and role in leading a major hub of policy development for DOJ and across the government.

Who is really running the Department of Justice? The administration that pledged to bring transparency and truth back to government evidently doesnt want you to know.

Rachel Bovard is The Federalist's senior tech columnist and the senior director of policy at the Conservative Partnership Institute.

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Why Is Merrick Garland Hiding Who's Running The Department of Justice? - The Federalist

As a result of the frenzied buying spree, shares of the shell company, called Digital World Acquisition Corp., are now sitting at $45.50 which values it at a whopping $3.9 billion without ever launching a product. For reference, that's roughly half the size of The New York Times, and commensurate with the value of Netflix after it had already been in business for eight years.

The surge in trading was so drastic that Fidelity even reported it was the No. 1 most traded name on its platform Thursday.

DWAC is what's known as a "SPAC," or special purpose acquisition company. The strategy, which has become popular in recent years as a way to sidestep the typically onerous regulatory process of taking a company public, typically occurs when a non-public company merges with a shell company that is already public. In this case, DWAC is set to merge with "Trump Media & Technology Group."

In a press release Wednesday night, the ex-commander-in-chief touted the deal in especially Trumpian terms, saying he hoped to create a "rival to the liberal media consortium." But the numbers he cited also valued the company at just $1.7 billion still a huge sum for a company without any apparent cashflow.

The venture's first project will be a social media venture called "TRUTH Social," which is set to launch next month for "invited users" and will be available sometime early next year for the general public, according to Trump's statement.

Though the platform wasn't set to go live for at least a month, the intense interest led more than a few users through a backdoor which allowed them to create their own accounts with some even posing as Trump himself. In one instance highlighted by The Washington Post, someone who grabbed the "donaldjtrump" username posted a picture of a defecating pig to the account.

Trump himself will serve as chairman of TMTG, which is also planning a video-on-demand streaming service, TMTG+, and a news network, TMTG News, according to a public pitch deck obtained by Salon. The slides contain a number of lofty plans for the company to disrupt the business models of any number of perceived competitors, from Netflix to Disney to Twitter and Facebook, but notably did not include any financial projections or information on corporate structures, which are usually a part of such presentations.

"I don't know enough to say it's unprecedented, but it's weird," Michael Ohlrogge, an assistant professor of law at New York University who researches SPACs, told the Associated Press. "Given a lot of things that happen with Trump are not great with details and formalities, it's perhaps not surprising, but it's not the norm in SPACs."

The former president's interest in building a media empire has long been a source of speculation many pundits were convinced back in 2016 that his presidential run was simply a ploy to generate interest in a subsequent media venture. In fact, former aide Jason Miller, who after Trump's 2020 election loss formed his own social media company, Gettr, confirmed in a congratulatory statement Wednesday that he and Trump had been in talks to collaborate on the venture but "couldn't come to terms on a deal."

But despite the former president's involvement, it was the the strange details surrounding DWAC that had many experts scratching their heads.

According to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company was formed just a few weeks after Trump's 2020 loss, with the stock brokerage firm Kingswood Capital Markets as the sole underwriter. As New York Magazine noted on Thursday, Kingswood used to be called EF Hutton a 1980s financial powerhouse that was eventually sold after it was revealed the firm was involved in illegal mob-related ventures. Trump also famously bragged about dealing with the New York City Mafia during his years as a real estate developer.

DWAC's official address is listed as a WeWork office in Miami, while its management team is also drawing a fair bit of scrutiny. Patrick Orlando, the firm's CEO, appears to be a SPAC veteran whose most recent offering is Yunhong International, another blank-check company located in Wuhan, China.

The firm's CFO is a strange pick as well: Luis Orleans-Braganza, a top deputy to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and current member of the country's parliament.

The New York Times also reported that at least one of the initial investors in DWAC, Saba Capital Management, was not aware as late as this spring that the company was planning a deal with the former president.

It's unclear whether DWAC's sky-high valuation will hold. SPACs enjoyed a moment earlier this year in which a number of similar deals enjoyed early success, though many of those tickers have since come down to earth.

It's also important to note that a key feature of SPAC deals are the unique incentives that protect company insiders while other investors bear much of the risk if a deal fails to garner expected returns.

Trump's last publicly traded venture, a casino company called Trump Entertainment Resorts, also ended in heartbreak for investors after it lost hundreds of millions of dollars in just over a decade, a period during which it filed for bankruptcy numerous times. Though if the past is any indication, Trump will likely come out on top Fortune Magazine reported at the time that he earned more than $82 million from the company before it went bust.

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Federalist Society member: Pro-Trump lawyer John Eastman is a 'clear danger to the health of our republic' - Raw Story

Former Republican Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice caught flak over an audition appearance on ABCs The View Wednesday for challenging the left-wing narrative over critical race theory and Democrats obsession with the Jan. 6 protests.

I thought they didnt teach critical race theory until they went to like law school or something, professed Whoopi Goldberg, apparently ignorant of the movement to infect K-12 curriculums with its toxic concepts.

I sure hope not because Im not certain 7-year-olds need to learn it, Rice said.

The ensuing discussion featured what used to be a routine back-and-forth when former Co-Host Meghan McCain was on the show prior to her August exit, as the daytime panelists appeared perplexed at alternate perspectives shared on air.

I grew up in segregated Birmingham, Alabama. I couldnt go to a movie theater or to a restaurant with my parents, Rice explained. I went to segregated schools until we moved to Denver. My parents never thought I was going to grow up in a world without prejudice but they also told me, thats somebody elses problem, not yours. Youre going to overcome it, and you are going to be anything you want to be. And thats the message that I think we ought to be sending to kids.

Rice went on to charge the current environment surrounding discussions on race with attempting to indict white Americans with collective guilt.

One of the worries that I have about the way were talking about race, is that it either seems so big that somehow white people now have to feel guilty for everything that happened in the past I dont think thats very productive or black people have to feel disempowered by race, Rice said. I would like black kids to be completely empowered to know that they are beautiful in their blackness, but in order to do that I dont have to make white kids feel bad for being white.

A confused Joy Behar had Rice repeat the claim.

I dont have to make white children feel bad about being white in order to teach and overcome the history of second-class citizenship for black Americans, Rice explained again.

As the panel erupted in crosstalk, Co-Host Sara Haines offered examples of California elementary schools instructing students to rank their privilege while accelerated courses for the academically gifted are erased in the name of equity.

Its happening across the country, Haines said.

Goldberg responded by regurgitating the false claim that opponents of race-based curriculums seek to erase history lessons from the classroom.

History is going to be taught, Goldberg said. The whole idea of teaching history is so we dont repeat it.

Theres been this rollback of history, Sunny Hostin chimed in. People want to hide history parents dont want children to hear about the real history.

Rice rejected the left-wing talking point born out of hysteria against those opposed to state-sponsored woke indoctrination.

People are being taught the true history, Rice said. It goes back to how we teach the history. We teach the good and we teach the bad of history. But what we dont do is make 7- and 10-year-olds feel that they are somehow bad people because of the color of their skin. Weve been through that and we dont need to do that again.

That doesnt seem to be part of the plan, Behar interjected.

Oh it is part of the plan, Rice finished.

The nations former chief diplomat also railed against the lefts obsession with the Capitol riot on Jan. 6 that triggered a Democrat impeachment of an outgoing president followed by a witch hunt show trial in the upper chamber a month later. The partisan probe ordered by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has taken the recent dark turn of targeting private citizens uninvolved in the turmoil at the Capitol complex, but who instead exercised their right to protest.

I said at the time Jan. 6 was wrong, Rice said. Full stop I cried that day, because I thought, I studied countries that do this. I didnt think it would happen in my own country.'

But, she added, lawmakers who resumed business the same night served as a powerful testament to the vigilance of American institutions.

Im one who believes that the American people are now concerned about their, what we call kitchen table issues, the price of gasoline, inflation, whats happening with their kids in school, Rice said. We do have a lot of issues, and I hope what we will do is move on to the next generation of leadership.

MORE: Sec. @CondoleezzaRice: As to what I want to see in my party, I want to see the nextgeneration of leadership stepup. I want those of us who havebeen there, done that, to stepback. And I want to move on to a better America. https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA https://t.co/Bfe3s3kCNy

The View (@TheView) October 20, 2021

Rice also declined to endorse Bidens agenda that hinges on colossal spending packages dependent on congressional approval.

Im not going to get into whether I think those packages are a good idea, Rice said, after Goldberg used the opportunity to tout the presidents negotiations with lawmakers on multi-trillion dollar bills.

Condoleezza Rice is clashing with the ladies of #TheView

Condoleezza Rice: The American people have kitchen table issues they are worried about (True)

Whoopi: That's why Biden is trying to pass those fat bills

Rice: Those bills are not a good idea

Then, what's her plan? pic.twitter.com/a1TXwgbp6M

The Chat (@LiveOnTheChat) October 20, 2021

Rices guest-host tryout was met with the typical hostility that the shows progressive viewers showed anytime McCain would also score points, sparking a brief trend on Twitter.

Sunny looking at Condoleezza Rice #TheView pic.twitter.com/LPCqz2MP1i

The Chat (@LiveOnTheChat) October 20, 2021

Im sorry but truth hurtsBlack kids feel bad knowing that this country enslaved their ancestors but Rice is worried about how white kids feel??? #TheView pic.twitter.com/jTnAEOyVKb

Ashley (@Ashcatcam) October 20, 2021

#TheViewSorry I Heard Enough Of Miss Condi Rice pic.twitter.com/mTho8FEMWE

Neo Jane (@NeoJane8) October 20, 2021

https://twitter.com/VoGueViXenTASH/status/1450845970137223173?s=20

#TheView I've had enough of Condoleeza Rice pic.twitter.com/fD79rn7lKW

Sharon Godbolt (@SharonGodbolt) October 20, 2021

Rice auditioned for the open conservative seat left vacant by McCain, who recounts the programs toxic work environment in a new audio memoir released this week, Bad Republican.

I was told when I left, they were looking for a real conservative, McCain told Variety Magazine in an interview published Tuesday. I gave them a list. None of them have tested.

Others on The Views rotating line-up include former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, CNN host S.E. Cupp, television host Eboni Williams, former White House Director of Strategic Communications Alyssa Farah, reality star Cameran Eubanks, CNNs Mary Katharine Ham, and former GOP congresswoman from Utah Mia Love.

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Rice Slams Critical Race Theory, Jan. 6 Obsession On 'The View' - The Federalist

For nearly a decade, the transgender movement has steamrolled through American society with a faade of certainty and moral superiority no one is allowed to question. Choosing ones gender has been the brave new frontier our children are entitled to cross, and woe to the parent, doctor, or educator who takes issue.

In recent weeks, though, another major crack in this wall has appeared. In a groundbreaking interview, two prominent providers in the field of transgender medicine admit publicly there is much about transgender doctrine that needs to be questioned.

Abigail Shrier, author of Irreversible Damage, interviewed Dr. Marci Bowers, a world-renowned vaginoplasty specialist who operated on Jazz Jennings, and Erica Anderson, a clinical psychologist at the University of California San Franciscos Child and Adolescent Gender Clinic. Its a flashing red light that these two specialists are voicing doubts publicly. These practitioners are also transgender, and have helped hundreds of children and teenagers transition. Now they ask, has the new orthodoxy gone too far?

Anderson even submitted a co-authored op-ed to The New York Times warning that many transgender medical providers were treating kids recklessly. The Times declined to publish, citing this was outside our coverage priorities right now.

These bombshell interviews are welcome news to parents who have sensed something gravely amiss. Parents who mourn seeing a son become a daughter or who question life-altering surgery on their childs healthy body are labeled unsupportive transphobes. Online peer trans-support groups make much of offering a kid a glitter family to replace the parents who dont line up behind a teenagers desire to change genders.

In 2007, this was a smaller issue, as there was one gender-transitioning clinic in the country. Today those clinics number in the hundreds.

As these two practitioners reveal, protocols for gender transition will likely ruin a persons ability to respond to sexual intimacy and in many instances produce sterility. Those are steep prices to pay. These interviews confirm just how gaslit we have been and how much there is to question in gender-suppression protocols.

Bowers explains what happens to patients who pursue gender-transition surgery after taking puberty blockers (drugs that delay puberty) and cross-sex hormones. Bowers admits he is not a fan of puberty blockers. When physical puberty is inhibited, there is not enough penile and scrotal skin for a surgeon to re-fashion female organs without taking stomach lining or even part of the colon from a patient. Bowers refuses to use the colon, although other doctors will: You can get colon cancer or chronic colitis over time. And its just in the discharge and the nasty appearance and it doesnt smell like a vagina.

Yet the transgender-rights movement of doctors and activists has claimed for a decade that its perfectly safe for children as young as nine to take puberty blockers. Its all fully reversible, they said. The Mayo Clinic,the St. Louis Childrens Hospital, andThe New York Times hardly mention the data that shows sexual dysfunction and sterility often result from puberty blockers.

Doctors giving puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones are guilty of magical thinking, as though surgeons can do anything, Bowers claims. Jennings, Bowers most famous patient, is a case in point. Days after Bowers removed Jenningss penis and constructed female body parts with the available skin, Jazz experienced crazy pain. He was rushed back to the hospital where another doctor was waiting. As I was getting her [sic] on the bed, I heard something go pop, he said. Jazzs new vagina had split apart.

In this video you can see just how much uncertainty exists, even in highly skilled doctors, as they attempt a repair. Its hard to escape the sense that transitioning teens are guinea pigs in a huge national experiment.

Puberty blockers are just the first step in this problematic process. The standard of care established by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) is called affirmative therapy. A good doctor, therapist, or educator is required to accept at face value a childs desire to change genders and offer the child medications to inhibit puberty.

There is little exploration into the actual causes of a teenagers depression or why she feels uncomfortable in her sex. In what many believe is social contagion, the number of natal females seeking gender transition has skyrocketed, affecting twice as many girls as boys. If a doctor accepted an anorexic patients firm belief that she is fat and prescribed liposuction or a weight-loss clinic as a treatment, we would hardly call him compassionate. Yet that exact suspension of logic is applied to gender dysphoria.

Puberty blockers are followed, almost inevitably, by cross-sex hormones that carry huge medical implications. A girl taking testosterone will feel bold and confident, soaring above her insecurities and depression. But she will also grow facial hair that likely wont go away even if she stops taking hormones. Her voice will deepen, usually permanently. Her vagina will atrophy and due to thickened blood, she stands a much greater risk of heart attack. As the surgeon Bowers makes clear in her interview, over time cross-sex hormones will likely leave patients infertile and incapable of enjoying sexual intimacy.

This is a stunning protocol to push on vulnerable children and teenagers given the fact that 70 percent of children outgrow gender dysphoria with no intervention at all, as Shrier explains in her investigative book on the subject. Only in the field of transgender medicine do we allow procedures that halt normal, healthy biological functioning in a child or teen, based solely on self-reported mental distress, Shrier writes.

This reflexive rush to treatment has caused Anderson to state openly that many young adults are getting sloppy healthcare. Underlying emotional issues are not resolved by hormones and surgery. Indeed, nearly half of parents of transitioning children report that their child was in a worse place, not a better one, as a result.

A leaked 2019 report from the renowned Tavistock and Portman Trust gender clinic in the United Kingdom showed that rates of self-harm and suicidality did not decrease even after puberty was suppressed. The report was so damning the head of the clinic resigned. He feared the clinic was fast-tracking youths to transition with no positive effect and in some cases, real harm.

Bowers makes one more admission that major care providers have not dared state out loud, although its obvious to anyone who has worked or written in the field of transgender medicine. Bowers alludes to a built-in bias, a regimented dogma. He says, there are definitely people who are trying to keep out anyone who doesnt absolutely buy the party line that everything should be affirming and that there is no room for dissent. Bowers thinks thats a mistake.

How can a field of medicine claim to offer help based on science when inquiry and dissent are so openly derided or when those who question may likely forfeit their careers? Why would parents risk their childrens futures on protocols for which no good long-term studies exist?

The determination to create a self of ones choosing is driven not by science, but by ideology. As Carl Trueman explains in his landmark book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, we have allowed sexuality to be at the very heart of what it means to be an authentic person, a profound claim that is arguably unprecedented in history. A belief system not science is governing how we approach the insecurities of childhood and adolescence.

The transgender wall we hear cracking is the myth that there is actual science behind this new gender orthodoxy. Two of the most active practitioners have begun to blow a whistle. There will be more. More parents, more doctors, more transitioners will raise questions and refuse to pretend this is a path of wisdom.

The curtain is being pulled back on the shaky underpinnings of an industry that threatens to reshape what it means to be human to live as a man or a woman. The future may well surface hundreds of people with regrets, stuck in bodies that dont work like they were designed. They will be asking how grown-ups in their past ever allowed them to pursue such madness.

Paula Rinehart, LCSW, is a therapist in Raleigh, North Carolina, and the author of the book "Sex and the Soul of a Woman." She writes about family and culture.

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Two Transgender Specialists Wonder: Has The New Orthodoxy Gone Too Far? - The Federalist

The left became impossible to parody somewhere in between believe all women and peak trans. The guys at The Babylon Bee are going to have to quit soon, if not because they cannot get any more bizarre than the left then because it seems like the left is using their headlines as an instruction manual.

Here is what I am reacting to, and it is not made up. It is real.

Not only did Joe Biden appoint a man who claims hes a woman, and whose poor public health decisions led to thousands of unnecessary COVID deaths, as assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Biden has now made that man a four-star admiral and proclaimed we should all cheer at his administration appointing the first female four-star officer. I repeat, this is not a joke.

This official, Rachel Levine, has zero military experience. Hes as much a soldier as I am (although I am 100 percent more female than he is).

Here is the U.S. surgeon general saying her [sic] service will undoubtedly advance the@usphscc [U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps] mission to protect, promote, and advance the health and safety of our nation.

Levine was also awarded the Public Health Service COVID-19 Pandemic Campaign Medal. Yes, a man whose pandemic leadership included: pulling his mother from a nursing home while forcing elderly people into those homes we now know were COVID death traps; getting promoted out of running a state health department that still cant find crucial COVID-19 data; presiding over one of the slowest vaccine rollouts in the country; and openly advocating for the dismemberment and mutilation of children in the name of health this man has been awarded a public service COVID-19 pandemic campaign medal.

In his new position, Levine will join 6,000 other corps members offering COVID-19 shots and other health-focused initiatives on behalf of the federal government.How can anyone take seriously any health recommendations from people who are willing to so deeply subordinate reality to political lies that are as obvious as the shape of my jaw?

This would be a joke if the implications werent so frightening. For one thing, things like this will accelerate already declining public confidence in COVID-19 demands, public health, and the medical profession in general.

And that declining confidence makes perfect sense when you consider that the same public health agencies demanding children wear masks and healthy people quarantine wholeheartedly push child mutilation and dismemberment, in clear violation of medical ethics. Those same public health agencies are handing out COVID grants to local public health agencies that direct them to administer medical care based on peoples race.

Its already known that the politicization of medical research through federal control of its funding endangers lives. Medical schools, as Katie Herzog memorably reported recently, are now overtaken by these same insane denials of biology, the very reality they are supposed to be understanding better to save human lives.

Under a regime that prioritizes sexual behavior and skin color above truth, medical care and peoples trust in it is only going to decline. This isnt just a joke, its evidence of a serious crisis.

All this means our nation is controlled by unserious people unfit to govern. They are putting the great United States in empire disintegration territory reminiscent of the Roman emperor Caligula, who reportedly appointed his horse to public office. According to History.com:

Famous for his madness and brutality, Caligula allegedly committed incest with his sisters, fed prisoners to wild beasts and had conversations with the moonso coddling a beloved horse might seem among the lesser of his various evils.

According to historian Aloys Winterling, author of Caligula: A Biography (2011), insanity isnt the only logical explanation for such behavior. In his book, Winterling makes the case that many of the emperors wackier stunts were designed to insult and humiliate senators and other elites.

Demanding that Americans submit to and celebrate obvious denials of reality is not just a joke, and not just a threat to our lives and livelihoods. It is also a humiliation ritual designed to make us even more subservient to power. We must respond with staunchly refusing to live by lies.

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If You Can't Tell A Man From A Woman, You're A Health Threat - The Federalist

Vice President Kamala Harris will be appearing by video message in more than 300 black churches in Virginia from now until the state election on Nov. 2. Reports call Harriss outreach plan an effort to boost Democrat candidate Terry McAuliffe in a tightening race for governor of a state that both parties are eager to claim as a pivotal prize heading into the 2022 election cycle.

I am sure Harris expects a nearly automatic reaction to her plea, and that it will produce overwhelming support from the black parishioners targeted. After all, who can forget President Joe Bidens message to the black community when he said you aint black if you dont vote Democrat.

As a black conservative and former state attorney general, Im excited for what the vice president will choose not to say to the congregations of these 300 churches. Heres why.

Harris will very likely not talk about the 20 million black children who have been aborted since the 1973 Roe v. Wade court decision legalizing abortion. She wont talk about the generations of black youngsters, children and even grandchildren of the black babies aborted, who themselves were never born thanks to Democrats staunch advocacy for a procedure that targets black women.

She wont talk about the population of American blacks continuing to stagnate and decline as a result of the disproportionate percentage of black abortions in America as compared to all abortions performed. Although black women make up only 13 percent of the female population in the United States, they account for 36 percent of U.S. abortions. This disproportionate figure is almost exactly the ratio of incarcerated blacks compared to the population of blacks in the country 35 percent to 13 percent.

So why am I so excited if shes not going to talk about the sanctity of life, or the violence thats destroying black communities, or the discord in our public education system that is failing to adequately prepare young black children for economicopportunity? Because black America knows there is a problem and especially the black church knows there is a problem.

The problem is that the black community has been down this road before and has seen decline over the past several decades despite entrenched Democrat leadership in large urban centers and blue states like Virginia. Homicide and violent crime are up 30 percent over a year ago, which is a big deal in the black community as, despite being only 13 percent of the population, black Americans represent 56 percent of murder victims nationally and approximately 90 percent of the murderers of other blacks.

Black churches are aware of these astonishing murder statistics because its the black clergy who get the calls from government officials late at night to quell the violence and calm the crowd. Its the black churches that hold the funerals for the scores of young black victims of self-inflicted urban violence. All this while Democrats continue to strip law enforcement budgets to prove theyre woke to leftist defund the police BS and black communities suffer loss of police protection.

While the Democrat Party, led by Biden and Harris, tries to mandate this country further and further into a socialist agenda, its the black community who constantly gets the shaft from these same Democrat politicians who promise them the moon, the sun, and the stars every election cycle. Then, once the black vote is secured (thus securing the election), Democrats expect the black community to stay patient while moving them further away from that promised moon.

Never mind a black agenda item such aseducation choice reforms that would provide marked improvement for young black boys and girls.Instead, Democrats prioritize loosening border restrictions and allowing more illegal entries, which will further burdenpublic education and negatively affect the black children trapped in low-performing public schools.

Vice President Harris may have sung in her church choir, but she has never advocated for the lives of unborn children.The black church, however, rightly supports life as a gift from God that should never be abandoned.

Democratsin Virginia believe its not only legal but acceptableto allow babies born alive to be kept comfortable and simply die out after birth.This can never be the position of the church in America, whether it be black or white.

The black church is no different from the white church in its recognition of the need for a great awakening that will restore America as one nation under God, dedicated to justice and mercy and committed to loving our neighbors. Yet the vice president and the Democrat Party go out of their way to insist that America be a nation that does not honor its Creator, the importance offamily, and the role of fathers and men in shaping the character of young boys.

The black church had a front-row seat to experience the advances in the state of black America during the Trump administration, with record-low unemployment and economic gains that resulted from policies that actually uplifted and empowered black citizens as independent stakeholders, not merely as pawns of one party or the other.

I hope the church is payingcareful attentionto what Vice PresidentHarris is not saying and that the values of the black churches and all churches in Virginia find their way to the voting booths on Nov. 2.

Curtis Hill is the former attorney general of Indiana.

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What Kamala Won't Tell Black Churches Is What They Need To Hear - The Federalist