HOW STUPID IS THE AMERICAN VOTER!!!

Yes, Republicans Are Blowing the Midterms

If Republicans resort to business as usual, then they will once again do what they do best: lose a winnable election.

By Eric Lendrum at American Greatness:

August 25, 2022

If you thought primary election season was finished teaching valuable lessons ahead of the November elections, then you thought wrong. With the recent contests in Florida and New York, the GOP just received a dire warning about its midterm prospects with all the subtlety of a New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square.

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory . . . Again

Up to now, it was common knowledge that the Republican Party was destined to crush the Democrats in a decisive landslide this November in both houses of Congress. After all, it is the historical midterm pattern that has proven itself time and time again; with just four exceptions since the Civil War, the president’s party always loses seats in a midterm election. Both the Senate and the House seemed ripe for the taking.

Indeed, if the election had been held back in May or June, this would have been the case. At the height of the inflation crisis and the simultaneous historic spike in gas prices, Republicans pulled off an upset victory in a special election that saw Texas’ 34th congressional district flip red for the first time in over 100 years.

And yet, just two months later, the GOP has seen its fortunes flipped. In another special election that was considered a major bellwether for the general election, New York’s 19th congressional district, every single poll—including those commissioned by Democratic groups—showed Republican Marc Molinaro as the overwhelming favorite to win. This is an R+3 district that Joe Biden won by just two points over Donald Trump in 2020. And yet, come Election Day, a seat that was supposed to be another pickup for Republicans was won by Democrat Pat Ryan, in a four-point victory over Molinaro.

This embarrassing result is in keeping with the most recent trends in polls depicting the “generic ballot” for the November midterms: Politico’s latest generic ballot shows Democrats with a four-point lead. With several other polls reflecting a similar reversal, the aggregate of all major generic ballots currently gives the GOP a mere 0.2 percent lead with less than three months left to go.

It’s Not the Economy, Stupid

What could possibly be the reason for such a devastating reversal of fortune for the opposition party? In a word: messaging.

In recent weeks, the GOP just couldn’t help but revert to its default favorite topic: The economy.

Understandably, voter frustration with Joe Biden and the Democrats was at an all-time high earlier in the summer, when gas prices reached record levels and inflation topped 8.5 percent. The GOP establishment took this as a sign that they could translate the public’s frustration with these core pocketbook issues into a broader focus on other, more niche economic and fiscal issues. As a result, the Republican Party has started to make mountains out of molehills on such matters as the number of new IRS agents, or the marginal changes to certain tax brackets, as a result of the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act.

The problem is that the original core issues that drove up anti-Democratic sentiment earlier in the summer have already begun to fade. Like it or not, Biden’s strategy for reducing gas prices is working. The national average price of a gallon of gasoline has dropped for 70 consecutive days, in the second-longest such streak since 2005. In July, the national average was $4.38 a gallon; in August, it dropped to $3.89, and it continues to go down.

If a 49-cent drop over the course of one month is to be roughly the average for the next two-and-a-half months, then the national average will drop by another $1.20 by November 8 and will stand at about $2.69. By then, voters’ memories of the record-high of $5.02 per gallon in June will have completely faded.

As a result, the GOP continuing to harp on gas prices will appear out-of-touch, desperate clinging to a not-so-distant past where things were slightly worse than they are in the present; in other words, the backbone of this entire electoral strategy involves the Republican Party hoping that things will get bad or stay bad. Voters will take notice of that.

Moreover, Biden is already being rewarded for this noticeable shift in inflation for consumers. Rasmussen Reports, one of the most conservative pollsters in the country, recorded a stunning 11-point increase in Biden’s approval rating in just one month. In July, he was at a historic low of 36 percent; in August, he rose to 47 percent, the highest rating he has seen since September 2021. Other pollsters have reflected a similar increase, in what can only be described as a clear pattern: Biden is bouncing back.

It’s (Still) the Culture, Stupid

Beyond the empirical evidence showing that key economic factors are reversing course and thus becoming useless as campaign attack points, the fact of the matter remains that economic talking points are, quite simply, snooze-inducing. In this new era of culture war-driven politics, where personalities supersede policies, and heart-wrenching social issues are far more captivating than the policy wonk whiteboard presentations often seen in D.C. think tanks or on Fox News, nitpicking over fiscal policies or making a crusade out of temporary economic woes are strategies that are doomed to fail.

It was this economics-focused GOP that pushed so heavily for Molinaro in New York. Just look how far Molinaro got with the support of the Republican National Committee and after being endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Businesses.

But on the same night as this painful display of ineptitude in New York, a beacon of hope for the GOP shined brightly in the South. In the conservative safe haven of Florida, Republicans didn’t just hold their own in the primaries for Congress or statewide office: They charged directly into enemy territory and won.

By the end of primary night in Florida, multiple major school boards across the state were completely overtaken by conservative majorities dedicated to fighting against leftist indoctrination efforts targeting public school students. This grassroots wave even washed over the deep-blue Miami-Dade County, flipping the school board there to a conservative majority that will now be in charge of a district with more than 300,000 students.

How were these victories possible, given a national mood that is slowly but surely shifting back in the Democrats’ favor? Unlike the national GOP that failed miserably in the New York election, the Florida GOP—led by Governor Ron DeSantis—has kept the campaign focus where it should be: on hot-button cultural and social issues that get the voters’ collective blood boiling. Economic issues will bring out the same voters who haven’t produced majorities for years. But these issues can produce a broad coalition of voters who otherwise would not turn out for conservative candidates.

The words that I wrote almost one year ago remain more relevant today than ever before: If the Republican Party and its candidates continue hammering cultural issues the way they did in the Virginia elections, following the example set by President Trump, then they will have an ironclad campaign strategy that will carry them to victory.

Glenn Youngkin and the rest of the victorious Republicans in Virginia won not because they talked about inflation, or gas prices, or taxes—as these things were not even issues in 2021. They talked about the anti-white hatred encouraged by critical race theory, the sexual grooming brought about by the ideology of transgenderism, and the tyranny of COVID mandates demanding that students be vaccinated and masked at all times. Although COVID mandates—like Anthony Fauci’s career—have all but come to an end, CRT and transgenderism are still very much alive and well, and remain more of a threat than ever before.

It Takes “a mobster” TO KNOW A MOB!

August 27, 2022

Biden Calls on the Mob

By John Green at American Thinker:

The Dems decided they needed a little presidential revival before the midterms to fire up their base — which isn’t looking very motivated at the moment. They gave President Gremlin a few days of vacation to rest up, a couple of shots of Adderall to switch on long-dormant brain cells, and a few hits of oxygen so he could walk out onto the stage without collapsing.

They trotted Biden out to a friendly audience in a suburb of Washington, D.C., and he gave a real barn-burner of a speech. He was angrier than an old coot screaming at the neighborhood kids to get off of his yard. Apparently, the Democrats think that is a good look for them. I wonder if they’ve considered that this speech may come to define the Biden presidency?

The speech was about those that voted for Donald Trump, but it revealed a great deal more about our presidential sock-puppet himself. We learned that Joe has an advanced case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. He said:

We’re seeing now either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA agenda. It’s not just Trump… It’s almost semi-fascism.

Our uniter in chief believes anyone who could be counted among the MAGA movement is a fascist — sorry, semi-fascist, if that makes any difference. He doesn’t just hate Donald Trump. He hates anyone who doesn’t hate Donald Trump. And the Democrats endorse this attitude because they’re no longer in the business of winning the competition of ideas. They’re in the business of amassing and applying raw governmental power.

Our “return to normalcy” president is clearly comfortable fomenting hatred towards others. Those others would be anyone who is part of the opposition party — all 74 million of them who voted for Trump. Is there any other possible outcome he could be trying to achieve? By calling anyone with a red baseball cap a fascist, he’s using the same dehumanizing language that tyrants have used throughout history to incite the masses against their enemies. Our President is telling half the country that the other half is a danger to them. Never once did he mention in his address to the crowd that the greatest danger to himself is the danger of competing ideas.

Biden followed that up with this whopper:

Trump and the extreme MAGA Republicans have made their choice — to go backwards full of anger, violence, hate and division, while Democrats have chosen to be a nation of unity and hope.

Let me repeat that. He really said that Democrats have chosen “hope and unity,” as he called everybody that voted Republican a fascist –- sorry, semi-fascist.

In the name of hope and unity he then proceeded to tell the crowd how despicable the MAGA movement is, and that it must be crushed. He didn’t encourage the mob to engage Republicans in debate. He didn’t suggest that they attempt to understand the opposition. He most certainly didn’t recommend addressing any of the grievances of the conservative movement. He incited the crowd to hatred so that MAGA could be crushed — all 74 million (and growing) of them — in the name of unity.

Note what Joe didn’t say in his address to the mob. He didn’t condemn the assassination attempt on a Supreme Court justice. He didn’t share his views about a Democrat that tried to murder an entire Republican softball team. He didn’t even comment about his colleague, Missouri State Democratic senator Maria Chappelle-Nidal who said, “I hope Trump is assassinated.” Those all sound like the hopeful actions of a unifying movement, don’t they? Why no mention of them?

His omissions give great insight into what he means by “unity.” Destroy the opposition, and then declare the survivors to be unified. As for the “hope” part of his speech, he hopes to accomplish the above before he has to face Trump on the debate stage again.

The Democrats got their presidential revival all right. It came in the form of a speech dripping with hatred for almost half of all American citizens. But as with all things Biden, the Dems should have given some thought to the possible unintended consequences. I’m sure Joe fired up his base of radicals, lunatics, and criminals. But he probably fired up the Republican base even more. After all, who’s more likely to be motivated to action: a bunch of strung-out delinquents encouraged to embrace their Call of Duty bloodlust, or those whose very existence is being threatened? That is not hyperbole. Given the violence that we’ve seen from Biden’s “base” in the last seven years, it’s highly likely that some will take his call to action as a call to do something other than vote in the midterms.

How will his speech be remembered in 2024 if one of his deranged followers actually does murder a prominent conservative? Have the Democrats considered that sometimes it’s better to turn down the temperature than to crank it up? Of course not. Once the omelet is done, the broken eggs are of no consequence.

Joe wrapped up his address by saying:

It’s not hyperbole now you need to vote to literally save democracy.

He’s right about that. Our republic is under attack, by Joe Biden, his entire cabinet, his media enablers, and his misguided followers.

Looking at the trajectory of our country over the past 14 years shows that we are approaching a fork in the road. The mob that Joe Biden represents has:

• Worked to undermine our constitutionally protected rights to free speech and freedom of religion
• Corrupted our criminal justice system
• Attempted the assassination of political opponents
• Undermined election integrity (and no, that’s not a “big lie”)
• Used rioting, vandalism, and assault to impose their political will
• Broken the most efficient industrial supply chain in the world
• Threatened the financial security of 330 million Americans

These things would have been unthinkable in America prior to 2008. Now they are part of our political fabric. Joe Biden, via what he does and doesn’t say, is calling for more of it. It is not hyperbole to say the obvious — we are nearing our last chance for patriotic Americans to stand up, be heard, and stop this nonsense.

The malaise speech signified the end of Jimmy Carter’s presidency. Here’s to hoping that Joe Biden’s hate speech marks the end of his.

John Green is a political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho. He has written for American Thinker, American Free News Network, and The Blue State Conservative.  He can be followed on Facebook or reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.

Why Are The Dem Fascists Winning?

Don’t Count Out the ‘Bad’ GOP Senate Candidates

BY CHRIS QUEEN AUG 26, 2022 at PJMedia:

AP Photo/Akili-Casundria Ramsess

All year long we’ve talked about the “red wave” that’s coming. Buoyed by the Biden administration’s combination of incompetence and arrogance, Republican voters have been enthusiastic, and independents and some Democrats may move to the right as well.

The talk has centered around big gains for the GOP in the House and the Republicans even capturing the Senate. Polling has shown enthusiasm for much of the year, but something has happened as the summer marched on: Democrats have gained some momentum.

We’ve seen plenty of poormouthing in the past couple of weeks, even in conservative media, especially when it comes to some Senate candidates who have been portrayed as “bad” candidates. But we shouldn’t count them out.

For starters, we need to remember that polling in the summertime favors the Democrats. It’s easy to blame their polling bump on the Dobbs decision, the Inflation Reduction Act (haha), or the student loan bailout, and those things may have given them a bit more support. But the reality is that, during the summer, Republican voters don’t tend to answer pollsters because they’re on vacation or getting their kids ready for the start of school. Heck, Republicans tend to be less likely to answer poll questions in general.

The summer Democratic surge is affecting some Senate races where the conventional wisdom holds that the GOP candidates are “bad.” In my home state of Georgia, football legend Herschel Walker is fighting a tough campaign against Sen. Raphael Warnock. Walker has had his share of baggage: mental health struggles, a troubled marriage, and children from extramarital affairs.

The Heisman Trophy winner has been honest about most of those issues, and he has walked a fine line between having the enthusiastic support of Donald Trump and the accusation that he’s just Trump’s puppet. He wants to prove that he’s his own man, and that began with a campaign shakeup earlier this summer. Walker wasn’t happy with his campaign, and he has replaced some key members of his team with new blood that is helping him run a stronger campaign.

On his radio show on Thursday, Erick Erickson explained how Walker is turning his fortunes around:

So I’m looking at Herschel Walker’s campaign. He’s retooled his campaign; he’s brought in people I know are highly competent people who have a great win-loss record in politics. He’s brought them in in the last month, he’s retooled his campaign, he’s getting on the campaign trail. His events are growing. The number of people showing up at his events are growing. His fundraising is increasing. His TV ads are coming online. He’s got a great message and a climate that’s hostile to the Democrats where Joe Biden’s polling is below 40% in Georgia, and the national media is still fixated on a narrative from two months ago. It suggests the national media isn’t up to speed on what’s happening, and to the extent they are, they’re trying to package it as something to help Raphael Warnock.

Something similar is happening with Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, where he’s facing Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. It’s easy to argue that Oz is a terrible candidate, and his “crudité” video is a prime example of the TV doctor’s shortcomings.

But Salena Zito writes at the Washington Examiner that Fetterman is concentrating on a social media strategy for his fight against Oz:

Fetterman’s campaign for the U.S. Senate has been an endless stream of snarky memes mocking Oz. He has rented planes to troll him along the New Jersey shore. He devotes endless messaging to vegetable trays and the amount of homes Oz owns. He’s even employed the antics of rocker Steven Van Zandt to taunt him on Twitter. He also likes to cuss a lot and use the poop emoji.

It is a sandbox Oz can never compete in, nor should he. It’s Fetterman’s playground, and there is no upside in getting down in the dirt with him, said David Urban, a D.C.-based Republican strategist and Beaver County native.

“You can’t out-meme Fetterman, because he is [a] human meme,” said Urban, who has worked as an adviser on several statewide races in the state. “It’s all he does.”

Oz is taking a different tack, going to county fairs, shaking hands, and speaking to voters directly. He’s building a word-of-mouth campaign that can benefit him much better than a grocery-shopping video ever could.

Other candidates like J.D. Vance in Ohio and Blake Masters in Arizona have their own uphill battles that aren’t insurmountable.

Related: Red Wave Watch: CNN Says the GOP Is in Its Best Position Since 1938

At the same time, we can’t take for granted that Democrats have slam-dunk races. Last week, Henry Olsen wrote a column at the Washington Post reminding readers that, given President Biden’s approval numbers, the Democrats don’t have a lock on keeping the Senate.

Olsen cites data from 2014 to 2020 showing that the president’s approval rating is an important factor in the performance of Senate candidates from his party. This oversimplifies Olson’s methodology a bit, but he notes that “The results should make Democrats temper their expectations.”

The conclusion is that “the fate of this year’s Democratic Senate nominees, like those in years past, is tied to the president’s job approval.”

Olsen also reminds his readers that Democrats were bullish on tight Senate races in 2014 and lost the races they were most enthusiastic about based on summer polling. And, since “nearly all of the undecided voters are independents who don’t approve of Biden,” 2022 could be a repeat of 2014.

So don’t believe the poormouthing. The GOP may have a tough road to capturing the Senate, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

IT HAS BEEN ITS JUDEOCHRISTIANITY WHICH HAS MADE CIVILIZED AMERICA GREAT FOR THE PAST TWO CENTURIES!

(IT HAS BEEN THE RISE OF BLACK LIVES MATTER, ANTIFA SAVAGE DEMS AND BIG TECH WHO ARE DESTROYING AMERICA!)

………Many Americans hold religious convictions including belief in God, belief in heaven and hell, and the belief that God is not to blame for human suffering.

By Pamela Danziger DECEMBER 8, 2021

If you only watched corporate media’s coverage of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Organization abortion case before the Supreme Court last week, you’d think very few people still believed in Christianity and its values, prominent among which is the belief that life is divinely created and precious. But a recent poll suggests the majority of Americans do express a belief in God.

In a survey of some 6,500 American adults, Pew Research Center found that many Americans still hold religious convictions including a deep and abiding belief in God, belief in heaven and hell, and the belief that God is not to blame for human suffering.

58 Percent Say They Believe in the God of the Bible

In the survey, a majority of Americans (58 percent) define their God as the one described in the Bible. Another one-third (32 percent) believe in a god or spiritual power, although not necessarily that of the Bible. All told, nine in 10 Americans believe in some higher power working in our world.

As for respondents’ religious affiliation, Pew found some 66 percent identified as Christian — 42 percent Protestant and 21 percent Catholic. Another 28 percent claimed no religious affiliation, including 10 percent who were atheist or agnostic and another 18 percent who said they believed “nothing in particular.”

To square these seemingly contradictory survey findings — 58 percent believe in God of the Bible and 66 percent claim Christian religious affiliation — we can assume some professing Christians may not hold to a strictly biblical interpretation of God. Also, many of those who claim they believe nothing in particular still believe in God or a higher power of one kind or another.

Most Americans Believe in Heaven and Hell

Trusting in God means he controls our eternal destiny. Nearly three-fourths of all adult Americans (73 percent) believe in heaven.

Slightly fewer (62 percent) believe in hell, but who can blame them? The prospects of being consigned there for eternity are grim. It’s a place of torment (51 percent believe in physical suffering and 53 percent in psychological anguish) and eternal separation from God (49 percent).

On the other hand, Americans believe heaven is a place where one is free from suffering (69 percent) and where we are given perfectly healthy bodies (60 percent). God is there (62 percent), as are one’s loved ones who’ve passed on (65 percent).

Americans Don’t Blame God for Suffering

The philosophical question of why a good God would allow earthly suffering initially drove Pew to the survey, in which pollsters found some 80 percent of Americans believe the suffering in the world comes from the actions of people, not God.

That’s because God gives us free will. A slightly smaller percentage (about seven in 10) agree with the statement: “Human beings are free to act in ways that go against the plans of God or a higher power.”

There is also a widespread belief that everything in our lives happens for a reason (68 percent) and that reason is part of God’s greater plan (56 percent). Few (14 percent) let the suffering in the world shake their belief in God. Further, some 44 percent believe that Satan is largely responsible for the suffering in the world.

Thanks Be to God

Sometimes bad things just happen — a belief 86 percent of Americans share. When Americans observe terrible things happening in the world, they overwhelmingly give thanks. Some 71 percent report they feel thankful for the good things in their lives when they hear of other tragedies.

When confronted with others’ suffering, they also feel sadness for those affected (62 percent) and 40 percent have a desire to help those in need. It’s not surprising, then, that the United States is the world’s most charitable nation.

Not only do Americans believe in God who has a plan for their lives, they also believe that God hears them and cares for them. Some 67 percent believe they can get a definite answer to prayer, while 46 percent believe they have had their prayers answered.

God is of the spirit and Americans believe there is a spirit in them. For example, some 72 percent believe it is possible to have a near-death experience where their spirit leaves their body.

Beliefs in God, Good, and Evil Are Unshakeable

Despite the fact that this survey shows a level of unorthodox belief — for example, one-third believe in reincarnation — just about all adult Americans (91 percent in total) believe some higher power is in control of the things we cannot control.

That is God. Science or natural causes cannot fully explain the world as we see it and the things that happen in our lives  — a truth with which 83 percent of Americans agree.

As William Shakespeare’s Hamlet said, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” No matter what religion they profess, Americans are aware that there is more to life — a reason for being — that goes beyond the natural world.

Those of us who come from the Judeo-Christian tradition can explain why belief in God is so prevalent. God has written the knowledge of him and of good and evil on our hearts, as the Bible’s Jeremiah 31:33 says: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.”

Be it the Judeo-Christian God or some other higher power, most Americans believe God is the only way to explain how the universe came to be and why each of us was placed on this earth at this point in time. It is an unshakeable belief that most Americans profess. God is indeed good.Pamela Danziger is a market researcher specializing in the study of consumer behavior and motivation. Author of ten books, she shares insights as a senior contributor on Forbes.com. And as a Christian, she is co-founder of Faith Underground. She holds an M.L.S. from University of Maryland and B.A. in English Literature from Penn State.Photo ItalyGuides.it / YouTube

Is There Some Guy You Know WHO’S AS LOONY AS TODAY’S american president?

AUGUST 27, 2022 BY SCOTT JOHNSON at Power Line:

(DON’T GO BACK TO) ROCKVILLE

You may have heard that President Biden spoke at a public rally in Rockville, Maryland on Thursday to disparage “MAGA Republicans,” declare he had no respect for them, name-check President Trump, and decry the “semi-fascism” of those such as us who believe in securing the United States and our freedoms. It’s an upside down world.

The AP covered Biden’s speech here along with the video below. Ian Schwartz has posted a video with partial transcript here at RealClearPolitics. In the video one can observe Biden staring vacantly into the teleprompter. As always, it’s disquieting.

Biden calls out Trump voters in the name of “unity, hope and optimism.” He “mean[s it] sincerely.” Like his supposed rejection of “hyperbole,” that “sincerely” is one of several giveaways that he’s not exactly playing it straight. Many of the comments on the AP YouTube video aren’t necessarily buying the slop Biden serves up either. To take just one example: “Your right for taxpayer money to build my wall around my beach house and change my diapers are on the ballot.”

The speech puts me in mind the REM song “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville” on Reckoning. The chorus goes: “Don’t go back to Rockville / And waste another year.”

“We can’t afford another year” would be a little more like it in this case.

Quotable quote: “What we’re seeing now is either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy. It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the — I’m going to say something — it’s like semi-fascism.”

How Screwball CAN SCREWBALLS GET?

Court: No, you can’t force doctors or hospitals to perform “gender transition” surgery

JAZZ SHAW Aug 27, 2022 at HotAir:

(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

The Department of Health and Human Services, under directions from the Obama administration, had previously announced a new interpretation of one portion of Obamacare that applied to alleged discriminatory practices. In 2016, under the revised definitions, doctors, healthcare providers, and medical insurance providers who received federal funding could not refuse treatment or coverage on the basis of “sex.” The White House moved to expand that definition to include “gender” (pretending that gender is somehow different from sex), specifically covering transgender surgeries, hormone treatments, and all the rest. Abortions were also included in the expanded definitions. The Franciscan Alliance, a Catholic health care organization operating in Indiana and Illinois, went to court claiming that the revised guidelines violated their Freedom of Religion under the First Amendment. Yesterday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the plaintiffs and set the government policy aside. (National Review)

A federal appeals court blocked a Biden administration plan Friday that would coerce doctors to perform gender-transition medical procedures and abortions that violate their conscience or medical judgment.

The plaintiffs, a religious hospital and group of over 20,000 health-care professionals, launched the lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services in August 2016 after the federal government mandated that most health-care providers perform and provide insurance coverage for such procedures.

The district court had determined that HHS could not interpret or enforce Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits health-care programs that receive federal funds from discriminating against patients on the basis of sex, to compel Franciscan Alliance to insure gender-reassignment surgeries or abortions, according to the court filing.

The Biden administration was already heavily invested in this case, having issued a “Notice and Guidance on Gender Affirming Care” last year. That notice sought to reinforce the Obama-era policy and expand it in terms of “gender transition care.” Judge Don Willet rejected the government’s claims on Friday.

While maintaining the religious freedom rights of these medical care professionals is important, it seems to me that the eventual resolution of this case could represent a serious missed opportunity. There is clearly a religious angle to the question of abortion, but I’m unaware of the sacred texts of any of the established, major religions issuing any orders about “gender transition,” most likely because nobody would have seriously talked about such things when those texts were created. (Yes, there was a bit of cross-dressing going on among the female pharaohs, but that’s not the same thing.)

It seems as if the objections raised by the Franciscan Alliance could have been based solely on objections to governmental interference in proper medical care. Even though the American Medical Association has clearly gone woke and lost its collective mind, medical associations should be able to base their objections on one of the bedrocks of the medical profession found in the words of Hippocrates. “First Do No Harm.” (Actually, the current oath specifically says “I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm, “but you get the point.)

Intentionally cutting into a healthy body presenting no evidence of a malady is doing harm, plain and simple. That’s why plastic surgery was so controversial for a long time. But transgender advocates don’t refer to this as cosmetic surgery. We are repeatedly assured that this is “health care” of the “gender-affirming” variety. But performing an irreversible castration on a male body (most especially a child) and creating a permanent wound that will require constant medical attention for the rest of their life is not healthcare. The same goes for mastectomies and hysterectomies for young girls. And if doctors refuse to do these things based on their obligation to stay true to their oaths, the courts should have no trouble backing them up without dragging the First Amendment into it.

“It’s Insane!”

New LA social-justice plan: Commandeer hotel rooms and redistribute them to the homeless

by ED MORRISSEY Aug 26, 2022 at HotAir:

AP Photo/Richard Vogel

“It’s insane,” says a Los Angeles business interest group spokesman. “It isn’t going to solve the problem.” That never stopped LA voters and politicians from pursuing redistributionist policies before, and might not stop it this time either. Voters will soon decide whether to, as CNN puts it, require hotels and motels to offer vacant rooms to homeless people:

If voters give the green light, every hotel in town — from a suburban Super 8 Motel to glitzy hostelries like the storied Biltmore — will be required to report vacancies and welcome homeless guests who have a voucher from the city. The hotels would be paid market-rate for the rooms. The measure would also have implications for developers, who would have to replace any housing knocked down to make way for new hotels.

“They don’t seem to understand who the unhoused are,” says Petersen of hotel industry opponents. “We’re talking about seniors, students, working people — that’s who the voucher program would benefit the most.”

How to handle the city’s worsening housing and homelessness crises are principal planks in every campaign for local political office. In polls, more than half of LA voters say tackling homelessness is their number one concern. The county’s homeless services agency has an annual budget of over $800 million, which is spent on everything from counts to counseling, from shelters to permanent housing.

Hotels and motels already do that, of course, but this proposal would put those decisions in the hands of government officials:

They offer rooms to them now … at the going rate.

What LA voters will have to decide is whether to seize their property and redistribute it under government mandate. https://t.co/regsoNqz3m

— Ed Morrissey (@EdMorrissey) August 26, 2022

Be sure to watch the whole clip to catch just how insane this proposal would be — and how insane its advocates get. Kurt Peterson, who led the effort to get this on the ballot, calls opposition to this plan a kind of Jim Crow. “We don’t want to head backwards into the segregated south,” Peterson tells CNN at the 2:55 mark, “but that’s kind of the language that they’re talking about.”

No, my dude, this is not at all the language of the Jim Crow South, where rentals depended on skin color rather than cash. No one in Los Angeles is arguing for a skin-color-based exclusion to public-accommodation laws. The opposition to this measure is arguing that an ability to pay is a legit criterion for exclusion, which it always has been in every public accommodation context. And while seniors and students comprise part of the homeless, so do addicts and the mentally ill, who act in very unstable ways — and whose presence will chase off regular paying customers, not out of prejudice but out of rational fear for safety and security.

The response to the ability-to-pay argument is that the city will pay a “fair market” rate for the rooms. Who gets to decide that, however? Will the city pay the rate set by the hotel owners, or a rate they decide is “fair market”? And will the city indemnify hotel owners against the property damage and eviction issues that will inevitably result when people who have no economic stake in their housing act out, as shown in this clip? Don’t bet on it.

Hotels didn’t create the homeless problem in Los Angeles, and they’re not the solution for it either. LA’s ridiculous housing market, building restrictions, regulatory environment, and refusal to enforce vagrancy laws all contributed to the problem. The national decision to end commitment centers for the mentally ill plays a major role in this crisis as well. Maybe the city should start working on those issues before seizing and redistributing property to paper over their real failures … or maybe just build more homeless shelters themselves in the short term.

If this passes, California will get more housing thanks to people leaving the state, which is a trend so noteworthy already that the state government is putting up billboards begging people to stay. This may convince a lot of people not to come to LA for vacations as well. In the long run, California may solve all its problems by convincing people to stop being Californians. Let’s see if Angelenos lead the way.

It’s Nancy Pelosi’s Pelosi! No Wonder He’s In Trouble!

Paul Pelosi kicked out of lifetime membership in California Highway Patrol association

by KAREN TOWNSEND Aug 26, 2022 at HotAir:

Townhall Media

Paul Pelosi lives a life of privilege. He’s a very wealthy 82-year-old man married to the most powerful woman in the United States. On May 28 he crashed his 2021 Porsche Carrera 4S while under the influence of alcohol and an unnamed drug that was noted in his toxicology report. Pelosi pulled out in front of a jeep and caused a crash. When police asked for his license, he pulled it out and handed it over with his ’11-99 Foundation’ card underneath his license.

According to its website, “The CHP 11-99 Foundation provides emergency assistance to California Highway Patrol employees and scholarships to their children.” Donors to the charity receive recognition at various levels, depending on the amount of the donation. Paul Pelosi’s membership level listed on his card is the Gold Level. That is a $25,000-lifetime membership and includes his spouse – in this case, Speaker Pelosi. The swag that comes with that level of membership includes a leather wallet & brass ID card with the donor’s name and membership number. It looks like that is what Pelosi tried to give to the officer.

Well, now that Pelosi had pleaded guilty and received his punishment, the foundation is kicking him out. He behaved badly by flashing his membership card and expecting special treatment for it. The foundation also wants all the swag given to him, too. That includes the brass membership card. The officer on the scene, by the way, handed Pelosi that card right back and held on to his driver’s license.

‘After evaluating the events that [led] to Mr. Pelosi’s arrest and conviction, we are revoking Mr. Pelosi’s lifetime membership with the CHP 11-99 Foundation effective immediately,’ the foundation’s board and staff explained in a statement.

‘The mere presentation of his 11-99 Foundation identification credentials to law enforcement made it appear that he was presenting them for preferential treatment whether that was the case or not which violates the terms and conditions he agreed to on his membership application,’ the organization’s statement continued.

‘These actions reflected poorly on the 11-99 Foundation and undermined our important mission,’ it added.

The Foundation also noted that Pelosi had been asked to ‘return all membership items he was issued upon joining the 11-99 Foundation. Once we receive all membership items back, he will be refunded what he has donated.’

Clearly the foundation tries to keep everything above board and its reputation intact. Those applying for membership are given criminal and driving record record background checks. CHP bars applicants with felonies from joining. Here’s an interesting tidbit I had not read before now – Paul Pelosi has a misdemeanor manslaughter citation from a car crash in 1957 in which his brother was killed. Yikes.

‘We’d like to remind all our members and the public that the purpose of 11-99 membership is to show support for the sacrifice and life-saving work CHP employees carry out daily across the state to keep our families safe,’ the foundation said in a statement on Thursday.

‘We will continue to evaluate any violation of our membership terms and conditions that is brought to our attention with due process and revoke any member who is found to violate those terms.’

San Fran Gran was in Rhode Island during Paul’s boozy night out. Pelosi reused to take a breath test at the site of the crash but admitted to drinking one glass of champagne before dinner with friends about 7:00 pm and a glass of wine with dinner. However, the crash happened about 10:15 pm and Pelosi was very unsteady on his feet, hanging on to the side of his car for balance. Pelosi pleaded guilty to DUI – his blood alcohol content was 0.082%, just over legal limit. He was tested about two hours after the crash, according to reports.

Pelosi was sentenced to five days in jail and three years of probation. He already served two days in jail and received credit for good conduct for the two other days. He will work eight hours in the court’s work program instead of serving an additional day in jail. He did not attend his sentencing hearing. The Porsche is being auctioned off.

That Zuckerberg Who Seems To Have Little Value FOR TRUTH!

CONFIRMED: FBI Colluded With Big Tech To Prevent Voters From Learning About Hunter Biden’s Laptop

BY: TRISTAN JUSTICE at the Federalist:

AUGUST 26, 2022

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that Facebook algorithmically suppressed stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop during the 2020 election at the request of the FBI weeks before the November contest.

Speaking on Joe Rogan’s podcast on Thursday, Zuckerberg said the FBI approached employees at the tech giant to warn that the laptop was a vehicle of Russian interference.

“The FBI basically came to us and spoke to some folks on our team and was like, ‘Hey, just so you know, you should be on high alert. We thought that there was a lot of Russian propaganda on the 2016 election. We have it on notice that basically there’s about to be some kind of dump similar to that,’” Zuckerberg said. The CEO did not say precisely when the discussion took place.

In mid-October, the New York Post published content from the abandoned laptop revealing that then-candidate Joe Biden had been lying when he repeatedly claimed that he never spoke business with his son, “or with anyone else.” Emails found on the hard drive also showed that the former vice president stood to personally profit from Hunter’s business dealings thanks to close affiliates with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Moments after the stories broke, Facebook promptly announced through a corporate spokesman, who was previously a Democratic operative, that the company would be “reducing its distribution on our platform” pending verification by third-party fact-checkers.

“I think it was 5 to 7 days when it was basically being determined whether it was false,” Zuckerberg said, without disclosing which third parties conducted the network’s so-called fact check. “Fewer people saw it than would have otherwise.”

“We just kind of thought if the FBI, which I still view as a legitimate institution in this country — it’s like very professional law enforcement — they come to us and tell us we need to be on guard about something, then I want to take that seriously,” Zuckerberg added, six years after the FBI orchestrated a failed hoax to indict President Donald Trump as a Russian agent.

[READ: Think The FBI Deserves The Benefit Of The Doubt? This Laundry List Of Corruption Should Make You Think Again]

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At the same time, the FBI was actively working to suppress information surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop internally as disinformation.

On Wednesday, Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson published a whistleblower report from bureau officials who claim that agency leaders instructed agents to ignore the laptop’s contents.

“After the FBI obtained the Hunter Biden laptop from the Wilmington, DE computer shop, these whistleblowers stated that local FBI leadership told employees, ‘you will not look at that Hunter Biden laptop’ and that the FBI is ‘not going to change the outcome of the election again,’” Johnson wrote in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Further, these whistleblowers allege that the FBI did not begin to examine the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop until after the 2020 presidential election — potentially a year after the FBI obtained the laptop in December 2019.”

Johnson’s report comes a month after another whistleblower report was published by Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office with similar claims that agency officials provided cover for the Biden family.

The revelations of misconduct, combined with an unprecedented raid of a former president earlier this month, have tanked public confidence in the federal law enforcement agency. According to a Trafalgar poll out Wednesday that was shared exclusively with The Federalist, even a plurality of independents has lost trust in the Department of Justice and the FBI.

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