May 19, 2024
DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR NEW ZEALAND: Transgender 18-year-old attempts surgery on himself at home due to lack of access.
A transgender young person’s attempt to perform top surgery on himself is a clear result of historical underfunding and inequitable access to gender affirming healthcare, an expert says.
The 18-year-old turned up at an emergency department after attempting to perform a bi-lateral mastectomy, also known as top surgery, at home. He was several hours through the procedure when he became concerned he would cause nerve damage.
The case was published in the New Zealand Medical Journal on Friday and was described as an “act of desperation”.
The young person was facing long wait times for a surgery referral in the public health system and was unable to afford to go private – which can cost up to $35,000.
“This is a clear result of the historical underfunding and inequitable access to gender affirming care around the country,” said Jennifer Shields, president of the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa (PATHA).
“Research shows that gender affirming hormones and surgeries are essential for the wellbeing of many trans people,” she said.
When does New Zealand get its version of the Cass Report?
DEVELOPING: Iranian President’s Helicopter Suffers ‘Accident’ or ‘Incident’ — Either Way, It Went Down.
UPDATE:
My thoughts are with the @washingtonpost obituary team in this difficult time as they fiercely debate whether to call Ebrahim Raisi an “austere religious scholar”, a “patriotic anti-Zionist leader” or a “zealous anti-corruption crusader”.
— Gabriel Noronha (@GLNoronha) May 19, 2024
UPDATE (5:27 pm): It’s not an obit, since there’s no official word yet, but currently, the WaPo is going with “protégé and trusted confidant of Iran’s supreme leader, 85-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Raisi was elected president in 2021 after a decorated career as an ultraconservative in Iran’s judiciary.”
No mention of the many executions that Raisi signed off on. Even the House of Stephanopoulos is noting that in the late 1980s, “International rights groups estimate that as many as 5,000 people were executed. Raisi served on the commissions.”
UPDATE (6:05 pm): If Raisi Is Dead: Implications for the Islamic Republic of Iran.
DOES THAT REALLY COUNT AS A “RETURN?” Chevy Camaro Could Return as a Fun-to-Drive Electric Car, GM President Says.
INCREASE YOUR GRIP: Grip Strength Tester Trainer – Dynamometer Handgrip Measurer. #CommissionEarned Glenn and I just used one of these, I have a sad grip strength but his was super strong. You can use this gadget to practice increasing your grip.
ICYMI: Ex Marine Arrested For Planning Murder Spree in ‘Gun-Free’ Zones ‘In the White Community,’
His motivation comes straight out of Critical Race Theory: “I want to cause mayhem on the white community. The reason i specifically want to target white people is because as a black male, they will NEVER understand my struggles. Same way I will never understand their struggles, but I don’t care to. I want to erase them. All of them really, but in this case as many as I possibly can.”
This kind of thinking comes directly out of our universities, the toxic output of a toxic industry.
FIND YOUR PHONE: Apple AirTag 4 Pack. #CommissionEarned
THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF BEZOS: The Washington Post’s Disgrace.
In that chat, several people pressed Adams to send the New York Police Department to clear out Columbia University’s dangerous, disgraceful, and violent pro-Hamas encampment, something that did not happen until student reprobates further escalated the situation and broke into and occupied a campus building several days later.
The Post surfaces no evidence—zero—to indicate there is any connection between the demands made in the chat and the cops’ appearance at Columbia, since the decision, of course, was left to Columbia University’s weak-kneed president Minouche Shafik.
A spokeswoman for the newspaper declined to comment, and the paper did not publish the piece in its print version on Friday.
Maybe this is why. “The messages offer a window into how some prominent individuals have wielded their money and power in an effort to shape American views of the Gaza war,” the reporters write ominously. Get it? The piece is a modern-day echo of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in which Woodward and Bernstein—er, Natanson and Felton—mimic the uncovering of a secret plot.
We hope you’re sitting down, because the Post reveals that several of the billionaires also “worked with the Israeli government” to screen film footage of the Oct. 7 massacre compiled by the IDF and one of them, the hedge funder Bill Ackman, even facilitated its screening at Harvard.
And as Jeff Jacoby notes, the WaPo has made one of their periodic reminders that they’re simply Democratic Party activists with bylines: A cynical Washington Post tells Biden: Nothing matters more than beating Trump.
Of course the Times leans well to the left and many of its journalists revile Trump. All the more reason, then, for Kahn to emphasize that it is not the newspaper’s responsibility to ensure a Republican defeat. The Times may — the Times does — often fail to resist its liberal bias. Nonetheless, its highest-ranking news editor deserves credit for articulating the principle that the paper ought to uphold.
Now consider the principle articulated by The Washington Post opinion section.
Last week, the Post’s editorial board — which speaks with the institutional voice of the newspaper — declared that it regards President Biden’s reelection in November as a matter of such importance that it will not fault him for promoting misbegotten policies that are designed to attract votes. The president’s policies “clearly pander to core constituencies,” the editorial board conceded, and “some of these policies are quite bad — even dangerous.” Other pandering by the White House may be “less obviously dangerous but still violates common sense and principle.”
For example, the Post cites the president’s refusal to approve a ban on menthol cigarettes. The editorial board has strongly supported such a ban, which it maintains would save tens of thousands of mostly Black lives. But as a political matter, it knows that if the White House were to issue the ban, the Democrats would lose a significant number of voters “whom Mr. Biden can ill afford to alienate in this close election.” And since “Mr. Trump’s reelection is the kind of nightmare scenario any responsible politician would go to great lengths to prevent,” the Post concludes that it is responsible, or at least acceptable, for Biden to let those deaths occur rather than weaken his odds of reelection. “Democrats are scrapping for every vote,” the editorial asserts, so this is no time to be fastidious about matters of principle, or about right and wrong.
In a lifetime of newspaper reading, I have never encountered an editorial so cynical in its willingness to discard any principle other than to win at all costs. “Trim your principles, Democrats, and pander away,” the Post advises Biden and his party. To “play Machiavelli” isn’t the worst thing, it says — the worst thing is “losing.”
Or as Matt Taibbi wrote in December: Democracy Dies in Daylight: Eight years ago the Washington Post pledged to save democracy, but now argues we need to be saved from it.
UPDATE: NYT Carrying Biden’s Water — This ‘Article’ Is Like a Press Release.
In 2005, Editor & Publisher casually noted, “Welcome to life under the Washington Post-New York Times swap. As part of a secret arrangement formed more than 10 years ago, the Post and Times send each other copies of their next day’s front pages every night,” so I can’t say it’s surprising to see the Gray Lady also working so blatantly to advance Biden’s reelection bid.
PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Biden Compares MAGA Republicans to 1950s-Era Segregationists.
But as Matt [Margolis] points out in his excellent piece on blacks and polls, black voters over 50 are more susceptible to the machinations of Democrats trying to scare black voters with visions of hooded whites coming for them.
Matt points out that “recent polling shows that black voters 50 years old and older still back Biden 82% to 8%. However, younger black voters, between 18 and 49 years old, a stunning 25% support Donald Trump.”
Joe Biden spoke on Friday at the National Museum of African American History and Culture to an audience largely made up of older black voters and raised the specter of segregationists hoping to stampede black voters to vote for him.
Biden recalled his meeting with the “Little Rock Nine” and tried to tie MAGA Republicans with the segregationists that opposed them.
“The Little Rock Nine were met with vitriol and violence. Today the vitriol comes in other insidious forms—an extreme movement led by my predecessor and his MAGA Republican allies, backed by an extreme Supreme Court that gutted affirmative action in college admissions. My predecessor and his extreme MAGA friends are now going after diversity, equity and inclusion all across America,” Biden said. “They want a country for some —not for all.”
Biden has no business criticizing MAGA for being segregationists. As a congressman in the 1970s, Biden fiercely resisted busing and school desegregation.
And how: Speaking of George Wallace…:
But since Obama brought it up, it’s worth noting that the only person in modern American politics to have repeatedly praised Wallace and other segregationists is Joe Biden. It was Biden who bragged that in 1973 Wallace considered him “one of the outstanding young politicians of America.” It was Biden who wrote in 1975 that the “Democratic Party could stand a liberal George Wallace.” It was Biden who in 1981 told a black witness in the Senate that “sometimes even George Wallace is right.” It was Biden who, while campaigning for the presidency in Alabama in 1987, claimed that he’d been the recipient of an award from Wallace in 1973 (it probably wasn’t true; but what a thing to brag about!), and then boasted that Delaware was “on the South’s side in the Civil War.”
“Biden was also buddies with J. William Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and a segregationist and anti-Semite who would later become a mentor to the Clintons.”
As well as another fellow Democrat, Robert Byrd: Herschel Walker says ‘Democrats do not like America’ and slams media for not grilling Joe Biden over his friendship with former KKK member-turned senator Robert Byrd.
Not to mention this former aficionado of blackface:
Then there was Biden’s terrible optics in 2022, when he modeled himself after the ultimate segregationist:
And while Biden is busy trashing “MAGA Republicans,” in the past he was eager to attack their predecessors as well, using similarly hyperbolic language.
Flashback to 2012: Biden: Romney’s approach to financial regulation will ‘put y’all back in chains.’
And a flashback to 2011, when Biden called Tea Party members “terrorists.”
IT’S JUST ONE MORE SCIENCELESS ECO-FAD: There’s little science behind ‘No Mow May.’. One more of many.
GOODER AND HARDER, CALIFORNIA:
Oakland is now replacing traffic lights with stop signs due to homeless encampments stealing from Oakland's electrical boxes: pic.twitter.com/Y2lFQ8BJsM
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 19, 2024
Oakland’s last Republican mayor left office in 1977.
Meanwhile, at America’s Newspaper of Record: God Baffled That Democrats Managed To Ruin California. “‘You guys were literally given everything! How do you even do that?’ said a spokesangel for the Almighty. ‘You have perfect weather, beautiful coastline, great surfing, skiing in the mountains, fish tacos, rolling vineyards, the list goes on. How on earth did you manage to take the most beautiful stretch of land on God’s earth and turn it into a huge dump? It doesn’t make any sense.’”
MICROBIOME NEWS: Gut bacteria enhance cancer immunotherapy in mouse study.
IT’S AN ELECTION YEAR, SO ASSUME THEY’RE JUST GETTING STARTED: Anti-Israel uprisings hit dangerous new extreme in Michigan.
HOW ARE YOU GOING TO SPREAD PRE-ELECTION FEAR, THEN? Expert explains how pasteurization protects against avian flu.
21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: The AI ‘concierge’ that will decide who you date.
Dating app users may soon be able to avoid awkward meet-ups with potential partners by using AI “concierges” to do the dating for them.
Users would have an AI avatar programmed with their “interests, likes, dislikes, even conversation habits”, said Glamour, and this bot would chat with other users’ bots to see if “the two real people behind the bots might be a good match”.
ANOTHER REASON TO BAN SOCIAL MEDIA, OBVIOUSLY: Social media use linked to higher risk of vaping, smoking.
HOW IT STARTED:
● Who Said It, Adolf Hitler or Taylor Swift? Can you tell the difference between a quote from one of history’s most infamous revenge-seeking megalomaniacs and Adolf Hitler? Plenty of people couldn’t.
—The Atlantic, August 30th, 2013.
● White Supremacists Call Taylor Swift An Aryan Goddess.
—NPR, May 27th, 2016.
—The Root, September 20th, 2019.
—The College Fix, July 18th, 2021.
How it’s going: Historic German Church Hosts Worship Service Features Taylor Swift Songs.
—MRC TV, Thursday.
CHRISTIAN TOTO: Here’s Why We Needed ‘Judge and the Justice.’ Mark Judge, who Christine Blasey Ford claims saw Kavanaugh’s abuse, reveals all.
PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:
Shot: Robert Kennedy Jr.: We need laws to ‘punish global warming skeptics.’
“Those guys are doing the Koch Brothers bidding and are against all the evidence of the rational mind, saying global warming does not exist,” Mr. Kennedy said, Climate Depot reported. “They are contemptible human beings.”
He then turned his attacks directly at the Koch Brothers, accusing them of “polluting our atmosphere,” he said, the blog reported.
“I think it’s treason. Do I think the Koch Brothers are treasonous — yes, I do,” Mr. Kennedy said, Climate Depot reported. “They are enjoying making themselves billionaire by impoverishing the rest of us. Do I think they should be in jail — I think they should be injuring three hots and a cot at the Hague with all the other war criminals. Do I think the Koch brothers should be tried for reckless endangerment? Absolutely, that is is criminal offense and they ought to be serving time for it.”
—Cheryl Chumley, the Washington Times, September 23rd, 2014.
Chaser:
Breaking… @RobertKennedyJr rejects Biden's climate agenda:
1. While he believes climate is an "existential" threat🙄, he says has "no problems with people who don't believe that."
2. Rejects "very, very heavy top-down controls" and subsides to industry.
3. Says if we do… pic.twitter.com/E0pJXLUiNk
— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) May 19, 2024
Of course Mr. Bond, Spectre does have its methods to deal with those who are uncooperative:
Voters: We would love someone to just act normal like 30% of the time.
Biden: My uncle was eaten by cannibals.
Trump: Buy the only Trump-approved Bible for $59.99!
RFK: pic.twitter.com/lkj2rpi8r0
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) May 17, 2024
NEO: The Ghouls of Gaza.
The article also adds this detail about Shani Louk – and perhaps it is true of the other bodies as well:
Louk’s father, Nissim Louk, said his daughter’s body had been discovered in a cool, deep tunnel and was still in excellent condition when it was brought home.
Hamas knew these people were dead but they allowed the families to believe they were still alive, the better to torment the relatives and encourage them to pressure the Israeli government to make concessions. It was also understand that a Rafah operation by the IDF would probably lead to the finding of some hostages, dead or alive. But the whole world, including Biden and company, seems to have wanted to protect Rafah.
Read the whole thing.
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A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE HEAVILY INVESTED IN PEOPLE BEING WRONG: Planned ‘Everything You Know About Palestine is Wrong’ event at UCLA draws outrage, protest. Some of those people are in the UCLA administration.
JON GABRIEL: As unhappy as Americans are, Biden-Trump debates may actually be a welcome break.
Great news, everyone: Joe Biden and Donald Trump have agreed to hold two debates. If you want a preview, just watch some old episodes of “The Muppet Show” where those two old guys bicker in the balcony.
To be fair, I’m surprised either candidate agreed to these no-win campaign stunts. Scheduled for June 27 and Sept. 10, the debates promise to be a minefield of gaffes that will take years off the lives of any staffers cringing in the wings.
If no one falls off the dais or starts chewing the lectern, both sides will call it a success.
Neither candidate is popular, to put it kindly. According to a recent Pew Research poll, 48% of registered voters support Biden, 49% support Trump, and 49% want both candidates kicked off the ballot.
A couple of old geezers talking smack
That last sentiment grows the younger the sample gets. Two-thirds of voters under 30 say they would replace both candidates if they had the chance.
At least I’m young at heart.
“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020, since then he hasn’t shown up for a debate,” Biden said in a post on X. “Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal.”
Trump, for his part, said Biden was the “WORST debater I have ever faced – He can’t put two sentences together!” He ended his Truth Social post with, “Let’s get ready to Rumble!!!”
Oldest democracy on the planet or “Jerry Springer” promo: you be the judge.
It’s 2024, so embrace the healing power of “And.” But will the debates actually happen? Drug Testing Prior to Presidential Debates? From the comments: “You are missing the point. Trump made the ‘demand’ to propogate [sic] the narrative that POTATUS is too old and senile to be President. It doesn’t matter if Biden submits to the test, gives results, whatever. Trump just placed another Free Ad by manipulating the media. Marketing genius.”
