Consequences

At The Last Refuge Sundance provides us with the 2009 Obamacare vote in the US Senate, which took place at 1:38 a.m. on December 23.

Senators with a line drawn through their names are no longer in the Senate.

Where to go to get news that isn't fake or biased

Are you trying to figure out where to go to get news that is not fake or biased? Alicia Colon has written a post at American Thinker with helpful suggestions.

Transgenderism in children is child abuse: American College of Pediatricians

Over one year ago,

The American College of Pediatricians issued a statement this week condemning gender reclassification in children by stating that transgenderism in children amounts to child abuse.

“The American College of Pediatricians urges educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts – not ideology – determine reality.”

The policy statement, authored by Johns Hopkins Medical School Psychology Professor Paul McHugh, listed eight arguments on why gender reclassification is harmful.

1. Human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait: “XY” and “XX” are genetic markers of health – not genetic markers of a disorder.

2. No one is born with a gender. Everyone is born with a biological sex. Gender (an awareness and sense of oneself as male or female) is a sociological and psychological concept; not an objective biological one.

3. A person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking. When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such.

4. Puberty is not a disease and puberty-blocking hormones can be dangerous. Reversible or not, puberty-blocking hormones induce a state of disease – the absence of puberty – and inhibit growth and fertility in a previously biologically healthy child.

5. According to the DSM-V, as many as 98% of gender confused boys and 88% of gender confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after naturally passing through puberty.

6. Children who use puberty blockers to impersonate the opposite sex will require cross-sex hormones in late adolescence. Cross-sex hormones (testosterone and estrogen) are associated with dangerous health risks including but not limited to high blood pressure, blood clots, stroke and cancer.

7. Rates of suicide are twenty times greater among adults who use cross-sex hormones and undergo sex reassignment surgery, even in Sweden which is among the most LGBQT – affirming countries.

8. Conditioning children into believing a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful as child abuse.


The left, as one might expect, reacted swiftly with claws fully extended.

Think Progress described the American College of Pediatricians as a “hate group masquerading as pediatricians.”

The Huffington Post said that “Once again, Paul McHugh has used the ever more tarnished name of Johns Hopkins to distort science and spread transphobic misinformation.”

McHugh, who formerly served as Johns Hopkins’ psychiatrist in chief, issued an opinion last year stating the transgenderism is a “mental disorder” and sex change is a “medical impossibility.”

The statement was also signed by Drs. Michelle A. Cretella, M.D., president of the American College of Pediatricians, and Quentin Van Meter, M.D., the organization’s vice president.

from March 25, 2016 Michael Dorstewitz at BizPacReview, "American College of Pediatrics reaches decision: Transgenderism of children is child abuse"

Run for Congress...What do you have to lose?'

Krak at Ace of Spades links to a report in the Washington Free Beacon about the fellow in the photo above, whose name is Jesse Jackson Jr.

Jesse Jackson Jr. Collects $138K Annually From Govt After Being Convicted of Illegally Spending Campaign Cash. The records, which were contained within documents for his divorce case, show that the former congressman receives $100,000 in tax-free workers compensation benefits. The rest of the money is coming from Social Security Disability insurance payments. Jackson is said to be receiving the funds because of his bipolar disorder and depression.

Ari Wilkenfeld, a D.C.-based employment lawyer, told the Chicago Tribune that it is highly unusual for an individual to collect federal workers' compensation for a condition such as bipolar disorder.

"What's remarkable here is by his getting workers' comp, it appears that Congressman Jackson's attorneys have convinced the government that his bipolar disorder was created by the rigors of being a member of Congress," Wilkenfeld said.

In 2013, Jackson Jr. was sentenced to 30 months in prison for spending $750,000 from his campaign on personal items such as luxury vacations and fur coats. His wife, Sandra, pled guilty to filing false tax returns and was sentenced to 12 months in prison.

Jackson ultimately spent 22 months in correctional facilities, a halfway house, and home detention. He currently is on supervised release.

Read more here.

Settled science

Tell me when this guy finally stops jumping up and down on his seat.

Trump and Churchill

Bookworm compares Donald Trump to Winston Churchill. Read it here.

Are people inherently cruel?

After reading a cruel obituary of Alan Colmes at Slate, Ace of Spades wrote,

1. People are inherently cruel. They enjoy inflicting cruelty on others. It makes them feel good to be cruel to others.

2. People are self-deluding and believe themselves good. It makes them feel good to think themselves good.

3. These two things are hard to reconcile, but not impossible, because people are also good at making up Reasons to justify doing bad things and even praise themselves for doing those bad things. As they say, you are the easiest person in the world for you to fool. You want to be fooled, after all. And why would you have reason to lie to yourself? As far as you know, you're the most reliable, honest person in the world, and you've never given yourself any reason to doubt your word before.

4. The Reason usually offered to reconcile points one and two and is that there is a Higher Obligation to Something or Other which justifies cruelty on a (self-serving) philosophical, quasi-religious or actually religious basis. People tell themselves they are doing good by doing evil, and then this lets them feel both good about being "good people" and also lets them feel good about being cruel to innocuous nobodies. Not only can you do tremendously cruel things which would normally be completely unjustifiable and cause you to feel slightly bad for not being as good of a good person as you previously deluded yourself, but you can actually feel even better about yourself being an even better person than you previously thought, because you have the Bravery and Integrity to say cruel things which need saying, which many of the fussy-pants polite people just are too cowardly or too stupid to say.

5. The better someone tells me he is, the more certain I become that he is a monster. (Also: The tougher someone attempts to present himself on social media, the more confident I am that he is a physical and emotional weakling.)

6. People frequently insist to me how good and noble they are. The entire purpose of Twitter sometimes seems to be to provide a forum in which committed sociopaths can tell the world about their enormous hearts and pure spirits and noble intentions and grand ideals.

7. People in general are monsters and I have very little use for them.

Actually... Just to extend this: I have long believed that people tell you exactly who they are, right up front, if you bother to listen. I noticed some time ago that all the people I'd had failed relationships with told me within the first hour why the relationship would fail -- but I of course wasn't listening. I'm not saying they were bad people. I'm just saying they were pretty upfront about the reasons we were a bad match. I just didn't pick up on it.

I noticed a long time ago that anyone who claims to be "witty" in their Twitter profile is never witty, and is usually pretty dull.

When people describe themselves, they are not describing themselves. They are describing the self they aspire to be, what they aspire to be generally points out what they are currently failing to be.

It does seem to me a general rule that whatever someone bangs on about the loudest as a putative reason to recommend him is almost certainly actually telling you about his deepest insecurities and darkest failings.

In the comments, Notsothoreau writes, "It's just virtue signaling, as in "I am virtuous because I vote for people with a D after their name". You are somehow virtuous these days if you go on Amazon and bad mouthed Ivanka's perfume (which you didn't buy and have never smelled).

There was a time when people were virtuous boycotting grapes. Now they are virtuous by supporting the illegals that put Cesar Chavez's unionized pickers out of business. And the worst is saved up when someone they don't like dies."

Clinton fundraiser made video in case of his death

Daily Mail reports,

Illegal fundraiser for the Clintons made secret tape because he feared being ASSASSINATED over what he knew - and used it to reveal Democrats' bid to silence him.

Chung, one of the main players in the 'Chinagate' scandal, was accused of giving over $300,000 to the Democratic National Committee on behalf of the head of China's military intelligence agency during Clinton's reelection bid.
Chung cooperated with the Department of Justice during the investigation, and was sentenced to five years of probation for campaign finance violations, bank fraud and tax evasion in 1998.

Chung, one of the main players in the 'Chinagate' scandal, was accused of giving over $300,000 to the Democratic National Committee on behalf of the head of China's military intelligence agency during Clinton's reelection bid.
Chung cooperated with the Department of Justice during the investigation, and was sentenced to five years of probation for campaign finance violations, bank fraud and tax evasion in 1998.

...with assistance from the former government official, Johnny Chung produced an elaborate videotaped testimony that was secreted to friends and family to be forwarded to the media in the case of his death.'

Chung described on the tape how Democrats on the House Committee on Government Reform tried to dissuade him from testifying publicly before the committee by sending his attorney a letter telling him he could plead the Fifth Amendment.
Chung said his attorney thought the letter was 'ludicrous' and a veiled threat from Washington Democrats that they wanted Chung to stay quiet.

After Chung agreed to cooperate with prosecutors on the Chinagate investigation, he feared his knowledge of the Clinton campaign finance scandal and the Chinese influence operation could make him a target for assassination.

In total he visited the White House 57 times in a two-year span – eight of these meetings were 'off the books.'
Most of the meetings were with Hillary Clinton or her staff. During one of these trips, Chung personally handed a $50,000 check to Hillary Clinton's chief of staff Maggie Williams.

Chung even helped arrange for Bill Clinton to meet with the source of the money – a top Chinese military official – at a Los Angeles fundraiser.

His concern about his safety was understandable, given that there had been three attempts on his life which required FBI protection… and given his knowledge of what happened to people such as Ron Brown, who as Secretary of Commerce, was deeply involved in arranging – and selling seats on - Clinton administration trade missions to China,' added Abernethy.

Read more here.

"it’s probably best to avoid (a) excessive weight gain, and (b) feminism, both of which seem likely to engender alienation, resentment and fits of random hysteria."

David Thompson writes about a woman who is seething with empowerment here.

hat tip Ace

"Repeat until true: Islam isn't the problem!"

Krakatoa writes at Ace of Spades,

I'm not prone to conspiracy theories.

But it is becoming harder and harder to pretend that the current powers running the EU member states not only wouldn't mind if the ideological threats to their power structure are removed by any means possible, but are perhaps even supporting all means possible.

Geert Wilders has had to suspend his campaign movements because one of the Dutch Secret Service agents that had been assigned to his security detail was found passing his movement information to Moroccan (Islamist) criminal gangs.

In a sane world, this agent, whose name hasn't been released but whose superiors admit to having a "Moroccan background", would never have been put in such a sensitive position.

But in the world we live, law abiding people are forced into dangerous scenarios demanded by political correctness.

Wilders has been under police protection since the brutal killing of Theo van Gogh by a Muslim in 2004.

In security tests in 2010, his security detail permitted 2 out of 4 attempts at smuggling a firearm into secure areas.

And now the powers-that-be came close to participating in what for all intents looks like an assassination plot through either a bad vetting process, or outright indifference to the very life of an ideological enemy.

The only good news is that Mr. Wilders is likely going to be the next PM of the Netherlands, assuming he stays alive that long.

An "elected" woman

Guest post by Suzann Darnall

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen
Matthew 6:9-13

It is a mystery to me why there was outrage at Melania Trump for beginning a speech with the Lord’s prayer. If you believe in the biblical God, what is there to cause offense? If not, what in this prayer is offensive to the average moral and ethical person? If you do not believe in any god at all, are the words not a very nice, pleasant thought for the day?

While First Ladies do not run for office, they are put through the wringer of scrutiny every bit as much as their husbands who are actually vying for the office of President of the United States. Sometimes a wife can have a huge impact on her husband’s chances at winning or losing the Oval Office. They have an unpaid position for so long as their husband is in office. While not on the ballot at the polls, they are in many ways elected right along with their husband. Kinda mandatorily volunteered.

The bible speaks of the elect. Elect lady and elect sister are mentioned in various verses. An elect woman is one who exemplifies certain attributes. Often involving family and faith.

As a stay-at-home wife, mother, grandmother, Constitutional Conservative, and God-fearing woman, I am excited about Melania Trump as the First Lady. She seems to be a very positive role model, a loving wife, and devoted mother. She was successful in her own right before marrying her husband, yet seems to have no problem stepping into the role of supporter instead of star. Although, I think she is going to be a very brightly shining star of the political world for so long as her husband is President.

She is surrounded by an aura of graciousness and elegance. Despite living in the world of great wealth and power, she does not exude any hint of snobbery. While she does not have the down-to-earth persona of Laura Bush, you get the distinct feeling she would treat guests just as nicely.

I was intrigued when I read her cause célèbre will focus on Women’s Issues and Difficulties. Probably served with a sidecar of standing against Cyberbullying, which has plagued the Trump family from the get-go. Especially hateful have been attacks on President Trump’s wife, Melania, their 10-year old son, Barron, and his adult daughter, Ivanka.

I am interested to see what her take on Women’s Issues will constitute. I have a feeling it will be a much more practical approach than what some on the Progressive spectrum might prefer. I do not think she is going to be out there advocating about more freebies for women who are perfectly capable of buying their own birth control. I also do not think she is going to be in favor of ever expanding access to abortions at taxpayer expense. I realize that the Left pretty much thinks Women’s Issues start and stop at our reproductive organs (pun intended), but I think Mrs. Trump is looking to deal with the real difficulties facing some women in America.

I suspect she will be looking towards real life problems and possible solutions. Perhaps such areas as jobs, education, childcare, domestic abuse, and other concerns which have real world impact on women and their families. Not the never-never-land litany of never-ending free stuff that is demanded by Progressives, Which, if they don’t get causes them to call everyone else sexist and/or racist. Of course, most of them still call everyone else sexist and racist even when they get their free stuff ‘cause it is seemingly never enough of the free stuff.

As someone who was formerly involved, at a very low and very local level, in the beauty and fashion world, I am delighted that we have a First Lady who looks like a supermodel. Oh, that’s right, she was a supermodel! I have always enjoyed seeing attractive women, with great hair and makeup, wearing pretty clothes. When I was little it was Barbie, paper dolls and Disney Princesses. When I got older it was fashion shows, makeup artistry, and beauty magazines. So, I am going to enjoy seeing Melania and Ivanka looking fabulous!

But, I have to admit that the two things which most intrigue me about Melania Trump is her commitment to her son and her faith. As a woman who is very family and faith oriented, it is appealing to me when we have a woman of faith who is first and foremost a mother as First Lady. Someone who I feel will not be disparaging of those women who choose to put family and God first on their list of priorities. I am pretty sure Melania will not sneer at those of us who actually like to bake cookies and are clinging to our religion. At the same time, I believe she will have very real insight into the affairs faced by working women and business women, having seen life from that side as well.

I am not saying Melania Trump is perfect. I am not putting her up on a pedestal or nominating her for sainthood. I am simply saying this is a woman I can admire. She seems to have a love of family, country, and God. What’s not to like about that? The fact that she likes to wear pretty clothes and look nice is a bonus

One of my favorite scriptural passages is Proverbs 31:10-31:

10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.
12 She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
13 She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.
14 She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth her food from afar.
15 She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.
16 She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
17 She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.
18 She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.
19 She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.
20 She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.
21 She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.
22 She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.
23 Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.
24 She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.
25 Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.
26 She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.
27 She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.
28 Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.
29 Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.
30 Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
31 Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.

To me, this quote speaks volumes about what each and every woman has the potential to become. Wife, mother, homemaker, business owner, woman of God. Prospects abound. I see a lil bit of this in Melania Trump. I strive to see this in myself. It is a pretty good goal.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could all be elect women? Let’s hope we can support one another to be the best we can be. Build one another up. Not tear each other down. Not just women supporting women, but people supporting people. Let us all be elect. The chosen, the elite, the favored, the crème de la crème. And, just as importantly, let us all treat one another as if every person is just as special as any other.

Telling the truth on behalf of the people who elected her!

n. Janet Nguyen (R-Garden Grove). (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)
State Senator Janet Nguyen is removed from the California Senate, where she was telling the truth about Tom Hayden's support of the communists who were killing Americans and members of her family in Viet Nam.
Read more here.

hat tip Instapundit

Caving

hat tip Milo

"If you think they are going to give you your country back without a fight, you are sadly mistaken!"

Steve Bannon at CPAC

The invasion of town hall meetings by progressives with professional signs.

At Ace of Spades Warden has some beautifully done satire about the town hall meetings that are being invaded by Soros-funded progressives.

Now they are asking America to lead!

Bookworm links to this Prager U. video on why America must lead. My reaction? Where was this guy during the eight years of Obama's failure to lead?

Persuasion versus coercion

There continues to be a lot of discussion about Milo's situation. Ace of Spades goes on lengthy essays. One of Ace's comments, someone named ShainS summarizes:

...there are basically two types of societies -- those based on persuasion (for which he is arguing and in which he, and most of us, want to live), and those based on coercion (the ends justify the means crowd, which includes ruling-class "conservatives").

Emmanuel!

Over on Ann Voskamp's front porch the guest post is written by Bob Goff. Have you had someone in your life who has said, "I'm with you?" Is there somebody in your life now who needs you to be with them?

The Trump revolution may not be on such solid ground

David Goldman writes,

The empire strikes back: After barely a month the tone in the Trump Administration has moderated. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was calm, assured and, well, moderate in his CNBC interview this morning. The single most important thing he said was that 3% growth was achievable. It certainly is; roll back some of Obama's business-killing regulations and cut corporate taxes almost any way you please and America can get back to 3% growth. That doesn't make America great again; it doesn't even restore the lost growth of Obama's non-recovery. But it is a lot better than Obama's 2%.

Mike Pence was just in Europe praising the European Community (while Steve Bannon reportedly told Germany's ambassador to the US that we would rather deal with Germany bilaterally, something that is simply impossible under the current treaties).

Mike Flynn is gone, not because he did anything wrong but because the president gave way to a wall of attacks claiming that no-one in the Pentagon or intelligence community could work with him. Movement conservatives like John Bolton are out; Gen McMaster is in, an officer who defended America's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan with eloquence and passion, e.g. here: "The professed war-weariness among populations who have sent only a small percentage of their sons and daughters to fight in recent wars may derive from a failure to communicate effectively what is at stake in those wars and explain why the efforts are worthy of the risks, resources and sacrifices necessary to sustain the strategy." (H/T Benjamin Bilski). That's exactly the opposite of the stance that won Trump the election, and a radically different attitude: "Professed war-weariness" sounds deplorable to me. Over at State, Rex Tillerson reportedly will hire Trump critic and Bush State Department official Brian Hook to run policy planning.

The problem is that having cast out the elite, we have no-one with a CV left to hire. Trump's revolutionaries tripped over their own shoelaces. Proposing to put the One China policy on the table in trade negotiations, or hinting at the breakup of the European Union, or extending overtures to the European alternative right, were really dangerous errors. China will fight a war to keep Taiwan in its territory--it is not a subject for negotiation. If the EU breaks up, Germany will move east (Germany and China are now each other's largest trading partners). Angela Merkel is awful (and I've attacked her in print for the past year and more) but she's better than the bunch of Putin puppets who would replace her. (I don't mind making a deal with Putin as long as it is from a position of American strength).

Trump has a cadre of people around him whose job it is to walk into the Oval Office and say, "Mr. President, you can't do that." Tinkering with the One China policy was one such no-can-do; suggesting that the EU should break up was another. It would be a shame if the Trump revolution lasted only for a month before it faced its Thermidor. If that happens, we revolutionaries will share some of the blame.

"The second you think that all your good fortune is a product of your virtue, you become highly judgmental, lacking empathy, totally without self-awareness, arrogant, stupid--I mean all the stuff that our ruling class is."

Tucker Carlson tells his Atlantic interviewer,

The second you think that all your good fortune is a product of your virtue, you become highly judgmental, lacking empathy, totally without self-awareness, arrogant, stupid--I mean all the stuff that our ruling class is."

...It’s this assumption—and it’s held by a lot of people I live around—that you’re on God’s side, everyone else is an infidel, and by calling them names you’re doing the Lord’s work. I just don’t think that’s admirable, and I’m not impressed by that.”

Fair or not, this is the essence of Carlson’s case against the educated elites and well-heeled technocrats that comprise America’s ruling class (not to mention his neighborhood). They are too certain of their own righteousness, too dismissive of dissenters, too unwilling to entertain new ideas.

When Carlson first joined primetime last year, he assigned his show a mission statement: “The sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink.” To his critics, the slogan is crazy-making for the brazen hypocrisy they believe it displays. But the potency of the host’s performance is not rooted in personal purity—it’s in his ability to capture the sentiment of a rapidly mutating conservative movement.

“Putting smart people in charge of things is fine, but what you really want is wise people,” he tells me, and then quotes something his father used to say: “The beginning of wisdom is to know what an asshole you are.”

Read more here.