Day: March 9, 2023

The Catholic Church’s LGBTQ Odyssey Welcome to the full-fledged freefall.

BY JOSEPH HIPPOLITO

SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-catholic-churchs-lgbtq-odyssey/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

As it confronts perhaps the ultimate challenge to its credibility, the Catholic Church finds itself in full-fledged freefall.

Two American bishops publicly and strongly disagree about whether LGBTQ Catholics need to repent of their sexual behavior. One, the recently appointed cardinal of San Diego, argued for what he called “radical inclusion” without repentance. Another, a specialist in canon law, did more than disagree vigorously. He called his fellow prelate a heretic who should be relieved of his position.

Meanwhile, as his church burns, Pope Francis imitates that great Roman violinist, Nero.

San Diego Cardinal Robert McElroy, whom Francis promoted in August, called for “radical inclusion” of LGBTQ Catholics and removing “structures and cultures of exclusion” in a Jan. 24 article for America, the Jesuit magazine. Those “structures” include a doctrine demanding that anyone engaging in sexual sin becomes ineligible to receive Communion, which Catholics call the Eucharist, “without previous sacramental confession,” canon law states.

“The exclusion of men and women because of their marital status or their sexual orientation/activity is pre-eminently a pastoral question, not a doctrinal one,” wrote McElroy, who criticized “a theology of eucharistic coherence that multiplies barriers to the grace and gift of the eucharist. Unworthiness cannot be the prism of accompaniment for disciples of the God of grace and mercy.” (Emphasis in original)

For McElroy, neither repentance nor sexual behavior matters.

“The distinction between orientation and activity cannot be the principal focus,” he wrote, “because it inevitably suggests dividing the LBGT community into those who refrain from sexual activity and those who do not.”

In disregarding repentance for sexual sin, McElroy went even further.

“The effect of the tradition that all sexual acts outside of marriage constitute objectively grave sin has been to focus the Christian moral life disproportionately upon sexual activity,” he wrote. “The heart of Christian discipleship is a relationship with God the Father, Son, and Spirit rooted in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The church has a hierarchy of truths that flow from this…Sexual activity, while profound, does not lie at the heart of this hierarchy.”

McElroy, in perhaps his most passionate rhetoric, apparently views anything other than blind acceptance as hate.

“It is a demonic mystery of the human soul why so many men and women have a profound and visceral animus toward members of the LGBT communities,” he wrote. “The church’s primary witness in the face of this bigotry must be one of embrace rather than distance or condemnation.”

Compare McElroy’s views with the Catholic catechism:

“Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to natural law. … Under no circumstances can they be approved.”

In the Bible, Leviticus listed homosexuality among other sexual behaviors considered “detestable.” Jesus defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Paul, a former Pharisee, described homosexual acts as “shameful” and practicing homosexuals as unable to “inherit the Kingdom of God.”

Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Ill. quoted the catechism in his rebuttal to McElroy, which appeared on Feb. 28 in First Things magazine. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops recently elected Paprocki as chairman of its Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance.

” … it is contrary to a ‘truth which is to be believed by divine and Catholic faith’ to reject or condemn ‘a theology of eucharistic coherence that multiplies barriers to the grace and gift of the eucharist,’ as if no such barriers existed,” Paprocki wrote in quoting McElroy’s article. “They do exist, and they are a matter of divine revelation.”

Paprocki also quoted several sections of canon law in asserting that “a cardinal of the Catholic Church, like any other Catholic who denies settled Catholic teaching, embraces heresy, the result of which is automatic ex-communication from the Catholic Church,” he wrote.

Promoting heresy, Paprocki continued, would result in a cleric losing any offices, powers, and privileges, and could even mean being defrocked if the problem is serious or long-standing. But Paprocki added a pivotal stipulation.

“Only the pope can remove a cardinal from office or dismiss him from the clerical state in the case of heresy or other grave crimes,” he wrote. “If he does not do so, the unseemly prospect arises of a cardinal, excommunicated … due to heresy, voting in a papal conclave.”

So what will Francis do? Probably nothing, which reflects his passive strategy to promote the LGBTQ agenda.

As FrontPage Magazine reported in December, Francis uses his rhetoric to defend historic teaching. He even called gender theory “ideological colonization” and supported the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith’s decision in 2021 not to allow German bishops to bless same-sex unions.

But the pope’s actions reveal apathy toward, if not support for, homosexual behavior and activism.

As FrontPage Magazine reported in the same article, Francis’ appointments reflect his attitude. One is Cardinal Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life and the former president of the Pontifical Council on the Family. Before coming to Rome, Paglia commissioned and personally supervised work on a homoerotic painting for his cathedral. That painting featured a scene showing the semi-nude archbishop embracing a semi-nude male.

As president of the now-defunct Pontifical Council for the Family, Paglia in 2016 approved a sex-education program for teens that a Catholic psychiatrist called “the most dangerous threat to Catholic youth that I have seen over the past 40 years.”

Another appointment is the Rev. James Martin, America’s editor-at-large who serves as a communications advisor. Martin regularly uses his speaking engagements and media platforms to promote the LGBTQ agenda. For example, Martin told a gay man at Villanova University in 2017, “I hope in 10 years you will be able to kiss your partner (in church) or, you know, soon to be your husband. Why not? What’s the terrible thing?”

Two years later, Martin admitted on Twitter that the Bible “clearly condemns” homosexual sex. “The issue,” he continued, “is precisely whether the biblical judgment is correct.”

In 2021, Martin tweeted opposition to a pastoral letter condemning gender ideology from Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Va. In February 2022, Martin likewise responded to a legal opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who stated that prescribing hormone blockers and sex-change surgeries for children constituted child abuse under state law. That March, Martin opposed a proposed Idaho law banning similar procedures on children.

Not only has Francis yet to discipline Martin. The pope invited him to the Vatican in November to discuss “the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties, of LGBTQ Catholics,” Martin tweeted. The time was “indeed punctuated with smiles and laughter, and after which I indeed felt elated,” he added.

So Francis’ subtle sabotage benefits McElroy, one of his most important allies. As FrontPage Magazine also reported, McElroy stated in a voting guide for California’s 2020 primary that the pope’s positions on immigration and the environment mattered more than the church’s historic opposition to abortion and contraception.

Two-and-a-half years later, Francis made McElroy a cardinal.

The crisis holds serious implications beyond theology. As FrontPage Magazine’s Christine Williams reported, a student at a Catholic high school in Canada was suspended for insisting that only two sexes exist. That student, Josh Alexander, led a student walkout in November to support girls who opposed having transgender boys use their restrooms. Alexander and the girls tried to convince Principal Derek Lennox to intervene but Lennox did nothing.

St. Joseph’s Catholic High School suspended Alexander after the walkout. When Alexander tried to return once his suspension ended, the school had him arrested for trespassing.

Alexander, who calls himself a “born-again Christian,” tried to get support from a local priest, who refused to talk with him.

“I’m kind of shocked at how little response there has been from the church,” Alexander said on a podcast. “I even phoned one of the local churches the other day, and the pastor just told me he didn’t want to speak to me. I can’t imagine a leader of a church telling a 16-year-old kid he wouldn’t even have a discussion with him.”

But another priest reached the breaking point when Francis publicly advocated ending anti-sodomy laws in interviews surrounding his February trip to Africa and called upon bishops to lead that effort.

“It struck me that a lot of the Holy Father’s public comments revolve around this issue of homosexuality, as though that were the centerpiece of his ministry,” the Rev. Jason Charron said on video Feb. 8. “You don’t hear a whole lot of comments coming from him calling for the defense of persecuted Christians in, oh, I don’t know, places like China?”

Charron ended by posing a provocative question:

“Who do you belong to, Francis? Do you belong to Christ or do you belong to Sodom?”

************

BREAKING: Pope Francis showed his ultimate intent regarding the issue on March 7 by appointing Jesuit Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, archbishop of Luxembourg, to his circle of close advisors, the Council of Cardinals. Last year, Hollerich publicly rejected the church’s historic teaching on homosexuality in an interview with a German Catholic news service.

“I believe that this is wrong,” Hollerich said. “But I also believe that we are thinking ahead here in teaching. As the Pope has said in the past, this can lead to a doctrinal change. Because I believe that the sociological-scientific foundation of this doctrine is no longer correct. I believe that it is time for us to make a fundamental revision of doctrine.”

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Joseph Hippolito

Joseph Hippolito is a freelance writer and a regular contributor to FrontPage. His commentaries have appeared in The Federalist, The Stream, Human Events, American Spectator, Wall Street Journal, Jerusalem Post, and National Post.

How The Federal Reserve Plans To Control and Surveil You Using Digital Currency

BIDEN SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER TO EXPLORE FEDERAL DIGITAL CURRENCY

Dr. Michael Rectenwald, author, Distinguished Fellow at Hillsdale College, and former NYU Professor. He is the author of “The Great Reset and the Struggle for Liberty: Unraveling the Global Agenda” Michael discusses the various components of the Great Reset, including the economic system it establishes, the deep history of the World Economic Forum (WEF), the population control "ethics" of the WEF and related globalist organizations. You can find Michaels’ book here: The Great Reset and the Struggle for Liberty: Unraveling the Global Agenda.

DIGITAL CURRENCY WILL LEAD TO MASS SURVEILLANCE

Canada: 39,000 illegals entered during 2022, nearly 2,000 hotel rooms reserved for them in Niagara Falls

BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/03/canada-39000-illegals-entered-during-2022-nearly-2000-hotel-rooms-reserved-for-them-in-niagara-falls;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

39,000 illegals crossed into Canada from Roxham Road in 2022. So why not close it? Trudeau’s argument: “We have 6,000 kilometres worth of undefended shared border with the United States, and… people will choose to cross elsewhere.”

Such a ridiculous line of reasoning is as absurd as stating: “Why not do away with all immigration laws because as fast as you fight one immigration lawbreaker, another pops up?” Trudeau has made no secret of his open-door policy when it comes to illegals, to the detriment of those who wait in the queue and respect the laws of the land. Trudeau is infamous for extending a warm welcome to Islamic State fighters and has even stated his belief that they can help Canada. He once said: “We know that actually, someone who has engaged and turned out from that hateful ideology can be an extraordinarily powerful voice for preventing radicalization in future generations, and young people within the community.” Trudeau’s belief is contrary to repeated proof that deradicalization programs have been an abject failure. Jihadists are not criminals who want to change. They are religious zealots who believe in rewards for “martyrdom.”

Since 2019, reports have been sketchy at best on the countries of origin of Roxham Road illegals. By 2019, the largest concentration was reportedly from Nigeria, while Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, and Yemen were in the top 12 countries of origin. Many think it doesn’t matter where the illegals originate, but it does, and this has nothing to do with “racism.” There is no vetting process in place to determine the ideologies of Roxham Road. illegals, or whether they have criminal backgrounds or even contagious illnesses.  All we know is that they are economic migrants who are flowing in with the full knowledge that they are breaking the law.

The Roxham Road influx began after Trudeau tweeted his message of welcome to anyone and everyone after Donald Trump imposed his travel ban. Now illegals from around the world have gotten the memo and Trudeau’s new welcome message that since Canada has an undefended border, he sees no point in closing off Roxham Road.

Niagara Falls and Cornwall are among the cities “receiving thousands of migrants from Roxham Road.” The former is a well-known tourist area where migrants are now housed in many hotels. Jim Diodati, the mayor of Niagara Falls, stated: “There’s only so much the people here can handle. We’re a community of less than a hundred thousand people…..Niagara Falls does not have the capacity to adequately provide those support services and providers are being stretched to their limits.”

Mohammed is one refugee highlighted by CBC. He originates from Chad and “is living in one of the nearly 2,000 hotel rooms reserved in Niagara Falls by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to provide temporary housing to migrants arriving via Roxham Road.” An obvious concern should also be for the tourism industry of Niagara, which is now not far from its summer-time peak. Recall what happened in 2018 at the Radisson Toronto East hotel, where about 400 refugees from Africa occupied all but two floors of the hotel, turning the Radisson into a squalid migrant camp. In a bad economy, still struggling to recover from COVID mismanagement, it is going to be a rough summer for Niagara Falls and other communities that are now grappling with the federal government’s continued mismanagement.

“Asylum seekers uncertain of future after being bused to Ontario,” by Ioanna Roumeliotis and Brenda Witmer, CBC, March 4, 2023:

His name is Mohammed and we meet him walking along a boulevard lined with hotels off the tourist strip in Niagara Falls, Ont.

The February wind is biting, and he shivers in a jacket more suited for warmer weather.

Mohammed says he is too scared to disclose more details about himself other than he had to flee Chad, in Central Africa, fearful for his life.

He is one of the thousands of asylum seekers bused here shortly after arriving in Quebec from New York at an irregular border crossing called Roxham Road.

Mohammed was hoping to stay in Quebec because he doesn’t speak English, but he says he wasn’t given a choice when he was boarded onto a bus heading here.

Then he said, speaking in French, “I don’t speak any English, and here in Niagara it’s very difficult for me to communicate.”

Mohammed is living in one of the nearly 2,000 hotel rooms reserved in Niagara Falls by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to provide temporary housing to migrants arriving via Roxham Road and who are now being redirected out of the province.

It’s left him in a strange limbo, he said, adding in French, “I sleep, I wake, I eat.”

He says in the two weeks he’s been here, no one has told him what to expect next.

Mohammed’s story reflects the scramble to move people like him out of Quebec since the province sounded the alarm, saying it could not absorb any more asylum seekers.

‘You can’t just drop them off’
Roughly 39,000 people seeking protection arrived in Quebec from Roxham Road in 2022 alone. According to the latest federal government statistics, another 4,875 people crossed at Roxham Road this past January.

Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati says he’s been taken aback by the number of hotel rooms the federal government has been steadily reserving for asylum seekers.

“We went from 87 rooms to 300 rooms, then it went to 687 rooms,” Diodati said. “Then it went to 1,500 rooms, then they said 1,700 and 2,000 is next. So we said, well, where are we going with this? I mean, how big is this gonna get?”

According to IRCC, most migrants are staying in federally funded hotel rooms on average 60 days and are provided with meals while they are assessed for work permits….

However, administering the social services that asylum seekers are entitled to while they try to settle has largely fallen on the city at a cost of roughly $5 million, Diodati says, money the city wants the federal government to compensate it for……

Real Jan 6th: U.S. Gov. Murders 2 Women, Frames and Imprisons Political Enemies~Newly Released Jan. 6 Footage Exposes FBI And DoJ’s Politicized Approach To Jan. 6 Investigations~What the Jan. 6 Revelations Confirm About the Left’s Ominous Agenda

Ashli Babbitt and Rosanne Boyland were killed by capitol police and almost nobody on capitol hill cares. They may even be glad it happened. Most on Capitol Hill do not care that people were wrongfully imprisoned and still are being held as political trophy prisoners.

What the Jan. 6 Revelations Confirm About the Left’s Ominous Agenda

What the Jan. 6 Revelations Confirm About the Left’s Ominous Agenda

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/columns/robert-spencer/2023/03/07/what-the-jan-6-revelations-confirm-about-the-lefts-ominous-agenda-n1676381;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

What was the point of the Democrats’ Jan. 6 hoax? Now that Tucker Carlson has provided abundant confirmation (with more on the way) that there was no “insurrection” on Jan. 6, 2021, and that the Democrat leadership knew full well that there wasn’t even as they went full-throttle with their narrative, the question is inevitable: why? What were Leftists hoping to accomplish? Some obvious answers are that they hoped to destroy Donald Trump as a political force once and for all and discredit and demoralize his supporters. But there was clearly a larger, more insidious goal as well: the Democrats hoped with their fabricated Jan. 6 “insurrection” to create the pretext to do nothing less than destroy their legitimate opposition, not rhetorically but in a real sense, so that America would henceforth be functionally a one-party state in which only one point of view would be allowed.

In my new book, The Sumter Gambit: How the Left Is Trying to Foment A Civil War, I lay out the entire strategy, which is not just political but cultural as well. The Left has for quite some time been deploying what I call the “Sumter Gambit,” that is, trying to provoke patriots into an act of resistance that they can use as a pretext to start nothing less than a new civil war. (Kids, the first civil war started when the forces of the Confederacy, the states that had declared their independence from the United States, fired on federal troops in Fort Sumter, which is in Charleston Harbor, S.C., in April 1861.)

As I explain in the book, Leftists hope to use the very act of patriotic resistance as a pretext for an authoritarian crackdown on the alleged “insurrectionists.” Thus they believe they have created a win-win situation for themselves: either we go along with their increasingly insane and destructive cultural agenda, or if we oppose it too vehemently, they can use that opposition as an opportunity to press forward with the authoritarianism that at this point they continue to try to hide.

Leftists, however, got impatient, or they saw a big opportunity in Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, “Stop the Steal” rally that they didn’t think they could pass up. As Tucker’s revelations continue, it may become clear that they planned the whole thing beforehand; the footage of policemen calmly escorting the celebrated Man with Viking Horns around the Capitol building certainly suggests that. The Democrats apparently got tired of waiting for Trump to prove himself to be the authoritarian dictator they claimed that he wanted to be, and decided to frame him yet again by creating an “insurrection” with the America-First president as the ringleader. Once they had their “insurrection,” they could use it to crack down on the “insurrectionists,” and that’s where things get really insidious.

On Sept. 1, 2022, in a nationally televised address, Old Joe Biden revealed the next part of the Left’s strategy. In a dark, threatening speech before an ominous red-and-black background and flanked by two Marines in full dress uniform, Biden declared that “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” The message couldn’t have been clearer: the establishment Left, entrenched in power in the United States but deeply afraid of losing that power, was intent on criminalizing political opposition. Dissent from Biden’s agenda, and you could end up with the thought police breaking down your door at four a.m.

“Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal,” Biden complained. “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” After making this frankly authoritarian statement, the corrupt senescent liar in the White House had the unspeakable audacity to add, “But I’m an American president — not the president of red America or blue America, but of all America.”

No, that was exactly what he wasn’t — not any longer, if he ever was. He effectively resigned from that position with that Sept. 1, 2022, speech. He was not the president of Americans who wanted to see a strong, independent, self-sufficient America and a leader who put America and its citizens first. He was at war with those Americans, and he still is.

Related: Remember: There Was No ‘Insurrection’ on January 6, 2021

Back on March 23, 1933, before he became the world’s universal symbol for the embodiment of evil, German chancellor Adolf Hitler spoke before the Reichstag, urging it to pass the Enabling Act, which would give him dictatorial powers. He said that this was urgently needed in light of an imminent threat to the nation. Hitler claimed that in 1918, Marxist organizations had seized power in Germany, leading to “a time of boundless misfortune for Germany, that is to say, the working German Volk [people].” But he assured the Reichstag deputies that “the German Volk itself has increasingly turned away from concepts, parties, and associations which, in its eyes, are responsible for these conditions.”

Sound familiar? These were the same rhetorical notes Biden sounded during his ominous speech branding Trump and his supporters as enemies of the state. The resonances were real and ominous. For the first time in over two hundred years of American history, a president had declared that his primary political opposition stood outside the bounds of acceptable political discourse. The logical next step was the one Hitler took: He blamed one of his strongest adversaries, the Communist Party, for the Reichstag fire, and outlawed it accordingly. With the Communist deputies barred from being present, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, and Germany’s unfortunate fourteen-year experiment with a representative republic was over.

But that couldn’t possibly happen here. Could it?

Trump & DeSantis Target “Woke” Education on Road to White House

Trump & DeSantis Target “Woke” Education on Road to White House

BY ALEX NEWMAN

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/trump-desantis-target-woke-education-on-road-to-white-house/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis are both focusing heavily on education policy in the run-up to the 2024 election, suggesting the issue will take center stage over the next two years. DeSantis is already on the warpath in Florida, as Trump vows to wrest control of schools from “radical left maniacs” and “pink-haired communists” in his second term.

Among other tactics, both men are vowing to ramp up conservative defenses in the ongoing culture war within schools as public education becomes increasingly radicalized — and unpopular with parents desperate to stop the sexualization and indoctrination of their children at taxpayer expense. Even many Democrats are unhappy. 

As the 2024 election heats up and more GOP challengers emerge, DeSantis has still not formally announced that he is running, though it is common knowledge in Tallahassee that the popular governor will throw his hat in the ring at some point. Education policy has been a signature issue that propelled “America’s Governor” to national stardom. 

Indeed, DeSantis developed a national reputation as a conservative champion of education by taking on the “Branch Covidians” and their totalitarian Covid policies, including the forced masking of children. He has also secured perceived policy wins such as protections against sexualizing young children and race-mongering in the classroom. And he is tackling “woke” forces in higher education as well. 

How DeSantis’ wildly popular policies in Florida would translate to the federal level remains to be seen. However, key education establishment bosses such as American Federation of Teachers (AFT) boss Randi Weingarten and left-wing propagandists have argued that the governor is actually seeking to destroy public education completely.  

Trump, who is currently dominating in the polls among GOP primary voters, has also made education a major focus of his campaign. In his recently released “plan to save American education,” Trump outlined a variety of proposals that would use federal power and funds to rein in the escalating woke-ism taking over K-12 schools.

In the video, which came before a yet-to-be-released formal plan, Trump vowed to cut federal funding to any “school or program pushing critical race theory, gender ideology, or other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content onto our children.” He also vowed to ensure that “woke” teachers were removed as parents are empowered to have more say through policies such as elections of principals.

“When I’m president, we will put parents back in charge and give them the final say,” Trump said. “We will get back to teaching reading, writing, and math — arithmetic — and we will give our kids the high-quality, pro-America education they deserve.… We’re at the end of every list on education, yet we spend the most. We’re going to change it around.” 

In one of the most significant threats, Trump vowed to unleash the Department of Justice and other federal agencies on school officials that engage in “race-based discrimination,” including that aimed at Americans of Asian ancestry. He also promised to keep men out of women’s sports while slashing administrators — especially those working in “diversity and equity” bureaucracies. 

Marxist indoctrination will be targeted as well, with Trump saying it resembles an established religion and noting that it is hostile to America’s biblical heritage. “My administration will aggressively pursue potential violations of the establishment clause and the free exercise clause of the Constitution,” Trump declared, adding that he would immediately remove the zealots and radicals who infiltrated education.    

During his first campaign, Trump repeatedly slammed Common Core and even suggested multiple times that the U.S. Department of Education should be abolished. As president, he repeatedly warned of the urgent need to protect American children from the “indoctrination” taking place in “failing government schools.” 

But despite the rhetoric, Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, largely maintained the status quo. From signing international agreements for globalizing education to ensuring that Common Core remained firmly entrenched nationwide, DeVos was remarkably unremarkable considering Trump’s otherwise game-changing presidency. That may change in a second term.   

The trend toward a relentless focus on education and stopping left-wing extremism in the classroom comes as taking on the far-left education establishment has proven to be a powerful winning strategy for Republicans. In Virginia, analysts widely attributed the major victory of Republican Glenn Youngkin to education policy.  

The other contenders who have announced so far, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, both of Indian descent, have also lambasted the “woke” propaganda and the hyper-racialism disguised as “diversity.” Still, few analysts are taking them seriously as contenders as Trump and DeSantis dominate the headlines. 

This focus on fundamental and systemic issues in education is a welcome development. Because most American children are still in government schools, the issue transcends all others. Unfortunately, reforming cancer will still leave the victim with cancer. Public education is a burning building — it’s time to evacuate rather than discuss changes to the wallpaper.

 

Tennessee Governor Signs Two Bills Protecting Children From Transgender Ideology

Tennessee Governor Signs Two Bills Protecting Children From Transgender Ideology

BY JAMES MURPHY

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/tennessee-governor-signs-two-bills-protecting-children-from-transgender-ideology/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

On March 2, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed two bills intended to shield children in the Volunteer State from the pervasive influence of transgender ideology. First, Lee signed a ban on gender reassignment surgeries and hormone treatments for children. Lee also signed a bill prohibiting children from seeing so-called drag shows where men dress as hypersexualized females.

SB1 prohibits healthcare providers “from prescribing a course of treatment that involves hormone treatment for gender dysphoric or gender incongruent prepubertal minors.” In addition, the legislation bans hospitals and other healthcare facilities from providing “gender-reassignment” surgeries for minors.

“Children do not need these medical procedures to be able to flourish as adults,” said Republican House Majority Leader William Lamberth, who, along with Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, introduced the bill. “They need mental health treatment. They need love and support, and many of them need to be able to grow up to become the individuals that they were intended to be.”

Much of the impetus for SB1 dates back to a 2022 exposé of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s (VUMC) plan to use gender transition treatments as a huge money maker for the hospital and VUMC’s threat of “consequences” for doctors who refused to cooperate with the scheme.

“I just want you to take home that saying that you’re not going to do something because of your conscientious — because of your religious beliefs, is not without consequences, and should not be without consequences,” said Vanderbilt health law expert Ellen Wright Clayton, while speaking to a group of VUMC physicians.

The exposé was done by The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh.

SB3 bars children from attending any “adult cabaret performance on public property or in a location where the adult cabaret performance could be viewed by a person who is not an adult.” A first violation of this new law is a misdemeanor with subsequent violations considered a Class E felony in Tennessee.

“This bill gives confidence to parents that they can take their kids to a public or private show and will not be blindsided by a sexualized performance,” said Johnson. He, along with Representative Chris Todd (R), initially introduced the bill in the state legislature.

“I believe we have a duty to protect our kids. I’m proud to be a proven and committed defender of all children across Tennessee,” Johnson added.

Of course, the pro-trans lobby reacted in horror at the thought that Tennessee’s government passed a law meant to protect children from their destructive ideology.

“Shame on Governor Lee and the extremist legislators responsible for these discriminatory, anti-LGBTQ+ laws. Neither of these laws is about protecting youth — they are about spreading dangerous misinformation against the transgender community; they are about doubling down on efforts to attack drag artists and transgender youth,” said Human Rights Campaign Legal Director Sarah Warbelow.

“These extremist politicians who took an oath to protect all of the people of Tennessee are telling us loud and clear that they have no plans to uphold fundamental rights or demonstrate respect for all of their constituents. We must stand up, speak out, and take action against radical politicians before they strip more of our freedoms away,” Warbelow added.

And, of course, the American Civil Liberties Union promised legal action against the new laws.

“We will not allow this dangerous law to stand. Certain politicians and Governor Lee have made no secret of their intent to discriminate against youth who are transgender or their willful ignorance about the life-saving health care they seek to ban,” a joint statement from the ACLU of Tennessee, and Lambda Legal — a group which defends LGBT groups.

With the new laws, Tennessee becomes the ninth state with legal safeguards to protect children from permanent surgical mutilation of their God-given bodies. The Volunteer State also joins Arkansas as states who are looking to protect children from the hypersexualization provided by drag shows.

The pro-LGBT lobby will not acknowledge the negative long-term effects that transgender medical procedures have on children. Hormone replacement therapy is often fraught with irreversible effects, and surgical interventions such as radical mastectomies and the various “bottom” surgeries speak for themselves when it comes to permanent, harmful effects.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders to Sign Epic Education Bill into Law

Sarah Huckabee Sanders to Sign Epic Education Bill into Law

BY MATT MARGOLIS

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/03/08/sarah-huckabee-sanders-to-sign-epic-education-bill-into-law-n1676481;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is on a roll. On Tuesday, the Arkansas Senate passed legislation that will create a new school voucher program that establishes school choice for all students. The bill also bans critical race theory and ends the teaching of gender identity to students below 5th grade.

Sanders is expected to sign the bill into law on Wednesday.

“I’m ready to sign it into law tomorrow and end the failed status quo that has governed our education system for far too long,” Sanders said in a statement. “Every kid should have access to a quality education and a path to a good paying job and better life right here in Arkansas.”

Related: Joe Biden Tried to Go After Ron DeSantis on Education, but Naturally It Backfired

“Over three years, the plan will phase in an ‘education freedom account’ to pay for private and home schooling costs equal to 90% of the state’s per-student funding for public schools, which is currently $7,413. It’s part of a renewed push for such voucher programs following the COVID-19 pandemic that’s been fueled in part by fights over school curriculum,” reports ABC News. “Other provisions include a prohibition against classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation before 5th grade, similar to a Florida restriction that critics have called the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law. Another part of the legislation writes into law an executive order Sanders signed in January that prohibits teaching critical race theory.”

The bill passed 78-21 in the Arkansas House and 26-8 in the Arkansas Senate.

Hmmm. Russian Pal of Hunter Biden Doesn’t Get Sanctioned

Here’s That Collusion You Ordered:

Here’s That Collusion You Ordered: Russian Business Partner of Hunter Biden Dodges Sanctions

Russian Business Partner of Hunter Biden Dodges Sanctions

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2023/03/08/heres-that-collusion-you-ordered-russian-business-partner-of-hunter-biden-dodges-sanctions-n1676597;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Remember Russian collusion? It was the Left’s last Get-Trump hoax before it came up with Jan. 6. None of it was true, of course, but when has that ever stopped Leftists? If anyone is actually looking for some actual collusion with Russia, however, there is plenty to be found if you know where to look: not at Trump, but at the crime family of Old Joe Biden.

Two Russian billionaires who, according to a report in the New York Post on Thursday, “have managed to dodge US sanctions over Moscow’s year-old invasion of Ukraine went property shopping with Hunter Biden, dined with then-Vice President Joe Biden, and discussed ‘favors’ they might swap.” The fact that they dodged sanctions is no surprise, given the identity of the man who currently poses as president of the United States, but of course, the Washington establishment that went after Trump with such vicious ferocity over nothing whatsoever is entirely indifferent to this fresh evidence that the demented corruptocrat it installed in the White House is as crooked as the day is long. Russian collusion is only of interest to this establishment when it can be used as a political tool; when people on their side do it, it’s entirely beneath notice.

Thus it was no surprise whatsoever that the Biden regime’s Treasury Department has spared two Russian pals of Joe and Hunter, Yelena Baturina and Vladimir Yevtushenkov, from “a fresh batch of sanctions.” Yevtushenkov has been sanctioned in Britain but not in the Land of Opportunity. An anonymous source whom the Post says has “firsthand knowledge of the business relationship between Hunter Biden and Yevtushenkov” observes, “I think it’s very fishy.” No kidding, really? Even Barack Obama’s ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, agrees. “I think he should be sanctioned,” McFaul said of Yevtushenkov. “I don’t understand why he has not been.”

This really isn’t hard to understand. Yevtushenkov hasn’t been sanctioned because he had the intellectual acumen and sound judgment to do business with Hunter and Joe Biden. This gives the Russian an all-purpose Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card as the Washington establishment will do anything it can possibly do to shield the Bidens from the consequences of their corrupt dealings and to keep the American people from discovering just how crooked the man who pretends to be president really is.

He really is amazingly crooked. Yevtushenkov “admitted last year he met with Hunter Biden for breakfast at the Ritz-Carlton in Manhattan on March 14, 2012 — but denied any further contact.” He was, the terminally naïve will be surprised to learn, lying: “emails and calendar entries from Hunter’s former laptop show that they were set to meet again on Jan. 27, 2013, for dinner at DC’s Cafe Milano before looking at a commercial real estate development the next day near Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia.” The Post’s source recounted that he asked Yevtushenkov why he was meeting with Hunter, and the Russian billionaire replied: “I think it would be good to have a good relationship with this guy … maybe he can do a favor for us and we can do a favor for him.”

The source added: “It was a complete quid pro quo that he was going in for.” Collusion and quid pro quo! It looks as if yet again the Left has engaged in the old tactic of accusing the other side of that which it is guilty of doing. The source added: “I told him that’s not the way it works in America, [but] he basically laughed at me and told me I was so naïve.”

Related: Biden Family Corruption Is Being Covered Up, and It All Leads to Joe

Wait, there’s more: “A different source, meanwhile, told The Post he vividly recalled Baturina and her husband, ex-Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, looking ‘like an odd couple’ at a now-infamous, intimate dinner with Hunter and his father, the then-vice president.” Also at the dinner was “Vadym Pozharskyi, an executive at Ukrainian energy company Burisma, which paid Hunter up to $1 million per year beginning in 2014 while his VP dad controlled the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy. Pozharskyi emailed Hunter the next day to thank him for ‘giving an opportunity to meet your father.’”

One thing you can say about Old Joe Biden: he knows how the game is played. He “called the report a false ‘Russian plant’ at the time and social media platforms Twitter and Facebook initially censored it.” Even now, he will face no political consequences for all this Russian collusion. That’s only for presidents who put America and its people first.

 

McCarthy Skewers Media for J6 Footage Hypocrisy

McCarthy Skewers Media for J6 Footage Hypocrisy

BY MATT MARGOLIS

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/03/08/mccarthy-skewers-media-for-j6-footage-hypocrisy-n1676493;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Democrats are panicking and weak-kneed Republicans are outraged, but House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is defending his decision to give Tucker Carlson access to the video evidence of the events of January 6. And he clearly isn’t shy about calling out the media and the Democrats who claim to be triggered by it.

The media has falsely claimed that Tucker Carlson downplayed Officer Brian Sicknick’s death by showing evidence that the was up and walking around — as opposed to the false narrative that Sicknick had been killed by rioters — and that Carlson was “whitewashing” the Capitol riot.

Related: Tucker Carlson Blasts Those Calling for Censoring His January 6 Exposé

When asked on Tuesday if he regretted giving Carlson the footage, McCarthy said no.

“I said at the very beginning: transparency. What I wanted to produce for everyone was exactly what I said, so people could look at it and see what went on that day.”

McCarthy hit all the right points, including that the January 6 committee was one-sided, only sharing footage that fit their preferred narrative. He noted that he worked with Capitol Police to ensure there were no security issues with the footage being released. McCarthy also pointed out that questions of security were hypocritical because CNN exposed the secret location members were taken to that day. “I don’t even know, from the point of view of security, if we can ever be taken there again,” McCarthy lamented.