Month: March 2024

Authored by Patricia Tolson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Almost 230 people were arrested, and 13 potential victims were rescued in a Florida human trafficking sting dubbed, “Operation March Sadness 2024.”

At a March 5 press conference, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd announced the bust of a human trafficking operation on the west side of the county in Lakeland that led to 228 arrests and the rescue of 13 potential victims. The Polk County Sheriff’s Department (PCSD) was assisted by police departments in Lakeland, Haines City, Davenport, Auburndale, Lake Hamilton, and the Winterhaven Fire and Rescue.

According to a March 5 press release, the “eight-day-long undercover human trafficking operation” began on Feb. 22 and targeted suspects “involved in illegal acts related to soliciting prostitutes, offering to commit prostitution, or aiding and abetting prostitutes.

The 228 arrests consisted of “66 prostitutes, 50 Johns, and 12 others,” Sheriff Judd said.

“This time we identified 13 potential victims of human trafficking,” he added, saying his department has identified “58 potential victims of human trafficking in one year” through these operations.

The significance, he said, was that this is “the most ever” they have been able to identify.

Sheriff Judd also noted that 48 of those arrested were from Polk County, saying they “should know better.”

“We talk about this,” he explained. “We don’t hide it, and if you don’t know about it you obviously live under a rock. So, you’ve had to learn the hard way.”

For the rest, he offered a warning.

“This is not the last operation,” he advised. “We‘ll have more, and we’ll give you the opportunity to be arrested if you’re stupid enough to show up. That’s a guarantee.”

Of those arrested, 42 are married. One was a commercial pilot. There were members of the Air Force, sports coaches, law enforcement officers, and people in the medical profession. Some were teachers.

Two minors were arrested. “They came down to rob us,” Sheriff Judd said, adding that they came armed with a BB gun that looked like a real gun.

“That could have gone really bad for them,” he said.

A total of 17 firearms were confiscated from 15 different suspects and 44 had possession of narcotics.

‘Addicted to This Cash’

One of the men arrested was handling three illegal immigrant females from Venezuela for the head of a sex trafficking ring they believe is female.

“She sets up their appointments, she puts their ads online, she tells them where to go,” Sheriff Judd explained, adding that the three victims had to “pay her $3,000 a piece” by the end of the week as a means of “paying off their debt.”

Sheriff Judd then said that the three victims told law enforcement that when they came to the United States illegally “DHS gave them a form, and ID paperwork that allows them to fly for free.”

So, while the three sex workers operate out of New York, they said they fly to major metropolitan areas for free “on the federal government where they set up their appointments for sex all around the country.”

Sheriff Judd said all 21 of the illegal immigrants told a “similar story” regarding their involvement in the sex trafficking scheme.

“We can’t work legally,” he recalled them saying. “We’re addicted to this cash. It’s a lot of cash and it’s quick so we have to give $3,000 a week. We get to keep everything above that.”

“We have a crisis at the border,” Sheriff Judd asserted, “and because of the crisis at the border we have people that are victimizing illegal folks, forcing them into the sex trade because we allow these criminals in the country illegally.”

Sheriff Judd also addressed headlines claiming that illegal immigrants “aren’t committing crime at any greater percentage than the people who are here legally.”

“What they didn’t tell you if they weren’t here illegally at all the crime they would commit here would be zero,” he noted. “So, we’re being victimized.”

On June 3, 2022, the Florida Legislature passed House Bill 615, creating a new duty for the Statewide Council on Human Trafficking (SCHT), which is to determine how many times social media platforms are used to assist, facilitate, or support human trafficking within the Sunshine State.

To fulfill this requirement, the SCHT conducted a statewide survey of Florida’s 80 law enforcement agencies to record the number of times social media platforms were used to “facilitate human trafficking, trafficking operations, or control victims” since 2019.

According to the 2023 Annual Report, they discovered that 72 human trafficking instances were recorded using Facebook, 65 through Instagram, five through WhatsApp, and four by using Facebook Messenger.

The Epoch Times reached out to the PCSD to find out if “Operation March Sadness 2024” had been conducted through online social media platforms.

While PCSD confirmed that the sting operation was conducted online, PCSD spokesperson Carrie Horstman said, “We don’t typically release information about which specific sites are used during our undercover investigations.”

“Our message is for parents to monitor their children’s activities online—have all of their logins and passwords and check their accounts regularly,” she added, providing a link to resources parents can use to protect their children from online predators. “Don’t allow them to be friends online with people who are strangers, and don’t allow just anyone to ‘follow’ them.”

TikTok’s days could be numbered in the United States, after the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously advanced a bill Thursday that would require TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to divest the app or face a US ban.

Introduced on Tuesday by Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), the “Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” bill is aimed at mitigating national security concerns over whether the Chinese government has access to the personal data to millions of Americans who use TikTok.

While Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) – ranking member on the committee raised concerns over “how rushed this process has been,” the bill passed with no issue following a Thursday morning classified hearing prior to the vote.

TikTok has vehemently denied that it poses national security risks due to its ownership by a Chinese parent company, and said that the legislation comes to an unfair “predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States.”

“The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression. This will damage millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country,” said a spokesman for the company, The Hill reports.

Ahead of Thursday’s vote, TikTok sent messages urging users to call Congress to oppose the bill. The notifications warned users to “stop a TikTok shutdown” and that Congress is “planning a total ban of TikTok.” 

Lawmakers in support of the bill have pushed back on that allegation since the bill allows TikTok to continue to be used in the U.S. if ByteDance divests it.  

Republicans on the committee also said the notification push to users highlighted their concerns about the app’s reach.

Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) accused the company of using its “influence and powers to force users to contact their representatives.”

While the bill has widespread support within the committee, it still faces outside opposition (pushed by lobbyists) from groups such as the ACLU and Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, who say the decision could infringe on free speech.

“I’m just not confident that this will actually side-step the free speech concerns that have been raised with previous attempts to ban TikTok,” said Sarah Krepps, director of the Tech Policy Institue at Cornell University, in a statement to The Hill.

“ByteDance has said they will not divest TikTok, so I have no reason to think they would exercise that option,” Krepps continued. “So if they’re not going to divest, it leads back down the same road of a ban.”

According to Krepps, a ban would likely be viewed as unconstitutional based on recent legal challenges to state TikTok bans.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

In a rare collectors moment, CNN took time Tuesday to give Donald Trump credit regarding illegal immigration, admitting that the US does “have a problem,” at the border and that Biden has “made the problem worse.”

While the comments came from Republican strategist Brad Todd, it’s the kind of admission that would never have aired while the likes of former CNN grinning clown Brian Stelter were at the helm on the network.

Todd told other CNN panelists that the “out of control” southern border will be the “pull and push” of the 2024 election.

“I think the fact that the border’s out of control and the Biden administration has made the problem worse is what’s the bigger problem,” Todd said, adding “The key portion of this electorate, I mean people who may not always like the way Trump talks or his choice of words, that they don’t like the way Joe Biden’s policies acted. Immigration is gonna be number one on that. Immigration and crisis both.”

“Can the Biden campaign demonstrate that in fact they’re gonna take a new direction on immigration and on the economy? They’re gonna move more to the center. Or can Trump convince voters to look past some of the rhetoric they don’t like?” Todd further posited.

One of the CNN anchors then attempted to steer the conversation toward criticising Trump, but first admitted:

“You can make the case that the immigration system is broken, I don’t think many people will argue about that.”

“The numbers of illegal immigrants, encounters on the border is what’s gonna drive the election. It’s not gonna end up being about Donald Trump’s rhetoric. It’s gonna end up being about the numbers under Joe Biden and the realities American citizens are seeing in cities across the country,” Todd further urged.

While claiming Trump is exaggerating the border crisis, CNN senior political commentator Ana Navarro nevertheless admitted we do have a problem,” adding  “And the problem is that there’s countries like Cuba, like Venezuela — which he can’t pronounce — like Nicaragua, and Haiti. Three of those are ruled by left-wing dictators who are anti-American.”

Watch:

In a rare collectors moment, CNN took time Tuesday to give Donald Trump credit regarding illegal immigration, admitting that the US does “have a problem,” at the border and that Biden has “made the problem worse.” Report here: https://t.co/hxNFoBm2qK pic.twitter.com/XjKjuQoveL

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) March 6, 2024

While it was hardly Trump friendly, it’s something that MSNBC talking heads refused to even acknowledge as a reality. Indeed they mocked the idea that illegal immigration is a concern for American voters.

Earlier in their broadcast, CNN also admitted that Trump has taken full control of the Republican Party, and that his sweeping Super Tuesday primary wins demonstrate that “He has remade the party in his image.”

“There are still some Republicans who are trying to take it away, like take it back. That’s over. That party doesn’t exist anymore,” one CNN analyst noted.

CNN also carried Trump’s full speech Tuesday night, while MSNBC refused to air it, with extreme TDS sufferer Rachel Maddow declaring it would be “irresponsible” to do so.

*  *  *

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Last week, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele told a packed audience at CPAC that gender theory is an blight on society, and said he believes that it’s “important that the curriculum doesn’t [include] gender ideology and all these [other] things,” adding “parents should be informed and have a say in what their children are going to learn.”

Following his comments, El Salvador’s Ministry of Education announced that it will stop teaching gender theory to children.

“Confirmed: we have removed all traces of gender ideology from public schools,” Minister of Education José Mauricio Pineda told El Pais.

Bukele, 42, won his re-election bid with 84% of thevote, while his Nuevas Ideas (New Ideas) party is now the primary political force in the country. They have widespread support of the Salvadorian population, which is in alignment on issues such as gender theory and sex education.

According to Pineda, “every use or trace of gender ideology” has been “removed from public schools.”

Salvadorian feminists are of course screeching over the decision.

“Bukele is a messianic figure, a patriarchal leader… a [paternalistic] president who watches over us and who [seems to think that he’s] anointed by God,” said human rights activist Celia Medrano, in a statement to El Pais. “He’s a highly conservative man with a very clear tendency to manipulate religion [in favor of] the message that women have to be kept at home.”

Meanwhile in Argentina, President Javier Milei is on a similar mission to undo years of feminist policies – demoting the Minister of Women, Gender and Diversity to the level of undersecretary, and announcing that the government will prohibit so-called ‘inclusive’ language and “anything related to the gender perspective” in the administration.

The country’s 144 telephone line for victims of gender-based violence, and shelters created for them, were recently eliminated as part of recent budget cuts.

In response, feminist movements will be out in force on March 8, International Women’s Day.

Beyond El Salvador and Argentina, in Columbia, voters rejected a peace agreement between the Santos government and FARC guerillas – because among other things, the agreements included a push for equality between men, women, LGBTQ+ and other ‘diverse’ identities.

The rejection that took place at the polls that October had been brewing for months. Evangelical and Catholic groups, with the support of former president Álvaro Uribe’s party, had taken to the streets that summer to protest against the government’s “indoctrination in gender identity” due to its guidelines on sexuality.

…

María Fernanda Cabal, the leading senator of the most radical right wing, is a firm defender of these theses. She repeated the phrase: “Gender ideology is disgusting.” –El Pais

One of the earliest leaders to reject DEI and gender ideology  was former President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro – whose government attempted to eliminate gender perspective in schools, only to be struck down by the country’s Supreme Court as being unconstitutional.

That said, Bolsonaro’s head of cultural policy did veto ‘inclusive language’ from projects seeking tax beneffits, and the former president himself mocked the Argentine government after Alberto Fernández insisted on using such language in his official commnications.

“How does that help your people? The only thing that has changed is that now there are shortages, poverty, and unemployment. May God protect our Argentine brothers and help us get out of this difficult situation,” he said.

El Pais also notes Chile and the “ultraconservatives of Mexico” as opposing gender ideology.

“Let’s recover the language, no more cultural deformation,” said Chilean Republican Party under José Antonio Kast during his first presidential run ahead of the country’s 2021 elections. “the so-called inclusive language is part of a political-ideological agenda, and not a cultural agenda. We are going to strengthen the correct use of language, with no forced imposition of its deviations or discrimination of any kind.”

In short, Latin America has led the charge in rejecting the woke revolution.

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,

A civil rights group is suing Alabama for allegedly implementing illegal racial quotas in appointments to the Alabama Real Estate Appraisers Board (AREAB).

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey speaks during a news conference in Montgomery, Ala., on July 29, 2020. (Kim Chandler/AP Photo)

The lawsuit comes after Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) issued a report last year showing that as many as 25 states enforce race or sex-based quotas for public board appointments. PLF said there were 63 board mandates for race or sex-based appointments across the country.

Promoted by vocal activists, “these mandates threaten the individual right to equality before the law, and without action, the problem is likely to worsen,” the report said.

AREAB, which was created in 1990, licenses and regulates real estate appraisers in Alabama.

Its nine members are appointed by Alabama’s governor.

But state law imposes racial criteria on appointments: at least two board members have to be members of a racial minority group.

There is currently one opening on the board for a public member, and state law requires the governor to consider race when appointing a person to fill that post.

“Such blatant racial discrimination against individuals who could otherwise sit on AREAB serves no legitimate government purpose,” according to the new legal complaint (pdf) in American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) v. Ivey that was filed last month in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, Northern Division.

“It is demeaning, patronizing, un-American, and unconstitutional,” added the complaint.

The plaintiff, AAER, describes itself as “a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) membership organization dedicated to challenging distinctions and preferences made on the basis of race and ethnicity.” AAER is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

The defendant, Gov. Kay Ivey, is being sued in her official capacity as Alabama’s governor.

The Republican governor was served with the legal complaint on Feb. 26, according to court documents. Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr., who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2019, has been assigned to the case.

AAER’s president Edward Blum said his group is suing the state because “there are unfortunately dozens of government boards and commissions that exclude people because of their race or ethnicity. No one’s race should be used to include them, or exclude them, from service on government boards.”

Mr. Blum is also the founder of Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA). SFFA was a litigant in SFFA v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, a 2023 Supreme Court decision that struck down the use of racially discriminatory admissions policies at U.S. colleges.

AAER states in the legal complaint that it has “members who are qualified, ready, willing, and able to be appointed to AREAB, including Member A, a citizen of Alabama who supports public service and property rights and has applied for the vacant public member position on AREAB.”

However, because Member A is not a member of a racial minority group, she is not eligible for the vacant position, the complaint said.

AAER said it is bringing this lawsuit under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution “to ensure that every qualified citizen in Alabama has the equal right to serve on AREAB and to ensure that Alabamians are regulated by a board whose members are not selected on the basis of race.”

“So long as this racial quota remains in place, members of the [AAER] who are not racial minorities will never receive equal consideration for openings on AREAB.”

AAER is seeking a declaration from the court that the policy is unconstitutional and an injunction blocking its enforcement.

Glenn Roper, a senior attorney at PLF, which is representing AAER, said, “It’s wrong for the government to make offensive assumptions about people’s experiences and qualifications based on race. And it’s unconstitutional to exclude some citizens from public service with arbitrary race quotas.”

The public isn’t even aware of these racial restrictions in Alabama and other states, which is why PLF released its report on race and sex-based quotas in effect for public board appointments, the lawyer told The Epoch Times.

The quota at AREAB is “unfair and it makes no sense to exclude people from public service because they don’t meet some racial requirements.

“There’s nothing about real estate appraising, or the history of the real estate appraisal industry in Alabama, that requires having racial minorities be [involved in] regulating. That shouldn’t even be a consideration when deciding who to put on this board.”

Mr. Roper said he was optimistic about the case.

“Because racial considerations require the government to satisfy strict scrutiny, I think we have a very strong case, that’s a high bar for the government to clear. Really, they can’t meet either of the prongs. There’s no compelling interest in forcing racial minorities on the board.

“And then even if there was, they haven’t narrowly tailored it like the Supreme Court requires,” he said.

The attorney was referring to the strict scrutiny test that courts use when reviewing legislative or executive branch enactments that have a bearing on constitutional rights. A government interest is deemed compelling when it is essential or necessary, as opposed to a matter of preference, choice, or discretion.

Just last year in the Harvard affirmative action case, the Supreme Court emphasized how stringent the test was and how “we’re not just going to accept the government’s say-so, so they’ve got to provide solid evidence when they want” to consider race-based government policies, Mr. Roper said.

The Epoch Times reached out to the AREAB for comment but had not received a reply as of publication time.

The Long Beach Unified School district in California is funneling money to a progressive activist group which is paying students $1,400 each to become racial and social justice warriors.

The district paid $900,000 for a one-year contract to Californians for Justice (CFJ), a “youth-powered” non-profit that pushes racial justice ideology on children, the Free Press reports.

Of that, $60,200 was allocated to pay 33 students and 10 families or parents $1,400 each to participate in CFJ’s training programs.

According to the contract, the program exists to “provide assistance to teachers, administrators and selected students in building strategies to support cultural understanding and change.”

On CFJ’s website, the group claims to have “trained hundreds of youth of color in Long Beach to be community leaders and organizers,” adding that it “provides leadership development opportunities throughout the school year and summer to ensure our youth leaders gain the political education and valuable organizing skills they need to lead social justice movements.”

“It’s so fun! You get paid good, you can have a fun time,” one of the students posted recently to Instagram.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Californians For Justice (@cal4justice)

A spokesman for the Long Beach School District framed the paid program as “internships” which are to ensure “equitable participation in CFJ programs, embracing diverse perspectives in education.” Quite diversity word salad there.

Teachers have serious concerns

Four teachers from the Long Beach district voiced concern over the program, with one telling the Free Press that paying kids to participate is a “horrible propaganda strategy.“

“I am shocked and horrified at such a fact,” another teacher told the outlet.

Interestingly, one of CFJ’s major donors is a descendant of Levi Strauss – the Walter Haas fund. Other donors include the Rockefellers, an the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

One major donor is a descendant of Levi Strauss, Walter Haas fundhttps://t.co/fsIlNiHVfs

— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) March 7, 2024

According to the report, Long Beach has paid CFJ nearly $2 million since 2019 to work with them. In 2021, the organization ran three professional development seminars in Long Beach high schools, during which participants were encouraged to embrace the role of “student voice,” and to “advance a district wide Equity Agenda” in conjunction with teachers and admins, the 2021-2022 contract read.

Per the latest contract, CFJ will be hosting 15 more of these trainings during the 2023-2024 school year.

One teacher told the Free Press on condition of anonymity that the workshops have become open forums for students to complain.

“The way that they are handing scripts to students, even the words coming out of the students’ mouths it just feels like indoctrination and not information,” she told the outlet.

Another teacher, Jay Goldfischer, agreed – saying “They’re teaching them parroting,” adding “which is the exact opposite of how you empower children.”

CFJ defended itself in a statement to the Free Press, saying “Our agenda is not hidden and is simple: we want the Long Beach Unified School District to be a place where every student is represented honestly in classrooms and curricula, and where they are safe to be in critical dialogue supportive of democratic participation across differences.”

 

Authored by Debra Heine via American Greatness,

Newly leaked files from a leading transgender “healthcare” organization show that doctors are aware that children and adolescents do not always comprehend and thus cannot consent to the hormonal and surgical transitions they champion. They also admit privately that the experimental procedures often have devastating and permanent side effects, including cancer and sterility.

The files from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) were obtained by journalist Michael Shellenberger, who posted the entire cache online. They include conversations from a WPATH internal messaging board and video from an Identity Evolution Workshop.

Why I Am Publishing WPATH Files And How I Got Them

The written WPATH Files come from WPATH’s member discussion forum, which runs on software provided by DocMatter.

Ninety seconds of the 82-minute video was made public last year. We are making the full video available for the… pic.twitter.com/3AP0pVUTxy

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) March 4, 2024

The internal communications suggest that the organization is controlled by gender ideologues who routinely conduct experimental hormonal and surgical procedures on minors and vulnerable adults despite legitimate medical and ethical concerns.

These shocking findings come after members of WPATH were credibly accused in the media of “rubbing shoulders with pedophiles and fetishists.”

After a months long investigation in 2022, the news and opinion website Reduxx found that WPATH was involved with a fetish forum that hosts and produces fictional child pornography and extreme sadomasochistic content, including graphic child sexual torture fantasies.

In 2022, Reduxx released the findings of a months-long investigation into WPATH’s connection to a “eunuch” forum hosting graphic child sexual torture fantasies.

Despite being fully aware of the contents of this forum, WPATH revised its guidelines to accommodate recommendations…

— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) March 5, 2024

Despite serious concerns about the radical organization, the National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organization and every major American medical and psychiatric association all turn to WPATH for guidelines on how to treat gender-confused youth, the New York Post reported.

A number of doctors in the group admitted that their patients often did not understand the ramifications of hormone treatment or surgery – such as developing facial hair, the files showed.

A child psychologist said in a leaked email:

“[It is] out of their developmental range to understand the extent to which some of these medical interventions are impacting them.

“They’ll say they understand, but then they’ll say something else that makes you think, oh, they didn’t really understand that they are going to have facial hair.”

During a May 2022 internal workshop titled “Identity Evolution,” Daniel Metzger, a British Columbia endocrinologist said, “I think the thing you have to remember about kids is that we’re often explaining these sorts of things to people who haven’t even had biology in high school yet.”

Metzger noted that many adolescents are unable to grasp the lifelong consequences of infertility.

“It’s always a good theory that you talk about fertility preservation with a 14-year-old,” he said, “but I know I’m talking to a blank wall. They’d be like, ‘ew, kids, babies, gross.’ Or, the usual answer is, ‘I’m just going to adopt.’ And then you ask them, ‘Well, what does that involve? Like, how much does it cost?’ ‘Oh, I thought you just like went to the orphanage, and they gave you a baby.’ . . . I think now that I follow a lot of kids into their mid-twenties, I’m always like, ‘Oh, the dog isn’t doing it for you, right?’”

Part I: Children and Adolescents

“We’re explaining things to people who haven’t even had biology in high school…”

“I think the thing you have to remember about kids is that we’re often explaining these sorts of things to people who haven’t even had biology in high school yet,”… pic.twitter.com/eCjNbkVuOT

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) March 4, 2024

WPATH tells the public that surgical and hormonal treatments are tested and safe, but what members say amongst themselves is an entirely different matter.

In 2022, for instance, Marci Bowers, WPATH’s transgender president and a pelvic and gynecologic surgeon based in California, made the disputed claim that puberty blockers are “completely reversible.” In the internal forum however,  she acknowledged that such treatment is “in its infancy.”

Bowers also told her colleagues the “fertility question has no research.”

There is an emerging body of scientific evidence that point to the potential harms of hormonal treatments and puberty blockers, including lower bone density, and infertility in patients.

The leaked emails also show that WPATH doctors discussed the risk of developing cancer following hormone treatment.

In once case, a 16-year-old girl who had been on puberty blockers for several years and testosterone for one year developed two liver tumors that an oncologist concluded were caused by the hormones.

One doctor discussed a transgender colleague who died of cancer after being on testosterone for years.

“I have one transition friend/colleague who, after about eight to 10 years of [testosterone] developed hepatocarcinoma [a form of liver cancer],” the doctor wrote.

“To the best of my knowledge, it was linked to his hormone treatment … it was so advanced that he opted for palliative care and died a couple of months later.”

WPATH adopted its current Standards of Care in 2022 after scrapping a draft chapter about ethics and removing minimum-age requirements for children starting puberty blockers or undergoing sexual-modification surgeries.

It had initially recommended 16 to start hormones and 17 for surgery.

The WPATH files also demonstrate how the activist doctors cavalierly approach critical questions such as when to begin the radical treatments on minors.

In one conversation, a member asked for advice about a 14-year-old patient, a boy who identified as a girl and had begun transitioning at 4.

The child insisted on a vaginoplasty, a surgery that removes the penis, testicles and scrotum and repositions tissue to create a nonfunctioning pseudo-vagina. It requires a lifetime of dilation. Was he too young at 14?

Bowers didn’t recommend the surgery, explaining “the tissue is too immature, dilation routine too critical.”

In lay terms, that means boys who are too young do not have enough penal tissue for the surgery and the surgeon must harvest intestinal lining to build the faux vagina. Even Bowers admits that can lead to “problematic surgical outcomes.”

She would know since she has performed more than 2,000 vaginoplasties. Her highest-profile patient is 17-year-old Jazz Jennings, the transgender star of reality TV show “I Am Jazz.”

Three corrective surgeries were required to fix problems from the original vaginoplasty.

“She had a very difficult surgical course,” Bowers admitted in a 2022 appearance on the show. “We knew it would be tough — it turned out tougher than any of us imagined.”

Knowing this, Bowers still told colleagues in the internal discussion forum that the best age for an adolescent to undergo surgery was “sometime before the end of high school does make some sense in that they are under the watch of parents in the home they grew up in.”

Christine McGinn, another transgender plastic surgeon from Pennsylvania, agreed. McGinn has performed “about 20 vaginoplasties in patients under 18” and thinks the “ideal time in the U.S. is surgery the summer before the last year of high school. I have heard many other surgeons echo this.”

McGinn said waiting until teens are older than 18 and in college is problematic because “there are too many stressors in college that limit patients’ ability to dilate.”

The members also discussed common complications for phalloplasty in which a nonfunctioning pseudo-penis is fashioned from a female patient’s forearm or thigh tissue.

The surgery, which requires a full hysterectomy and surgical removal of the vagina, often has serious consequences, including “pelvic inflammatory disease, vaginal atrophy, abnormal pap tests and incontinence.”

Several colleagues described patients struggling with debilitating bowel problems, bleeding and excruciating pain during sex (“feeling like broken glass”).

They said vaginal estrogen creams and moisturizers as well as hyaluronic acid suppositories “can be helpful.”

The files also expose WPATH’s embrace of even more disturbing sex “nullification” surgeries for patients who do not feel either male or female and identify only as nonbinary.

Doctors have performed horrific “de-gendering” surgeries in an effort to create a sexless and smooth cosmetic appearance in these people “that is unknown in nature,” The Post reported. These surgeries result in bodies that “resemble department-store mannequins.”

There is even an experimental “bi-genital” surgery that attempts to construct a second set of genitals.

In 2017, when tabloids reported a 22-year-old man had spent $50,000 to surgically remove his sex organs so he could “transform into a genderless extra-terrestrial,” it seemed a one-off oddity.

But WPATH has enshrined that concept in its Standard of Care — the same document in which the group endorsed for the time first time chemical or surgical castration for patients who identify as eunuchs. (WPATH even linked to the Eunuch Archives, where men anonymously share castration fetishes.)

These science-fiction-like surgeries are not only reserved for adults.

“How do we come up with appropriate standards for non-binary patients?” asked Thomas Satterwhite, a San Francisco-based plastic surgeon who has operated on dozens of patients younger than 18 since 2014. “I’ve found more and more patients recently requesting ‘non-standard’ procedures.”

What are nonstandard procedures? They include “non-binary top surgery,” a mastectomy without nipples. There are brutal procedures for girls that eliminate all or part of the vagina and for boys that amputate the penis, scrotum and testicles.

One San Francisco surgical clinic proclaimed on its website that the goal here “is a smooth, neutral body that is cosmetically free of sexual identification.”

Meanwhile, WPATH members mostly dismiss the mounting number of disgruntled detransitioners who regret the choices they made as youths after they reach adulthood.

One case involved a 17-year-old boy, just graduated from high school, who had been on testosterone for two years. He was reported to be “very distraught and angry. He reports he feels he was brainwashed and is upset by the permanent changes to his body.”

A self-described “queer therapist” argued that young people cannot be brainwashed. “In my experience, those stories come from people who have an active agenda against the rights of trans people.”

Bowers said that “I do see talk of the phenomenon [detransitioners] as distracting from the many challenges we face.”

A detrans subreddit currently has over 53,000 members.

Rachel Levine, the transgender assistant secretary for health, is a WPATH member who has nothing but praise for the organization.

According to Levine, WPATH “assesses the full state of the science and provides substantive, rigorously analyzed, peer-reviewed recommendations to the medical community on how best to care for patients who are transgender or gender non-binary. It is free of any agenda other than to ensure that medical decisions are informed by science.”

In contrast, Shellenberger said “transgender healthcare,” which he calls “the pseudoscientific surgical destruction of healthy genitals in vulnerable people,” is comparable to the mid-20th-century use of lobotomies, or “the pseudoscientific surgical destruction of healthy brains.”

“It is a medical travesty playing out in real time, and the casualties are our children,” investigative journalist Gerald Posner concluded at the Post.

Finally, here’s Matt Walsh with his usual acerbic take on this totally disgusting shitshow…

The Secret History Of The Evil Organization That Pushed Gender Madness Into The Mainstream

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 – 00:30 Opening
1:56 – 21:54 The Secret History Of The Evil Organization That Pushed Gender Madness Into The Mainstream
22:53 – 27:00 Karine Jean-Pierre Snaps At… pic.twitter.com/Yj8nt1WVQ9

— The Matt Walsh Show (@MattWalshShow) March 6, 2024

Despite soaring stocks, money-market fund assets rose to a fresh record high for the second straight week, adding $19BN to $6.08TN (and almost $70BN in two weeks)…

Source: Bloomberg

But, but, but, ‘money on the sidelines’ and stuff?

In a breakdown for the week to March 6, government funds – which invest primarily in securities like Treasury bills, repurchase agreements and agency debt – saw assets rise to $4.9 trillion, a $21.6 billion increase. 

Prime funds, which tend to invest in higher-risk assets such as commercial paper, meanwhile, saw assets fall to $1.02 trillion, a $3.6 billion drop, driven by an exodus from the institutional side.

Institutional funds saw a modest $3.6BN inflow while Retail funds saw $15.1BN inflow…

Source: Bloomberg

The Fed’s balance sheet shrank by $39BN last week to its lowest since Feb 2021…

Source: Bloomberg

QT shows no signs of tapering yet with $29.6BN in securities released last week, to the lowest since March 2021, just above $7TN…

Source: Bloomberg

The Fed’s Reverse Repo facility saw further liquidity drawn-down, plunging fast very recently, on target for a March meeting with the x-axis…

Source: Bloomberg

Bank reserves at The Fed were flat on the week with equity market cap as dramatically decoupled as it was in July of last year…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, The Fed’s bank bailout facility (BTFP) is set to expire in the next week (but bear in mind these are all one-year term loans). It ticked up by $548MM last week holding around the $164BN level…

Source: Bloomberg

Powell today said he was trying to destigmatize the discount window (because that is where all this crap is going to end up)…

Reminder, bonds are trading higher in yield, lower in price, since the SVB crisis (which means what for the banks holdings?)

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

Former President Trump, the likely GOP candidate for the 2024 presidential election, said he supported Israel’s brutal, ongoing military operations in Gaza in an interview with “Fox & Friends” this week.

Trump agreed when a host described him as being “firmly in Israel’s camp.” He was then asked if he was “on board” with the way the Israeli military was carrying out its campaign.

“You’ve got to finish the problem. You had a horrible invasion that took place, that would have never happened if I was president, by the way,” Trump replied.

Trump did not elaborate on his position and only claimed the October 7 Hamas attack wouldn’t have happened if he was still president. When asked whether or not he would support a ceasefire in Gaza, Trump said, “Look, I hate seeing what’s happening. Again, it would have never happened. This attack on Israel and, likewise, Israel’s counter-attack, which is what it is, would never have happened if I was president.”

During his time in office, Trump was extremely pro-Israel and carried out several policies to support Israeli claims to occupied land.

His administration recognized the Golan Heights as Israeli territory and declared that ‘illegal Israeli settlements’ in the West Bank do not violate international law.

Trump’s administration moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and unveiled a so-called “peace plan” that would have seen Israel annex large swathes of the West Bank. Trump also brokered the Abraham Accords, deals that resulted in Israel normalizing ties with the UAE and Bahrain.

Trump at one point in the interview charged that Biden is “abandoning” Israel…

Trump briefly acknowledges that he supports Israel’s continued decimation of Gaza, before reverting to his standard deflection that nothing bad would’ve happened if he was still president. Trump also ridiculously agrees with the idea that Biden is “abandoning” Israel pic.twitter.com/k2W8gXE4N5

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) March 5, 2024

Trump has been relatively quiet on the campaign trail about the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, but he is expected to continue unconditional military support for Israel if he wins in November. So far, a reported nearly 31,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, and about two-thirds of the casualties are women and children.

Another day, another ‘buy all the things’ move in markets as the dollar extended yesterday’s decline.

The dollar was down for the 5th straight day to the lowest close since Jan 15th. This has been the biggest 2-day-decline since mid-December…

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar’s losses were driven in large part by yen’s strength (after wage growth soared and sent BoJ rate-hike expectation soaring)…

Source: Bloomberg

And Euro strength (after ECB) also helped push down the dollar

Source: Bloomberg

As the dollar dived, everything else rallied – stocks, bonds, bitcoin, and gold all gained..

Source: Bloomberg

All the majors were higher again today, led by Nasdaq. The Dow as the laggard but still managed decent gains on the day, even though its closing below the cash-session open. The European session was a buy-fest

The S&P’s gains today took it positive for the week and puts it on pace to be the 17th positive week in the last 19 weeks – the longest streak since 1964…

Mag7 stocks rebounded from Tuesday’s decline (can’t help but feel like that was a very technical move ahead of tomorrow’s payrolls print)…

Source: Bloomberg

VIX refused to play along with the equity squeeze…

Source: Bloomberg

Bonds were bid today with the short-end outperforming (2Y -5bps, 10Y -2bps)

Source: Bloomberg

Which prompted some bull-steepening in the curve…

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin extended yesterday’s bounce, back up to $68,000 and ending at a record close…

Source: Bloomberg

Which comes after another solid net inflow day (+$332mm) for BTC ETFs…

Source: Bloomberg

Ethereum extended further today, topping $3900 once again…

Source: Bloomberg

Oil prices chopped around but ended basically unchanged with WTI just below $79…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, we keep hearing about the ‘broadening’ of the rally (as some way to compensate for Mag7’s slowdown). But, judging from the underlying members and their moving averages, that just ain’t true…

Source: Bloomberg

“Today just feels… different,” says JPMorgan trader Matt Reiner in a note to clients this morning.

“I can’t help but sense that we’re at the apex of some unknown pivot point in the market. I can’t shake it.”