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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION

50 STATES AND DC, CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT

International Swimming Federation Will Ban Some Biologically Male Athletes from Women’s Competitions by Brittany Bernstein

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/international-swimming-federation-will-ban-some-biologically-male-athletes-from-womens-competitions/

The international swimming federation FINA announced a new policy on Sunday to ban biologically male athletes who have gone through male puberty from competing in women’s competitions. 

To qualify for women’s competitions, the swimmers must either have never gone through male puberty or had male puberty suppressed at the stage when physical changes begin to appear or before the age of 12, whichever occurred later, according to the policy.

The athletes also have to prove that they have continuously suppressed their testosterone levels since that time.

“We have to protect the rights of our athletes to compete, but we also have to protect competitive fairness at our events, especially the women’s category at FINA competitions,” FINA president Husain al-Musallam said in statement.

The policy also includes proposals for an additional open competition category. FINA is set to form a new working group that will spend six months studying the most effective ways to set up the new category.

Bees Are Fish and Other Fake Narratives These days we accept outrageous falsehoods with a shoulder shrug. By Andy Kessler

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bees-are-fish-and-other-fake-narratives-progressive-partisanship-woke-1619-project-words-11655650274?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

A friend recently told me he asked the management at a vegan restaurant why they didn’t have honey on the menu. “It’s from an animal, so it’s not vegan,” he was told. He tried to explain that honey isn’t part of a bee but instead nectar that bees carry back to a hive, mix with enzymes, heat, dehydrate . . . Exasperated, he finally said, “It’s bee barf!” (It’s not, but it isn’t prime rib either.) He didn’t win the argument.

I mention this because last month a California court ruled that bumblebees are actually fish and can be protected by the California Endangered Species Act. This is as silly as the Environmental Protection Agency trying to define puddles and drainage ditches as “navigable waters.” Yes, they were saying that a puddle should be regulated like a lake or river. Even before this, the Army Corps of Engineers had a “glancing geese” test, meaning if a migratory bird ever looked at a wet spot, that spot was under federal jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, we have oat milk and almond milk, even though they obviously aren’t milk. Similarly, oxymoronic “plant-based meat,” which isn’t meat, is really fake meat. Even worse, it’s nasty, chock full of salt, and not even good for you. Be warned, we’re being trained that anything can be anything. The truth has taken a back seat. I don’t like it one bit.

In June 2020, in the middle of coronavirus lockdowns, tens of thousands marched in American cities in protest of the police. In the protesters’ defense, 1,200 health and medical professionals signed a letter “in response to emerging narratives that seemed to malign demonstrations as risky for the public health because of Covid-19.” It went on: “Instead, we wanted to present a narrative that prioritizes opposition to racism as vital to the public health, including the epidemic response.” Ah, the narrative. How have the signers not been summarily fired and barred from the healthcare industry? We know why: If a bee is a fish, then protests provide immunity.

This is the world we live in today. Who actually believes this stuff? George Orwell said it best in his 1945 “Notes on Nationalism”: “One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.” Bertrand Russell had a similarly great line: “This is one of those views which are so absurd that only very learned men could possibly adopt them.”

Show Trials—Then and Now Roger Kimball Roger Kimball

https://www.theepochtimes.com/show-trials-then-and-now_4528243.html?utm_source=epochHG&utm_campaign=rcp

Power Line’s Scott Johnson quoted a TV Guide reporter who described the viewership of the first Jan. 6 House Select Committee’s prime-time television extravaganza as “decent.”In context, “decent” means “dismal” since, as Johnson notes, “the networks graciously handed their prime-time slots over to the committee’s motley crew in unison, Soviet style.”

A show trial is a mock, or make-believe, trial in which the guilt of the party is predetermined.The trial is just a form of theater.Lenin called them “model trials.”

Their aim isn’t to discover the truth—which was supposedly already known—but to stage a propagandist exhibition.

The Soviet Union specialized in the genre, as did communist China, Nazi Germany, and other totalitarian countries.

As the White Queen in “Alice in Wonderland” puts it, it’s always “sentence first—verdict afterwards.”

If you turned on the television on June 9 and you weren’t tuned in to Fox News, you were watching—or “watching”—a couple hours of Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney conducting a show trial.

They vilified Donald Trump while airing a few misleadingly edited clips from the events of that day.

As I’ve noted elsewhere, the Democrats went all out on this show.

Even Democrats Blame Biden For Surging Inflation: I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/06/20/even-democrats-blame-biden-for-surging-inflation-ii-tipp-poll/

If there’s a topic uppermost on most people’s minds today, it is certainly the surge in inflation over the past year. Soaring prices have affected virtually every person in the country. And Americans say they know who’s responsible: President Biden. Surprisingly, that includes more than half of all Democrats, too.

May’s 8.6% annualized inflation rate, the highest in 40 years, shocked financial markets and alarmed consumers and workers alike. As we’ve been reminded over the years, inflation acts as a tax on everyone, lowering standards of living, raising costs across the board, and eroding the very foundations of a productive economy. And once entrenched, it’s very difficult to get rid of.

How did this happen? And does President Biden deserve the blame? June’s monthly online I&I/TIPP Poll sought to answer those questions, asking 1,310 adults across the country the following question: “In general, how responsible are President Biden’s policies for causing the current inflation?”

The answers to the poll, which was taken from June 8-10 and has a margin of error of +/-2.8 percentage points, couldn’t be less comforting for Biden and the Democratic Party.

Of those responding, 64% said Biden was “responsible,” choosing either “very responsible” (38%) or “somewhat responsible” (26%). Just 25% answered “not responsible”, with 17% saying “not very responsible” but a far-smaller 8% saying “not at all responsible.” “Not sure” was 10%.

Fantasies and Infant Formula The people who can’t deliver on baby formula think they know what gender is right for your child. William Kilpatrick

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/06/fantasies-and-infant-formula-william-kilpatrick/

June is “Pride Month.”  It’s also the month in which many Americans woke up to the fact that the nation was running out of baby formula.  Distressed mothers couldn’t find any on the supermarket shelves or on Amazon’s site.

When you’re looking for a garden tool and all you can find is a sign that says “this product is currently unavailable,” it’s an inconvenience, but if you’re looking for baby formula and your own supply is about to run out, it’s an emergency.

A nationwide shortage of baby formula is a very big deal, yet the Biden administration which had known for months that a shortage was building, did nothing for the longest time.  It is difficult to avoid the impression that the administration didn’t really care that much.

“Pride Month,” on the other hand, is treated as a really big deal.  The Army, the Navy, and the Air Force celebrate it.  So do schools, sports teams, and major corporations.  Meanwhile, the Biden administration has initiated a National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality.  Why?  Because as President Biden has informed us, transgender rights are the “civil rights issue of our time.”

But what does Pride Month have to do with a baby formula shortage?  Quite a lot, actually.  During Pride Month we are asked to celebrate the LGBTQ+ movement, but implicitly we are being asked to celebrate the ideology that goes with it.  The LGBTQ+ movement is not simply about protecting certain personal choices, it’s also about promulgating a worldview in which babies and families do not figure prominently—at least, not in comparison to the needs and demands of what cultural historian Quentin Anderson called “the imperial self.”

The LGBT thought-world is part of a larger ideology that is widely shared in Washington.  For people who live in that thought-bubble, the subject of babies is not an interesting one. It’s not that they hate babies, but that they don’t think much at all about babies or their needs.  So, it’s no surprise that a shortage of infant formula should catch them flat-footed.  Compared to the really big issues such as world peace, racism, and climate change, the issue of formula shortage seems mundane to them.  On the other hand, if you could link the shortage to bias against trans youth, you might get a hearing.

The radical left literally targets Amy Coney Barrett By Andrea Widburg

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/06/the_radical_left_literally_targets_amy_coney_barrett.html

The federal code is remarkably clear: A person who “pickets or parades” near a judge’s home “with the intent of influencing any judge…in the discharge of his duties…shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.” (18 U.S.C. § 1507.) Simply put, if you appear outside a judge’s home attempting to change a case’s outcome, you’re a criminal. And yet, who thinks that Merrick Garland’s DOJ will act on the fact that protestors gathered outside Supreme Court Justice Amy Comey Barrett’s home—where she lives with her seven children—to intimidate her into changing her position on Roe v. Wade?

The protesters were not subtle; they were obvious and deliberately intimidating:

Pro-choice activists protested outside Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s house over the weekend, donning fake-blood-stained clothes and holding baby dolls.

The protesters marched to the judge’s Falls Church, Va., home Saturday and held signs including one with a coat hanger on it that said, “Not going back.”

The youth activists, part of a group called Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, tied their hands together with tape and held the plastic baby dolls.

“This is what Amy’s America looks like,” one protester Ariana, 15, said in a video the group posted. “Children will be forced to give birth to children. Women will be silenced. Women will be invalidated. Women will be told they are less than.

“And that is not OK. We cannot let that happen. … You can’t let this future happen to us. It’s not fair.” (Emphasis mine.)

Abigail Shrier: In Defense of Political Escalation How can we get back to normal? Those waiting for the pendulum to swing back will be waiting forever. Abigail Shrier

https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/abigail-shrier-in-defense-of-political?utm_source=email

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis earned uncommon rebuke from conservative pundits last week, when he indicated he might sic Child Protective Services on parents who take their children to drag shows.

“I’m a very big fan of DeSantis and very not a fan of kids at drag shows,” writer Bethany Mandel wrote on Twitter. “But conservatives have to recognize the Pandora’s box we’re opening by involving CPS in judgment call parenting decisions. It’s not abuse.”

Mandel is right: Child Protective Services should not be sent after these families. Parents ought to be free to make all kinds of decisions regarding what ideas to expose their children to, how and when—especially with regard to matters that we typically consider private and deeply personal: Religion is one. Sexuality, another.

But here’s the hitch: as with so many of our institutions, CPS has already become thoroughly politicized and weaponized by the left. Dozens and dozens of loving parents have told me over the last two years that CPS showed up at their homes or threatened their custody or even testified against them in court, all for the sin of failing to “affirm” their minor child’s newly-announced gender identity or vetoing the kid’s immediate medical transition.

In California, matters head from bad to worse: a new bill aspires to transform California into a “sanctuary state” for gender-swapping youth, making it possible for even a non-custodial parent to run to California to transition her child against her ex-spouse’s wishes.

Here, then, is the question: If our ultimate goal is returning to a normalcy in which government agencies and corporations treat all Americans fairly regardless of viewpoint, how are we to achieve this? At a minimum, we must acknowledge that these institutions are already weaponized and their artillery points only in one direction: against the opponents of the left. Acknowledge further that an ever-increasing tyranny is ratcheted upon those who dare criticize the encroachment of gender ideology into all spheres of public life. The playing field is about as level as San Francisco’s Filbert Street.

Domestic Terrorism Ignored Scalise shooter James Hodgkinson overlooked, Reagan shooter John Hinckley goes free.  By Lloyd Billingsley

https://amgreatness.com/2022/06/18/domestic-terrorism-ignored/

“Today is 6/14, a day that should live in infamy,” wrote Rabbi Jonathan Gross last Tuesday. June 14 marked five years since the attempt at “the largest-scale political assassination in our nation’s history,” when “a Democrat tried to murder dozens of Republican Congressmen as they innocently gathered to play baseball at a field just outside the nation’s capital.” 

The Democrat was James Hodgkinson, 66, a follower of Bernie Sanders. Hodgkinson “succeeded in seriously injuring Rep. Steve Scalise and three others, including two police officers before brave law enforcement officials stopped him and saved the rule of law.” 

According to Gross, who is also a civil rights attorney, this was “an actual domestic terror attack carried out by a Democrat.” That is not the only reason the establishment media and the federal government kept rather quiet on the five-year anniversary. 

Hodgkinson’s social media record bristled with hatred of President Trump and Republicans. He planned the attack for months, casing the Alexandria, Virginia baseball field where the representatives practiced. 

Hodgkinson deployed a Smith and Wesson 9mm pistol and an SKS automatic rifle, a precursor to the Soviet AK-47 that uses the same 7.62 cartridge. The SKS rifle had been legally purchased, but altered to accept a detachable magazine and folding stock. Before opening fire, Hodgkinson asked if the players on the field were Democrats or Republicans. 

Joe Incompetent Adam Smith was trying to be consoling when he said “there’s a deal of ruin in a nation.” Yes, there is. But Joe Biden is testing the limits of that home truth. By Roger Kimball

https://amgreatness.com/2022/06/18/joe-incompetent/

When it comes to the Biden Administration, my advice is: forget the ideology, concentrate on the incompetence. 

Yes, the Biden Administration has gone all-in on the leisured Left agenda, throwing its hat in with the race-baiters, icky sexual exotics, climate fanatics, and other wardens of wokeness. 

All that is destructive, not to mention deeply unattractive.

But even worse than the preening, self-indulgent theatrics of these unhappy would-be censors and commandants is the mind-boggling ineptitude of this administration. 

Thanks to soon-to-be-former Representative Liz Cheney (RINO-Wyo.), we’ve been hearing a lot about January 6, 2021, lately. But not only was that the day that some of Donald Trump’s supporters traipsed around the Capitol building. It was also, as it turns out, a day that provided a nice contrast between the Trump and the Biden Administrations. I am not thinking about the differences in comportment between the two but energy costs under Donald Trump compared with those costs under Joe Biden. Since Biden seems bent on fulfilling his promise to destroy the coal industry and stop all drilling, it is not surprising that the cost of energy has skyrocketed over the last year. One wag sent around a “Never Forget January 6th” notice listing the prices of fuel on that day in 2021:

Regular gas was $1.99
Premium was $2.14 
Diesel was $2.21 

42% of Young Male Dems Believe Transgender Movement a Threat to Children Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2022/06/42-young-male-dems-believe-transgender-movement-daniel-greenfield/

The numbers under the hood, especially among young male Dems, are seriously bad. And a reckoning is coming.

This is a Southern Poverty Law Center survey. And I wouldn’t be posting SPLC content if it wasn’t spectacular. And it is spectacular.

Overall, 49% of people said they believe gender ideology has corrupted American culture, including 34% of Democrats, 72% of Republicans, and 45% of Independents.

The magic happens when you break down the numbers by age and gender. Among younger Democrat men, a group that the SPLC survey defines as under 50, the numbers are dramatically different than among baby boomers.

Only 20% of Democrat men over 50 agree that “gender ideology has corrupted American culture”, but 47% of younger Democratic men agree.

Only 41% disagree.

The numbers are better among Democrat women, but there’s still a sharp age split.

Only 26% of older Democrat women agree, while 37% of younger Democrat women do.

The numbers get progressively worse for lefties on the question of transgender indoctrination of children and whether it’s a threat to children.