Attorney General Merrick Garland‚ in an address Sunday at a church in Selma‚ Alabama‚ characterized state election laws designed to verify mail-in ballots‚ restrict drop boxes‚ and require voter ID as “discriminatory‚ burdensome‚ and unnecessary.” Experts say the attorney general’s comments don’t line up with the views of a supermajority of Americans‚ and that the Biden administration intentionally is undermining election reform efforts ahead of the November elections. During his appearance with Vice President Kamala Harris at Selma’s Tabernacle Baptist Church marking the 59th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday attacks on civil rights marchers‚ Garland declared that his Justice Department is ramping up its “fight” against states and local jurisdictions to challenge laws designed to strengthen the integrity of elections. Garland said some states have placed “discriminatory‚ burdensome‚ and unnecessary restrictions on access to the ballot‚ including those related to mail-in voting‚ the use of drop boxes‚ and voter ID requirements.” Garland went on to assert that voter ID laws make it “more difficult” for “millions of eligible voters to vote and to elect the representatives of their choice.” He said the Justice Department is “fighting back” by doubling the number of attorneys in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division and filing a series of legal challenges in states and jurisdictions that have enacted election reforms. However‚ recent surveys on the topic indicate that the American public’s views are largely not in line with the attorney general’s. Polls have consistently shown that a strong majority of Americans support requiring some form of photo ID in order to vote‚ with some polls showing 80% in favor‚ including 60% of Democrats. Currently‚ 36 states have some form of voter ID laws. Evidence also shows that Garland’s claims—that election reforms make it harder‚ particularly for minorities‚ to vote—are not true in practice. Following the “Jim Crow 2.0” uproar surrounding Georgia’s election integrity laws enacted in 2021‚ the state’s voters set an all-time record for midterm election turnout in 2022‚ with 0% of black Georgians reporting a “poor” voting experience. In addition‚ while Garland contended that state reforms to the mail-in ballot system are “unnecessary‚” a December 2023 survey found that 1 in 5 mail-in voters in the 2020 election admitted to committing fraudulent activity in violation of federal law‚ including filling out a ballot for a friend or family member and submitting a ballot for a state they no longer live in. Alongside efforts to scuttle election integrity efforts via Garland’s Justice Department‚ the Biden administration is also carrying out a simultaneous campaign to use taxpayer funds via the Department of Agriculture to work with a left-wing group known as Demos to conduct get-out-the-vote campaigns‚ which experts say is in violation of federal law. “Sadly‚ Attorney General Garland’s efforts to undermine election integrity policies are just business as usual for this administration‚” Jason Snead‚ executive director of the Honest Elections Project‚ told The Washington Stand. “From the recent announcement that the Biden administration will be using tax dollars to pay college students—a key liberal demographic—to do get-out-the-vote work‚ to persistent attacks on effective and commonsense election laws‚ this administration is using every lever of government to push a left-wing voting agenda.” “There is not a shred of evidence to suggest the laws targeted by the Biden Justice Department do anything other than improve elections and bolster public confidence in voting‚” Snead added. “That’s why voter ID enjoys huge‚ bipartisan support from the American public.” Originally published by The Washington Stand Have an opinion about this article? To sound off‚ please email letters@DailySignal.com‚ and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state. The post Garland Calls Election Reforms ‘Discriminatory‚ Burdensome‚ and Unnecessary’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Doctors at the World Professional Association of Transgender Health repeatedly struggled with various side effects of what they call “gender-affirming care‚” including cancer in teens‚ reduced sexual function‚ and the lack of informed consent for procedures with lifelong impacts‚ newly unearthed documents reveal. WPATH‚ a controversial organization that transgender advocates and health agencies use to justify “transgender” medical interventions‚ frames itself as the leading expert organization on medical care for people who identify as transgender. It has faced criticism for advocating experimental practices that ignore serious concerns about informed consent and long-term side effects. Journalist Michael Shellenberger released a report‚ “The WPATH Files‚” through his nonprofit‚ Environmental Progress‚ Monday night. In the files‚ doctors and other medical professionals at WPATH struggle with serious medical issues that underscore the idea that the “transgender” hormones and surgeries euphemistically referred to as “gender-affirming care” represent a Wild West of experimental medicine. Shellenberger told The Daily Signal that the files reveal “their whole paradigm falling apart over the last three years.” “I’m relieved the files are out in the world for everyone to read‚” he added. “Nobody can claim to understand the gender issue without reading the WPATH Files.” When asked what most shocked him in the files‚ Shellenberger responded‚ “That the WPATH members and leaders spoke so frankly about not getting informed consent from their patients.” Informed Consent Environmental Progress published video footage of an internal WPATH panel called “Identity Evolution Workshop” held on May 6‚ 2022. Panel members admitted that it is impossible to obtain proper informed consent from young patients. Dr. Daniel Metzger‚ a Canadian endocrinologist‚ noted that doctors find themselves “often explaining these sorts of things to people who haven’t even had biology in high school yet.” He noted that patients seem to want to pick and choose the physical effects of hormone therapy‚ like obtaining a deeper voice but getting no facial hair‚ or taking estrogen without developing breasts. Metzger added‚ “It’s always a good theory that you talk about fertility preservation with a 14-year-old‚ but I know I’m talking to a blank wall. They’d be like‚ ‘Ew‚ kids‚ babies—gross.’” “I often see people who have already engaged in some sort of medical intervention‚” one panelist said. She admitted‚ “It’s out of their developmental range sometimes to understand the extent to which some of these medical interventions are impacting them.” Critics often note that children can barely understand the idea of sacrificing their ability to have children later in life‚ and this discussion suggests WPATH members know this. “Most of the kids are nowhere in any kind of brain space to really talk about it seriously.”One WPATH member says‚ “It's out of their developmental range sometimes to understand the extent to which some of these medical interventions are impacting them.”“We try to talk about… pic.twitter.com/cn1Q0YvhXF— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) March 5‚ 2024 On WPATH discussion boards‚ many of the doctors and therapists referenced patients with dissociative identity disorder‚ a disease in which a person has multiple personalities. One doctor wrote about “struggling internally” between giving a patient with “observed dissociations” the so-called cross-sex hormones the patient wants or following an “informed consent model” and holding off‚ as psychiatrists recommend. California psychiatrist Dan Karasic responded‚ “The mere presence of psychiatric illness should not block a person’s ability to start hormones if they have persistent gender dysphoria‚ capacity to consent‚ and the benefits of starting hormones outweigh the risks.” One WPATH member warned that “it was imperative” to obtain consent from each of a dissociative person’s alternate personalities (referred to as “alters”) in order to provide cross-sex hormones. “Ethically‚ if you do not get consent from all alters‚ you have not really received consent and you may be open to being sued later‚ if they decide [hormone therapy] or surgery was not in their best interest‚” a medical professional wrote. Surgeries on Minors Plastic surgeons wrote about performing surgeries on minors. Plastic surgeon Dr. Christine N. McGinn admitted to having “performed about 20 vaginoplasties in patients under 18 over the past 17 years‚” and said she was “battling my hospital for the ability to continue to do so.” (“Vaginoplasty” refers to the process of altering male genitalia to appear like female genitalia.) One surgeon recommended vaginoplasty no earlier than 16 years old‚ writing‚ “I feel the ideal time in the U.S. is surgery the summer before their last year of high school.” Some medical professionals asked about whether so-called puberty blockers would stunt a young person’s growth. An endocrinologist (hormone doctor) recommended increasing cross-sex hormones slowly in order to allow a female patient to “hopefully reach maximum height potential.” California gynecologist Marci Bowers admitted that “puberty blockade is in its infancy.” Unpleasant Side Effects Doctors and therapists mentioned how women who undergo “gender-affirming care” to identify as men have pain during sex and suffer uterine atrophy. WPATH members also discussed that men who take estrogen to identify as women experience pain during erections. When men experience such pain‚ testosterone cream can give them some relief‚ but the doctors warn that this relief may bring “unwanted androgenic effects‚” i.e.‚ making males who wish to appear female actually appear more male. Doctors mentioned using false medical codes for prescriptions to shield patients from any scrutiny‚ assuming that pharmacies or insurance companies might refuse to dispense or cover the drugs if they knew the true reason for them. Rather than using the code for gender identity disorder‚ F64.9‚ doctors would put a “hypogonadism diagnosis‚” falsely claiming that the patient had a disease where the body does not produce enough of a specific hormone. A gynecologist wrote about a male patient who underwent a vaginoplasty but who still secreted a fluid that “smells like semen.” Other doctors explained that males who undergo this process will always secrete fluid in this way‚ even though it no longer contains sperm. “I don’t think there is [a] remedy‚” one wrote. Dismissing Detransition While WPATH members knew about detransitioners‚ people who formerly underwent experimental interventions to make their bodies resemble those of the opposite sex but who later decided to reverse these processes and embrace their biological sex‚ they repeatedly insisted that detransition does not mean the original transgender identity—or the gruesome medical interventions to confirm it—represented a mistake. “I think it’s important to emphasize the way it is okay for gender and interest in medical options to change over time for each individual‚” one WPATH member wrote in November 2021. The member insisted that detransitioners “didn’t feel like they made a mistake.” Bowers‚ the California gynecologist‚ noted‚ “acknowlegment that de-transition exists to even a minor extent is considered off limits for many in our community.” She insisted that “all surgeries and all medical treatments have regret rates that are typically much higher than what we see for gender transition.” Others called “the idea of detransitioning” problematic because “it frames being cisgender as the default‚ and reinforces transness as a pathology.” Cancer Risk Doctors also admitted that cross-sex hormones can cause liver cancer in teenage patients. In December 2021‚ a doctor sought advice about “the development of hepatic adenomas in a young person treated with testosterone and/or oral contraceptives.” Hepatic adenomas‚ uncommon liver lesions‚ appear in otherwise normal-appearing livers. The doctor mentioned a 16-year-old female patient who had been taking testosterone for a year and who developed “two liver masses‚” which “the oncologist and surgeon both have indicated that the likely offending agents are the hormones.” Another WPATH member mentioned a female friend who developed “hepatocarcinomas”—liver cancer—after “about 8-10 years” of testosterone use. “It was so advanced that [the female who identified as male] opted for palliative care and died a couple months later.” Environmental Progress noted that female patients have developed liver cancer from cross-sex hormones. In 2020‚ the medical journal The Lancet published a study of a 17-year-old girl with a large hepatocellular carcinoma‚ the most common type of primary liver cancer‚ after she had been on testosterone for 14 months. Researchers also documented a 47-year-old woman who identified as a man and who had contracted a rare cancer of the bile duct that normally only appears in advanced age. Many states have moved to ban “gender-affirming care” for minors‚ largely due to concerns that minors cannot consent to experimental treatments that may leave them stunted‚ scarred‚ and infertile. Florida has moved to exclude such “treatments” from Medicaid funding. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by publication time. Have an opinion about this article? To sound off‚ please email letters@DailySignal.com‚ and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state. The post Liver Cancer in Teens‚ Reduced Sexual Function‚ Lack of Consent: Internal Docs Reveal Experimental Nature of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The course of action taken by the social media giant X in response to objections raised against its “misgendering” policy has prompted reassurances from its owner‚ Elon Musk. The pushback against the policy‚ led vociferously by podcaster Tim Pool‚ saw Pool vent his ire via a Friday post‚ instigating disruption to his ad obligations and verified accounts‚ lest the policy was revived. Pool went beyond mere words; he terminated a substantial ad campaign. Musk responded by attributing this unexpected policy revision to a Brazilian court verdict‚ which is currently under appeal and assured that its repercussions should be contained within the Brazilian confines alone‚ unaffected by the rest of the globe. The policy has now been updated to reflect that this policy will only be active in countries that require it. The policy now states: “Where required by local laws‚ we will reduce the visibility of posts that purposefully use different pronouns to address someone other than what that person uses for themselves‚ or that use a previous name that someone no longer goes by as part of their transition. Given the complexity of determining whether such a violation has occurred‚ we must always hear from the target to determine if a violation has occurred.” The post X Backtracks on “Misgendering” Policy‚ Makes it Country-Specific appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Once Italy surrendered to the Allies in September 1943‚ the Germans moved into the vacuum. Rome was declared an “open city” by the Italian government‚ meaning it was unoccupied and off limits to attack‚ but Germany rushed in troops for an occupation that lasted for nine months and subjected the citizens to the brutality of Nazi rule for the first time in the war. The Nazis rounded up Jews and sent them to their deaths in concentration camps‚ violently enforced curfews‚ and attempted to crush any opposition. A story about Italian resistance to German occupation‚ Roberto Rossellini’s 1945 film Roma città aperta (Rome‚ Open City) is recognized as the first classic film of what has become known as the neorealist movement. Shot in the city after the Germans had left but before the war was over‚ the stark black-and-white film remains powerful even as it nears  its 80th anniversary. Wrote novelist Virginia Baily for The Guardian newspaper in 2015‚ “It was one of the most visceral‚ gut-wrenching cinematic experiences of my life and I have carried images and sounds from it—the old ladies stalling the Gestapo while the resistance hero escapes across the roofs‚ the martial music playing as the German regiment marches down a deserted street‚ the tortured hero slumped in a chair‚ the priest in his black robes—with me ever since.”  The film opens as those German soldiers march through Rome to make a nighttime raid on a downtrodden apartment building. They seek Giorgio Manfredi (Marcello Pagliero)‚ a communist and a central figure in the resistance. The apartment dwellers do what they can to divert the soldiers‚ and Manfredi escapes across the rooftops. While the Germans search‚ they intercept a call on the communal telephone from Manfredi’s sometime mistress‚ Marina (Maria Michi)‚ an actress who quickly hangs up when she realizes something is amiss. One of the building’s residents is Pina (Anna Magnani)‚ a plain-speaking widow with a son‚ Marcello. She is pregnant‚ and on the night the Germans arrive she is planning to get married the next day to Francesco (Francesco Grandjacquet)‚ a soft-spoken printer. Her spiritual adviser is the priest Don Pietro Pellegrini (Aldo Fabrizi)‚ who also serves as a central figure in the resistance. The scene of Pina’s shooting in the street has become so iconic that Italy has even used it for a postage stamp that commemorated neorealism. In the meantime‚ the German Major Bergmann (Harry Feist) plots with the manipulative Ingrid (Giovanna Galletti) to stamp out the resistance and capture Manfredi. On Bergmann’s orders the Germans conduct another raid on the apartment building. This time they herd all the residents outside. When Don Pietro hears that one of the children from the building has a hidden stash of bombs and guns‚ he bluffs his way inside under the guise of giving last rites to a bedridden old man. He manages to hide the weapons before the Germans find them.  Outside‚ Pina sees the Germans taking away Francesco. Frantic‚ she breaks free‚ and dashes down the street in pursuit of the truck carrying away her fiancé. The merciless Germans gun her down as her son watches. She dies in the street‚ cradled by Don Pietro. Partisans attack the truck convoy with the prisoners and Francesco manages to escape. Bergmann and Ingrid have another tool they can use to find Manfredi: Marina. The cynical actress‚ angry with Manfredi and addicted to her creature comforts—which include drugs that Ingrid provides her—tells the Germans where they can find the resistance leader. The Germans descend as Manfredi and Don Pietro are bringing an Austrian deserter to safety and arrest the three men on the street. Bergmann forces the priest to watch as he has Manfredi brutally tortured‚ but neither the communist nor the Catholic priest divulge any information. Manfredi dies during his ordeal and Bergmann has the priest executed. Tied to a chair and praying for God to forgive his executioners‚ Don Pietro is murdered while the children from the apartment look on‚ horrified‚ before they trudge back into town‚ damaged in ways we can only imagine. Rome‚ Open City was something of a change of direction for director Rossellini‚ who earlier in the war had made films for producer Vittorio Mussolini‚ the son of Il Duce. Even before the Germans had been forced out of Rome‚ Rossellini had begun thinking about making a movie about the resistance. He wanted “to show things exactly as they were‚” he said. One of his collaborators on the story was another up-and-coming Italian filmmaker named Federico Fellini. Rossellini shot the film with little money‚ on location‚ and with film stock he scrounged—or even stole—from whatever sources were at hand‚ including cast-off snippets from other photographers. (The director said he stole stock from the offices of the U.S. Army’s Stars and Stripes news organization.) Most of the actors he used (with the notable exceptions of Magnani and Fabrizi) were nonprofessionals. He even used German prisoners-of-war as extras‚ including the soldier Pina slaps before making her ill-fated break. The result was a fiction film that looked and felt more like a documentary—in fact‚ the distributor Rossellini had obtained reneged on the deal‚ saying Rome‚ Open City wasn’t a “real movie.” But the film found a distributor in the United States and became a success‚ launching Rossellini’s international career and putting Italian neorealism—a genre embraced by other directors like Luchino Visconti and Vittorio de Sica—on the cinematic map.  Roberto Rossellini’s film was the first major release of what became known as neorealism.

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