BREAKING: Lawsuit Outs Reporter Ellen Ratner as Source for Seth Rich Information

Businessman Ed Butowsky filed a lawsuit on Monday that outed FOX News reporter Ellen Ratner was his source for the Seth Rich information.

This comes after Michael Isikoff’s report last week that labeled Butowsky as a Russian source.

Ed told The Gateway Pundit today that Ellen Ratner lied to Isikoff.
Ed provided The Gateway Pundit with a copy of his email with Ratner.

Butowsky added that he spoke with Isikoff off the record and he broke his trust by contacting Ratner.

Butowsky told The Gateway Pundit that after last week’s report he was forced to speak out.
Ed also says he has more evidence that Ratner was his source on the Seth Rich information.

Butowsky claims Ratner gathered the information on Seth Rich after contact with Wikileaks officials.
The Gateway Pundit has not confirmed that information.

Isikoff is already tied to the Trump-Russia collusion scandal after reporting on the junk dossier in his Yahoo report in 2016. The deep state leaked the info specifically to Isikoff who they knew to be a friendly reporter.

Lawflog.com reported:

Fox News news analyst Ellen Ratner relayed information from Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to Texas businessman Ed Butowsky regarding Seth Rich’s role in transferring emails to Wikileaks, according to an amended lawsuit that I filed this morning on behalf of Mr. Butowsky.

Although Ms. Ratner appears on Fox News, she is by no means a Republican or a conservative, and her role in the Seth Rich saga (like that of journalist Sy Hersh) obliterates the Democratic narrative that right-wing zealots fabricated the story about Mr. Rich leaking emails from the Democratic National Committee.

Mr. Rich, a DNC employee, was murdered in Washington, D.C. on July 10, 2016, and the murder remains unsolved. Here’s an excerpt from the amended suit (“RCH” stands for “Russian Collusion Hoax”):

45. Mr. Butowsky stumbled into the RCH crosshairs after Ellen Rattner [sic], a news analyst for Fox News and the White House correspondent for Talk Media News, contacted him in the Fall of 2016 about a meeting she had with Mr. Assange. Ms. Rattner’s brother, the late Michael Rattner, was an attorney who had represented Mr. Assange. According to Ms. Rattner, she made a stop in London during a return flight from Berlin, and she met with Mr. Assange for approximately six hours in the Ecuadorean embassy. Ms. Rattner said Mr. Assange told her that Seth Rich and his brother, Aaron, were responsible for releasing the DNC emails to Wikileaks. Ms. Rattner said Mr. Assange wanted the information relayed to Seth’s parents, as it might explain the motive for Seth’s murder.

46. Upon her return to the United States, Ms. Rattner asked Mr. Butowsky to contact the Rich family and relay the information from Mr. Assange, apparently because Ms. Rattner did not want her involvement to be made public. In the two months that followed, Mr. Butowsky did not attempt to contact the Rich family, but he grew increasingly frustrated as the DNC and #Resistance “journalists” blamed the Russian government for the email leak. On December 16, 2016, Mr. Butowsky sent a text message to Ms. Ratner:

BUTOWSKY [7:10 a.m.]: “Why don’t [sic] you speaking up about email hack?”

RATTNER [9:28 a.m.]: “I have”

Ms. Rattner subsequently told Mr. Butowsky that she had informed Bill Shine, who was then the co-president of Fox News, about her meeting with Mr. Assange in London. Ms. Rattner also informed Fox News producer Malia Zimmerman about her meeting with Mr. Assange.

47. On December 17, 2016, at the instigation of Ms. Rattner, Mr. Butowsky finally contacted Joel and Mary Rich, the parents of Seth, and he relayed the information about Ms. Rattner’s meeting with Mr. Assange. During that conversation, Mr. Rich told Mr. Butowsky that he already knew that his sons were involved in the DNC email leak, but he and his wife just wanted to know who murdered Seth. Mr. Rich said he was reluctant to go public with Seth’s and Aaron’s role in leaking the emails because “we don’t want anyone to think our sons were responsible for getting Trump elected.” Mr. Rich said he did not have enough money to hire a private investigator, so Mr. Butowsky offered to pay for one. Mr. Rich accepted the offer and thanked Mr. Butowsky in an email.

48. On December 29, 2016 at 1:51 p.m., Mr. Butowsky sent an email to Ms. Rattner from his iPad: “If the person you met with truly said what he did, is their [sic] a reason you we aren’t reporting it ?” At 3:48 p.m. that afternoon, Ms. Rattner responded as follows: “because— it was a family meeting—- I would have to get his permission– will ask his new lawyer, my sister-in-law.”

The complaint also mentions an interesting development in my ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the FBI. The feds claimed they had no information pertaining to Seth Rich, but they appear to be changing their tune. Shortly after Attorney General William Barr announced plans to declassify documents related to the Russian Collusion Hoax, the FBI’s attorney informed me that new documents were being processed. I should receive them not later than July 22, 2019. The DNC’s objections to our subpoenas for “Russian hacking’ information are also due on July 22, 2019, and production is due on August 8, 2019.

The more I’ve reviewed the Seth Rich case, the more I’m convinced of its central role in the whole Russian Collusion Hoax. I believe DNC officials knew that the emails would become public as the result of an internal leak, and they knew that the emails would be very damaging, so they attempted to turn the tables by pointing fingers at Donald Trump and the Russians. Hopefully we will know more by next week.

The post BREAKING: Lawsuit Outs Reporter Ellen Ratner as Source for Seth Rich Information appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

via The Gateway Pundit

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com

Trump orders sweeping changes to asylum rules

Donald Trump managed to score a big win against illegal immigration without Congress’ help. Can he win another on his own? Rather than flexing economic power with Mexico to gain tougher enforcement against illegal immigration, this time Trump will act on his own to remove the incentives for it. A new rule entered in the federal register will deny most asylum applications from Central America regardless of circumstance by imposing a de facto “safe third country” requirement:

The Trump administration is preparing a new rule that would dramatically limit the ability of refugees to seek asylum at the U.S. border with Mexico.

Under the rule, released online today, with limited exceptions refugees seeking asylum would have to do so in a third country through which they transited, rather than at the U.S. border.

“Ultimately, today’s action will reduce the overwhelming burdens on our domestic system caused by asylum-seekers failing to seek urgent protection in the first available country, economic migrants lacking a legitimate fear of persecution, and the transnational criminal organizations, traffickers, and smugglers exploiting our system for profits,” Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement.

Attorney General William Barr highlighted this change as a bulwark against fraud. Barr’s likely honing a legal argument that he will have to deliver in court soon:

Attorney General William Barr insisted the new rule will “decrease forum shopping by economic migrants and those who seek to exploit our asylum system to obtain entry to the United States—while ensuring that no one is removed from the United States who is more likely than not to be tortured or persecuted on account of a protected ground.”

On its face, the change is long overdue and returns the policy of asylum to its original intent. Asylum claims are supposed to deal with oppression by totalitarian and genocidal governments, not just a degraded economic and police environment. Normal immigration suffices for those conditions, and the United States provides for a regulated legal process for applications to emigrate for all others. The US is relatively generous when it comes to legal immigration, and we could afford to be even more generous if we ever clamp down on illegal immigration.

In the absence of Congress, or what has really been an abdication by Congress, the Trump administration is making a logical choice to remove the incentives for illegal immigration. First they forced Mexico to act responsibly in securing its own southern border and curtailing the trafficking of illegal immigrants through their country, a move long overdue. Now they want to end the draw for the caravans — the asylum policy and practices that makes border enforcement a sieve.

But will it work without congressional action? Needless to say, a rational lawmaking process to reform immigration laws is much more preferable than EOs for all sorts of reasons, the first being that the policy would be better prepared against legal action. The Associated Press outlines the legal fight ahead for the Trump administration:

The policy is almost certain to face a legal challenge. U.S. law allows refugees to request asylum when they arrive at the U.S. regardless of how they did so, but there is an exception for those who have come through a country considered to be “safe.” But the Immigration and Nationality Act, which governs asylum law, is vague on how a country is determined “safe”; it says “pursuant to a bilateral or multilateral agreement.”

Right now, the U.S. has such an agreement, known as a “safe third country,” only with Canada. Under a recent agreement with Mexico, Central American countries were considering a regional compact on the issue, but nothing has been decided. Guatemalan officials were expected in Washington on Monday, but apparently a meeting between Trump and Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales was canceled amid a court challenge in Guatemala over whether the country could agree to a safe third with the U.S.

The new rule also will apply to the initial asylum screening, known as a “credible fear” interview, at which migrants must prove they have credible fears of returning to their home country. It applies to migrants who are arriving to the U.S., not those who are already in the country.

Federal judges have not been as kind to Trump’s unilateral acts on immigration as they were to Barack Obama’s. Given the murky language of the Immigration and Nationality Act, courts may well find that Trump has some leeway to define the policy in this manner, but they’re more likely to issue temporary injunctions against it and engage in lengthy trials to discuss the issue. It might take months before the appellate circuits set any kind of precedent, and it’s a good possibility that those will conflict, requiring the Supreme Court to settle the issue. Donald Trump would have to win another term in office to press the case that far, and it might be that long before such a policy could be enforced outside of congressional action to codify asylum more specifically.

Still, this ratchets up the pressure in two different ways. First, it’s likely to discourage the free-for-all run at the border that we saw earlier this year as asylum looks like an even worse bet for migrants than it did before. Second, it will shift attention on Congress to get something done on immigration reform. Incentivizing Presidents Pen-and-Phone by inaction is eroding Congress’ ability and legitimacy to govern, and even a compromise on immigration might not be the worst of all worlds for future Congresses — or even this one.

The post Trump orders sweeping changes to asylum rules appeared first on Hot Air.

via Hot Air

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://hotair.com

GRAHAM: Border Fraud So Prevalent ‘A Terrorist Could Easily Get In’

Sen. Lindsey Graham recently went down to the U.S.-Mexico border, and what he saw alarmed him.

The South Carolina Republican didn’t moan about conditions or drinking fountains. Instead, Graham declared the current U.S. policies are making America vulnerable.

“This is a sick system, it’s rotten to its core,” Graham told host Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”

Graham said that some 30% of foreigners who illegally cross the U.S. with children are “fake families,” and that “children are being exploited.” He said some of the children are used over and over again to get adults into the U.S. “The word is out in Central America,” he said.

“Our laws are set up such so that if you can bring a small child to America coming from Central America, we can only hold the child for 20 days, then we let the entire family go because we don’t want to separate families,” Graham said.

He said 52,000 people have been released into the U.S. at the center he visited on the border.

On his visit, he said he also heard that at least 60 children who were released later came back with different “parents.”

“They pick the child up in Central America, they bring them to the United States, everybody’s released, and the child goes back to Central America to do it again,” he said. “They’re taking this journey, God knows what happens to them along the way.”

But wait, it gets worse.

Graham, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also said fraud at the border is so bad that “a terrorist could easily get in this group.”

“This will never stop until we change our laws,” he said, adding that a bill he will soon propose “will put the smugglers out of business.”

Watch:

The post GRAHAM: Border Fraud So Prevalent ‘A Terrorist Could Easily Get In’ appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

via The Gateway Pundit

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com

Former Obama Officials Admit Trump Admin Didn’t Delay Tubman $20 Bill

Despite numerous liberal politicians and pundits excoriating the Trump administration for delaying the Harriet Tubman $20 bill, former Obama administration officials recently revealed there was no actual delay.

The Trump administration announced in May that it would not replace President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with Tubman by the 2020 deadline announced by the Obama administration. "The primary reason we’ve looked at redesigning the currency is for counterfeiting issues. Based upon this, the $20 bill will now not come out until 2028," Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin explained during a congressional hearing.

The "delay" was blasted by a number of high-profile Democratic politicians, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who called it "unnecessary" and "an insult to the hopes of millions."

But an investigation from the Washington Post found that while the Obama administration publicly claimed the Tubman bill would be ready in 2020, internally the Treasury Department recognized that deadline would not actually be met.

"A confidential 2013 report by the Advanced Counterfeit Deterrence committee, an interagency group that oversees the redesign of U.S. currency, said the $20 bill would not enter circulation until 2030, similar to the timeline announced by the Trump administration…" the Post reported. Two Obama-appointed officials also confirmed on background that the actual plan was for the bill was closer to a 2030 release.

Obama-era Bureau of Engraving and Printing Director Larry R. Felix told the Post that the public promises of the bill being ready in 2020 "were not grounded in reality. The U.S. had not at the time acquired the security features to redesign and protect the notes." He says he told officials as early as 2015 that the deadline would have to be pushed back.

Current Bureau of Engraving and Printing Director Leonard R. Olijar was also appointed by President Barack Obama. "BEP was never going to unveil a note design in 2020," he said in a statement. "No Bureau or Department official has ‘scrapped’ anything."

The post Former Obama Officials Admit Trump Admin Didn’t Delay Tubman $20 Bill appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

via Washington Free Beacon

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://freebeacon.com

UK Police Begin Forced Marriage Crackdown as Numbers Spike

Police across the UK began the first ever national crackdown on forced marriage at a number of airports on Monday as latest figures show a spike in children being trafficked abroad to marry family members or acquaintances.

The most common destinations are seen as India, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Somalia and Bangladesh.

A number of support charities have joined police alongside social and health services in working with the Border Force for Operation Limelight.

Set to run between 15-19 July, Operation Limelight will focus on flights between the UK and destinations where there is a known high level of forced marriage. Airport and airline staff will receive further education around spotting warning signs, in the hopes that this will increase their confidence in reporting suspicious activity.

The Home Office’s Forced Marriage Unit reported in May it had reported 1,764 cases of suspected forced marriage over the course of 2018. One-third of cases (574) handled involved young people under the age of 18, with authorities handling cases coming from over 70 countries.

The highest rates of forced marriage travel in 2018 from the UK involved travel to Pakistan (769 cases), Bangladesh (157) and India (110). Numbers are thought to be higher, as forced marriages are often hidden crimes.

Lasy year Breitbart News reported there has been a 100 percent year-on-year rise in the number of forced marriage cases linked to Somali heritage youngsters alone, with many tricked into returning to Africa where they are often detained and abused.

Some of the children and teenagers are imprisoned and held against their will and only given their freedom back if they agree to marry.

Forced marriage has been a specific criminal offence in the UK since 2014, as it was outlined in the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. Often other criminal offences also apply, such as violence and coercive control.

National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for forced marriage, Commander Ivan Balhatchet, said police will “investigate every case fully and take all available steps to detect and prosecute those involved in this heinous crime. Forcing someone to marry is punishable by up to seven years in prison.”

He urged anyone with concerns around forced marriage to act immedately, saying , “any other harmful practices affecting our children or vulnerable adults to come forward and tell police. We will treat each individual case sensitively and confidentially.”

Follow Simon Kent on Twitter: or e-mail to: skent@breitbart.com

via Breitbart News

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.breitbart.com

Doctors Condemning ‘Green New Deal’ Select President Donald Trump for Defense of Freedom Award

An organization of physicians that has praised President Donald Trump for withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Accord is granting him its highest honor: the award for Defense of Freedom.

Doctors for Disaster Preparedness (DDP), a group based in Tucson, Arizona, will honor the president at its annual meeting July 19-21.

The organization, which has condemned the Green New Deal, global warming, human-caused climate change, the banning of DDT, and other “environmental scares,” states its Edward Teller Award for the Defense of Freedom recognizes “extensive, selfless, and effective work in defense of our nation.”

In a letter to Trump, dated June 25, DDP President Dr. Jane Orient led the doctors in praising Trump for his “many accomplishments,” among them his work in “opposing the failed hypothesis of human-caused climate change,” his “withdrawal from the Paris ‘accord’” and his “accomplishments and proposals regarding hydrocarbon and nuclear energy.”

In honoring Trump, the doctors wrote, “Your election has already proved to be the greatest political gift to our nation in more than a century.”

DDP was founded 37 years ago with the primary mission of promoting nuclear civil and strategic defense, and planning a medical response in the event of man-made or natural disasters, including terrorism or war.

“We now also work vigorously, entirely upon sound scientific grounds, to make sure our nation has abundant hydrocarbon energy in the present and abundant nuclear energy in the nuclear era that will soon come,” the doctors continued in their letter to the president.

In a press release, DDP noted its meetings have featured topics such as “civilian mass casualty care, emerging infectious diseases, radiation monitoring, chemical and biological warfare, accurate assessment of environmental hazards, terrorist events, climate modeling and weather forecasting, and nuclear energy.”

“Our presenters have included top experts in civil and strategic defense as well as top experts in many fields of science and medicine,” the doctors observed.

DDP’s most recent articles include: “Should You Cancel Your July 4 Barbecue to Save the Planet?” “What Happens to Single-Family Homes Under the Green New Deal?” and “Who Should Be Prosecuted for the ‘Climate Crisis?’”

The group also published a “Climate Change IQ Test” and “Climate Change Questions for Democratic Presidential Candidates.”

 

via Breitbart News

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.breitbart.com

MLB Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera Reveals Why He Supports Israel

In a recent interview, Hall of Fame New York Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera took time to explain why he is a big supporter of Israel.

Speaking to the Washington Examiner about his support of Israel, Rivera noted that his love of that country is rooted in his Christian religion.

“As a Christian, I do believe that the Lord gave us the Bible,” he told the newspaper. “The Bible speaks about Israel. Everything — from New Testament, Old Testament — it’s all about Israel and the relationship his people have. So as a Christian, I understand that the chosen people of God is Israel — Jewish Israel. The country was made by him. All the other countries were made by men. This country was built by him for his people.”

He added that support of Israel is part of being a Christian. “They are the people of God,” Rivera said. “They are the chosen people, so I’m not going to be against God.”

The Yankees legend added that he had visited Israel several times and those visits only made his support stronger.

“Every time that I go to Israel, it blows my mind,” Rivera said. “I wanted to see more, I wanted to understand more. I wanted to learn more. The Bible comes to life when you’re there.”

The player was also fully aware that support of Israel brings criticism from the left.

“I’m OK with that,” Rivera told the paper. “I know what I stand for: That won’t change. So, to me, criticism is more motivation to keep going forward — to push forward — for what I believe, for what I stand for. And again, that will make me even stronger.”

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.

via Breitbart News

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.breitbart.com

Malaysia Warns Breweries Not to Sell Alcohol-Free Beer as It ‘Confuses Muslims’

The Malaysian government warned the country’s breweries on Sunday not to sell or produce alcohol-free beer on the grounds that it “confuses Muslims” about whether they can drink it.

Speaking to reporters outside a mosque in his home constituency of Parit Bunda, Dr. Mujahid Yuso, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department for Religious Affairs, urged beer manufacturers to stop producing the product as some Muslims may wrongly believe they are allowed to consume it.
“Using the name alcohol-free beer is confusing as the process of producing the drink including distillation is carried out in the system used to produce alcohol products,” he said. “We know the alcohol-free drink is produced by a beer manufacturer but it would cause confusion as some Muslims thought they could consume the drink.”

Yuso’s comments were specifically aimed at a viral campaign by the Dutch manufacturer Heineken with the tagline “Now You Can.” The company later clarified that their product was non-halal and only for non-Muslims.

“All Heineken 0.0 products are only available at the non-halal zone of supermarkets and convenience stores, with clear signage indicating that the product is strictly for non-Muslims, aged 21 and above only,” said the company’s Malaysian branch. “In addition, for stores without designated non-halal areas, we are placing clear signages to inform consumers that Heineken 0.0 is strictly for non-Muslims, aged 21 and above.”

The company also said that their alcohol-free product named “Heineken 0.0” was intended to allow people to enjoy a beer-like beverage at social occasions without experiencing the effects of alcohol.

“The ‘Now You Can’ tagline attached to Heineken 0.0 refers to the various new occasions that the drink can allow non-Muslim consumers to enjoy a beer, including lunch, work meetings, or driving,” they added.
Launched in 2017, Heineken 0.0. is said to have a similar taste to normal Heineken but without alcohol. However, the drink still has a negligible amount of alcohol at 0.03 percent, compared with five percent to the classic beverage. Each 330ml bottle also has 69 calories, while the traditional product has 150 calories.

The presence of alcohol, albeit negligible, means the product is forbidden under Islamic Law. As of 2017, Muslims comprise the majority (61.3 percent) of the country’s population, with minority religions being Buddhism (19.8 percent), Christianity (9.2 percent), and Hinduism (6.3 percent).

In recent years, Malaysians have seen the country’s theocratic authorities crack down on a range of civil liberties, including the introduction of blasphemy laws and the censorship of various artistic content.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) notes in their 2018 report that Malaysia’s human rights situation “improved significantly in 2018 after the election of a new government that ran on a manifesto promising make the country’s rights record “respected by the world.’”

“Since the landmark election last May, Malaysia has been a bright spot for progress on human rights in Southeast Asia,” said Phil Robertson, HRW’s deputy Asia director. “But it will only remain that way if the government stops backtracking and follows through on its promises for human rights reforms.”

Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com

via Breitbart News

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.breitbart.com

Report: Facebook Embeds Tracking Codes in Photos to Collect More of Your Data

An Australian cyber researcher alleges that social media giant Facebook embeds tracking codes in monitor who sees and shares your photos.

Forbes reports that Australian cyber researcher Edin Jusupovic recently claimed on Twitter that Facebook is embedding “hidden codes” in photos that users upload to the site to track how many people see and share the photos.

“Facebook is embedding tracking data inside photos you download,” Jusupovic stated on Twitter adding that he had “noticed a structural abnormality when looking at a hex dump of an image file from an unknown origin only to discover it contained what I now understand is an IPTC special instruction.”

Jusupovic stated that this was a “shocking level of tracking,” adding that “the take from this is that they can potentially track photos outside of their own platform with a disturbing level of precision about who originally uploaded the photo (and much more).”

The  “IPTC special instructions” that Jusupovic describes are essentially digital watermarks embedded in image metadata by Facebook, which the company can then access again at a later date. These methods have been used for some time and have many applications such as tracking the ownership of images, resolving copyright infringements, enhancing user services, and improving targeted advertising.

One analyst noted that these tags have been added to images since 2016 and “contains an IPTC block with an ‘Original Transmission Reference’ field that contains some kind of text-encoded sequence. This coding method lets Facebook ‘know it has seen the image before when it gets uploaded again.’” One user on Reddit explained it simply stating: “It is yet another way to learn associations between people. Person 1 uploaded a bunch of the same photos Person 2 uploaded, let’s show them both all the same advertisements!”

Members of Congress have been focusing more closely on the actions of social media sites for some time now, Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) wrote to the FTC in May urging the commission to probe Facebook “to compel sweeping changes to end the Facebook’s pattern of misuse and abuse of personal data.”

Social media hearings before Congress are taking place tomorrow, “Online Platforms and Market Power, Part 2: Innovation and Entrepreneurship,” will take place tomorrow on July 16 at 2:00 p.m. EST while another hearing titled “Google and Censorship through Search Engines,” will take place tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. EST.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com

via Breitbart News

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.breitbart.com

Oh, great. Now people are “microdosing” hormones to be “nonbinary”

We’ve known for several years now that patients diagnosed with gender dysphoria have been receiving hormone therapy to force their bodies to look and behave more like the gender they “identify” as. But now, as reported at NBC News this week, doctors are going one step further. People who don’t identify as either gender are taking opposite gender hormones in smaller doses (“microdosing”) to shift their appearance only part way, making them appear more androgynous. These patients – assuming that word even applies here – are commonly referred to as “nonbinary” individuals.

Marisa Rivas never felt comfortable living as a woman, but doesn’t identify as a man either.

Last year, Rivas, 30, a college admissions coordinator in Los Angeles, had a mastectomy. This year, Rivas started using gender-neutral “they” and “them” pronouns.

Then, at the end of June, Rivas went to the Los Angeles LGBT Center in West Hollywood to talk to a doctor about going on “low-dose” testosterone, known colloquially as “microdosing.” Rivas hopes to achieve a sharper jawline and a more androgynous physique without overtly masculine features like facial hair. The goal is an appearance that is not clearly male or female.

“I still want to be somewhere in the middle,” Rivas said.

This is yet another sign that the medical profession in the United States (and other countries as well) has drunk deeply of the Koolaid and begun abandoning established medical practices in favor of appearing sufficiently woke. Perhaps this all started with the advent of cosmetic surgery, but this goes much deeper. The underlying principle in all of medicine is supposed to be, primum non nocere… first do no harm.

In the case of the patient being featured in that NBC News report, precisely what ailment is she suffering from. (She prefers “they” but that’s just bad English. Sorry, not sorry.) She admits she doesn’t “identify” as a man, but doesn’t want to be a woman either. So she’s not suffering from gender dysphoria. So what is she being treated for and why did a doctor decide to start dosing her up with testosterone?

The bigger question to ask is whether or not such hormone treatments are safe and if any risks involved are justified by the “condition” the physician is working to address. There is plenty of research material available about the long term risks and benefits associated with traditional hormone replacement therapy. And most studies, such as this one from the Mayo Clinic, acknowledge that the long-term risks are real, but can be justified provided the patient is regularly monitored. And that’s just for treatments replacing hormones that were supposed to be naturally showing up in your body.

When it comes to cross-sex hormone therapy (CSHT) for transgender patients, every study I’ve looked at thus far, such as this one, admits that “less is known about the long-term use of cross-sex HT.”

The same body of research simply isn’t available for long-term treatments of this type, where the hormones being injected were never supposed to appear at those levels naturally. One thing they have been able to determine is that long-term CSHT has been shown to increase risks of adverse cardiovascular events. And yet we have doctors prescribing this therapy for people who simply “don’t want to look like either gender.” Even worse, some doctors are pumping these hormonal cocktails into children.

How much of this madness are we supposed to sit by and watch? This is dubious medical science being deployed in the name of social justice rather than sound practices.

The post Oh, great. Now people are “microdosing” hormones to be “nonbinary” appeared first on Hot Air.

via Hot Air

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://hotair.com