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“You Have Permanently Changed Them”: Rand Paul Grills HHS Nominee Rachel Divine Over Parental Consent For Trans Minors

"You Have Permanently Changed Them": Rand Paul Grills HHS Nominee Rachel Divine Over Parental Consent For Trans Minors

On Thursday, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) grilled President Biden’s nominee for assistant health secretary, Rachel Levine, over whether minor children should be allowed to make irreversible, life-changing decisions over their gender.

Levine, a transgender biological male and former pediatrician, refused to answer the question – twice, instead suggesting that transgender medicine was a ‘complex and nuanced’ field, and that she would be open to a private discussion on the matter.

Paul starts off by noting that genital mutilation is recognized as a human rights violation, and that many who go through it do so willingly out of fear of social rejection. He then notes that America is ‘normalizing the idea that minors can be given hormones to prevent their biological development…":

"According to the WHO, genital mutilation has been recognized internationally as a violation of human rights. Genital mutilation is considered particularly egregious, because as the WHO knows, it is almost always carried out on minors and is a violation of the rights of children.

Most genital mutilation is not typically performed by force, but as WHO notes that by social convention, social norm. The social pressure to conform, to do what others do and have been doing as well as the need to be accepted socially and the fear of being rejected by the community. American culture is now normalizing the idea that minors can be given hormones to prevent their biological development of their secondary sexual characteristics.

"Dr. Levine you have supported both allowing minors to be given hormone blockers to prevent them from going through puberty, as well as surgical destruction of a minor’s genitalia. Like surgical mutilation, hormonal interruption of puberty can permanently alter and prevent secondary sexual characteristics. The American College of Pediatricians reports that 80-95% of pre-pubital children with gender dysphoria will experience resolution by late adolescence if not exposed to medical intervention and social affirmation."

"Dr. Levine, do you believe that minors are capable of making such a life-changing decision as changing one’s sex?" Paul asked.

Levine deflected:

"Well, Senator, thank you for your interest in this question. Transgender medicine is a very complex and nuanced field, with robust research and standards of care that have been developed. And if I am fortunate enough to be confirmed as the assistant secretary of health, I would look forward to working with you and your office in coming to your office and discussing the particulars of the standards of care for transgender medicine".

Paul, visibly irritated, shot back:

"The specific question was about minors. Let’s be a little more specific since you evaded the question. Do you support the government intervening to override the parent’s consent to give a child puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and/or amputation surgery of breasts and genitalia? You have said that you’re willing to accelerate the protocols for street kids. I’m alarmed that poor kids with no parents who are homeless and distraught – you would just go through this and allow that to happen to a minor."

What I’m alarmed at is that you’re not willing to say: ‘absolutely, minors should not be making the decision to amputate their breast, or to amputate their genitalia. For most of our history, we have believed that minors don’t have full rights and that parents need to be involved, so I’m alarmed that you won’t say, with certainty, that minors should not have the ability to make the decision to take hormones that will affect them for the rest of their life.

"Will you make a more firm decision on whether or not minors should be involved in these decisions?" Paul repeated.

Levine repeated her last answer almost verbatim: "Senator, transgender medicine is a very complex and nuanced field…"

To which Paul shot back:

"For most of the history of medicine, we wouldn’t let you have a cut zone up in the ER, but you’re willing to let a minor take things that prevent their puberty, and you think they get that back? You give a woman testosterone enough that she grows a beard, you think she’s going to go back to looking like a woman when you stop the testosterone? You have permanently changed them. Infertility is another problem. None of these drugs have been approved for this. They’re being used off-label.

I find it ironic that the left that went nuts over hydroxychloroquine being used possibly for covid, are not alarmed that these hormones are being used off-label. There’s no long-term studies. We don’t know what happens to ’em. We do know that there are dozens and dozens of people who’ve been through this who regret this happening – a permanent change happened to them.

And if you’ve ever been around children, 14-yar-olds can’t make this decision. In the gender dysphoria clinic in England, 10% of the kids are between the age of 3 and 10. We should be outraged that someone is talking to a three-year-old about changing their sex."

Watch: 

Tyler Durden
Thu, 02/25/2021 – 13:15

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ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC Ignore Andrew Cuomo Sex Harassment Claim


America’s three most prominent networks–ABC, NBC, and CBS–ignored any mention of sexual harassment claims against Gov. Andrew Cuomo during their evening news programs Wednesday. CNN and MSNBC also declined to address the scandal.

According to transcripts, ABC’s World News Tonight, CBS’s Evening News, and NBC’s Nightly News made no mention of the embattled Cuomo, who is also facing calls for his impeachment and resignation after he was accused of covering up the number of deaths from the coronavirus in state nursing homes following his controversial order that these facilities accept coronavirus-positive patients.

Cuomo’s former deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser Lindsey Boylan alleged on Wednesday in an essay published on the website Medium that the governor went “out of his way to touch me on my lower back, arms and legs,” forcibly kissed her on the lips during a one-on-one briefing, and suggested they “play strip poker” during a plane ride.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) later on Wednesday called for Cuomo to resign in the wake of twin scandals over his handling of data on coronavirus deaths in the state’s nursing homes and allegations of sexual harassment by a former aide.

Boylan’s allegations come as Cuomo’s administration is under investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn following reports that the governor’s top aide told Democrat lawmakers officials withheld the nursing home data due to concerns that the figures could “be used against us” in a federal investigation.

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Joe Biden Restarts Filling U.S. Jobs with Foreign Workers as 17M Americans Are Jobless


President Joe Biden has restarted allowing companies to fill scarce U.S. jobs with foreign workers after a major lobbying effort by big business interests, even as more than 17 million Americans remain jobless.

In April 2020, former President Donald Trump signed an executive order halting a number of employment-based and extended family-based green card categories. The order sought to reduce foreign labor market competition against millions of Americans facing joblessness and underemployment as a result of the Chinese coronavirus crisis.

Two months ago, Trump renewed the order prioritizing unemployed Americans for U.S. jobs while nearly 18 million were unemployed at the time. Corporate interests fiercely opposed the order because the nation’s current legal immigration levels help them increase profit margins while cutting overall wage costs.

On Wednesday, Biden revoked the order after lobbying from tech corporations and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who have sought to continue importing foreign workers rather than recruiting unemployed Americans for jobs.

Biden claims the order “does not advance the interests” of Americans because it does not continue the process known as “chain migration” — whereby newly naturalized citizens can bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the country — and prevented foreign nationals from arriving in the U.S. through the Diversity Visa Lottery in which new arrivals are randomly chosen.

In his revocation, Biden also went to bat for corporate interests who hire foreign workers over qualified Americans, claiming the order “harms industries in the U.S. that utilize talent from around the world.”

While Biden allows companies to begin filling scarce U.S. jobs with foreign workers again, about 17.1 million Americans are jobless and another six million are underemployed but all want full-time jobs with competitive wages and generous benefits.

Of those considered unemployed, 1.5 million are teenagers, 930,00 are black Americans, 870,000 are Hispanics, 666,600 are Asian Americans, and 576,000 are white Americans. About 3.5 million of those unemployed are permanent job losers.

A second order signed by Trump, set to expire next month, has halted the admission of H-1B, H-4, H-2B, L, and J-1 foreign visa workers since June 2020. White House officials have suggested that they will not renew the order.

Biden’s actions come even as the majority of U.S. likely voters support labor market protections. The latest survey from Rasmussen Reports, for instance, finds that 73 percent of voters want less legal immigration, more than six-in-ten oppose chain migration, about 64 percent oppose businesses importing foreign workers rather than recruiting Americans, and 63 percent support slowing down or fully cutting U.S. population growth driven by immigration.

Research by the Center for Immigration Studies’ Steven Camarota reveals that for every one percent increase in the immigrant portion of an American workers’ occupation, Americans’ weekly wages are cut by perhaps 0.5 percent. This means the average native-born American worker today has his weekly wages reduced by potentially 8.75 percent as more than 17 percent of the workforce is foreign-born.

Current immigration levels put downward pressure on U.S. wages while redistributing about $500 billion in wealth away from America’s working and middle class and towards employers and new arrivals, research by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has found.

Similarly, peer-reviewed research by economist Christoph Albert acknowledges that “as immigrants accept lower wages, they are preferably chosen by firms and therefore have higher job finding rates than natives, consistent with evidence found in U.S. data.” Albert’s research also finds that immigration “raises competition” for native-born Americans in the labor market.

Every year, about 1.2 million legal immigrants are rewarded with green cards to permanently resettle in the U.S., and another 1.4 million foreign nationals are given temporary visas. In addition, hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens are added to the U.S. population annually.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here. 

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‘These Biological Males Are Just Taking It Away From Us’: High School Girl Athlete Blasts Biden Administration For Abandoning Her Lawsuit

This week, the Biden Administration’s Department of Justice withdrew its support for a lawsuit brought by three high school female athletes that would block biological males from competing in girls’ sports in Connecticut. Former Attorney General Bill Barr had backed the lawsuit, saying the Connecticut law permitting such participation violated Title IX protections. Looking forward […]

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Child actress Mara Wilson says media was complicit in sexualizing her dating back to when she was just 5 years old: ‘The lies Hollywood tells about little girls’

Actress Mara Wilson — famous for her roles in "Mrs. Doubtfire," "Matilda," and more — says that Hollywood and the media were complicit in sexualizing her when she was a child.

What are the details?

In a New York Times op-ed titled "The Lies Hollywood Tells About Little Girls," Wilson — who is retired from Hollywood and is now 33 years old — said that she and her parents worked hard to avoid Hollywood’s sexualization, but ultimately failed.

Writing that she intentionally hadn’t ever "appeared in anything more revealing than a knee-length sundress" as a child actress, Wilson says people sexualized her anyway.

"This was all intentional: My parents thought I would be safer that way," she explained of her demure style as a child. "But it didn’t work. People had been asking me ‘Do you have a boyfriend?’ in interviews since I was six. Reporters asked me who I thought the sexiest actor was and about Hugh Grant’s arrest for soliciting a prostitute. It was cute when 10-year-olds sent me letters saying they were in love with me. It was not when 50-year-old men did. Before I even turned 12, there were images of me on foot fetish websites and photoshopped into child pornography."

"Every time," she continued, "I felt ashamed."

Wilson added, "Hollywood has resolved to tackle harassment in the industry, but I was never sexually harassed on a film set. My sexual harassment always came at the hands of the media and the public."

What else?

Wilson’s opinion piece comes on the heels of a documentary on the life of superstar performer Britney Spears, which documented her media sexualization, legal battles, and more.

The explosive documentary, "Framing Britney Spears," also explored how Hollywood used Spears to sell an image of young sexuality and her subsequent mental breakdown.

"Many moments of Ms. Spears’ life were familiar to me," she added. "We both had dolls made of us, had close friends and boyfriends sharing our secrets, and had grown men commenting on our bodies."

Wilson said that she’s able to empathize with the trials Spears endured and said that while the #MeToo movement was necessary to effect change for future generations, those who lived through what she and her contemporaries did as little girls in Hollywood were irrevocably damaged.

"We’re still living with the scars," she admitted.

via Conservative Review

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Biden’s COVID bill offers up to $21K in paid leave to federal workers whose kids are at home due to school closures

A paid leave perk buried deep in President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package offers to pay federal government employees to stay home if at least one of their children is in attendance at a school that has not returned to full-time in-person operation.

The provision, exclusive to federal workers, is sure to draw ire from conservatives as the albatross 591-page document known as the "American Rescue Plan Act of 2021" advances through Congress. The bill has been roundly criticized by Republicans as wasteful and filled with "bailouts, pork, and unrelated policy changes" since its introduction in the House last Friday.

The measure is supported by the "Emergency Federal Employee Leave Fund," which is outlined on page 305 of the House version of the bill. Under the new legislation, $570 million set to be deposited into the fund is designed to assist federal workers caring for themselves or others "unable to work" due of the pandemic.

Among those eligible for the enhanced paid leave are those federal workers who are "caring for a son or daughter" out of school due to COVID-19 precautions.

What’s more is that the school doesn’t need to be completely closed to in-person instruction in order for the worker to receive the paid leave benefit. Rather, the school merely needs to "make optional" any type of instruction other than full-time, in person instruction. Here’s what the bill’s text says, specifically:

Amounts in the Fund shall be available for payment to an agency for the use of paid leave by any employee of the agency who is unable to work because the employee … is caring for a son or daughter of such employee if the school or place of care of the son or daughter has been closed, if the school of such son or daughter requires or makes optional a virtual learning instruction model or requires or makes optional a hybrid of in-person and virtual learning instruction models, or the child care provider of such son or daughter is unavailable, due to COVID–19 precautions.

Forbes senior contributor Adam Andrzejewski noted that critics are calling the measure "a personal bailout for bureaucrats."

He added that "under the bill as currently drafted, full-time federal employees can take up to 600 hours in paid leave until September 30, up to $35 an hour and $1,400 a week. That’s 15 weeks for a 40-hour employee. Part-time and ‘seasonal’ employees are eligible, too, with equivalent hours established by their agency."

A quick calculation shows that federal employees can collect up to $21,000 in paid leave under the proposed measure. Not bad for sitting at home in your pajamas.

via Conservative Review

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DOI Nominee Deb Haaland Joined Dakota Access Pipeline Protest to ‘Stand by Water Protectors’


Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM), President Joe Biden’s pick to head the agency in charge millions of acres of federal land and its energy infrastructure, defended on Tuesday joining protestors at the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota.

Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) questioned Haaland as a member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. He told her his state is an “energy powerhouse for this nation” and second only to Texas in the production of oil.

“We’ve got to have transmission lines and pipelines to move energy to market,” Hoeven said. “We’ve got to have that infrastructure.”

“A very good example of that is the Dakota Access Pipeline, which has now been operating for three years safely moving over a half a million barrels of light, sweet crude oil a day to refineries,” Hoeven said, adding that if protestors had had their way it would make the U.S. more dependent on foreign sources like Saudi Arabia to meet American demand for oil.

“You were there and protested the pipeline,” Hoeven said.

“Senator, yes, I did go to stand with the water protectors during that — several years back,” Haaland said. “The reason I did that is because I agreed with the tribe that they felt they weren’t consulted in the best way. I know that tribal consultation is important, and that was the reason that I was there.”

Haaland’s Congressional website features an essay titled “Fierce” about her participation in the protest, which lasted for weeks until winter weather set in.

In 2016, Debra Haaland cooked green chili and tortillas at the Standing Rock Sioux camps pitched against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Bringing food was her traditional way of contributing to the fight against the $3.8 billion pipeline.

She stayed in the camps for four days that September, but the environmental cause she came to support has resounded not only within her, but around the world.

“I first saw it on Facebook, but more and more people were coming out here from New Mexico and posting their experiences on Facebook and I just realized that I should come,” Haaland said. She is now one of the first female Native Representatives for New Mexico.

“Are you still opposed to that pipeline?” Hoeven asked. “What is your position on the pipeline today?”
Haaland answered by repeating her support for Indian tribes being consulted on projects that she said impact their land and sacred sites, even if the Dakota Access Pipeline’s pathway is not on tribal land.

“Well, senator I know it’s an important issue for you and I understand that,” Haaland said. “I also agree that whenever these projects come up that we are absolutely sure that we are consulting with tribes.”

“I’m happy to get briefed on any of these issues if confirmed and of course senator I would listen to you, and consult with you, and work with you to the best of my ability,” Haaland said.

Hoeven ended his first round of questioning by asking Haaland if she is confirmed at Interior secretary if she would recuse herself from any decision regarding the pipeline to avoid any conflict of interest.

Haaland did not answer directly but said that she would leave that decision to people at the agency who cover legal issues.

The committee will resume questioning at Haaland’s second confirmation hearing, set at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Follow Penny Starr on Twitter or send news tips to pstarr@breitbart.com

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