RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/06/bill_maher_continues_to_give_voice_to_rational_leftists.html

It’s doubtful that Bill Maher will ever change his politics. He believes absolutely in fundamental leftist principles about how government should operate (and, of course, abortion). However, he’s not a fool and he realizes that leftists, drunk with power, have become their own worst enemies. Most recently, he went after Lin-Manuel Miranda, the talented composing of Hamilton, because Miranda groveled after the leftist mob attacked him for having the wrong colored people in the film adaption of his musical, In the Heights.

Most of you are probably familiar with Hamilton, even if you haven’t seen the show or heard the music. Miranda was so inspired after reading Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton, that he sat right down and composed what I call a “popra” – that is, like an opera, the whole thing is sung (or chanted or rapped) only with modern, rather than classical, music.

What made Hamilton stand out was the choice to exclude White people from the cast. In theory, that was a brilliant idea because it’s a reminder that the principles of America’s founding are applicable to all people of all races. The ideas of individual liberty and limited government are colorblind. They were the best ideas that brilliant men could come up with. America’s shame came from withholding this government from Blacks. Now, thankfully, these ideas are available to all in America – and again, the casting suggested that.

However, thanks to the death last year of a drug-addled ex-con, the left has dragged America with incredible force away from those ideas. Instead of being a colorblind nation bound together by a brilliant political philosophy, Critical Race Theory demands that America become a racially segregated nation with non-White victims engaged in a permanent vendetta against evil White oppressors. It doesn’t matter that there’s no factual for this narrative. Because racial schism is the vehicle by which leftists believe they can finally impose Marxism on America, reality must step aside.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/illinois-governor-signs-bill-to-make-official-titles-gender-neutral/

Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker (D.) signed a bill this week to change the titles for elected officials in the state from “alderman” and “congressman” to “alderperson” and “congressperson” to be more gender-inclusive.

“We see a lot of ‘hes’ and ‘hims’” in state statute, said the bill’s co-sponsor, State Representative Maurice West (D).

“And now we have, you know, not just women in office, but we have people who may not identify with any gender,” he added. “We want to make sure that our voting and our election cycle process is inclusive for everyone.”

The change was included in Democratic legislation, first introduced in February, that amends Illinois’s state election code to postpone the 2022 Illinois primary until June. 

It comes after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) introduced new congressional rules in January to remove all mention of gender-specific pronouns and terms like “man,” “woman,” “mother” and “son.”

Pelosi’s new rule sparked backlash from Republicans, including House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy who wrote in a tweet, “This is stupid. Signed, – A father, son, and brother.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/biden-admin-takes-steps-to-offer-gender-transition-surgery-through-va-health-care-report/

Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough is taking steps toward making gender transition surgery available to veterans through Veterans Affairs health-care coverage, according to a new report.

A VA department spokesperson reportedly told CNN that McDonough plans to announce the move at a Pride event at the Orlando Vet Center in Florida on Saturday.

“We are taking the first necessary steps to expand VA’s care to include gender confirmation surgery — thus allowing transgender vets to go through the full gender confirmation process with VA by their side,” McDonough is expected to say.

The VA Health Benefits package currently covers mental-health services and sex-change hormones, but does not cover gender-transition surgery. 

McDonough’s prepared remarks note that “there are several steps to take, which will take time.” Policy changes will need to be made and the process of creating a new federal regulation can take years.

A VA spokesperson told CNN the department plans to start the federal rulemaking process to make the change this summer.

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/why-has-ivermectin-become-a-dirty

On December 8, 2020, when most of America was consumed with what The Guardian called Donald Trump’s “desperate, mendacious, frenzied and sometimes farcical” attempt to remain president, the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing on the “Medical Response to Covid-19.” One of the witnesses, a pulmonologist named Dr. Pierre Kory, insisted he had great news.

“We have a solution to this crisis,” he said unequivocally. “There is a drug that is proving to have a miraculous impact.”

Kory was referring to an FDA-approved medicine called ivermectin. A genuine wonder drug in other realms, ivermectin has all but eliminated parasitic diseases like river blindness and elephantiasis, helping discoverer Satoshi Ōmura win the Nobel Prize in 2015. As far as its uses in the pandemic went, however, research was still scant. Could it really be a magic Covid-19 bullet?

Kory had been trying to make such a case, but complained to the Senate that public efforts had been stifled, because “every time we mention ivermectin, we get put in Facebook jail.” A Catch-22 seemed to be ensnaring science. With the world desperate for news about an unprecedented disaster, Silicon Valley had essentially decided to disallow discussion of a potential solution — disallow calls for more research and more study — because not enough research and study had been done. Once, people weren’t allowed to take drugs before they got FDA approval. Now, they can’t talk about them.

“I want to try to be respectful because I think the intention is correct,” Kory told the committee. “They want to cut down on misinformation, and many doctors are claiming X, Y, and Z work in this disease. The challenge is, you’re also silencing those of us who are expert, reasoned, researched, and extremely knowledgeable.”

Eight million people watched Kory say that on the C-SPAN video of the hearing posted to YouTube, but YouTube, in what appears to be a first, removed video of the hearing, as even Senate testimony was now deemed too dangerous for public consumption. YouTube later suspended the Wisconsin Senator who’d invited Kory to the hearing, and when Kory went on podcasts to tell his story, YouTube took down those videos, too. Kory was like a ghost who floated through the Internet, leaving suspensions and blackened warning screens everywhere he went.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/doctors-for-progressive-conformity-11624055333?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

The American Medical Association is a lobby of doctors that’s supposed to promote policies that improve public health and medicine. But it seems to be evolving into another arm of progressive politics, like the teachers unions. See the AMA’s policy-making meeting this week.

Delegates spent much of the time discussing systemic racism in health care and adopted guidelines for workplaces to establish training requirements for explicit and implicit bias and microaggressions. AMA trustee Willarda Edwards called systemic racism “the most serious barrier to the advancement of health equity and appropriate medical care.”

Many doctors would disagree with that statement. But the AMA seems to want to enforce ideological conformity in its ranks, including on social media. Delegates also voted to encourage social-media platforms to “crack down on medical misinformation,” including by “altering underlying network dynamics or redesigning platform algorithms.”

Social-media platforms have been removing content by doctors who disagree with the progressive lockdown consensus or who suggest that the virus may have leaked from a Chinese lab. Many doctors say their videos recommending early treatment with repurposed antiviral drugs have been censored, including one from a Senate hearing.

Social-media censorship suppressed debate on important issues during the pandemic, and the AMA wants to extend the information control to other health subjects. The new AMA policy would ostensibly encourage Facebook, YouTube and others to remove posts by doctors who question progressive orthodoxy on race and identity politics.

AMA delegates also voted to endorse an intellectual property waiver that progressives have been pushing for Covid vaccines at the World Trade Organization. President Biden endorsed it last month. But even European leaders say it won’t increase global vaccine supply and will set a dangerous precedent that will retard innovation in new medicines.

None of these new AMA policy positions will help patients or physicians, and they risk eroding public trust in the medical profession. Whatever happened to “first, do no harm”?