Five transgender members of the U.S. military including Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans sued President Donald Trump on Wednesday, challenging his ban on transgender people serving in the armed forces.
Trump said on Twitter on July 26 that the U.S. government “will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity” in the military, a reversal of Pentagon policy that the lawsuit said was made without consulting senior military commanders.
The surprise announcement, citing healthcare costs and unit disruption, appealed to some in Trump’s conservative political base but created uncertainty for thousands of transgender service members, many of whom came out after the Pentagon said in 2016 it would allow transgender people to serve openly.
Trump’s tweets appeared to dismiss findings from a RAND Corporation study commissioned by the Pentagon that found allowing transgender people to serve would “cost little and have no significant impact on unit readiness.”
The White House and the Pentagon said they do not comment on pending litigation. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. (Read more from “Transgender Military Personnel Sue Trump” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/17211877253_792413a6ee_b-1-1.jpg6831024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-08-09 23:28:262017-08-09 23:28:27Transgender Military Personnel Sue Trump
Jamie Gorelick, the Hillary Clinton-supporting superlawyer representing Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, is now working pro bono for the city of Chicago in its lawsuit against the Department of Justice.
Chicago is suing the DOJ over President Trump’s policies regarding federal grants for so-called sanctuary cities. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced last month that cities that receive federal crime-fighting grants must also cooperate with U.S. immigration agencies regarding illegal aliens.
But Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says that the Windy City will not comply with the order. He announced a lawsuit on Monday.
According to CNN, Gorelick — a partner at Wilmer Hale — is one of the attorneys representing Chicago. (Read more from “Ivanka’s Lawyer Has Suddenly Become Bad News for Trump” HERE)
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The professor who tweeted “[President] Trump must hang” and “justice = the execution of two Republicans for each deported immigrant” will not be returning to teach in the fall, according to a Saturday report.
California State University, Fresno President Joseph Castro announced that history professor Lars Maischak would not be returning to teach at the school in the fall semester, according to The Los Angeles Times. But while the professor will not be returning to campus, his contract does not expire until May 2018, and he is tasked with converting 2 courses into online formats.
“Has anyone started soliciting money and design drafts for a monument honoring the Trump assassin, yet?” Maischak asked in another since-deleted statement, first reported by The Daily Caller News Foundation in April.
“Dr. Lars Maischak, Fresno State History lecturer, will not be teaching this fall,” said Castro in a Friday statement. “In accordance with California State University, Fresno’s contractual obligation, Dr. Maischak has been assigned to convert two courses to an online format which meets his unit requirement per the faculty collective bargaining unit agreement.” (Read more from “Professor Who Made Death Threat Against Trump Won’t Be Returning to Class” HERE)
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A 19th century American novelist’s work is attracting more notice in 2017 than it did in his day because of striking similarities to current events.
Ingersoll Lockwood, an attorney and political writer, wrote several books, including children’s stories featuring the name “Baron Trump” . . .
Ironically, Lockwood’s final novel arrived in 1896, titled “The Last President.”
The story begins with a scene from a panicked New York City in early November, describing a “state of uproar” after the election of a widely controversial outsider candidate.
“The entire East Side is in a state of uproar,” police officers shouted through the streets, warning city folk to stay indoors for the night. “Mobs of vast size are organizing under the lead of anarchists and socialists, and threaten to plunder and despoil the houses of the rich who have wronged and oppressed them for so many years.” (Read more from “Are These Stories From 1896 Actually Prophecies About Trump?” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Trump_Family_Hand_Up.jpg531985Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-08-06 00:06:352017-08-07 00:07:42Are These Stories From 1896 Actually Prophecies About Trump?
The Senate blocked President Trump from being able to make recess appointments on Thursday as lawmakers leave Washington for their summer break.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), doing wrap up for the entire Senate, locked in nine “pro-forma” sessions — brief meetings that normally last roughly a minute.
The move, which requires the agreement of every senator, means the Senate will be in session every three business days throughout the August recess.
The Senate left D.C. on Thursday evening with most lawmakers not expected to return to Washington until after Labor Day.
Senators were scheduled to be in town through next week, but staffers and senators predicted they would wrap up a few remaining agenda items and leave Washington early. (Read more from “Senate Blocks Trump From Making Recess Appointments Over Break” HERE)
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Congress needs to investigate the “disgraceful” leaks of President Trump’s private conversations with world leaders, a top Democratic senator said on Thursday.
“A president of the United States, a governor would tell us they’ve got to be able to have confidential conversations,” Virginia Sen. Mark Warner told The Daily Beast. “And I think it was disgraceful that those [came out].”
Warner is the top ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“Whether that is Intel or Judicial [committees] looking into it, somebody ought to,” the senator told The Daily Beast.
The Washington Post published Thursday morning leaked classified transcripts of Trump’s private conversations with the leaders of Mexico and Australia. The phone calls took place shortly after Trump’s inauguration but were just now leaked to the Post. (Read more from “Top Dem Wants to Know Why Trump’s Classified Conversations Were Leaked” HERE)
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President Donald Trump has become increasingly frustrated with his advisers tasked with crafting a new U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and recently suggested firing the war’s top military commander during a tense meeting at the White House, according to senior administration officials.
During the July 19 meeting, Trump repeatedly suggested that Defense Secretary James Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford replace Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, because he is not winning the war, the officials said. Trump has not met Nicholson, and the Pentagon has been considering extending his time in Afghanistan.
Over nearly two hours in the situation room, according to the officials, Trump complained about NATO allies, inquired about the United States getting a piece of Afghan’s mineral wealth and repeatedly said the top U.S. general there should be fired. He also startled the room with a story that seemed to compare their advice to that of a paid consultant who cost a tony New York restaurateur profits by offering bad advice.
Trump is the third president to grapple with the war in Afghanistan. On Wednesday, two American troops were killed in Afghanistan when a convoy they were in came under attack. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. (Read more from “Trump Says U.S.’Losing’ Afghan War in Tense Meeting With Generals” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/5440004897_019dde2b8c_b-2-1.jpg6831024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-08-02 19:25:012017-08-03 02:19:15Trump Says U.S. ‘Losing’ Afghan War in Tense Meeting With Generals
President Donald Trump has a 39 percent approval rating in a Rasmussen Reports poll released Monday. It is the first time Trump has dipped below 40 percent approval in the Rasmussen poll, which has consistently been more favorable to Trump than other polls.
The poll shows that 39 percent of likely voters approve of Trump’s job performance, while 61 percent of likely voters disapprove. The poll showed that 49 percent of voters strongly disapprove of his presidency, while 26 percent strongly approve.
The findings come after Senate Republicans failed to pass health care reform and as the White House has a staff shake-up. The House of Representatives did pass partial funding for Trump’s border wall last week, and the stock market remains robust. (Read more from “This Is the Poll Number That Should Have Trump Worried” HERE)
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I think he made the right decision—and as someone who lived as trans-female for several years, I should know.
When I discovered Congress voted earlier this month to not block funding for transgender-related hormone therapies and sex change surgeries, I wondered if it considered how devastating this will be to the fitness, readiness, and morale of our combat-ready troops.
In July, the House of Representatives voted down Missouri Republican Rep. Vicky Hartzler’s amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which would have banned the military from funding such treatments.
Paying for transition-related surgeries for military service members and their families is beyond comprehensible.
Perhaps they have forgotten that our military was forged to be the world’s strongest fighting force, not a government-funded, politically correct, medical sex change clinic for people with gender dysphoria.
Gender dysphoria, the common diagnosis for one who feels at odds with his or her birth gender, develops from prolonged anxiety and depression. People are not born that way.
The “proof” for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria is having strongly held feelings—but feelings can and often do change over time.
The military is expected to prepare its members in warfare: to kill, destroy, and break our enemies. The most important factors in preparing a strong military are not hormone therapy, surgical sex changes, or politically correct education.
We need psychologically fit, emotionally sound, highly trained troops to protect our nation from its enemies.
While countless homeless vets are currently sleeping under cardboard boxes, or waiting for life-saving care from the Department of Veterans Affairs, we learn that transgender military recruits now qualify for preferential coverage for sex change procedures that are scientifically unproven and extremely costly.
I myself was fully sex-reassigned from male to female, and eventually came to accept my birth gender.
I have over 70 years of firsthand life experience, eight years of living as a woman, 20 years of researching the topic, and 12 years of helping others who, like me, found that transitioning and reassignment surgery failed to be proper treatment and want to restore their lives to their birth gender.
Costly, but Not Effective
Transitioning can be expensive—up to $130,000 per person for numerous body-mutilating and cosmetic procedures over many months (or years) to fashion the body to appear as the opposite sex.
Yet, no matter how skilled the surgeon, or how much money is spent, it is biologically impossible to change a man into a woman or a woman into a man. The change is only cosmetic.
The medical community continues to recommend this radical “treatment” in the absence of scientific evidence that people are better off in the long run. This population attempts suicide at a rate of 40 percent.
Even after the full surgical change, they attempt to end their lives, or tragically succeed.
Over 60 percent of this diverse population suffer from co-existing mental disorders. Consider Bradley Manning (now Chelsea Manning), a former Army soldier who was so psychologically and emotionally unbalanced that he stole confidential documents from the military and forwarded them to WikiLeaks.
The Military Is a Fighting Force, Not a Gender Clinic
The military should not provide sex change surgery.
Through my website, sexchangeregret.com, I hear from people who experienced firsthand how damaging and unnecessary reassignment surgeries were. For them, the sex change failed to resolve the emotional and psychological disorders that drove the desire to change gender.
Many write after living the transgender life for years. They write to ask for advice on how to reverse the original surgical change and restore their lives to the original birth gender like I did, a process called detransition.
Some service members will come to regret having undergone the surgery and will want to detransition. Where will the military be then? Will the military pay for the sex change reversal procedure, too?
Failed “sex change surgeries” are not uncommon and will drive up the cost to care for the military transgender population above the projected $3-4 billion 10-year cost.
Beyond the financial cost, there’s the question of the service member’s military readiness during their transition or detransition, as the process often comes with a great deal of anxiety and emotional instability.
I know of many who have struggled to adapt to the new gender role for years after reassignment surgery.
In my view, as a former trans-female who works every day with regretters, allowing the military to pay for sex change surgeries will make a mockery of the U.S. military.
Advocates are relentless in their pursuit of making others, via the government and insurance companies, cover the cost of sex change procedures.
If the military had been forced to pay, the advocates would have used this as leverage to press every other entity—both government and commercial—to pay for sex change surgeries as well.
As a person who lived the transgender life for eight years, I can attest that assisting, affirming, or paying for hormone therapies and genital mutilation surgeries would not have strengthened our military. They would only have brought adverse long-term consequences, both for individuals and for our armed forces as a whole. (For more from the author of “I Was Once Transgender. Why I Think Trump Made the Right Decision for the Military.” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/32562107212_b65a8b0d1b_b.jpg6831024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-07-31 00:00:232017-08-05 21:55:26I Was Once Transgender. Why I Think Trump Made the Right Decision for the Military.
To hear the left tell it, Donald Trump is a fascist if not actually a Nazi. “I feel Hitler in these streets,” actress Ashley Judd chanted around his inauguration. Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns terms Trump “Hitleresque.” Columnist Andrew Sullivan terms the GOP today a “neo-fascist party.” And MSNBC host Rachel Maddow says, “I’ve been reading a lot about what it was when Hitler first became chancellor … because I’ve I think that’s possibly where we are.”
The charge that Trump and the right are fascists and neo-Nazis is used to establish Trump as an illegitimate president, the GOP as a party in cahoots with him, and to justify getting rid of both “by any means necessary,” which is actually the name of one of the many so-called antifascist groups. The media barrage against Trump, the street violence of Antifa and other groups, are all based on the premise that the left is fighting a modern incarnation of the Hitler movement of the 1930s.
I agree that there is a fascist strain in American politics today, but who are the real fascists? Is fascism a phenomenon of the left or the right? This question is rarely asked in a serious way, and I want to give credit to two worthy predecessors who have begun to plough this ground. The first is the economist Friedrich Hayek, whose “The Road to Serfdom,” first published in 1944, made the startling claim that Western welfare state democracies, having defeated fascism, were moving inexorably in the fascist direction.
Hayek identified fascism as a phenomenon of the left, a cousin of socialism and progressivism. And he warned, “The rise of fascism and Nazism was not a reaction against the socialist trends of the preceding period but a necessary outcome of those tendencies.” While Hayek’s book was written in a pedantic, measured tone, appealing to progressives to learn from one who had witnessed firsthand the rise of fascism in Europe, progressive scholars immediately set about reviling Hayek, with one, Herman Finer, accusing him of displaying a “thoroughly Hitlerian contempt for the democratic man.” (Read more from “Left’s ‘Big Lie’ About Trump and GOP Explodes” HERE)
