The Truth About Gender-Affirming Care

"A recent article published in the Associated Press debunks a map circulating online claiming to show where it’s possible for toddlers to receive gender-affirming surgeries. It was clearly found to be completely false. Surgery under the age of 18 is very rare and is decided on a case by case basis. No toddler is receiving surgeries, nor any form of gender-affirming medical care for that matter.

"The map in question actually belongs to transgender rights advocate, Erin Reed, and depicts the states that have the 'worst active anti-trans laws' in red and the 'safest states' with protections for transgender people in blue. Right-wing extremists took the map to start a disinformation campaign about safer states for transgender young people.

"The fact check makes clear that gender-affirming surgeries are NOT performed on children, and that, 'In all cases, gender-affirming surgeries are only performed after multiple discussions with both mental health providers and physicians (including endocrinologists and/or surgeons), to determine if surgery is the appropriate course of action.'”

Click on the link below for the full article:

AP Debunks Extremist Claims About Gender-Affirming Care

Are You Blaming The Democrats? NO, Blame The Attack By Disinformation, And - - -

"Mehdi Hasan torched MAGA talking points and defended the Biden administration's economic record before offering a chilling warning of the future."

Click on this link for a defense of the Harris election efforts and a refutation of those who are not looking at the big picture: MAGA used disinformation from US and foreign sources to snow the majority of voters. Just how sad is that? The cure is critical/science-based thinking, beginning at an early age:

The REAL Leaders Of MAGA: Be Aware

"In this bonus, documentary-style episode of Outrage Overload, we explore the unsettling world of 'techno-libertarianism' and the powerful tech figures who are championing it. We sit down with David Troy, a tech entrepreneur and researcher, to discuss the visions of Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and others who advocate for dismantling traditional institutions in favor of a decentralized, digital future.What are the potential consequences of replacing governments with self-sovereign digital systems? How do these ideas mirror historical movements that sought to overthrow the state? Are these tech moguls’ intentions truly utopian, or do they have more self-serving goals?

"Join us as we examine the complex intersection of technology, politics, and power, and the potential risks these ideologies pose to our democracy and society as a whole."

Click on the link below for a podcast exposing the real power behind Trump and MAGA in general:

Tech Bro Apocalypse Dreams

To Fight Health Disinformation, Focus On Low Expertise

"Disinformation is false information spread intentionally, and it is particularly harmful for public health. We conducted three preregistered experiments (N = 1,568) investigating how to discredit dubious health sources and disinformation attributed to them. Experiments 1 and 2 used cancer information and recruited representative U.S. samples. Participants read a vignette about a seemingly reputable source and rated their credibility. Participants were randomly assigned to a control condition or interventions that (a) corrected the source’s disinformation, (b) highlighted the source’s low expertise, or (c) corrected disinformation and highlighted low expertise (Experiment 2). Next, participants rated their belief in the source’s disinformation claims and rerated their credibility. We found that highlighting low expertise was equivalent to (or more effective than) other interventions for reducing belief in disinformation. Highlighting low expertise was also more effective than correcting disinformation for reducing source credibility, although combining it with correcting disinformation outperformed low expertise alone (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 extended this paradigm to vaccine information in vaccinated and unvaccinated subgroups. A conflict-of-interest intervention and 1-week retention interval were also added. Highlighting low expertise was the most effective intervention in both vaccinated and unvaccinated participants for reducing belief in disinformation and source credibility. It was also the only condition where belief change was sustained over 1 week, but only in the vaccinated subgroup. In sum, *highlighting a source’s lack of expertise is a promising option for fact-checkers and health practitioners to reduce belief in disinformation and perceived credibility."

https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2025-19881-005.html

*The US Republican Party is a major source of disinformation on MANY topics. (https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/11/trump-disinformation-immigrants-storm-00183378)

Why The Political Split Based On A College Degree?

" - - - Over the past few decades, American society has experienced seismic changes. One of the trends we have seen is a rightward shift towards the Republican Party among voters without a four-year college degree and a pro-democratic center-left shift of voters who have a four-year college degree. There’s a lot to unpack about what has animated these changes. Matt Grossmann is the director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research and a professor of political science at Michigan State University. Dave Hopkins is a political scientist at Boston College. Grossmann and Hopkins are the co-authors of “Polarized by Degrees: How the Diploma Divide and the Culture War Transformed American Politics.” They join WITHpod to discuss the origin of these trends, the effects on both major parties, and more."

Click on the link below for a podcast delving into a phenomenon that effectively lost the election for Kamala Harris:

Polarized by Degrees

Project 2025: A Comic Book Summary

Click here for a good consolidation of every major policy statement in Project 2025, the Republican/MAGA/Trump plan to destroy the US Constitution.

How Kavanaugh Got On The Supreme Court Corruptly

"Rhode Island Senator and Supreme Court watchdog Sheldon Whitehouse recently dropped a bombshell investigation detailing the levels of corruption involved in Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation process and how Donald Trump and his inner circle were at the roots of it all. Chris Williamson breaks it down on Rebel HQ"

Click on the link below for the details of the above, and just how corrupt the Supreme Court is:

WATCH Corrupt Supreme Court Justice's Dirty Secrets Come to Light

Fascism 101

"Beginning in 1943, the War Department published a series of pamphlets for U.S. Army personnel in the European theater of World War II. Titled Army Talks, the series was designed 'to help [the personnel] become better-informed men and women and therefore better soldiers.'

"On March 24, 1945, the topic for the week was 'FASCISM!'”

Click on this link, from my favorite historian specializing in the USA, to learn how the military educated the troops in Europe about what they were fighting during World War II. This is EXACTLY what is needed now to inform the entire electorate that the USA is in imminent danger of fascism again, this time WITHIN THE USA in the form of Donald Trump and the Republican Party!

Leading Economists Strongly Prefer Harris' Economic Plan

"Twenty-three Nobel Prize-winning economists endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump in a joint letter released Wednesday. Morning Joe economic analyst Steve Rattner joins Morning Joe to discuss the economic plans of both Trump and Harris."

Click on the link below for the details:

Trump’s mass deportation and trade war plans will tank the economy

Conservatives Hate Education

"Last week, West Virginia University (WVU) announced a plan to raze some of its core programs. The public land-grant university intends to eliminate 9 percent of its majors (32 programs total), all of its foreign language programs, and 16 percent of its full-time faculty members (169 in total). The departments targeted for these massive cuts count Truman, Marshall, Fulbright, and Rhodes scholars among their alumni. These cuts were recommended by the consulting firm rpk GROUP, and there’s every reason to believe they’re a trial balloon for doing this elsewhere. Anyone who cares about higher education should be alarmed about what this portends for public universities."

 

Click on the link below for more information reflecting on another target by the anti-education/anti-critical thinking conservative/Republicans/MAGAs:

The Evisceration of a Public University

Trump's Tax Plan Was Harmful, Don't Accept Any New One

"The verdict is in: Trump’s tax scam was trickle-down economics on steroids."

Click the link below for a video from Robert Reich exposing Trump's economics:

Trump’s Tax Scam: Why Nothing Trickled Down

Memo To The Media: Stop The False Equivalency!

"As Americans gear up for the election, Bill Adair warns of an 'epidemic of lying' in U.S. politics -- particularly within the Republican Party. Adair joins the show to discuss his new book "Beyond the Lie." As founder of the fact-checking website PolitiFact, Adair is well placed to account for where disinformation comes from, how it spreads, and the danger it poses to democracy."

Click on the link below for the effects of accepting the lies of the Republicans/MAGA/Trump:

PolitiFact Founder Explains the “Epidemic of Lying” in American Politics

The Republican Party: From Greatness To A Traitor Dictator

"Something seriously troubling has happened to the Republican Party. It’s become filled with wacko candidates for office who are being supported by large percentages of Republican voters.

"The trend started in the 1980s with Rush Limbaugh’s radio program, which attracted a wide audience with a toxic mixture of lies, conspiracy theories, fear-mongering, and thinly veiled racism.

"It accelerated in 1996 when Rupert Murdoch hired Roger Ailes to emulate Limbaugh with a new TV channel, Fox News. Additional media imitators followed.

"The growing supply of this poison offered the (predominantly) white working-class an easy explanation for why the wages and status of many blue-collar men had hit the skids: They could blame immigrants, Black people, Latinos, “coastal elites,” government bureaucrats, pedophiles, women, secularists, Muslims, liberals, Democrats, and Satan."

Click on the link below for a brief history of the failure of one of the two major US political parties:

How did the GOP become the party of cranks and crackpots?

Tariffs: What You Rely On If You Are Economically Ignorant

"Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is elevating McKinley, representative from Ohio from 1877 to 1891 and president from 1897 to 1901, to justify his plan to impose new high tariffs.

"Trump’s call for tariffs is not an economic plan; it is a worldview. Trump claims that foreign countries pay tariff duties and thus putting new tariffs of 20% on all imports, and as much as 60% on Chinese imports, will bring enough foreign money into the country to fund things like childcare, end federal budget deficits, and pay for the tax cuts he wants to give to the wealthy and corporations.

"This is a deliberate lie. Tariffs are essentially taxes on imported products, and they are paid not by foreign countries but by American consumers. Economists warn that Trump’s tariff plan would cost a typical family an average of more than $2,600 a year, with poorer families hardest hit; spike inflation as high as 20%; result in 50,000 to 70,000 fewer jobs created each month; slow economic growth; and add about $5.8 trillion in deficits over ten years. It would tank an economy that under the Biden administration, which has used tariffs selectively to protect new industries and stop unfair trade practices, has boomed."

Click on this link for more.

J D Vance: The Full Monty

Rachel Maddow does some great reporting on dangerous individuals and organizations, as well as the history behind their actions. Click on the link below for a podcast that includes one of the best exposures of J D Vance:

Rachel Maddow lays out why you should care about JD Vance’s real agenda

The "Multiplier Effect" In The Economy

Many economists will admit that economics is the "Dismal Science." Why? Because there are unaccounted-for variables. That said, the Multiplier Effect is science, thus real. In other words, when you spend money on ANYTHING, that goes through the economy and becomes worth more than the original amount of money many times over, to the benefit of all. The Democrats/Progressives recognize this reality, but the conservatives/Republicans/MAGA don't. That is why it is wrong for wealth to pool at the top of society unspent when EVERYONE benefits more when the middle and lower classes get more money because they SPEND more of their wealth.

Do Not Doubt It: Trump Wins, The USA Will Be A Dictatorship

 Following is a good sample of information clearly supporting the title of this post:

10 Ways Trump Is Becoming a Dictator (from the 2020 election period)

Could a Trump dictatorship be resisted?

Trump’s grand plans for the federal bureaucracy

Trump to have unprecedented power if he wins the White House

What a Trump Dictatorship might look like

This Is How Trump Becomes a Dictator

15 times Donald Trump praised authoritarian rulers

Trump is Plotting to Make Himself Dictator

Trump's Recipe for a Shockingly Raw Power Grab

Focus On The States To Stop MAGA

"Today, we take a look at how GOP-controlled states are subverting democracy with a form of 'competitive autocracy' and some of the horrifying legislation these states then pass after they are no longer subject to the opinions of the general public."

Click on the link below to better understand how the far-right has achieved its success:

Red States, Where Democracy Goes to Die and Terrible Legislation Is Born

Immigration Plans Under MAGA

 "The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 is the policy playbook for a second Trump administration, and its impacts on immigration would be far more complex and destructive than previously reported. It isn’t simply a refresh of first-term ideas, dusted off and ready to be re-implemented. Rather, it reflects a meticulously orchestrated, comprehensive plan to drive immigration levels to unprecedented lows and increase the federal government’s power to the states’ detriment. These proposals circumvent Congress and the courts and are specifically engineered to dismantle the foundations of our immigration system."

Click on the link below for another reason why the Republicans need to be avoided like the Plague:

The Far Right's plan to demolish immigration

The Difference Is Stark: Vote Wisely

"The difference between the Democrats and the Republicans in this election is stark, and it reflects a systemic problem that has been growing in the U.S. since the 1980s."

Click on this link from my favorite American historian for an informed summary of the positives of the Democrats and the negatives of the Republicans as the USA faces the most important vote since at least the Civil War.