Cross-Examination

• Trumpet a claim, quietly reverse it later: Earlier this year, the University of Washington School of Medicine promoted a study in which it concluded that “gender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary adolescents caused rates of depression to plummet.” The Leftmedia trumpeted the news as proof positive that pushing teens to “transition” did in fact benefit their mental and emotional health. UW claimed that the study showed that “gender-affirming care was associated with a 60% reduction in depression and a 73% drop in harmful or suicidal thoughts among the participants.” The problem is that what UW publicly claimed is not what the study actually found. To put it simply, the study found that rates of depression among the “transgender” individuals involved saw no statistically significant improvement post-“gender-affirming care.” Indeed, the best take was that youth receiving cross-sex hormones or surgeries did not see an increase in their level of depression. The trouble is that after a clearer understanding of the research data was made available, neither UW nor the Leftmedia bothered to set the record straight. A spokesman for UW explained that “the transgender research was no longer a news story.” We suspect the real reason is that the data does not support the Left’s popular narrative and so it was easier to simply ignore it.

• Fetterman’s past remarks about criminals are criminal: The Democrat candidate for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat, John Fetterman, a man who lived off his parents into his forties, has posited some extremely radical ideas — ideas that frankly should disqualify him from higher office. It’s bad enough that Fetterman has advocated a ban on fracking in a state that heavily depends upon the energy industry, but his extreme ideas on criminal justice reform should have voters running from this man like the plague. He said that if he could “fix one thing” with the criminal justice system, he would end “life without parole” for murderers. He went on to suggest that doing so would “not make anyone less safe.” Furthermore, he would release a third of all criminals from prison. Violent crime rates are spiking all across the nation — thanks in large part to the radical Left’s defund-the-police efforts — and Fetterman’s delusional ideas would only add to the misery. A lack of law and order led to this current situation, and Fetterman would exacerbate it.

• Biden taps Leftmedia misinformation peddler to be his intel advisor: Joe Biden recently announced that he had chosen MSNBC analyst Jeremy Bash to join his Intelligence Advisory Board. While Bash’s name might not be familiar to most, he was one of 50 former intelligence officials who signed a letter back in the fall of 2020 falsely asserting that Hunter Biden’s laptop scandal was most likely “Russian disinformation.” The letter claimed at the time that emails recovered from Hunter’s laptop had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” That letter was used by Biden’s campaign to discredit the news coming out about Hunter’s laptop scandal. Of course, the great irony here is that the only ones discredited by Hunter’s laptop are all those intel experts who sought to blind the American public to the truth rather than present to them the unbiased facts. Therefore, it would appear that Bash’s role will be to spin narratives that are designed to deceive rather than enlighten the public. You know, kind of like he did at MSNBC.

• On this date last year — Biden’s surrender and retreat from Afghanistan: We are reposting, in chronological order, analysis of events a year ago related to the most disgraceful military exfil in American history — Biden’s deadly surrender and retreat from Afghanistan. This day last year, Mark Alexander covered “On Military Dereliction: A Marine Officer Steps Up and Steps Out.”

“That feckless, dementia-ridden piece of crap just sent my son to die.” —the mom of a deceased Marine

Headlines

• Unmitigated arrogance: Biden to deliver prime-time speech Thursday on “battle” for democracy (AP)

• Top FBI agent resigns amid claims he shielded Hunter Biden from probe (NY Post)

• Iraq’s presidential palace breached; U.S. denies embassy evacuation (Daily Wire) | Political chaos grips Iraq, with at least 12 killed in street clashes (NYT)

• Iran dictates nuke terms to Joe Biden (WSJ)

• Border Patrol chief says border crisis a result of Biden’s “no consequences” policy for illegal migrants (Fox News)

• What tea party? Former IRS official Lerner claimed ignorance in secret testimony about targeting (Washington Times)

• 2022 is posting the second-highest number of primary losses for House members since 1948 (Axios)

• Brown University acquires convicted cop killer’s items for “mass incarceration” initiative (College Fix)

• California Assembly passes bill making state transgender “refuge” for kids and parents (Daily Wire)

• California moves to allow public money to pay for out-of-state abortions (Daily Wire) | Court: CA mandate that forced churches to cover abortions is unconstitutional (ADF)

• Be Evil: Google revises search results to better facilitate abortions (PM)

• Illinois offering permanent vote-by-mail option (Hot Air)

• Russia oil sales remain high and profitable despite sanctions (Just the News)

• Policy: Too much free government aid is fueling depressing “pro-lazy” America (Vivek Ramaswamy)

• Humor: NASA delays Artemis launch after realizing female astronaut forgot to fill the rocket with fuel after last trip (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.