Portland fines DHS $672,000, $48,000 a day, for protecting federal courthouse

In an escalation of its war on Washington, officials in Portland, Oregon, have slapped a huge fine on the federal government for erecting a fence around the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse that helped protect federal officers from Molotov cocktail throwing protesters. The complaint: The fence, seen in videos being rocked nightly by violent Black Lives Matter protesters, blocks bike lanes. In a three-page bill to the General Services Administration, which oversees the building, Chris Warner, the director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation, said the Department of Homeland Security built the fence on city property without first getting permits. As a result, it is fining Washington $48,000 a day ($500 for every 15 minutes), bringing the total so far to about $672,000.

In the letter, he wrote, “Despite instructions on July 23rd to immediately cease and desist obstruction of the Right of Way, unpermitted fencing and barriers remain. Permits have not been issued or applied for. On SW Main St, fencing and barriers fully obstruct the bike lane, creating a hazard to the public. SW Main is a major bicycle corridor into the central business district. Further, the fencing and barriers installed around the Federal Courthouse do not provide for an accessible path from streets, sidewalks and public transportation stops to the buildings, nor do they provide an alternate path of travel, specifically for people with disabilities.” The GSA had no immediate comment. he letter, obtained by Secrets, shows the fence on a street corner. Behind it are two pillars of the courthouse damaged by graffiti. The letter makes no reference to the weeks of protests that Portland did not stop against federal agents sent to protect the building. The letter is the latest slap at DHS and the Trump administration’s efforts to protect the courthouse. Oregon’s governor has mocked the agents inside the fence who came under attack for weeks and overstated a deal to replace them with state police.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/portland-fines-dhs-672-000-48-000-a-day-for-protecting-federal-courthouse

American Journal of Psychiatry retracts claim that sex-change surgery helps patients' mental health

The American Journal of Psychiatry has retracted its findings from a study last fall that had claimed "sex-reassignment surgery" improves a patient's mental health. The journal now claims that the study shows no such improvement. The authors of the original conclusion had celebrated theirs as the "first total population study of transgender individuals with a gender incongruence diagnosis" that offered support for providing "gender-affirming surgeries to transgender individuals who seek them." The Heritage Foundation's Dr. Ryan Anderson, a critic of sex-reassignment surgery, said the mistake could be simply "human error," but that the study used "biggest data set" on the topic.

"The biggest data set now shows — and that's what this study uses — the biggest data set shows that there's no benefits, psychological benefits to patients of hormonal and surgical transition," Anderson said. He also offered an explanation for why the study originally drew a faulty conclusion. "Human error is a possibility here," Anderson said. "But there's also the possibility that there was a preferred outcome for the study. So that they wanted the study to say a certain thing. Obviously, we don't know in this particular instance whether this was just an honest mistake or if this was motivated research, motivated reasoning to lead to a certain conclusion." He also criticized the lack of media coverage on the study. Media coverage of the original findings was widespread, but few outlets have covered the correction. "But we can say that the media didn't report on one of the main findings of the original study which was that hormonal transition showed no signs of improvement," Anderson said. "They only reported on the original study that said surgery transition showed signs of improvement. And now that claim has been retracted."

https://disrn.com/news/american-journal-of-psychiatry-retracts-its-claim-that-sex-change-surgery-helps-patients-mental-health

Prestigious Psychiatry Journal Retracts Findings, Admits Sex-Reassignment Surgery Didn't Fix Mental Health

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/health/2020/august/prestigious-psychiatry-journal-retracts-findings-admits-sex-reassignment-surgery-didnt-fix-mental-health

Study Finds Long-Term Mental Health Benefits of Gender-Affirming Surgery for Transgender Individuals

https://www.psychiatry.org/newsroom/news-releases/study-finds-long-term-mental-health-benefits-of-gender-affirming-surgery-for-transgender-individuals

Neither Trump nor His Campaign Ever Got a ‘Defensive Briefing’

New disclosure of an FBI report should put this absurd claim to rest.

M y column over the weekend was about the Obama-Biden administration’s exploitation of the government’s intelligence and law-enforcement apparatus to investigate Donald Trump, who was then the opposition Republican Party’s presidential candidate. The essence of this investigation is palpable from an August 2016 incident: The FBI covertly surveilled Trump by capitalizing on the U.S. intelligence community’s practice of providing a counterintelligence and security briefing to the nominees of the two major political parties. The exploitation of executive power to monitor the opposition party’s presidential candidate is a Watergate-level abuse of power. That is why Obama and FBI apologists have steadfastly refused to cop to it. A major element of their story is that the faux briefing given to Trump was actually a defensive briefing. We are to believe its purpose was to warn Trump that his campaign could be infiltrated by covert agents working for Russia.

The significance of the “defensive briefing” canard, and the importance of refuting it, still seems lost on many of Trump’s Russiagate defenders. Political spying is an impeachable offense. Democrats have countered with the ridiculous “defensive briefing” yarn because they understand this. As I demonstrate in Ball of Collusion, the decision not to give Trump a defensive briefing is ironclad proof that he was the target of the investigation, and therefore that the Obama-Biden administration was guilty of political spying. That “defensive briefing” lie should now be put to rest, thanks to the recently declassified FBI report about the session. Yes, one big takeaway is that the FBI used the “briefing” as an investigative operation. But don’t miss the forest for the trees. Even on its own deceptive terms, the faux briefing was neither portrayed nor conducted by the FBI as defensive to warn the Trump campaign; it was a standard counterintelligence and security briefing for presidential candidates.

Claims to the contrary notwithstanding, Trump never got a defensive briefing. Common sense tells you why: Our intelligence agencies do not give defensive briefings to someone they consider the main suspect. The main suspect is deemed the agent of a foreign power against whom others need defending. You don’t warn the main suspect that you are trying to catch him; you investigate the main suspect to try to make the case. It is the people around the main suspect who need a warning, not the other way around. I first encountered the gambit to depict the August 2016 session as a defensive briefing a couple of years ago, as a panelist on a Fox News program. Floated by one of the ubiquitous, self-described “Democratic strategists,” it seemed out of left field. I countered that this was wrong, that the session was a standard intelligence briefing given to presidential candidates. But there wasn’t enough time to explain the difference between that and a defensive briefing. Given all that is now publicly known, the defensive-briefing claim should be so discredited that even partisan Democrats refrain from invoking it. But no. A little over a week ago, I was invited to discuss Russiagate on Martha MacCallum’s Fox News program. The format had me following Representative Eric Swalwell (D., Calif.), a slippery partisan who put so much stock in the bogus Steele dossier that he has seamlessly become one of the last of the “collusion” dead-enders. When the question of why Trump’s campaign had not been given a defensive briefing came up, Swalwell insisted that it had gotten one. Swalwell and others persist because nonsense sticks if it is repeated often enough, especially if it goes unchallenged. An example: In an otherwise excellent report at The Federalist, Sean Davis describes the August 2016 session as “a so-called defensive” briefing (indeed, the headline of his story says “Declassified Documents Show FBI Used ‘Defensive’ Briefing in 2016 to Spy on Donald Trump”).

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/08/russiagate-probe-neither-trump-nor-his-campaign-ever-got-a-defensive-briefing/

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine Tests Positive for COVID ahead of Trump Visit

Ohio governor Mike DeWine tested positive for COVID-19 Thursday ahead of a scheduled meeting with President Donald Trump. DeWine received a coronavirus test in line with the standard protocol to meet the president; He planned to greet Trump on the tarmac at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland. Trump is scheduled to tour the Whirlpool plant in Cylde, Ohio before attending a private fundraiser.

The 73-year-old Republican governor is asymptomatic and will return to Columbus to be retested along with his wife Fran DeWine, according to a news release. DeWine will quarantine in his home for the next 14 days. Ohio lieutenant governor Jon Husted was also tested for the virus, but tested negative. DeWine becomes the second governor known to have contracted the coronavirus, after Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/ohio-gov-mike-dewine-tests-positive-for-covid-ahead-of-trump-visit/

Kamala Harris lie shot down by Chad Wolf

Here’s the exchange from this morning — Salient highlight is below

Minneapolis Star Tribune Endorses Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Primary Challenger

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has endorsed Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) opponent in the Democratic primary race for her seat, calling him “the kind of leader who could unite a fractured district.” The paper’s editorial board said Omar’s challenger, Antone Melton-Meaux, “brings a different sensibility to his race, one grounded in helping resolve disputes to move forward — a skill this country is much in need of… While Omar wants to lead a movement, Melton-Meaux seeks to serve the Fifth District.” Melton-Meaux, the descendant of emancipated slaves and a graduate of the University of Virginia Law School, is challenging Omar to become the Democratic Party’s candidate in the U.S. House district representing Minneapolis. The state’s August 11 will effectively determine the next representative for the heavily Democratic district, which Omar won with 78 percent of the vote in 2018. Omar has been outspoken in Congress since her election, and has faced recent controversy over her campaign finances. The Star Tribune said Omar’s record in both of those areas raised concerns, writing, “Omar’s 2018 victory launched her into the national spotlight as the first Muslim woman and first refugee elected to Congress. But her time has been marred by missteps, including remarks on Israel widely regarded as anti-Semitic, an outsized number of missed votes, and campaign-finance issues. “It is just these kinds of ethical distractions that the Fifth District could do without,” the paper added. “In the Editorial Board interview, Omar took little responsibility for her rocky start, instead largely blaming her critics and saying her failing was perhaps in not realizing what a ‘special unicorn’ she would be in Congress.”

The paper commended both candidates, but said Melton-Meaux would do a better job of representing the district. “Both Omar and Melton-Meaux have compelling stories that, in their own ways, are quintessentially American. Omar’s refugee story is well-known. Melton-Meaux is the descendant of American emancipated slaves. His mother grew up picking cotton, and his father used service in Vietnam and the GI bill to put himself through college and lift his family into the middle class.” “Melton-Meaux fully grasps the needs of the diverse constituency he hopes to represent, and, if given a chance, is the kind of leader who could unite a fractured district,” the paper added.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/minneapolis-star-tribune-endorses-rep-ilhan-omars-primary-challenger/

>>10201755

Baker did you see this?

>>10201679 Neither Trump nor His Campaign Ever Got a ‘Defensive Briefing’

>>10201795

Sorry Baker meant for you to see this:

>>10201836

>>10201679 Neither Trump nor His Campaign Ever Got a ‘Defensive Briefing’

>>10201845

Indeed, change in tide..waking up to all of her evil and what she has done to their city..certainly protests were helpful as well.

>>10201854

No it doesn't it's actually defending him..you would have to read to believe it..

>>10201909

Indeed, his comments yesterday..

Remarkable moment from Trudeau testimony (under oath)

Pierre Poilievre grills Justin Trudeau over WE Charity scandal — Timestamped to begin at 1:41

‘The dollar figure, Prime Minister, how much?’