Another example of the system functioning exactly as intended. Which is another reason why the system has gotta go.
Arkansas Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson defended his decision to veto legislation that would have made his state the first to ban gender-confirming treatments or surgery for transgender youth in a fiery exchange with Fox News host Tucker Carlson Tuesday.
“The Tucker Carlson Tonight” host explained to viewers that the bill nearly passed with Hutchinson’s support until the governor rejected the legislation that would have prohibited doctors from providing gender-confirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to anyone under 18 years old, or from referring them to other providers for the treatment.
Hutchinson accused Carlson of misrepresenting the bill, explaining: “If this had been a bill that simply prohibited chemical castration, I would have signed the bill.”
Instead, he said, the bill presented to him was “was overbroad, it was extreme. It went far beyond what you just said.
“This is the first law in the nation that invokes the state between medical decisions, parents who consent to that and the decision of the patient. And so, this goes way too far. And in fact, it doesn’t even have a grandfather clause that those young people that are under hormonal treatment,” he argued.
When Carlson questioned whether Hutchinson was in contact with corporate interests in the state of Arkansas about the bill, the governor replied forcefully, “I answered that question and I said, no, I have not. Do you have another question?”
Ace takes a Viking broadaxe to that outrageous lie.
Shaw notes that Hutchinson is “term-limited” and therefore politics are not a reason for this.
No, but the fact that he’ll be needing a new high-paying job next year very much holds a clue to his behavior.
For anyone who’s a governor, the only possible future career paths are the presidency, the academy, or, of course, serving on the boards of corporations.
Sure, mere Congressmen can become sleazy lobbyists, but that’s too low-rent for a former governor.
Hutchinson has never been discussed as a potential president and has no entree into academia. Particularly now that the academy has purged all non-Marxists. Certainly you can’t be a Republican serving in a university’s administration.
That leaves the Corporate Parachute for Asa.
Now, you’re not going to believe this wild coincidence, but one of the largest retailers in human history, Walmart, just happens to have its headquarters in Arkansas, and, you’re definitely not going to believe this next coincindence, Tom Walton, an heir to the Walmart fortune, has very strong — oddly strong! — opinions on the gender of children.
Could there possibly be some connection here? Certainly Tucker Carlson seems exceptionally skeptical — he says as much — when Hutchinson claims he was not contacted by any corporate interests, not a single one, on this issue. Including, specifically, Walmart.
And yet Hutchinson knows Tom Walmart and Tom Walmart is extremely interested in children’s putative right to participate in genital cosplay.
The Ruling Class, like the Ruling Class all throughout history, is extraordinarily focused on the sexual liberation of children.
And as was almost surely the case with Kristi Noem — the word was passed to Hutchinson that his future corporate career could be derailed in a hurry if he didn’t play ball with the trans lobby.
Whether the word is being passed by a corporate donor himself — doubtful — or, more likely, one of his lobbyists or lawyers, the word is being passed. Big money if you veto this bill, no job prospects if you don’t.
This is a system of direct bribery of high public officials by megacorporations and it must be stopped.
It most certainly is, and every Normal American must shoulder a share of the blame for ever allowing such a system to develop, take root, and flower in the first place; its very existence amounts to a stark admonishment, and a disgrace. Backup for the shitlib spawn of Sam Walton’s open endorsement of child mutilation in the name of the Left’s bizarre obsession with the “transgender” subterfuge, for anybody who might need it:
Statement on Recent Arkansas Policy
“We are alarmed by the string of policy targeting LGBTQ people in Arkansas. This trend is harmful and sends the wrong message to those willing to invest in or visit our state. We support Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s recent veto of discriminatory policy and implore government, business and community leaders to consider the impact of existing and future policy that limits basic freedoms and does not promote inclusiveness in our communities and economy.Our nation was built on inalienable rights and strengthened by individual differences. Arkansas has been called the land of opportunity because it is a place where anyone can think big and achieve the extraordinary. Any policy that limits individual opportunity also limits our state’s potential.”
– Tom Walton, Home Region Program Committee Chair – Walton Family Foundation
I started to fisk my way through that patent horseshit line by line but then decided, why bother? It would be a waste of wear and tear on my crippled old typing fingers: the statement’s blibbering absurdity is as transparent as the agenda driving it, for all who have eyes to see. And the people who will approve of it aren’t susceptible to persuasion by appeals to logic or simple human decency anyway.
Tom Walton’s extreme wealth places him beyond all reach, as he well knows, providing a highly effective shield against consequences for his advocacy of pure, unleavened evil. Not so much with Hutchinson, who should be hounded and harrassed without mercy or surcease from this day onward. On his very first walk through the doors to his opulent Wal Mart sinecure right on up to his last, he should find himself forced to run a gauntlet of angry protestors shouting epithets and calumny at his retreating backside. That still isn’t punishment enough to suit me, but the despicable scoundrel will certainly receive the eternal reward for all such self-serving treachery in good time.
UNEXPECTED update! Boy, the wheels sure came off THAT cart mighty fast.
During an appearance with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Tuesday night, Arkansas Republican governor Asa Hutchinson vociferously denied that he had been in contact with corporate interests in his state about the “Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act” which bans transition surgery, as well as hormones and puberty blockers, for Arkansas minors.
“I answered that question and I said, ‘no, I have not.’ Do you have another question?” Hutchinson told Carlson, who admitted he was “skeptical” of the denial. The interview came one day after Hutchinson vetoed the bill…But in the fallout from those bills, and in the buildup to the SAFE Act, Hutchinson admitted in a March 31 appearance on Fox News that “some major global corporations here in Arkansas” are “certainly worried about the image of our state.”
While it remains unclear whether the Walton family personally lobbied Hutchinson on the bill — neither Hutchinson’s office nor the WFF returned requests for comment — the two have ties. Per FEC records, the Waltons are longtime financial supporters of Hutchinson’s political career, as is Walmart. Sam Walton’s brother, Steuart Walton, is a current board member at Walmart and was tapped by Hutchinson last April to chair the state’s “Economic Recovery Task Force.”
Ace sinks the putt:
How did Hutchinson know there was corporate worry about the image of Arkansas about these bills if no one from any corporate interests contacted him about them?
The idea that Tom Walton has such passionate feelings about the sexual autonomy of children, and yet wouldn’t call up his family’s pet governor to make these Frenchian passions known, is too absurd to credit as possible.
He’s lying. He told corporate interests that he would triangulate on these bills by signing two of them but vetoing the third.
They’re all fucking liars and it’s time to turn them out into the streets.
A half-decent start, maybe, but far too lenient by itself. There are several other corrective actions available for consideration. Y’know, while we’re all out in the street and all.
- Entries
Notice the Orwellian term, “gender confirming,” when they really mean “gender denying” or “gender altering.” Kill these fucking perverts.
To a degree it is ‘sex’ denying. Our gender doesn’t change, we are what we are IN our head and we can’t change that. We can change the externals, which helps us. That is why ‘transgender’ is a misnomer. It is gender affirming, but not transgender. It is transsexual even when we KNOW we will die the same sex as we were born into.
Conceptually all but impossible for you to understand – but apparently easy to hate…
I put this comment on the clip of Tucker and the Gov on Slug:
I think Tom Walton’s physical sexual orientation should be rearranged.
Tom Walton, eunuch. I think that works.
Where is the surprise with this? Filthy Koch-sucking Rove Republican swill gonna suck Koch!!!
By the way, the Arkansas Legislature overrode the veto: “The Arkansas State Legislature on Tuesday voted to override Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s (R) veto on legislation that bans gender reassignment surgeries and other treatments for transgender youth.
The majority-Republican state House voted 72 to 25 to approve the controversial bill before sending the legislation back to the state Senate, which rejected the governor’s veto of the bill in a 25-8 vote, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Both chambers required a simple majority to override the veto.
Under the bill, physicians are banned from giving gender confirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to those younger than 18. The legislation also restricts doctors from giving recommendations to other providers for these treatments.” https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/546736-arkansas-house-votes-to-override-hutchinson-veto-on-transgender-youth-bill
75% of both houses voted to override, which suggests that the governor is way out in left field on this. With this, his political career should be finished. It would be interesting to see what influence WalMart had on this – and it’s another reason to not shop there…
It is interesting to see a usually squishy politico take a position against such a large fraction of voters. Like that other governor who used to be talked up as presidential timber, I am curious as to why THIS particular hill was the one they chose to die on. Their behavior raises a lot of questions, at least for me.
By the way, there is no surgery or hormone treatment which can “reassign” or change in any way biological sex, which results from XX chromosomes in biological females and XY chromosomes in biological males. Surgery can be done to create artificial structures which mimic genitalia, but do not function as such. And the surgery oftentimes results in damage to the nerves in the area, so that the people who undergo this surgery end up with permanent numbness or no sensation at all in the affected areas. Puberty blocking drugs result in permanent sterility. The underlying psychological problems persist beyond surgery and hormone treatments. As to hormone treatments, in biological females they must continue for life, if stopped, the body will revert. In biological males, the body will revert except for induced breast formation, also known as gynecomastia.
Gender is a mental construct, it isn’t the same as biological sex, and it is not genetic. Most biological males express as masculine gender, most biological females express as feminine, but there are biological males who express as feminine, and biological females who express as masculine, but this is a choice – and it may change throughout the course of life. Permanent surgery and chemical sterilization will create real problems for those whose gender constructs change during life – neither surgery nor hormone treatments nor puberty blockers should be used to treat what are in effect psychological problems.
If an adult wishes to cut off their dick, or add one, I don’t care. Letting children that are likely going through all sorts of changes get physically or chemically altered is criminal.
Agreed. Someone who advocates for puberty blockers is a monster.
Why? Without exception?
Give us an example of your “exception” and I’ll make a judgement.
Ah, so you will consider an exception….
What I said. Now, please provide the exception that you believe deserves consideration.
I’ll disregard what you have to say in the future.
Barry is a nicer guy than I am. Why can’t you people leave the fucking kids alone and let them be kids, instead of demanding that they share your delusion? Why is it so important to ruin their lives before they have even had any experiences?
Would upvote a hundred times if I could. The entire reason society has the legal concept of ‘child’ is recognition that young humans are not responsible enough to make many life-altering decisions without a high probability of disastrous outcomes. For their own protection (and for society’s), they are restricted from many things until they acquire more education and life experience. There is usually (but not always) also an issue of the child not being self-supporting, and thus any costs from their choices fall on others.
Just where to draw the line between child and adult is a tricky question sometimes. Children can be highly intelligent and capable, but still lack experience. Society has mostly chosen to draw the dividing line by age. It is imperfect, but so is everything humans do. Mostly it works well enough and has the advantages of clarity and simplicity.
A child who has not yet undergone puberty has no idea what their future thoughts on sexuality and having children will be. Permitting them to decide on irreversible surgical and chemical ‘treatment’ that has major long term effects on their health and likely sterilises them is monstrous.
If an adult wants to make that choice, I think it is unfortunate and will most likely just create new, often very serious health issues while not resolving their existing problems. But they are adults and have the right to decide for themselves.
Just one point:
No child can decide in a vacuum. There are therapists, parents and medical providers involved in the process – that takes time to happen. I don’t support surgical intervention, but do support blockers appropriately prescribed.
Those others — therapists, parents, doctors, etc. — are often part of the problem. Another reason children are protected by society is that they are very susceptible to being influenced by adults…adults who may not have the child’s best interests in mind.
Human beings as a group are a pretty nasty lot. We are highly competitive, social climbing beings. Learning to manipulate others and how to resist manipulation yourself is a key aspect of maturing from childhood into adulthood. Children’s lack of life experience often means they are easy prety for manipulators, who are thinking only of their own benefits and not of the child’s. Those manipulators may be figures of authority granted status by society (parents, teachers, priests, doctors, etc.), they may be the child’s age group peers, they may be random acquaintances. But a ‘troubled’ child who is unsure of their own identity or place is an easy target that draws swarms of predators.
A civilized society (and yes, we can argue about whether our current society deserves the term) protects children for many good reasons. Those demanding such protections be stripped away should always be viewed with skepticism. Some of them are perfectly well-meaning people. But many are not. And the burden of proof should be on them that what they are advocating actually produces good outcomes for the child.
You are suggesting with:
That government needs to step into the family unit…
Government already steps into (and all over) the family unit, on every issue from small to large. We long ago slid to the bottom of that particular slippery slope.
Actually, it is the government we authorize to act on our behalf to protect the criminals from us. Absent the government, we would kill the assholes trying to screw up children with drugs and psychotic analysis.
You have no clue.
Addressing a couple of points – note I am MtF, post-op (surgery in 1992):
The vast majority of surgeries result in fully functional vaginas. Obviously a person’s sex has not changed – but short of a medical examination, most people could not tell the difference in appearances. Surgeries have only gotten better over the almost 30 years since I had surgery. I know A LOT of post-ops (100+) and less than 5 have nerve issues.
IF the underlying issue is GID, then it is usually ‘cured’ by surgery. Often there are OTHER issues that transition does not change, and in some cases makes worse, which is why the Standards of Care demand therapy prior to surgeries.
Yes, hormone therapy is a life-long requirement. And there is a ‘use it or lose it’ issue also. That is an acceptable compromise to be congruent. I wish I could trust therapists and the medical community but they suffer the same ‘woke’ infection that the society as a whole does…
Might be because I’m a writer, or else because I had a rigorous grounding in English and biology in school, but I was taught that “gender” was a linguistic and literary concept, and “sex” referred to the biological male/female/other distinction.
For me, in my experience, gender is a component of the innate sense of self. There is a distinction between masculine and feminine, how it feels, how it is expressed. Society recognizes, it does not create. For 99% of the population, you ‘fit’ from the earliest awareness of ‘others’ and your place within them. For me, and others, we are aware we DON’T fit, there is something wrong with us, NOT, society and others. We are incongruent; our inner sense of self doesn’t match the physical self and how we are perceived.
Join the crowd. I realized a long time ago that an awful lot of us are broken people in various ways, who don’t and never will really fit in, and who’ve found methods of coping with that. Just about as many different methods as there are people.
I’ve never fit, all the way back to grade school and childhood. I just reached a point where I ceased to give a shit.
I wouldn’t be so certain on that last bit: I came to the conclusion that society and others are broken too – it’s readily apparent when you look at our society over the last sixty years that it’s broken as fuck.
It’s like adulting: everyone’s faking it, it’s just that some folks are better at faking it than others. And some are so good at it that they don’t even realize they’re faking.
Strongly agree on the don’t fit in part. I never have, back to childhood. I don’t consider myself broken, though — it is all those other people who have problems. 🙂 They sure do seem to outnumber the people who have got their lives together, looking at surveys and statistics.
As for society overall? Beyond broken, and has been so for a long long time. Shielding oneself from the dysfunction is a full time job. It often seems like everything in our society has been intentionally set up to drive people crazy. Huge segments of the population survive only because of the accumulated capital (physical, social, and intellectual) of previous generations, while contributing less than nothing to society for the present (much less the future). A near-total collapse into primitivism (with about a 99% population die off) seems increasingly likely.