Vagaries of the WHO – “Revelations” of the Congressional investigative committee – Our deteriorating political process – An “unfortunate incident” in Ohio – Evening statistics
The WHO seems determined to blacken its own reputation. Yesterday it declared that “sex is not limited to male or female.” It is currently working on new guidance that updates “’key concepts around gender,’ as well as expanding on the concept of intersectionality, which examines how ‘gender power dynamics’ interact with other hierarchies of privilege or disadvantage, leading to differing health outcomes among those individuals.” The turgidity of the prose alone would be enough to inspire profound mistrust of any guidance the authors could provide; but even the least fastidious stylist must be astounded by an organization that exists for the purpose of monitoring international health declaring its determination to ignore some elementary facts of biology. “Not being clear about basic biology opens the door to a range of problems, including very poor health communication but also distorted data,” said Jenny Gamble, a professor in the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health at Coventry University. “The wording regarding there being more than male and female sexes is concerning,” Dr. Karleen Gribble, another expert in nursing and midwifery at Western Sydney University. “The website says that the handbook is being updated in light of new scientific evidence and conceptual progress on gender, health and development.” As she pointed out, of course no such evidence exists. “The idea that there are more than two sexes, is a postmodern, unscientific understanding.”
There are many stories emerging from the activities of the committee investigating the attack on the Capitol: for instance, the meeting of December 18, 2020, during which outside advisers to Donald Trump screamed insults at presidential aides; a verbal agreement by Donald Trump to grant Sidney Powell a security clearance and to make her special counsel with oversight for seizing voting machines for the purpose of overturning the election; the testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson that Trump that knew some of his supporters at the Jan. 6th rally were armed and that he desperately wanted to join them as they marched to the Capitol; and so on. It may be wondered how it is, after I have fulminated at some length in this journal when the attack on the Capitol occurred, that I am paying so little attention to these disclosures now.
The answer is that just as many people say that they are undergoing COVID fatigue, I myself have long been afflicted with “Trump fatigue.” None of these stories have told me anything new, at least anything substantive. From the first I have regarded the attack on the Capitol as an act of treason by Trump, and I see no reason now to alter that opinion. And unfortunately, I do not see that we are one whit further in obtaining any sort of penalty for Trump after his seditious assault eighteen months ago (I say his assault with intention, for he is unquestionably the ringleader in the matter) and after his disruption of our national electoral process. I realize that indicting a former president is not an undertaking to be done lightly. But, after all, England in the 17th century and France in the 18th managed to indict a monarch or two, thereby ridding themselves from such encumbrances; so why are we unable to simulate such spirit and enterprise in the 21st?
The damage that Trump has inflicted on our country’s political process is incalculable. From this point onward, the results of any contest, national or state-wide or even county-wide, are easier to invalidate than they formerly were as a result of Trump’s response to the 2020 national election. The losing candidate has merely to clog our judicial system with lawsuits and to marshal up some of his supporters to make violent demonstrations, just as Trump did, in order to intimidate officials tallying the votes and to nullify the results of the polls.
Even the investigation led by Fani Willis in Fulton County, while it has issued subpoenas to many prominent Trump supporters, has not issued any to Trump himself. The man seems untouched by the crimes he has committed, and no one, it appears, is willing to call him to account for them. This Fulton County investigation, incidentally, appears to be the most likely avenue of any charges being directly leveled against Trump at all; the investigative committee in Washington is composed of legislators and has no direct judicial authority to indict him.
Themis, goddess of Justice, has shown herself to be hobbled, broken-gaited, and strabismic in yet another instance. A ten-year old girl in Ohio who was twice raped by an adult male was forced to be transported to another state to have an abortion after this horrifying experience. Ohio now forbids abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected, which usually occurs about six weeks into pregnancy. Her mother had requested Franklin County, where the family resides, to obtain an abortion for her victimized child, only to be told that it was too late to do anything about it; hence the hasty journey to Indiana, where, for the moment, such operations are still permitted. That sort of remedy may not be long available: Indiana has scheduled a special legislative session later this month, during which its abortion restrictions may become every bit as restrictive as Ohio’s. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost initially attempted to downplay the story, saying that it was a fabrication. He abruptly changed his tune when Gershon Fuentes, the rapist, confessed to his crimes after being arrested and interrogated. “My heart aches for the pain suffered by this young child,” Yost tweeted. Why do politicians believe that the “pain” they profess to suffer on behalf of those they have wronged amount to any sort of tangible compensation? Yost and his judicial confederates are accomplices after the fact of this disgusting child molester, and no amount of exegesis can alter the situation.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 563,765,059; # of deaths worldwide: 6,378,844; # of cases U.S.: 90,855,685; # of deaths; U.S.: 1,047,495.