California governor Newsom’s administration is funneling millions of taxpayer dollars into a nonprofit promoting “neogenders” like foxgender and autismgender and facilitating secret gender transitions for students in his state and across the country.
It’s no longer only “he” and “she” or “man” and “woman” in the California public schools. And if Gavin Newsom gets his way, it’s coming to your school too.
The California Department of Public Health is in partnership with the California-based Gender Spectrum organization through a nine-year grant to “conduct rigorous evaluation” of Gender Spectrum’s “professional development programs."
The organization’s undergirding ideology is one of radical “liberation” from the “gender binary,” encouraging youth to invent their own “genders,” which parents are urged to “affirm.”
However, their “Resources” include a so-called “Gender Support Plan,” which explicitly excludes a child’s parents at the child’s request. Some initiatives start with kids in kindergarten.
In the hours before we published, today, Gender Spectrum’s website became no longer accessible and they didn’t respond to multiple comment requests.
Millions In Taxpayer Dollars
Gender Spectrum will collect $2,340,000 from the California Department of Public Health, Office of Health Equity for the California Reducing Disparities Project. Here’s how the payments break down:
Started in the Jerry Brown era when Newsom was lieutenant governor, the grant originally ran from 2017-2022. However, in March 2022, the Newsom administration more than doubled the annual funding and gave Gender Spectrum an extension until June 2026. In 2022 the California Department of Health gave the organization $355,260 as a part of these payments, up from $160,958 in 2021.
The grant gives financial and technical assistance to two Gender Spectrum professional development programs: The Foundations of Gender Inclusive Schools Training and The Gender Spectrum Inclusive Schools Network. The programs impart, among other items “concrete strategies for applying the lens of gender diversity to school practices.”
One presentation covered the intricacies of “neoidentities.”
Neogenders, or neoidentities, are words other than “man” and “woman” which individuals use to describe their gender. Neogenders may “describe gender as a personal, aesthetic, synesthetic, or head-space oriented experience.” A neogender may have a corresponding neopronoun other than “he” and “her.”
For example, someone could identify as “foxgender” and use the “foxself” pronoun. This does not necessarily mean the person believes he or she is a fox, but rather the person identifies with “aspects of a fox, whether that’s their appearance, their personality, or how they’re viewed in society.”
If one were to use the foxself pronouns, one could say “Fox said fox would rather do it foxself.” Instead of “She said she would rather do it herself.”
There are an unlimited number of genders one can have, so if an adult does not understand a child’s chosen neogender right away, that is understandable. In fact, youth don’t even have to properly understand their own neogenders, because they are on a “gender journey” that will likely change over time.
Keeping It Secret – Parents Don’t Need To Know
Gender Spectrum’s mission appears to drive a wedge between children and their parents.
Parents are told they should unreservedly “affirm” their child’s neogender. And if parents aren’t affirming, they can expect to be cut out of this aspect of their child’s social and psychological development entirely.
As Naomi Cruz, Manager of Family and Educational Programming at Gender Spectrum, says:
“If parents are not supportive of neogender identities and the youth is feeling really torn because of that, I definitely recommend supporting that youth in the ways that you can, so definitely making sure to use this youth’s pronouns when it's safe to. The youth may request, obviously, ‘don’t use these pronouns around my parents,’ but when you two are alone or in spaces where their parents are not there, or the youth has indicated that it’s safe, making sure to use those neopronouns or making sure to refer to them in ways that make them feel gender affirmed.”
In other words, as soon as parents leave the room, a teacher or other adult can start referring to their child as “fox,” “rock,” “moon,” or whatever else the child fancies. It’s a little secret they don’t have to share with parents.
With One Exception
If a child chooses a gender that encompasses a racial, ethnic, religious, or disability group they are not a part of, the parent must direct the child to a different neogender. For example, only autistic people are allowed to use “autigender” or “autismgender.” Cruz provides a script for parents to correct their children in these cases:
“Yes, I understand that this term means something to you, but perhaps we can create another term or another pronoun that also has a meaning to you, but isn’t specific to a certain racial, ethnic, or other group where there are closed identities and pronouns.”
Cruz did not mention if the parent should redirect the child back to its own sex (or species), but we assume this action would not be considered “affirming.”
Gender Support Plans
Gender Support Plans are essentially tools to help administrators facilitate the social transition of a child’s gender while at school.
Gender Spectrum’s six-page document covers which bathrooms, locker rooms and facilities the student will be using, which name they will go by, and the "go-to adults” on campus.
Parental knowledge of their child’s gender plan is entirely up to the child, whether or not parents would be supportive of such a transition.
The plan even includes strategies for keeping parents in the dark about their child’s “gender identity.” Such plans have been found in schools across the country.
During the Gender Spectrum Family Conference in October 2022, Carla Pena, Director of Training, stated that this is a part of the training administrators and educators receive through Gender Spectrum’s programs:
“We also give this training to school educators and administrators who are working with trans and gender expansive kids, and it’s not always the case that caregivers are supportive of their child’s gender, their gender journey, in that case, if parents are not supportive or if the child is not out, that’s not necessarily someone who will be a part of the gender support team.”
Secret school gender transitions have been an organizational priority for a long time. As reported in the Washington Examiner, in 2015 Gender Spectrum co-authored a report titled "Schools in Transition,” which was also sponsored by the National Education Association, one of America’s biggest teachers' unions.
What seemed like a radical notion then has effectively permeated schools nationwide, boosted by partnerships at the state and national level.
A Federal Partnership Too
The state of California isn’t the only institution boosting the Gender Spectrum’s work; the organization consulted on the National Sex Education Standards, cited by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control for use in schools nationwide.
The standards were published in 2021 and included goals like:
By 2nd grade define gender identity
By 5th grade children should be able to describe the role of puberty blockers on those who identify as transgender. Also, fifth graders should differentiate between sexual orientation and gender identity and explain that gender expression and gender identity exist along a spectrum
By 8th grade define anal sex and describe “pregnancy options” including abortion.
"The standards are designed to help schools focus on what is most essential for students to learn by the end of a grade level or grade span and can be used to create lessons and curricula with aligned learning objectives."
Gender Spectrum’s Kim Westheimer was listed as one of the consultants on the National Sex Education Standards. Westheimer also gave a talk at the 2022 Family Conference, stating that exposing children to different ideas of gender encourages them to take on different gender identities:
“Things like social media and YouTube are giving young people more permission to explore their identity and maybe to try on new identities and decide if those are right for them or not. I would say that’s a good thing, not a bad thing, and that kids should be supported in that.”
The CDC has recommended Gender Spectrum resources in at least three other agency documents or webpages: LGBTQ Inclusivity In Schools: A Self-Assessment Tool; Dating Matters: Strategies to Promote Healthy Teen Relationships; Creating Safe Schools for LGBTQ+ Youth.
Gender Spectrum has not received federal contract or grant funding, but has received $297,111 in federal small business Covid-19 loans. Their first Paycheck Protection Program $153,110 loan in April 2020 was forgiven. On February 26, 2021, the organization took a $145,833 PPP loan and the current status is undetermined.
The organization has partnered with other national groups like National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National PTA, the American School Counselors Association, and the School Superintendents Association.
SUMMARY
Gender Spectrum openly brags about the organization’s national, and even international impact, reaching youth from Switzerland to Singapore.
The half a million dollars in funding from the state of California between 2021 and 2022 (and $2,340,000 by 2026) will go a long way with Gender Spectrum. Indeed, within the California Department of Public Health’s Request for Proposals for the grant Gender Spectrum won is a stipulation for the organization to “increas[e] its current project scale to allow for effective evaluation.”
Along with evaluating the program for supposed “effectiveness” the CDPH stated:
“secondary program goals include the development of infrastructure and business practices to expand and improve existing efforts in order to provide quality mental health services to more at-need community members.”
On August 28 California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a lawsuit against the Chino Valley Unified School District in California to halt the district’s mandatory gender identity disclosure policy. The policy would inform parents if a child asks to use a different name or pronoun in school, a policy which Bonta says is “wrongfully and unconstitutionally discriminating against and violating the privacy rights of LGBTQ+ students.”
Gavin Newsom stated in one of his wife’s documentaries (also shown in schools),
“At the end of the day a budget is a set of values. Budget reflects your values.”
California voters and taxpayers should consider how this spending reflects their own values and parents nationwide should be alert to how Newsom’s values are being exported to their children’s schools.
NOTE: We reached out for comment, context, and background to Gender Spectrum, the California Department of Public Health, and Gov. Newsom’s office. None responded by publication. If they do respond, we’ll do our best to update the piece in real time.
It was Jan. 11, 2024 when software giant Microsoft (MSFT) briefly passed Apple (AAPL) as the most valuable company in the world.
Microsoft's stock closed 0.5% higher, giving it a market valuation of $2.859 trillion.
It rose as much as 2% during the session and the company was briefly worth $2.903 trillion. Apple closed 0.3% lower, giving the company a market capitalization of $2.886 trillion.
"It was inevitable that Microsoft would overtake Apple since Microsoft is growing faster and has more to benefit from the generative AI revolution," D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria said at the time, according to Reuters.
The two tech titans have jostled for top spot over the years and Microsoft was ahead at last check, with a market cap of $3.085 trillion, compared with Apple's value of $2.684 trillion.
Analysts noted that Apple had been dealing with weakening demand, including for the iPhone, the company’s main source of revenue.
Demand in China, a major market, has slumped as the country's economy makes a slow recovery from the pandemic and competition from Huawei.
Sales in China of Apple's iPhone fell by 24% in the first six weeks of 2024 compared with a year earlier, according to research firm Counterpoint, as the company contended with stiff competition from a resurgent Huawei "while getting squeezed in the middle on aggressive pricing from the likes of OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi," said senior Analyst Mengmeng Zhang.
“Although the iPhone 15 is a great device, it has no significant upgrades from the previous version, so consumers feel fine holding on to the older-generation iPhones for now," he said.
A man scrolling through Netflix on an Apple iPad Pro. Photo by Phil Barker/Future Publishing via Getty Images.
Counterpoint said that the first six weeks of 2023 saw abnormally high numbers with significant unit sales being deferred from December 2022 due to production issues.
Apple is planning to open its eighth store in Shanghai – and its 47th across China – on March 21.
The company also plans to expand its research centre in Shanghai to support all of its product lines and open a new lab in southern tech hub Shenzhen later this year, according to the South China Morning Post.
Meanwhile, over in Europe, Apple announced changes to comply with the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which went into effect last week, Reuters reported on March 12.
Beginning this spring, software developers operating in Europe will be able to distribute apps to EU customers directly from their own websites instead of through the App Store.
"To reflect the DMA’s changes, users in the EU can install apps from alternative app marketplaces in iOS 17.4 and later," Apple said on its website, referring to the software platform that runs iPhones and iPads.
"Users will be able to download an alternative marketplace app from the marketplace developer’s website," the company said.
Apple has also said it will appeal a $2 billion EU antitrust fine for thwarting competition from Spotify (SPOT) and other music streaming rivals via restrictions on the App Store.
The company's shares have suffered amid all this upheaval, but some analysts still see good things in Apple's future.
Bank of America Securities confirmed its positive stance on Apple, maintaining a buy rating with a steady price target of $225, according to Investing.com.
The firm's analysis highlighted Apple's pricing strategy evolution since the introduction of the first iPhone in 2007, with initial prices set at $499 for the 4GB model and $599 for the 8GB model.
BofA said that Apple has consistently launched new iPhone models, including the Pro/Pro Max versions, to target the premium market.
Analyst says Apple selloff 'overdone'
Concurrently, prices for previous models are typically reduced by about $100 with each new release.
This strategy, coupled with installment plans from Apple and carriers, has contributed to the iPhone's installed base reaching a record 1.2 billion in 2023, the firm said.
Apple has effectively shifted its sales mix toward higher-value units despite experiencing slower unit sales, BofA said.
This trend is expected to persist and could help mitigate potential unit sales weaknesses, particularly in China.
BofA also noted Apple's dominance in the high-end market, maintaining a market share of over 90% in the $1,000 and above price band for the past three years.
The firm also cited the anticipation of a multi-year iPhone cycle propelled by next-generation AI technology, robust services growth, and the potential for margin expansion.
On Monday, Evercore ISI analysts said they believed that the sell-off in the iPhone maker’s shares may be “overdone.”
The firm said that investors' growing preference for AI-focused stocks like Nvidia (NVDA) has led to a reallocation of funds away from Apple.
In addition, Evercore said concerns over weakening demand in China, where Apple may be losing market share in the smartphone segment, have affected investor sentiment.
And then ongoing regulatory issues continue to have an impact on investor confidence in the world's second-biggest company.
“We think the sell-off is rather overdone, while we suspect there is strong valuation support at current levels to down 10%, there are three distinct drivers that could unlock upside on the stock from here – a) Cap allocation, b) AI inferencing, and c) Risk-off/defensive shift," the firm said in a research note.
Major typhoid fever surveillance study in sub-Saharan Africa indicates need for the introduction of typhoid conjugate vaccines in endemic countries
There is a high burden of typhoid fever in sub-Saharan African countries, according to a new study published today in The Lancet Global Health. This high…
There is a high burden of typhoid fever in sub-Saharan African countries, according to a new study published today in The Lancet Global Health. This high burden combined with the threat of typhoid strains resistant to antibiotic treatment calls for stronger prevention strategies, including the use and implementation of typhoid conjugate vaccines (TCVs) in endemic settings along with improvements in access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene.
Credit: IVI
There is a high burden of typhoid fever in sub-Saharan African countries, according to a new study published today in The Lancet Global Health. This high burden combined with the threat of typhoid strains resistant to antibiotic treatment calls for stronger prevention strategies, including the use and implementation of typhoid conjugate vaccines (TCVs) in endemic settings along with improvements in access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene.
The findings from this 4-year study, the Severe Typhoid in Africa (SETA) program, offers new typhoid fever burden estimates from six countries: Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, and Nigeria, with four countries recording more than 100 cases for every 100,000 person-years of observation, which is considered a high burden. The highest incidence of typhoid was found in DRC with 315 cases per 100,000 people while children between 2-14 years of age were shown to be at highest risk across all 25 study sites.
There are an estimated 12.5 to 16.3 million cases of typhoid every year with 140,000 deaths. However, with generic symptoms such as fever, fatigue, and abdominal pain, and the need for blood culture sampling to make a definitive diagnosis, it is difficult for governments to capture the true burden of typhoid in their countries.
“Our goal through SETA was to address these gaps in typhoid disease burden data,” said lead author Dr. Florian Marks, Deputy Director General of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI). “Our estimates indicate that introduction of TCV in endemic settings would go to lengths in protecting communities, especially school-aged children, against this potentially deadly—but preventable—disease.”
In addition to disease incidence, this study also showed that the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Salmonella Typhi, the bacteria that causes typhoid fever, has led to more reliance beyond the traditional first line of antibiotic treatment. If left untreated, severe cases of the disease can lead to intestinal perforation and even death. This suggests that prevention through vaccination may play a critical role in not only protecting against typhoid fever but reducing the spread of drug-resistant strains of the bacteria.
There are two TCVs prequalified by the World Health Organization (WHO) and available through Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. In February 2024, IVI and SK bioscience announced that a third TCV, SKYTyphoid™, also achieved WHO PQ, paving the way for public procurement and increasing the global supply.
Alongside the SETA disease burden study, IVI has been working with colleagues in three African countries to show the real-world impact of TCV vaccination. These studies include a cluster-randomized trial in Agogo, Ghana and two effectiveness studies following mass vaccination in Kisantu, DRC and Imerintsiatosika, Madagascar.
Dr. Birkneh Tilahun Tadesse, Associate Director General at IVI and Head of the Real-World Evidence Department, explains, “Through these vaccine effectiveness studies, we aim to show the full public health value of TCV in settings that are directly impacted by a high burden of typhoid fever.” He adds, “Our final objective of course is to eliminate typhoid or to at least reduce the burden to low incidence levels, and that’s what we are attempting in Fiji with an island-wide vaccination campaign.”
As more countries in typhoid endemic countries, namely in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, consider TCV in national immunization programs, these data will help inform evidence-based policy decisions around typhoid prevention and control.
###
About the International Vaccine Institute (IVI)
The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) is a non-profit international organization established in 1997 at the initiative of the United Nations Development Programme with a mission to discover, develop, and deliver safe, effective, and affordable vaccines for global health.
IVI’s current portfolio includes vaccines at all stages of pre-clinical and clinical development for infectious diseases that disproportionately affect low- and middle-income countries, such as cholera, typhoid, chikungunya, shigella, salmonella, schistosomiasis, hepatitis E, HPV, COVID-19, and more. IVI developed the world’s first low-cost oral cholera vaccine, pre-qualified by the World Health Organization (WHO) and developed a new-generation typhoid conjugate vaccine that is recently pre-qualified by WHO.
IVI is headquartered in Seoul, Republic of Korea with a Europe Regional Office in Sweden, a Country Office in Austria, and Collaborating Centers in Ghana, Ethiopia, and Madagascar. 39 countries and the WHO are members of IVI, and the governments of the Republic of Korea, Sweden, India, Finland, and Thailand provide state funding. For more information, please visit https://www.ivi.int.
Incidence of typhoid fever in Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, and Nigeria (the Severe Typhoid in Africa programme): a population-based study
We’ve added 60% to national debt since 2018. Germany - a country with major economic woes - added ‘just’ 32%.
Maybe it will never matter. Maybe MMT is real. Maybe we just cancel or inflate it out. Maybe career real estate borrowers or career politicians aren’t the answer.
I have no idea. Only time will tell. But it’s going to be fascinating to watch it play out.
He is right: it will be fascinating, and the latest budget deficit data simply confirmed that the day of reckoning will come very soon, certainly sooner than the two years that One River's Eric Peters predicted this weekend for the coming "US debt sustainability crisis."
According to the US Treasury, in February, the US collected $271 billion in various tax receipts, and spent $567 billion, more than double what it collected.
The two charts below show the divergence in US tax receipts which have flatlined (on a trailing 6M basis) since the covid pandemic in 2020 (with occasional stimmy-driven surges)...
... and spending which is about 50% higher compared to where it was in 2020.
The end result is that in February, the budget deficit rose to $296.3 billion, up 12.9% from a year prior, and the second highest February deficit on record.
And the punchline: on a cumulative basis, the budget deficit in fiscal 2024 which began on October 1, 2023 is now $828 billion, the second largest cumulative deficit through February on record, surpassed only by the peak covid year of 2021.
But wait there's more: because in a world where the US is spending more than twice what it is collecting, the endgame is clear: debt collapse, and while it won't be tomorrow, or the week after, it is coming... and it's also why the US is now selling $1 trillion in debt every 100 days just to keep operating (and absorbing all those millions of illegal immigrants who will keep voting democrat to preserve the socialist system of the US, so beloved by the Soros clan).
... having already surpassed total US defense spending and soon to surpass total health spending and, finally all social security spending, the largest spending category of all, which means that US debt will now rise exponentially higher until the inevitable moment when the US dollar loses its reserve status and it all comes crashing down.
We conclude with another observation by CNBC's Brian Sullivan, who quotes an email by a DC strategist...
.. which lays out the proposed Biden budget as follows:
The budget deficit will growth another $16 TRILLION over next 10 years. Thats *with* the proposed massive tax hikes.
Without them the deficit will grow $19 trillion.
That's why you will hear the "deficit is being reduced by $3 trillion" over the decade.
No family budget or business could exist with this kind of math.
Of course, in the long run, neither can the US... and since neither party will ever cut the spending which everyone by now is so addicted to, the best anyone can do is start planning for the endgame.
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