Wednesday, October 15, 2025
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First they came for your bump stock, now Feds just made millions of gun brace owners into criminals

Suzanne Downing
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First they came for your bump stock, now Feds just made millions of gun brace owners into criminals

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland signed ATF final rule 2021R-08F on Jan. 13, reclassifying millions of commonly owned pistols that have stabilizing braces. The ATF has branded these guns as illegal short-barreled rifles and shotguns, which puts them under the National Firearms Act of 1934. The rules are somewhat ambiguous, critics say.

The Biden Administration now requires gun owners to register these types of firearms with the federal government. The Congressional Research Service says that up to 40 million of them are currently in civilian ownership, and some say it’s unlikely all of them will be registered.

The rule changes the definition of “rifle” to include that which is “designed, redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the shoulder.”

The rule does not affect “stabilizing braces” for disabled people, but does impact those devices that allow shouldering a pistol in the manner of a long gun for those who are not disabled. If a firearm with the stabilizing brace is a short-barreled rifle in the government’s view, it needs to be registered within 120-days from the date of publication in the Federal Register.

“Any weapons with ‘stabilizing braces’ or similar attachments that constitute rifles under the NFA must be registered no later than 120 days after date of publication in the Federal Register; or the short barrel removed and a 16-inch or longer rifle barrel attached to the firearm; or permanently remove and dispose of, or alter, the ‘stabilizing brace’ such that it cannot be reattached; or the firearm is turned in to your local ATF office. Or the firearm is destroyed,” ATF said.

The ATF has published a list of 40 different brands and models that are now illegal, which you can see at this link.

The ATF said owners of these guns have these options:

  • Submit through the eForms system an Application to Make and Register a Firearm, ATF Form 1 (E- Form 1) within 120-days from the date of publication in the Federal Register.
  • Permanently remove or alter the “stabilizing brace” so that it cannot be reattached and thereby removing it from regulation as a “firearm” under the NFA.
  • Remove the short barrel and attach a 16-inch or longer rifled barrel to the firearm thus removing it from the provisions of the NFA.
  • Turn the firearm into your local ATF office.
  • Destroy the firearm.

Gun Owners of America’s Senior Vice President Erich Pratt said, “This administration continues to find new ways to attack gun owners, and this time their target is brace-equipped firearms that allow persons with disabilities to safely and effectively use pistols. We will continue to work with our industry partners to amplify the disapproving voices in the firearms industry, and the Gun Owners Foundation, our sister legal arm, will be filing suit in the near future.”  

The Congressional Review Act may be used by Republicans to block the ATF rule, but with a Senate controlled by Democrats, the rule will probably end up in court when an American gun owner refuses to register his or her pistol brace and is arrested for owning it.

“The ATF is not a legislative body. Pistol braces have been used for many years… with ATF consent. Now ATF is trying to regulate them like machine guns. By what authority? Democrats controlled all 3 branches and passed no ban. This is not Constitutional,” said Rep. Thomas Massie, Republican from Kentucky.

Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado said, “Our Second Amendment is under attack by Joe Biden’s ATF. I’m not the only one who wants to see this agency defunded. We won’t be giving up our firearms to the government anytime soon.”

Republican Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois said, “The unelected bureaucrats at ATF do not have the Constitutional authority to ban guns and violate the Second Amendment rights of American citizens. I will sponsor legislation to BLOCK Biden’s ‘Pistol Brace’ gun ban and DEFUND Biden’s tyrannical ATF!”

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said, “Pistol braces and short barreled rifles aren’t the problem. Mass murderers don’t care about ATF unconstitutional rules. Murderers kill people anyways and will use any means possible to kill. Punishing legal gun owners and gun bans hurt Americans ability to defend themselves.”

Alaska Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola, who during her campaign tried to position herself as a Second Amendment supporter, issued no statement about the federal agency’s overreach of its authority. Sen. Dan Sullivan was overseas, and there was no statement from Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has advocated for some controls on firearms.

In 2018, the Trump administration’s banned bump stocks, devices that allow rapidly fire multiple rounds from semi-automatics. This month, a federal appeals court reversed the bump stock ban, which had classified bump stocks as machine gun. The court ruling says, “A plain reading of the statutory language, paired with close consideration of the mechanics of a semi-automatic firearm, reveals that a bump stock is excluded from the technical definition of ‘machine gun’ set forth in the Gun Control Act and National Firearms Act.”

Linda Boyle: CDC is not shooting straight on vaccine advice

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Linda Boyle: CDC is not shooting straight on vaccine advice

By LINDA BOYLE

The Centers for Disease Control cannot get its stories straight.  First, it said masks did not work. Then it told us to mask up and even double mask. Then the CDC said the masks did not prevent Covid.  

Now with the “triple pandemic” facing us, the CDC says we should wear masks inside to save us from the viruses.   

Get your jabs the local, state, and federal governments say.   

According to a new survey by Rasmussen Reports, nearly 50% of Americans believe that the Covid-19 vaccines have side-effects that have contributed to a significant number of unexplained deaths.  

Of those respondents, 28% consider it “very likely” that the jabs are responsible for unexplained deaths. 

Sudden death: Rasmussen poll shows many Americans think vaccines may be to blame for some cardiac arrests

If that were not enough, it appears that receiving the injection increases the risk of stroke.  

A quick search of the CDC VAERS database on the number of strokes reported as adverse reactions to the Covid-19 reveals that from December 2020 up to 11th Feb 2022, a total of 4,532 adverse event reports involving a stroke were made.

The CDC just released information that there is an possible increase in strokes in people over 65 years old from the Pfizer bivalent — and then stated that it was still safe to take.

Congress recently legislated that the jab is no longer mandatory for the military. Before that, the Air Force offered airmen an extra day off if they took the jab.  Congress did not provide relief to those who were discharged from the military for refusing to take the jab.  

Pentagon rules: All members of military must get Covid-19 vaccine by Sept. 15
Senate passes defense spending bill ending Pentagon’s vaccine mandate; Sullivan and Murkowski duck issue

The government continues to tell us the jab is safe despite the side-effects seen. And agencies say the jabs protect you from getting Covid or getting only a mild case, even though deaths are up among the vaccinated. 

In a study by the Cleveland Clinic, it found that the new bivalent Covid jab the government is touting was only 30% effective.  Remember this pesky virus has only continued to mutate since first discovered.  

Much worse is the potential rate of myocarditis in the young male population. Bear in mind Covid is not as deadly as it was and young people, especially, are not apt to die from Covid.  

Yet with the jab, myocarditis and pericarditis (inflammation of the heart and of the sac around the heart) are being seen.  

Dr. Peter McCullough, renowned cardiologist, stated that prior to the jab about four people in a million contracted these heart diseases. After the jab, the number who contracted myocarditis and pericarditis dramatically increased. Some studies have shown as high as 25,000 cases in a million.  

The CDC will tell you this complication is rare. It will also tell you that Covid itself can produce these diseases. It is important to note that those who got the jabs are more apt to get Covid than those who had no or few jabs.

There are also rumblings that not only should we consider once again using masks, but we should also consider lockdowns. Lockdowns do not work. All lockdowns do is delay the inevitable. The virus has a life, and it will mutate to survive. 

Consider China:  Severe lockdowns for three years were just lifted and the spread of Covid is rampant.  

In Alaska, the state should be telling us to increase our Vitamin D3 and Zinc in take.  It’s winter. As we all know, there is minimal sun—the primary source of vitamin D.  

Zinc and Vitamin D3 help to ward off respiratory illnesses and are effective in the treatment of Covid. Vitamin D3 is a first line defense to decrease inflammation and it helps the immune system stay strong. A recent study showed over 80% of hospitalized Covid patients had low vitamin D3 levels.   

Remember when  the government told us people who had Covid still needed to get the jab because the it was better than natural immunity? Then the government reversed and told us natural immunity is good.  

What are we to believe?

Besides the terrible loss of friends and relatives, Covid has taught us that we should not trust the government totally.  

From Elon Musk taking over Twitter and releasing internal emails, we have learned the government pushed hard to shut down any professional voice that did not support the party line. 

Two exceptional physicians, Dr. Peter McCullough and Dr. Robert Malone, were silenced for suggesting there are other options available other than those pushed by big pharma and the federal government. Thankfully, both distinguished physicians have been reinstated by Twitter to speak the truth.   

The government also told us there are minimal vaccine side effects. Yet look at some of the troubling statistics about “side-effects.”  One of the most troubling is athletes dying from heart attacks, and a higher incident of myocarditis and pericarditis in those who took the jab.  

How bad is it, really? Dr. Meryl Nass, who has been doing bioterrorism research for three decades, found that vaccine-related deaths in the past 20 months exceed the vaccine-related deaths of the entire previous 30 years. For this factual reporting she has been persecuted.

It should be your choice. The federal government should not be suppressing information that does not support its position.

This is not science where dissenting ideas/thoughts are welcome.

We need to return to having an open dialogue in the medical community so we can obtain the absolute best scientific solutions to protect us all.

Remember, the first tenet of medicine: “First, Do No Harm.”  The medical field should get back to that. 

Linda Boyle, DM, MSN, is a member of the Alaska Covid Alliance.

Sen. Ron Johnson convenes panel on C-vax side effects

Downing: Biden Administration plays with fire

Suzanne Downing
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By SUZANNE DOWNING

Certain basic functions of everyday life distinguish us from animals. Our use of fire is among them. We cook with it, heat with it, and light the darkness with it. In many ways, fire on the stove is the center of our family life. In days of our ancestors, we even kept wild animals at bay with torches burning hot with the rendered fat of animals.

Now the United States federal government is coming for our fire. It’s to protect the children, the federal government says, through an unelected bureaucrat who wants to regulate gas cookstoves out of existence.

Richard Trumka, Jr., commissioner of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, has been firing up the talking points devised years ago by environmentalists who say gas stoves are bad for the environment. Now, it’s a different threat, Trumka said, because of children. The stoves are fast-tracked to be at least partially banned or heavily regulated (read: made unaffordable) by the agency, starting first with the prohibiting of any new gas hookups to be installed in new homes or new apartments across America.

Trumka told it to Bloomberg this month, but said it to other reporters last month and the month before. It’s a steady drumbeat from the environmentalists trying to “keep it in the ground.”

The keep-it-in-the-ground movement uses studies such as one published in Nature in 2021, which says that 90% of remaining coal in the earth must remain untouched, and 60% of oil and fossil methane gas must stay underground in order for the planet to have a 50% chance of keeping temperatures from rising 1.5 degrees Celsius “above pre-industrial levels.” Everything must go to electric.

It wasn’t that long ago that we were carving out our lives in caves, building sooty fires of driftwood and beach coal to stay warm and to cook seagull eggs, roast oysters, or bubble some porridge of sorghum or amaranth. Life was nasty, brutish, and short, as described by Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan. “No arts, no letters, no society, and which is worst of all, continua fear, and danger of violent death.”

Came along the combustion engine, electricity, paraffin, oil, and natural gas. There was light in the dark. Lifespans increased, people could warm themselves, cook, and have nice things. They could ward off sickness because they were healthier.

But authoritarians use power to gain power. Climate change policy — that ever-changing goal post of the Left — is beta-tested in California, which is, under Democrat control for a generation, moving everyone to the electric grid. In 1992, Southern Californians were forced off of charcoal barbecues, and told they must use propane and gas. As for those wood-chip barbecue chimneys, cooks were forced to use only certain kinds of wood chips and certain brands of starter gels.

The public went quietly along, all in the name of reducing air pollution, repairing the ozone layer, and being good, compliant citizens. After all, it was just charcoal. There was always gas.

Thirty years later, more than 50 governmental units in California have banned gas hookups in new homes and other buildings. The new order is that everyone must move to electric stoves.

And who controls the electricity monopoly? The government-licensed utilities, which also must ration out enough electricity to charge up the electric cars that are part of the government-mandated conversion to all electric.

Last September, California warned people to limit their electric usage between 4-9 pm, as “all resources are committed or forecasted to be in use and energy deficiencies are expected.” The California Independent System Operator asked people to not use large electric appliances. They told people to limit charging their electric cars during the power shortage.

When government can turn on and turn off the power, and when there are no alternatives, the people are right to be worried.

The backlash against Trumka and the Democrats was swift and painful. They had been revealed in all their authoritarian glory.

Trumka and his handlers backed down. They tried to change their story: “To be clear, CPSC isn’t coming for anyone’s gas stoves. Regulations apply to new products,” he said.

The reality is, Trumka revealed the real plan. First ban new stoves, then make parts unavailable for existing stoves, then do a tax incentive to turn in your stove.

They want everyone on a centralized power grid that has the government controlling the current to their homes, businesses, and cars. There will be no choice, no free market in fuels. There will be no consumer propane tanks.

In 1992, Americans never thought the government would come for their cooking stoves. In 1992, you would have been considered a conspiracy theorist to predict government would start promoting bugs for food.

In 2023, we can predict, without so much of a tin hat, that the government will soon come calling for our candles, backyard fire pits, and pellet-burning heating units.

They may have tried to take back the words, but they are coming for our fire. Authoritarians on the Left, in their attempt to take power from the people, have threatened the most primordial aspect of our nature: The human imperative to survive.

Suzanne Downing is publisher of Must Read Alaska.

War on gas stoves heats up as fad-following regulators take fresh aim at banning them everywhere in America

OK to question it now? CDC says Pfizer vaccine has ‘safety signs’ that could add risk of stroke

Suzanne Downing
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OK to question it now? CDC says Pfizer vaccine has ‘safety signs’ that could add risk of stroke

It’s the kind of story that would have gotten a writer banned from social media just a few months ago: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday said a certain Covid-19 vaccine “safety signal” has been identified and the agency is investigating whether the vaccine creates an increased risk of ischemic stroke in people 65 and older.

But not to worry, the CDC said it is not changing its recommendation that everyone should get the Covid shot, starting as young as 6 months.

The government uses multiple, complementary safety monitoring systems to detect possible safety signals for vaccines and other medical countermeasures and to facilitate further investigation.

Often these safety systems detect signals that could be due to factors other than the vaccine itself.

“Following the availability and use of the updated (bivalent) COVID-19 vaccines, CDC’s Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD), a near real-time surveillance system, met the statistical criteria to prompt additional investigation into whether there was a safety concern for ischemic stroke in people ages 65 and older who received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent. Rapid-response investigation of the signal in the VSD raised a question of whether people 65 and older who have received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent were more likely to have an ischemic stroke in the 21 days following vaccination compared with days 22-42 following vaccination,” the CDC said.

“This preliminary signal has not been identified with the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent. There also may be other confounding factors contributing to the signal identified in the VSD that merit further investigation.”

The CDC noted that no other safety systems have shown a similar signal and multiple subsequent analyses have not validated this signal:

  • A large study of updated (bivalent) vaccines (from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna) using the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services database revealed no increased risk of ischemic stroke
  • A preliminary study using the Veterans Affairs database did not indicate an increased risk of ischemic stroke following an updated (bivalent) vaccine
  • The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) managed by CDC and FDA has not seen an increase in reporting of ischemic strokes following the updated (bivalent) vaccine
  • Pfizer-BioNTech’s global safety database has not indicated a signal for ischemic stroke with the updated (bivalent) vaccine
  • Other countries have not observed an increased risk for ischemic stroke with updated (bivalent) vaccines

“All signals require further investigation and confirmation from formal epidemiologic studies. When one system detects a signal, the other safety monitoring systems are checked to validate whether the signal represents an actual concern with the vaccine or if it can be determined to be of no clinical relevance,” the CDC said.

Although the totality of the data currently suggests that it is very unlikely that the signal in VSD represents a true clinical risk, we believe it is important to share this information with the public, as we have in the past, when one of our safety monitoring systems detects a signal. CDC and FDA will continue to evaluate additional data from these and other vaccine safety systems. These data and additional analyses will be discussed at the upcoming January 26 meeting of the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.

No change in vaccination practice is recommended. CDC continues to recommend that everyone ages 6 months of age and older stay up-to-date with Covid-19 vaccination; this includes individuals who are currently eligible to receive an updated (bivalent) vaccine.

“Staying up-to-date with vaccines is the most effective tool we have for reducing death, hospitalization, and severe disease from Covid-19, as has now been demonstrated in multiple studies conducted in the United States and other countries.

Overall CDC safety data for the bivalent Covid-19 vaccines are available here.

No change is recommended in Covid-19 vaccination practice, which can be found here.

In the Friday statement, the CDC said that the preliminary signal hasn’t been identified with the Bivalent Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

“Following the availability and use of the updated (bivalent) COVID-19 vaccines, CDC’s Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD), a near real-time surveillance system, met the statistical criteria to prompt additional investigation into whether there was a safety concern for ischemic stroke in people ages 65 and older who received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent,” the CDC said. 

Rep. Jim Banks: Fighting the woke agenda in Congress

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
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Rep. Jim Banks: Fighting the woke agenda in Congress

By REP. JIM BANKS | THE AMERICAN MIND

We no longer live in a normal America. The issues that Congress used to take up, like healthcare, the economy, or our withdrawal from Afghanistan, all regrettably pale in comparison to the creeping tyranny which nearly all Americans now feel.

The nation’s most powerful forces—our intelligence agencies, corporations, the press, our universities, and even our military—are all pressing further and further into uncharted territory from which it’s not clear America can return.

For the time being, saving America rests in the House of Representatives.

The most toxic part of this tyranny is its doctrine—“wokeness.” Everyone has by now heard this word but it means something very specific. It means that all the so-called oppressor groups must be punished for their past and present alleged sins. There are many steps to punishing them: inducing self-hatred through indoctrination, stripping away their rights by not enforcing the laws on their behalf, public humiliation, hatred, expropriation, and ultimately violence. That’s what the Left has done so far. It’s not exactly clear yet how far this can go.

And what does wokeness mean for the so-called oppressed? It means privileged status, exemption from certain laws and norms, and the public recognition that their views are unimpeachable—they cannot be contradicted by reason, they cannot be doubted, but must be believed.

This utterly un-American doctrine would be comical were it not so powerful. And it is powerful because it is enforced not only by every major national institution. It is promoted and funded by the federal government itself.

The Biden administration imposes these beliefs in schools, in the military, in government agencies and in the private sector. It not only wants us to hate each other. It is funding this hatred and fanning its flames. What do you think will be left of our nation once more and more people accept wokeness and act on its principles?

The new House Republican majority can and will fight institutionalized wokeness. The path forward is clear so long as we act confidently, as our voters demand.

First, House Republicans should pass legislation to rescind Executive Order 13985, Biden’s equity Executive Order that directed every single federal agency to produce an “Equity Action Plan.” Chuck Schumer would certainly strike it down, but it’s important for Republicans to make a unified statement in opposition to the Left’s abandonment of equality under the law.

Second, Congress must stop funding wokeness. The Claremont Institute has tracked federal funding for leftist institutions and activities since 2016, which amounts to over $3 billion taxpayer dollars. This money is spent not only to spread anti-American doctrines which will tear the nation apart; it also funds a class of activists, paying their salaries so they can be a perpetual revolutionary class.

Astonishingly, Congress sent more funding to woke institutions and activities in 2017 and 2018, when Republicans controlled both chambers, than it did in 2019 and 2020 with Nancy Pelosi in the Speaker’s chair. This Congress, we should aim to eliminate all such funding.

House Republicans demand defunding wokeness at the Department of Defense and in our education system. Wokeness is especially prevalent and dangerous at universities and in primary schools because the Left recognized students as the most vulnerable and useful targets for indoctrination. The Left has also pushed wokeness in the military. We must wonder what the Left wants to do with an anti-American military? For generations Americans never had to think about the Founders’ warnings about the dangers to civil government by a standing army. This has become an immediate question.

Third, we should use our oversight power to question woke federal officials and woke companies. CEOs at woke companies like Wells Fargo, which ties interest rates on certain credit facilities to borrowers’ diversity benchmarks, should fear public exposure and congressional scrutiny. 

Finally, anti-woke House Republicans should organize. That is why, this Congress, I will start the first ever “anti-woke caucus.”

I will regularly host meetings with anti-woke legislators and subject-matter experts.  My goal is to help myself and other Republicans better understand the long tentacles of the wokeness regime, the laws, regulations, and funding sources which support it, and explore legislative responses.

I know there are many more anti-woke legislatures in the Republican Congress, and that we will find strength in numbers. An anti-woke caucus with members on the Appropriations, Energy and Commerce, and Judiciary Committees, will work together to offer amendments that defund and expose wokeness at the NIH, the Justice Department, and every other federal agency. No bill that spends taxpayer dollars on leftist activities should pass out of committee without a recorded vote on an amendment to defund wokeness. 

House Republicans must tackle this greatest domestic threat to America today. The anti-woke caucus will help make use of our majority.

Rep. Jim Banks is a U.S. Congressman representing Indiana’s 3rd district and serves as Chairman of the House Republican Study Committee. This column ran first in The American Mind, a publican of the Claremont Institute.

American exceptionalism, patriotic assimilation, and the Fourth of July

Breaking: Alaska Supremes fall for Jennie Armstrong’s residency story — hook, line, and sinker

Suzanne Downing
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Breaking: Alaska Supremes fall for Jennie Armstrong’s residency story — hook, line, and sinker

Rep. Jennie Armstrong was off on a romantic adventure when she came to Alaska in May of 2019. Little did she know she’d fall madly in love with an Anchorage guy, and end up moving here. But after a whirlwind 10-day trip, she was head over heels in love or something like love, and she went back to Louisiana, packed up, and moved to Alaska.

She’ll be sworn in as a member of the Alaska House of Representatives on Tuesday, even though she had just received her first Permanent Fund dividend when she filed for office.

She is qualified enough, decided two of the three-justice panel, in mid-afternoon on Friday. While Justice Susan Carney said she would not have found Armstrong a qualified candidate, Chief Justice Daniel Winfree and Justice Jennifer Henderson bought the romance story — hook, line, and sinker.

When exactly did Armstrong become an Alaska resident? By her attorney Scott Kendall’s determination, it’s practically the minute she fell in love that year. By the arguments of opposing counsel, Stacey Stone, it wasn’t until Armstrong came back to Alaska that she actually showed objective intent to move here, by evidence of her one-way ticket. Everything else is entirely he-said, she-said subjective.

That one way ticket brought her back to Alaska in June of 2019, not a month earlier, when she came up for a frisky fling.

A lower court judge had ruled on Monday that he was taking Armstrong’s word for it that when she arrived in Alaska, she and her crush had long talks into the night and at some point she decided to move.

Essentially, the adventuress from Louisiana has barely scraped by the deadline for residency in order to qualify for running for office in 2022. She has won her case twice in Alaska court and will now serve as a Democrat for House District 16, West Anchorage.

With the ruling upheld, there is no reason single women arriving Alaska can’t be given condoms and their Permanent Fund dividend applications by an Alaska Airlines flight attendant just before landing. After a wild fling, they can hook themselves a husband (goods are odd but odds are good) and in no time at all can be serving in the Alaska Legislature.

It’s such things that Alaska-based reality shows are made of.

Group appeals judge decision on just-got-here Jennie Armstrong’s residency qualifications for legislative office

Mary votes no, as House creates special committee to investigate weaponization of feds against citizens

Suzanne Downing
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Mary votes no, as House creates special committee to investigate weaponization of feds against citizens

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 221-211 this week to establish a Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. It’s a temporary subcommittee of Committee on the Judiciary, and will be made up of eight Republicans and five Democrats.

Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola voted against the bill, as did all Democrats in the House.

HR 12, drafted by Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, establishes a subcommittee to investigate matters related to the collection, analysis, dissemination, and use of information on U.S. citizens by executive branch agencies and private agencies, including whether such efforts are illegal, unconstitutional, or otherwise unethical.

The investigation may encompass social media companies and their biased moderation of user content and collaboration with spy agencies to suppress certain political speech.

The subcommittee must make a final report of its findings by Jan. 2, 2025, and terminates 30 days after filing that report.

“With great power comes great responsibility,” said Republican Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina on the House floor. “We entrust our Department of Justice, FBI, and intelligence community with great power to keep us safe. Yet as long as thees agencies have existed, they’ve violated Americans’ civil rights. Everyday Americans. The security state believes itself to be above the Constitution and the laws passed by Congress.”

The agencies spied on Frank Sinatra Jr., John Lennon, Dr. Martin Luther King, and Muhammed Ali, Bishop reminded Americans, because they were identified as “national security threats.”

The intelligence community also abused its power by spying on presidential candidates, sitting presidents, a members of Congress and their staffs, he said.

“The FBI continuously coordinated with social media companies to moderate social content — the public square. So contemptuous are they and out of touch, when confronted with this just weeks ago, they said ‘we were merely engaging with our community partners.’ Leading up to the 2020 election, the FBI worked hand-in-hand with Twitter and Facebook to silence the Hunter Biden laptop story. Concealment from everyday Americans,” he continued.

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper lied to Congress about the National Security Agency collecting data on millions of Americans, spying on groups, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and others, Bishop said. The intelligence community also spied on journalists and political figures.

Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas talked about parents who have dared to stand up to school boards and then were labeled as terrorists by the federal government.

“Everyday Americans should shudder at the power of the government, the federal government, target at parents for daring to stand up and defend a daughter who is abused in a bathroom in the Loudoun County Public Schools. By the way, the superintendent in Loudoun has been indicted. This is the truth. Yet this Administration wanted to make Scott Smith the bad guy, not the rapist.”

Peltola this week also voted against preserving the life of babies born alive during or after abortion procedures, and voted against condemning violence and vandalism against crisis pregnancy clinics and churches. She voted against Rep. Kevin McCarthy for House Speaker, and voted against the bill that reversed the appropriation of more than $80 billion to the IRS.

Matchy-matchy: Peltola dressed up in white, joined Democrat Women’s Caucus to support abortion
Peltola announces major staff changes that ditch the bipartisan appeal she led with earlier
Peltola votes ‘no’ to resolution condemning attacks against crisis pregnancy centers and churches
Peltola votes with Democrats against medical care rights of babies born alive during or after abortion
House Republicans vote to defund the doubling of IRS, but Alaska’s Peltola votes with Democrats against it

Peltola toes line, votes for Respect for Marriage Act

Whose children are they? The government and its schools have the idea they are not yours

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Whose children are they? The government and its schools have the idea they are not yours

By DAVID BOYLE

Alaska is not immune to the underlying agenda being pushed nationwide to separate parents from their children. To protest will label you as anti-LBGTQ. But it’s worse: Some schools are keeping important records about students from their parents.

It’s not just the federal government touting this agenda—it’s also the military, school districts, and very liberal parents who wish to be considered enlightened and thus virtue signal at the expense of their children’s innocence.   

The nation’s first transgender Assistant Secretary for Health, Admiral Rachel Levine, has stated that the “highest levels” of the U.S. government support gender-reassignment treatment for minor children.  

In other words, the Biden Administration supports puberty blockers and sex change surgeries for children.

Dr. Levine is encouraging doctors at the state medical boards to help censor “medical misinformation” on social media. Shades of Covid-19 censorship by Facebook, Twitter, etc. is emerging as parents are figuring out what the government is doing and how to protect their children. 

Those doctors who oppose the gender-affirming care, to include removal of reproductive organs for adolescent children, may face action by their state medical boards. This has happened before with the Covid “misinformation” complaint filed against Alaska doctors.  

Dr. Levine has replaced Dr. Anthony Fauci as “Mr. Science” by stating, “The positive value of gender-affirming care for youth and adults is not in scientific or medical dispute.”  

The federal government’s Office of Population Affairs has a page dedicated to “Gender-Affirming Care and Young People” which includes gender-affirming surgery for adolescents.  This so-called gender-affirming care includes surgical removal of sexual organs.

Parents are legally responsible for their children’s actions until they turn 18.  But children can now state they want to be a different gender at any age and be welcomed into the community.  

Even the US military has put barriers between parents and their minor children.  

NEA pushes transgender-identity agenda in Alaska

Recently, a friend took her 11-year-old son to a local Air Force Base hospital for a well checkup. The pediatrician asked the mother to leave so she could ask the 11-year-old some questions. The mother left the room thinking the doctor would ask questions regarding child abuse.

She was wrong thinking that.

Her son said the doctor asked, “What sex did he identify with, boy, girl or other”.  The doctor also asked, “What sex are you attracted to, boy, girl or other?”  Finally, the doctor asked the 11-year-old boy if he had sex yet.

Shocked after her son relayed the questions to her, the parent met with the pediatrician to discuss those questions and why they were inappropriate for an 11-year-old.  She also wanted to know why she was asked to leave the room during that questioning.

The mother also wanted to know the source of those questions.

The doctor said that the questions were part of the protocol recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, and that the protocol template would not be provided to the mother.  

The American Academy of Pediatrics also supports gender fluidity and the non-disclosure of a minor’s medical records to parents.  

The final straw was when the doctor told her that once her child was 12 the parents would not even have access to her son’s medical records.

The parent said that the doctor had planted gender fluid and transgender ideas in her son’s head and that he would Google those subjects.  The doctor responded, “Then I have done my job.”

After further research, I have discovered that the Air Force has an actual policy that after a certain age (12-14) it will not disclose a minor’s health records to the parents.

So, the Air Force medical personnel have access to your child’s medical records but you, the parent, do not.

What if your child is on birth control, uses drugs, has an abortion? Are you, the parent not privy to this information? Of course, most parents would know this about their child. But what about the parent who has little communication with the child?

This begs the question, “Whose children are they?” Clearly in the realm of sexual identity and sexual activity they belong to the government.  

As noted in an earlier article, the Anchorage School District, Juneau School District, and the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District clearly leave parents in the dark when it comes to a student’s gender transition.  The principal and the district have replaced the parents.

A student needs a permission slip from a parent for a field trip.

A student needs a permission slip from a parent for an aspirin.

Parents are responsible for their minor child’s behavior.  So, why are parents being left out of the transgender decision-making process?  

Many schools across America are following the lead of the NEA, ACLU, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the Gender Spectrum, and the Human Rights Campaign.  These organizations have replaced parents in determining the future of our children.

The teacher unions have provided guidance on gender transitioning to include the use of puberty blockers.  Parents are left out of the discussion when it comes to their child wanting to gender transition even if that child is too immature to make this life-changing decision.

The public school administrators, the teacher unions, the federal government, and the military have more power when it comes to your child’s gender identity.

But schools that do not allow parents access to a student’s educational records may be violating the Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA). 

Under FERPA, parents have the right to inspect and review a student’s education records maintained by the school.

And if a school has a different name or gender on a student’s records, hiding that secret name from parents would violate FERPA.  But that is exactly what the transgender supporters want schools to do — hide gender identity confusion from parents.

Parents need to decide that their children are theirs, not the government’s.

David Boyle is the education writer for Must Read Alaska.

Resources for military families: Purple Star schools

Senator Sullivan: Trump was right, TikTok does pose serious threat to America’s children, adults, security

Suzanne Downing
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10
Senator Sullivan: Trump was right, TikTok does pose serious threat to America’s children, adults, security

Sen. Dan Sullivan is no fan of TikTok.

In fact, as a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, he is calling for hearings on the Chinese company’s social media app, which has quite possibly scraped private data from millions of American users.

In a letter to the Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantrell and to Sen. Ted Cruz, Sullivan said there is a serious national security risk that should be investigated.

“Since the last hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee featuring TikTok on October 26, 2021, many of the concerns raised by members on both sides of the aisle have been validated. In fact, TikTok was recently forced to acknowledge that China-based employees of the parent company, ByteDance, have had access to U.S. user data,” Sullivan said.

In 2020, former President Donald Trump tried to ban the application in the U.S. TikTok sued, saying that it was Trump’s effort to boost his reelection bid by enacting protectionist trade policies. He was unelected from office before he could get his ban through court.

“Now, there is a growing bipartisan recognition of the problem and momentum for further congressional scrutiny. FBI Director Chris Wray confirmed during a recent House Homeland Security Committee hearing that the bureau has ongoing “national security concerns” about the U.S. operations of TikTok. He specifically outlined concerns that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could use TikTok to obtain data on millions of users, manipulate algorithms to influence our children, and potentially even compromise specific personal devices,” Sullivan wrote.

“Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mark Warner recently agreed that former President Trump was right about the need to ban the application in the U.S. citing the troubling influence that China could exert over American children. CIA Director Bill Burns has also recently voiced concerns, and so too has FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr. Most recently, Congress took an important step in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 to ban the application from all federal government devices. Numerous states, including Alaska, have also banned the application on state government devices. However, more needs to be done,” he wrote.

Earlier this month, Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a state ban on TikTok apps on State-owned devices.

Dunleavy bans TikTok from State of Alaska equipment
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