Out of Range, Poised to Strike: Mapping America’s Force Posture against Iran - Gregg Roman

 

by Gregg Roman

Washington Has Pulled Its Forces Out of Iran’s Easiest Reach and Pointed Its Airlift at Israel. The Satellites Show a Force Ready for a Short War, with Its Third Carrier Still in the Pacific.

 

U.S. airlift turned toward Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar in late October as U.S. forces left Syria and Iraq.MEF Geospatial Intelligence Unit.

In the last days before the American midterm elections, the public case that the United States is about to resume its war with Iran rests on a handful of statements and a great deal of anonymous sourcing. President Trump has said the United States will not launch new attacks before the November 3 vote, and has not ruled them out afterward. On October 31 he told reporters at his Florida residence that American forces still had “one or two sites” in Iran to “take care of,” adding, “we can do that in 10 minutes.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken of a “historic, one-time opportunity” to bring down the regime in Tehran. On October 27 the Wall Street Journal, citing two officials and flight-tracking data, reported that a Patriot air defense battery was moving from Texas to Israel, that troops were being moved off vulnerable bases, that munitions were being restocked, and that bombers and fighters were being readied. Israel’s Channel 14 reported that about 80 American refueling tankers had landed in Israel in 48 hours.

At the same time, Iranian negotiators spent a third straight day in Doha with Qatari mediators on a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within two days of a deal. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi listed Tehran’s price: the lifting of the latest sanctions, the return of the June oil waivers, recognition of new shipping lanes drawn by Iran and Oman, an end to the fighting on all fronts, including Lebanon, and “a reduction in the US military presence in the region.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said talks had “never stopped.” Vice President JD Vance sent a letter to Iran’s security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, who said its “tone has completely changed.”

So the question of the week is a physical one. Where are the American forces that would fight a second round, and what are they doing? The Pentagon does not publish its order of battle in wartime, and Central Command declines to discuss movements “for operational security reasons.” So, as it did for the East-West Pipeline strike in September, the Middle East Forum went to the satellites. We examined 43 American and allied bases in a box running from Greece to Pakistan and from Georgia to Diego Garcia, every clear morning from October 1 to November 1, and set what we saw against everything published about the force in the same month.

Figure 1. US and allied installations from Greece to Diego Garcia, October 1 to November 1, 2026: reported presence, inflow, and withdrawals, with carrier positions from the USNI fleet tracker of October 26. MEF Geospatial Intelligence Unit.

What a Satellite Can and Cannot See

The imagery is the same kind MEF has used before: publicly available, 10-meter optical frames that photograph each base every two to five days, always in mid-morning local time. At that scale a pixel is the size of a two-car garage. A KC-135 tanker, 41 meters long, is a cross four or five pixels across. A C-17 transport, at 53 meters, is a little larger. Those shapes can be counted on an open apron, and a ramp that held two dozen of them last week and holds none this week has told you something. A fighter, at 15 to 19 meters, is a smudge one or two pixels wide and cannot be counted. Neither can missile launchers, radars, vehicles, or people. Nothing at sea can be followed at all, because the satellite photographs land and coastal water and the fleets sail in open ocean.

Two other sources that would normally fill those gaps were closed this week. Commercial imagery at half-meter resolution, which would show aircraft by type, returned no frames of any kind for any of nine bases in the region over the past four days, while the same search over an air base in Missouri returned eight. The region’s imagery appears to be withheld. And flight tracking, which shows aircraft that broadcast their positions, is almost empty: a sweep of 10 regional hubs on the evening of November 1 found a single unidentified military transponder over Oman. American combat and support aircraft in the theater fly dark.

That leaves the open apron and the open press. Where the two agree, the picture below is firm. Where they disagree, we say so.

Two Carriers, Not Three

The core of any American air campaign against Iran is carrier aviation, and the count of carriers is the single best indicator of how heavy a campaign can be. The U.S. Naval Institute’s fleet tracker of October 26 places two carriers in the Arabian Sea: the USS George Washington, which arrived in August to relieve the Abraham Lincoln, and the USS George H.W. Bush, on station since April. The amphibious assault ship USS Boxer, with the USS Comstock, the USS Portland, and the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, has been in the Arabian Sea since July. Around them are about 20 American warships, many of which are enforcing the naval blockade of Iranian ports. Central Command said on October 31 that the blockade had turned back 144 commercial vessels.

The third carrier is not there. The USS Theodore Roosevelt, with the cruiser Chosin and the destroyer Decatur, was ordered to the Middle East in early October, but on October 26 it was still in the Philippine Sea, finishing the American-Japanese exercise Keen Sword, which ended on October 29. The USS Makin Island amphibious group, carrying the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, was in Yokosuka for maintenance. Officials expect both groups, with 9,000 to 10,000 more personnel, in Central Command’s area by mid to late November. From the Philippine Sea to the Arabian Sea is roughly 5,500 nautical miles, about two weeks at a carrier group’s sustained transit speed.

That matters for the timetable everyone is watching. If the United States strikes in the first days after November 3, it strikes with two carriers. The forces that would make a second round heaviest and longest arrive weeks later.

The Ramp at Al Udeid

Al Udeid Air Base, in the desert southwest of Doha, is the hub of the American air war in the Gulf. It houses the Combined Air Operations Center that runs every allied sortie in the region, and its long north ramp is where the tanker fleet parks. Tankers are what allow fighters and bombers to reach Iran and stay over it, and their movements are a tell.

They have been one before. An Egyptian open-source analyst who tracks the base posted time-lapse imagery showing that the American tankers left Al Udeid on February 27, one day before the war began, and did not return until June. By September 21 open-source watchers counted at least 25 on the ground again. On October 30 an open-source tracker read tanker cargo runs out of the base as a sign that the tankers would be pulled back again if fighting resumed, as they were in February.

Gregg Roman

Source: https://www.meforum.org/mef-reports/out-of-range-poised-to-strike-mapping-americas-force-posture-against-iran

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US investigators record Iranian 'ghost fleet' evading naval blockade on route to China: Report - Misty Severi

 

by Misty Severi

The group, United Against Nuclear Iran, conducted the months-long probe and said at least 10 Iranian tankers transporting sanctioned liquefied petroleum gas or Iranian oil have snuck past the U.S. blockade since July.

 

A group of United States investigators shared Sunday that they have captured footage of small Iranian "ghost fleets" evading a U.S. naval blockade and smuggling things to China.

The group, United Against Nuclear Iran, conducted the months-long probe and said at least 10 Iranian tankers transporting sanctioned liquefied petroleum gas or Iranian oil have snuck past the U.S. blockade since it was established in the Strait of Hormuz in July.

UANI identified one of the sanctioned tankers as the SOGL, which allegedly escaped the blockade on Sept. 1 and was carrying approximately 500,000 barrels of Iranian LPG that it collected at an Iranian port in August, according to Fox News.

The tanker reportedly then transported the oil to Malaysia and then on to China where it discharged the cargo.

"What this shows us is that some vessels are managing to breach the U.S. maritime blockade," Senior UANI analyst Jemima Shelley said of the footage shared with Fox News.

"Most vessels aren't, but since the reinstatement in mid-July, we have seen only nine small tankers being successful in their breach of the U.S. blockade and departing the Gulf of Oman laden with oil or LPG," she added.

The analyst noted that the blockade has been successful in thwarting large ships that carry more than two million barrels of crude oil, but it has not always been successful with the smaller tankers that can carry 500,000 barrels.

"The U.S. blockade is an overwhelming success at preventing vessels laden with Iranian oil and petrochemicals from leaving the Gulf of Oman," Shelley said. "It's just that there are some opportunistic small tankers that are just managing to breach the blockade."

The Trump administration first imposed a blockade in the strait in April, which lasted until June, when a temporary ceasefire was reached. It was reinstated in July and has been active since.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/security/us-investigators-record-iranian-ghost-fleet-evading-naval-blockade-route-china

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Qatar Glorifies Terrorism: Al-Jazeera's Propaganda Machine Celebrates Hamas - Khaled Abu Toameh

 

by Khaled Abu Toameh

What exactly was Al-Jazeera trying to communicate to its Arabic-speaking audience? The message is clear: These are your heroes – men who planned and carried out the massacre of Jews on October 7 and whose declared objective is the destruction of Israel.

 

• The Hamas officials featured in Al-Jazeera's footage are portrayed as military leaders, strategists, and figures worthy of admiration.

• The program included footage of meetings inside Gaza's underground tunnel network, discussions about terror attacks, and documents that purportedly shed light on the preparations for the October 7 massacre.

• Among the most disturbing revelations was an operational order attributed to Deif and dated October 5, 2023. According to the network's presentation, the document specified that the invasion of Israel would begin at 6:30 a.m. on October 7.

• What exactly was Al-Jazeera trying to communicate to its Arabic-speaking audience? The message is clear: These are your heroes – men who planned and carried out the massacre of Jews on October 7 and whose declared objective is the destruction of Israel.

• This is not journalism exposing terrorism; it is a platform for glorifying it.

• Al-Jazeera could have used the material to examine how Hamas transformed Gaza into a military base, diverted resources into tunnels and weapons production, and prepared an assault in which they murdered approximately 1,200 people in Israel and abducted 251 others.

• Instead, Al-Jazeera chose to turn the architects of the massacre into celebrated military figures.... These were, however, the leaders of an Iran-backed Islamist terrorist organization whose October 7 assault included the deliberate mass-murder of civilians, rape, torture, and hostage-taking.

• Qatar has hosted senior Hamas leaders for years [and] has also served as a diplomatic base for purportedly "neutral" negotiations involving the terrorist organization.

• The US Congressional Research Service, which notes that Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, has also documented Qatar's engagement with the organization...

• Al-Jazeera English presents itself as a major international news organization, competing for credibility among Western viewers.

• Al-Jazeera Arabic, meanwhile, operates in a political and cultural environment in which the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas enjoy considerable support among segments of the public.

• American universities, policymakers, and media organizations should ask whether foreign government funding creates conflicts of interest and delectable opportunities for political influence.

• Qatar cannot simultaneously present itself as a trusted Western partner and avoid serious questions about its relationships with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

• Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the current Emir of Qatar, and his family, who provide a media platform for Hamas's leaders to glorify the October 7 massacre, should not be allowed to hide behind the claim that they are merely reporting the news.

How did Al-Jazeera obtain recordings of Hamas's most sensitive military meetings, internal secret discussions, and operational documents? Who handed them to the network? When did this transfer take place? Did Hamas provide the material as part of a propaganda campaign? Did Al-Jazeera or Qatar have advance knowledge of the October 7 massacre? Pictured: Al-Jazeera headquarters in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Karim Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images)

Qatar's state-owned Al-Jazeera television network has once again demonstrated why its Arabic-language news coverage deserves particularly close scrutiny. Al-Jazeera has broadcast previously unseen footage, recordings, and documents showing senior Hamas military commanders preparing for the October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel.

Instead of using this material to expose the criminal nature of Hamas's activities, Al-Jazeera has presented it as an exclusive glimpse into the lives of the organization's senior commanders. The Hamas officials featured in Al-Jazeera's footage are portrayed as military leaders, strategists, and figures worthy of admiration.

The question is not merely why Al-Jazeera chose to broadcast its "exclusive" material. It is also how the network obtained it, who provided it, and how long it had possessed it before deciding to make it public.

On October 30, Al-Jazeera's investigative program, "What is Hidden is Greater," aired previously unseen recordings of Mohammed Deif, the former commander of Hamas's military wing, and other senior Hamas officials. The program included footage of meetings inside Gaza's underground tunnel network, discussions about terror attacks, and documents that purportedly shed light on the preparations for the October 7 massacre.

Among the most disturbing revelations was an operational order attributed to Deif and dated October 5, 2023. According to the network's presentation, the document specified that the invasion of Israel would begin at 6:30 a.m. on October 7. Another document reportedly recorded a decision by Hamas's military leadership in February 2023 to begin preparations for the attack.

The footage and documents provide another reminder that October 7 was not a spontaneous outburst of anger or an improvised act of "resistance." It was a carefully prepared military operation, planned months in advance by Hamas's senior leadership.

Another recording shows Izz al-Din al-Haddad, a senior Hamas commander, reading Deif's operational order. Haddad subsequently rose through the organization's military hierarchy and was killed by Israel in Gaza City in May 2026.

Another recording shows Deif meeting with senior commanders, including Marwan Issa, Mohammed Sinwar, Ahmed Ghandour, and other members of Hamas's military leadership. A separate photograph shows Deif surrounded by senior commanders inside a tunnel complex.

All the commanders identified in that photograph have since been killed by Israel.

The Al-Jazeera broadcast also included a recording of a telephone conversation between Deif and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar after the May 2021 ceasefire with Israel. Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 massacre, is seen becoming emotional while congratulating Deif over what Hamas considered a "victory" against Israel.

The presentation raises another important question: What exactly was Al-Jazeera trying to communicate to its Arabic-speaking audience? The message is clear: These are your heroes – men who planned and carried out the massacre of Jews on October 7 and whose declared objective is the destruction of Israel.

This is not journalism exposing terrorism; it is a platform for glorifying it.

Al-Jazeera could have used the material to examine how Hamas transformed Gaza into a military base, diverted resources into tunnels and weapons production, and prepared an assault in which they murdered approximately 1,200 people in Israel and abducted 251 others.

Instead, Al-Jazeera chose to turn the architects of the massacre into celebrated military figures. The images of commanders gathering underground, discussing operations and examining military plans create the impression of a conventional army's general staff. These were, however, the leaders of an Iran-backed Islamist terrorist organization whose October 7 assault included the deliberate mass-murder of civilians, rape, torture, and hostage-taking.

Al-Jazeera is not an ordinary international broadcaster operating independently of its political environment. The network is based in Doha and is funded by the Qatari government. Although Al-Jazeera describes itself as an independent media organization, the relationship between the network and its principal state patron deserves scrutiny, particularly when its coverage concerns organizations with which Qatar maintains political relationships.

Qatar has hosted senior Hamas leaders for years, including Khaled Mashaal, Khalil al-Hayya, Ghazi Hamad, and Ismail Haniyeh. Doha has also served as a diplomatic base for purportedly "neutral" negotiations involving the terrorist organization.

The US Congressional Research Service, which notes that Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, has also documented Qatar's engagement with the organization and the presence of senior Hamas leaders in Doha.

Hamas itself identified the Muslim Brotherhood as its parent movement in its 1988 charter, describing itself as the Palestinian branch of the Brotherhood.

This relationship is especially relevant because Al-Jazeera has frequently provided Hamas leaders with a prominent platform to communicate their positions to Arab audiences. Its coverage of Hamas leaders and commanders, their statements and their military activities should be examined in this broader context.

There is also a significant difference in the way Al-Jazeera reaches its audiences. Al-Jazeera English presents itself as a major international news organization, competing for credibility among Western viewers.

Al-Jazeera Arabic, meanwhile, operates in a political and cultural environment in which the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas enjoy considerable support among segments of the public. Its coverage should be judged not just by the information it broadcasts but also by the voices it chooses to amplify, the language it uses and the distinction it makes – or fails to make – between terrorism and legitimate political activity.

The most important unanswered questions concern the source of the newly released material. How did Al-Jazeera obtain recordings of Hamas's most sensitive military meetings, internal secret discussions, and operational documents? Who handed them to the network? When did this transfer take place? Did Hamas provide the material as part of a propaganda campaign? Did Al-Jazeera or Qatar have advance knowledge of the October 7 massacre?

Several Arab governments have had serious confrontations with Al-Jazeera. Egypt banned the network in 2013, while Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain blocked its website during the 2017 Gulf crisis. Jordan closed its Amman bureau that year. These actions were part of wider political disputes involving Qatar, which has been accused by the Arab countries of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorism, promoting regional instability, and interfering in various countries' domestic affairs.

Western governments should pay attention to the concerns that have repeatedly been raised about the political role of Qatar and its Al-Jazeera network.

The United States, in particular, should examine the extent of Qatari funding and influence in American institutions, universities, media, and public life. American universities, policymakers, and media organizations should ask whether foreign government funding creates conflicts of interest and delectable opportunities for political influence.

Qatar cannot simultaneously present itself as a trusted Western partner and avoid serious questions about its relationships with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Al-Jazeera's latest broadcast has brought these contradictions back into the spotlight. The United States and other Western governments should demand answers.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the current Emir of Qatar, and his family, who provide a media platform for Hamas's leaders to glorify the October 7 massacre, should not be allowed to hide behind the claim that they are merely reporting the news.

• Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on X (formerly Twitter)

Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22964/qatar-terrorism-al-jazeera-propaganda

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Here are the races to watch in the battle for the Senate - Ben Whedon

 

by Ben Whedon

While the in-power party typically loses ground in the midterms, Republicans hope to buck historical trends and retain control of both chambers.

 

Voters are heading to the polls on Tuesday to decide control of the House and Senate in what are expected to be close contests across the country. While the in-power party typically loses ground in the midterms, Republicans hope to buck historical trends and retain control of both chambers.

Recent polling, however, suggests their odds are much stronger in the Senate than the House, given only a handful of races are likely to determine whether they retain the majority.

But Republicans are still the underdogs in most of the competitive races. 

Should current RealClearPolitics polling averages hold, for example, the upper chamber would wind up with 53 Democrats (51 Democrats plus two independents who caucus with them) and 47 Republicans, marking a complete reversal of the chamber’s current makeup.  Here are some of the main races to watch.

Maine

Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins is fighting for her political life and will face former state Senate President Troy Jackson in her bid for another six years in office. Collins has a long history of outperforming the polls and currently averages suggest the race is close.

The Maine contest was complicated by the abrupt withdrawal of Democratic nominee Graham Platner, who ended his campaign as controversies around his personal conduct threatened to derail the party’s hopes of a victory in November. He was quickly replaced with Jackson.

New Hampshire

Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H., is the current favorite to win the state's open Senate seat, but the GOP has coalesced around former Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., including both the establishment and conservative wings of the party.

Pappas currently leads by an average 8 points and a Republican upset in that contest could signal a long night to determine control of either chamber.

Michigan

Michigan GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers, a former congressman, appeared to be gaining momentum heading into Election Day, with Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., breaking ranks to back him over Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed, to whom she lost the party primary earlier this year.

Whether Stevens’s defection will move voters remains to be seen, but her decision has been met with near-universal condemnation from Democratic lawmakers. El-Sayed boasted an average 4.9% lead on Monday.

Ohio

Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, is seeking a full term after GOP Gov. Mike DeWine appointed him to fill the vacancy left by now-Vice President JD Vance. He is facing off against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who lost his seat in 2024. Brown has an average 2.6% lead.

Potentially complicating Husted’s race is a scandal surrounding the GOP’s gubernatorial candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, who attracted backlash for running an ad that featured Democratic opponent Amy Acton's mother, who stood by her husband when he was accused of raping Acton as a child.

North Carolina

The Old North State is hosting a contest to replace the retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. Former Gov. Roy Cooper, D-N.C., is the heavy favorite to defeat GOP nominee Michael Whatley, who formerly chaired the state party.

Cooper holds an average 10.8% lead and most pollsters have moved the state out of the toss-up category.

South Carolina

Gov. Henry McMaster, R-S.C., tapped Darline Graham to complete the term of her late brother after Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., died after winning the GOP nomination for reelection. Graham subsequently declared her intent to seek a full term and defeated Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., in a special primary.

Norman has declined to campaign with Graham and polling has shown her Democratic opponent, Annie Andrews, within striking distance.

Georgia

The Peach State has become a major battleground in both presidential and midterm contests. After backing Trump in 2016, it flipped to President Joe Biden in 2020, before backing Trump again in 2024. The state has had two Democratic senators since the 2020 elections.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., is seeking reelection and faces Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., who is trailing him by an average of 8.2%.

Florida

While the Sunshine State has moved firmly into the Republican camp at the national level, the state's Democratic Party still has some life in it. Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., is seeking a full term after Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., appointed her to replace now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Moody faces progressive candidate Angie Nixon, who pulled off an upset in the Democratic Primary by defeating Alex Vindman, the lead whistleblower in Trump's first impeachment trial. Moody holds an average 6.3% lead.

Texas

The Lone Star State is unexpectedly competitive this cycle, with Democratic nominee James Talarico consistently posting small polling leads over Republican nominee Ken Paxton.

Paxton triumphed in the GOP primary over Sen. Jon Cornyn, R-Texas, who has taken several public jabs at Paxton since his loss. While Cornyn placed first in the initial round of the primary, he could not avoid a runoff.

But Paxton offered to drop out entirely if Cornyn could secure passage of the SAVE America Act, a marquis voter ID bill that has languished in the Senate. Cornyn could not do so and Trump subsequently backed Paxton in the runoff. Talarico holds an average 2.5% lead.

Iowa

In the Hawkeye State, Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, hopes to succeed the retiring Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa. But Democrats have put forward a strong candidate in Josh Turek, who is within 1% of Hinson.

The state has skewed Republican since 2016, despite its former battleground status. But Trump’s tariffs and other economic woes appear to be fueling frustration with Republican candidates in this cycle.

Kansas

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, faces a close contest in the typically red state against Democratic nominee Adam Hamilton, who holds an average 3.6% lead.

While the state has typically been a Republican bastion, its voters have been known to buck conservative causes at the state-level. Gov. Laura Kelly, D-Kans., for instance, has held on for two terms, and voters shot down a 2022 referendum that would have let the legislature restrict abortion access.

Nebraska

Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., faces independent candidate Dan Osborn, who previously lost to Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., in 2024. There is no Democratic nominee on the ballot. Ricketts currently leads by an average 3.7%.

Minnesota

The North Star State has been a stalwartly Democratic state for decades and was the only state that did not back President Ronald Reagan for reelection in 1984. But signs of its left-wing bastion status cracking have emerged since Trump came within 2% of winning it in 2016.

The state has been at the center of several controversies this year alone, including a major immigration crackdown in Minneapolis and revelations of large-scale public funds fraud linked to the Somali expat community there. Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., opted against seeking reelection amid the fallout. Republicans have found an unusually strong candidate for Senate in Michelle Tafoya, who trails Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan by an average 5.4%.

Alaska

Sen. Dan Sullivan’s, R-Alaska, reelection bid represents perhaps one of the most unusual contests of the cycle. While he is facing off against former Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, the state has a ranked-choice voting system and another candidate named “Dan Sullivan” is on the ballot.

Peltola won a statewide special election in 2022, but lost to Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, in 2024. Recent reporting has suggested that her campaign recruited the second “Dan Sullivan” to act as a spoiler candidate in the race. The contest has become the subject of several investigations and legal disputes over the matter.

Peltola maintains a 1.0% average lead headed into the contest.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/tuehere-are-races-watch-battle-senate

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Stevens didn't switch parties, but she joined world of disaffected Democrats Trump saw on horizon - Amanda Head

 

by Amanda Head

Following the 2024 election when many Democrats and left-leaning independent voters crossed the aisle to vote for Trump, some elected Democrats are now publicly breaking with their own party.

 

On Sunday, a sitting Democratic congresswoman in Michigan stood in a Detroit church and threw her support behind the Republican candidate running for the state's open U.S. Senate seat. And in doing so, she put a new face on a realignment that has been building for a decade: In the Trump era, the party switch, for a considerable number of Democrats, appears more an act of political self-preservation than a betrayal.

The congresswoman, Haley Stevens, endorsed Republican Mike Rogers over Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive who in August beat her in the state Democratic Party's primary, after a feud over Israel, antisemitism and El-Sayed’s campaign appearances with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker.

Stevens insists she remains “a very proud Democrat,” but her break reflects a frustration many moderates now voice openly: a party once anchored by union halls and suburban pragmatists increasingly takes its cues from democratic socialists and activist influencers. 

President Donald Trump, who backs Rogers, called her decision an act of “bravery,” and her endorsement puts her on a notable list of Democrats who appear to have concluded that their party left them before they said no to it.

How the crossover began

The recent migration didn't start, or continue, with Stevens. But Democrats who abandoned at least their party's journey can arguably be traced back to Trump's first winning campaign, in 2016, when he began courting voters Republicans had long written off: disaffected union workers in the Rust Belt, Hispanic families in South Texas, Black men in Milwaukee and Atlanta, and Orthodox Jewish communities in New York and Florida.

By 2024, the results were measurable. Pew Research Center's study of validated voters found Trump's Hispanic support jumped from 36% in 2020 to 48% in 2024, while his share of Black voters nearly doubled, from 8% to 15%, and his share of Asian-American voters rose from 30% to 40%. 

AP VoteCast found that about 3 in 10 Black men under age 45 backed Trump, roughly double his 2020 showing. Among Jewish voters, the AP/Fox News Voter Analysis put Trump at 32%, the highest for a Republican nominee since 1988, according to the Republican Jewish Coalition.

The biggest and most recent transition prior to the Trump era was arguably when so-called "Reagan Democrats, disaffected by their party's agenda and more conservative than liberals on such issues as national security and immigration, voted for GOP presidential candidate Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Trump's welcome extended to the top of the administration. Scott Bessent became the highest-ranking openly gay official in American history when he was confirmed as Treasury secretary, following Richard Grenell's turn as acting director of National Intelligence in Trump's first term. 

Gay voters as a bloc have not followed; exit polls showed Trump winning just 12% of LGBT voters in 2024. But the message of the MAGA coalition was unmistakable: the Republican tent was open to anyone who agreed on the economy, the border and public safety.

The policies driving moderates away

For defectors, the breaking point is less about Trump than about where their own party is heading. In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani took office vowing to govern as a democratic socialist, on pledges to make buses free, freeze rents for 2 million rent-stabilized tenants and provide universal childcare, along with a network of city-owned grocery stores. 

In Washington, Rep. Robert Garcia, of California, again declared just days before midterm Election Day on Tuesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement should be abolished. In Michigan, the final straw for Stevens appeared to be an ad from a progressive outside group that linked U.S. military aid to Israel with rising grocery prices. 

Moderate Democrats such as Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman argue that such positions, once fringe, now define the party's energy, leaving centrists to choose between staying silent and walking out.

The Democrats who crossed before her

Stevens joins a lengthening roster. Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, once a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, left the party in 2022 and announced she was joining the GOP at a Trump rally in North Carolina in October 2024. She went on to serve as Trump's director of national intelligence. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., scion of Democratic royalty, endorsed Trump that same year and now runs the Department of Health and Human Services.

Fetterman has stopped short of switching political parties, but he sided with Trump and Republicans on 26% of Senate votes in 2025, the highest rate of any Senate Democrat. In September, he appeared by video at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas to introduce GOP Sen. Dave McCormick, warning against "socialism" while insisting he remains a Democrat.

The Michigan fracture extends past Stevens herself. Her fiancé, Jewish civil rights attorney Jason Turkish, and her former campaign chairman, David Kramer, each said they would vote for Rogers, and her chief of staff resigned the day she made the endorsement.

Traffic in the other direction

The crossing has not been entirely one-way. Former Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger campaigned for 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, and former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who broke with Trump over the 2020 election, formally became a Democrat in 2025 and ran for governor.

Democratic voters, however, appear to have shown little appetite for the converts, considering Duncan finished a distant fourth in May's primary with 7% of the vote. And former federal prosecutor Ryan Crosswell, another ex-Republican, lost a Pennsylvania House primary by 20 points. 

Amanda Head is White House Correspondent for Just the News. You can follow her here.

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/haleys-defection-latest-democrats-leaving-over-partys-direction-trump-warned-about

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The sacrifice of Haley Stevens and the future of the Democrats - Jonathan S. Tobin

 

by Jonathan S. Tobin

The party establishment will ensure that the Michigan congresswoman will pay with her future career for her decision to oppose the openly antisemitic Abdul El-Sayed.

 

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) speak with former North Carolina congresswoman Kathy Manning (left) at the Jewish Democratic Council of America 2025 Leadership Summit in Washington, May 1, 2025. Credit: Jewish Democratic Council of America via Creative Commons.

No matter the outcome of the Michigan race, which many thought would end with her elevation to the Senate, the political career of Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) appears to be over. The reaction of the Democratic Party establishment and its media cheerleaders to her decision to endorse former Republican congressman Mike Rogers over Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, who defeated her in a party primary in August, seems likely to ensure it.

That this is so is not merely a remarkable reversal of fortune from the situation earlier this year when Stevens was the frontrunner for the Democratic Senate nomination. But the moderate, pro-Israel Democrat’s journey from that position to one of party pariah is a cautionary tale not merely about how quickly a fall from political grace can occur. It also speaks volumes about the Democrats’ tolerance of antisemitism from its “progressive” wing and its intolerance of anyone who would dare to call it out.

Choosing between the party and antisemitism

The savagery with which party leaders denounced Stevens for her last-minute defection from the otherwise solid support from Democrats for El-Sayed is in part a measure of their fury at the prospect of him losing and therefore possibly costing them a chance at control of the Senate.

For Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who labeled Stevens as having committed a “despicable betrayal,” the issue isn’t El-Sayed’s campaign, which largely hinged on labeling first Stevens and then Rogers as stooges of Jews trying to buy the election for Israel. They’ve demonstrated that their quest for power and thwarting U.S. President Donald Trump is not merely a higher priority than combating antisemitism within their own ranks.

We already know that in their eyes, the latter is of no consequence when compared to the former.

Nor will Stevens’ future depend on whether El-Sayed, who led every poll heading into the election, is upset by Rogers, whose prospects may be boosted by her help. Win or lose, Democrats are not likely to forgive her apostasy.

If El-Sayed wins, Stevens will be depicted as a bitter loser, who couldn’t accept that both her party and the Michigan electorate have accepted hatred for Israel and the Jews as mainstream discourse and the default position for political liberals.

But if Rogers wins and the GOP holds the Senate, it’s unlikely that Democrats will blame themselves for nominating someone like El-Sayed, who is not only an extremist but has credible connections to the Muslim Brotherhood. Instead, they will target Stevens, who is engaged to a Jew, and Jewish Democrats as being responsible for their defeat and therefore empowering Trump, whom they speak of as if he is the epitome of evil.

Either way, it paints a dismal picture of the future of the party as a home for Jews, who are not willing to cast aside a major element of their identity and peoplehood and join leftists in demonizing the Jewish state and its supporters.

By coming down so hard on Stevens, whose mental health pundits are questioning, with some on the left even threatening to remove her from their caucus during her last months in office as a lame duck member of the House of Representatives, they’re also setting a precedent for the future.

Theirs is a party that has largely been hijacked by the intersectional left and their democratic socialist allies in primaries in recent years. El-Sayed, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the growing ranks of the left-wing congressional “Squad” have been normalized.

That means Stevens won’t be the last person faced with this dilemma, and they want those who are put in a position of choosing between party loyalty and opposition to Jew-hatred to know that the price for choosing principle will be very high indeed.

Ironically, Stevens’ struggle to stay loyal to her party is being held against her.

Her initial reaction to her primary loss was to say that she would support El-Sayed, playing the part of a gracious loser. And she remained critical of Rogers, who she believed would be her general election opponent.

The difference between 2022 and 2026

Stevens was, after all, the favorite to win the Democratic nomination heading into 2026. She was first elected to Congress in 2018. In 2022, due to her state’s loss of a congressional seat after the census, she was forced into a primary against another Democratic incumbent, Andy Levin who had succeeded his father, Sander Levin, who served 18 terms in the House from 1983 to 2019. Levin was also the nephew of Sen. Carl Levin, a Democrat who represented Michigan in the Senate from 1979 to 2015.

The race against Levin in 2022 was a contest that pitted a left-wing Jewish opponent of Israel in Levin against a centrist non-Jewish supporter of the Jewish state in Stevens. Foreshadowing what would happen with El-Sayed, Levin sought to delegitimize Stevens by painting her as a puppet of the AIPAC pro-Israel lobby. But it didn’t work, as she easily defeated Levin by a 60%-40% margin.

That victory marked Stevens as a rising star in her party and seemingly set her on an inevitable elevation to the Senate when incumbent Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) announced in January 2025 that he wouldn’t run for reelection. But a lot has changed in the last four years.

In the wake of the Hamas-led Palestinian Arab terror attacks on Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, there has been a global surge of antisemitism. Demonization of Israel and its Jewish supporters has spread around the United States enabling the rise of an already potent left wing of the Democratic Party. That was made clear in 2024, as the party’s base turned on President Joe Biden and then Vice President Kamala Harris for being insufficiently hostile to Israel, despite the administration’s efforts to hamstring the war against Hamas. Post-mortems of Harris’s defeat by Trump put the onus for the party losing both Congress and the White House on the Democrats being too soft on the Jewish state.

With polls now showing that the overwhelming majority of Democrats no longer support the Jewish state and/or believe the blood libels about it committing “genocide” in Gaza, that trend continued throughout 2026 as pro-Israel Democrats have been defeated by anti-Israel opponents in primaries. As a result, it was a given that Stevens was bound to face a stiff challenge to her senatorial ambitions.

At first, that challenge was thought to come from state senator Mallory McMorrow, who was beloved by her party for her defense of its positions on gender ideology and other liberal stands. But as the campaign went on, it was clear that El-Sayed, whose only previous try for office had been a failed campaign for governor of Michigan in 2018, better represented the zeitgeist of Democrats in 2026.

His obsession with AIPAC and chasing the vast majority of Jews who are pro-Israel out of the public square hit the sweet spot of Democratic Party politics in a way that Stevens’ traditional emphasis on bread-and-butter issues and support for the Jewish state and even McMorrow’s hard-core liberalism did not.

Not drinking the Kool-Aid

Stevens’ primary loss need not have ended her career. At only 43, there was no reason to believe she couldn’t try again for any number of high offices in the future. But the price for that meant backing El-Sayed despite his campaign that rested on the claim that she was nothing but a hireling of Jewish interests.

Nevertheless, Jewish Democrats, like Schumer, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and state attorney general Dana Nessel, had no trouble lining up behind El-Sayed. Nessel even claimed that his election was more important than the survival of Israel or even of the Jewish people.

But though Stevens appeared to try to do the same, she just couldn’t force herself to drink the party Kool-Aid on El-Sayed.

Was it the growing evidence of his ties to the Muslim Brotherhood? Or was it the antisemitic pro-El-Sayed video produced by Cenk Uygur? Uygur is the uncle and mentor of the Jew-hating streamer Hasan Piker, who has campaigned with El-Sayed. In the advertisement, the Jews are blamed for the price of bananas and eggs, because America was helping Israel kill Palestinians. But the Democratic candidate hesitated to disavow or condemn it.

Last week, Stevens asked that El-Sayed take a firm stand on such Jew-hatred and also apologize for the way he had demonized her. But as he had demonstrated since the primary, he had no interest in moving to the center in order to mollify mainstream Democrats like her. Instead, and with the help of liberal media like The New York Times, he tried to turn the issue around on Stevens.

Much of the media went along with his effort to claim that those who condemned his extremism and Jew-hatred were Islamophobic bigots and that he was the second coming of President John F. Kennedy and an avatar of religious tolerance.

Her refusal to let his extremist stands go was interpreted as obsessive behavior on her part. And in a classic trope of antisemitism in which Jews and those linked with them are viewed as pursuing their own agendas at the expense of others, the Times decided to bolster the claim that her reluctance to go along with the rest of her party was due to her engagement to a Jewish man and the possibility that she will convert to Judaism prior to their marriage next year.

Her fiancé, Jason Turkish, is a lawyer with a record of fundraising for Democrats and has endorsed Rogers. But when El-Sayed not only wouldn’t apologize but doubled-down on his anti-Israel stands and said she wasn’t welcome at a campaign rally, she decided to publicly back Rogers.

A political obituary

This probably would have gone a bit better for Stevens if she had never said she would back El-Sayed. But even if she had stated her terms for an endorsement of the primary winner from the start, it would have still been held against her by most Democrats and likely would have been brought up in future campaigns.

Still, the personal attacks on her as mentally unstable and a traitor to her party from fellow Democrats have little to do with her character and everything to do with the bargain they have made with the antisemitic left. The choice facing her was one of sacrificing her career or her principles and though she dithered over it for months, in the end, she made the only choice a decent person could. It’s obvious that her future in a party in which hostility to Israel and opposition to immigration law enforcement have become the organizing principles is over.

As legal analyst and retired Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz has pointed out, political liberals like him and many other Jews, who have loyally supported the Democratic Party throughout their lives, aren’t the ones who have changed. They’ve been abandoned by a party that has embraced open antisemites. And have made falling in line with that disgraceful position a litmus test of party loyalty. That’s a warning that the diminishing number of pro-Israel Democrats like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has maintained a cautious silence on El-Sayed, cannot ignore.

Her political obituary that is being written in the wake of her endorsement of Rogers illustrates the truth of a disturbing yet undeniable fact. In denouncing her, Democrats are telling us that, win or lose on Election Day, people like Abdul El-Sayed are the future of their party and those like Haley Stevens are its past. 

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS, a columnist for Newsweek and a contributor to other publications. He covers the American political scene, foreign policy, the U.S.-Israel relationship, Middle East diplomacy, the Jewish world and the arts. He hosts the JNS “Think Twice” podcast, both the weekly video program and the “Jonathan Tobin Daily” program, available on major audio platforms and YouTube. Previously, he was executive editor, then senior online editor and chief political blogger, for Commentary magazine. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of The Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia and editor of the Connecticut Jewish Ledger. He has won 60-plus awards for his columns, commentary, art criticism and other writing. He appears regularly on television, commenting on politics and foreign policy. Born in New York City, he studied history at Columbia University.

Source: https://www.jns.org/opinion/column/jonathan-s-tobin/the-sacrifice-of-haley-stevens-and-the-future-of-the-democrats

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Netanyahu calls on parties who oppose terrorism to form ‘broad national gov't,’ open to discussion - Miriam Sela-Eitam

 

by Miriam Sela-Eitam

“The Israeli public does not want a government that depends on Ra'am and the Joint List, parties that support terrorism and reject the existence of the Jewish state,” Netanyahu wrote.

 

Prime Minister and Likud party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu at the Likud party’s election headquarters at Binyanei HaUma (Jerusalem International Convention Center) in Jerusalem, following Israel’s general elections, early October 28, 2026.

(photo credit: CHAIM GOLDBERG/FLASH90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on parties that oppose terrorism to sit with Likud and form a “broad national government” in a social media post on Monday night.

“The Israeli public does not want a government that depends on Ra'am and the Joint List, parties that support terrorism and reject the existence of the Jewish state,” Netanyahu wrote.

He added that “from day one, we have extended our hand toward the formation of a broad national government.”

“A clear majority of the Jewish public chose the Likud as the largest party, and chose me, as prime minister, to lead the next government,” Netanyahu said. “We aim to form a broad government with our partners and with any other party that wishes to join, provided they do not support terrorism."

"I am open to dialogue on this matter.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ra'am chairman Mansour Abbas. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM, MICHAEL GILADI/FLASH90)

This is the first time since last week's election results were published that he has called for any type of government to be formed.

Election Day results saw Likud win 27 seats, with Netanyahu’s bloc at 53 overall; Yashar won 21 seats in the Knesset, with the Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot's bloc at 48 total; and the Arab parties won 19 seats.

Early Wednesday, before the voter count was finalized, Netanyahu called for a strong right-wing government and warned against forming one dependent on what he called anti-Zionist Arab parties.

In his speech at the time, Netanyahu accused the Arab parties of opposing Israel’s existence and attacking its soldiers. He challenged politicians advocating an alliance of those who serve in the military over the possibility of cooperating with those parties.

“The Likud is the largest party in Israel,” Netanyahu said. “We must establish a strong, right-wing, national government."

Eisenkot: Any MK who accepts four coalition principles can join gov't

On Saturday, Eisenkot laid out four principles for joining his proposed coalition, saying that “any MK” willing to accept them could become a partner in forming the next government, which he intends to be the broadest possible Zionist, statesmanlike government possible.

His conditions for prospective coalition partners include: the recognition of Israel as a Jewish, democratic, liberal, and egalitarian state; a commitment to the values of the Declaration of Independence; mandatory military, national, or civilian service for all Israeli citizens; and recognition of Hamas as a terrorist organization and acknowledgment of the obligation to destroy its military and governing power in the Gaza Strip.

“Any MK willing to sign on to these principles is a potential partner in establishing a new government that will be good for Israel,” Eisenkot said. “The door to the government we establish will be open to any elected official who accepts these principles and is prepared to rise to the occasion.”

Sarah Ben-Nun and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.

Miriam Sela-Eitam

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-election-2026/article-913626

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Youth gender clinics disclose how they evade state bans, deceive insurance: undercover sting - Greg Piper

 

by Greg Piper

Activist hub directs reporter, masquerading as Tennessee mom of 11-year-old nonbinary girl, to providers who confirm they use misleading diagnosis codes to hide purpose of prescription, mail drugs directly to homes.

 

With the Trump administration successfully shielding its predecessor's mail-order abortion pill regime from legal challenge before midterm elections, depriving Democrats of a potent campaign issue while its Food and Drug Administration decides whether to reinstate in-person prescribing rules, a more tempting target is growing in visibility.

An undercover investigation by a center-right think tank purports to expose a network of activists and medical providers using deception to help families obtain and pay for so-called gender-affirming care – puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgical removal of healthy breasts and genitals – that is prohibited where they live or not covered by insurance.

The Manhattan Institute's City Journal report highlights the Campaign for Southern Equality, which lost its primary cause when the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, as the key hub linking families of children who identify as the opposite sex or no sex to medical providers willing to circumvent GAC restrictions on the books in most states.

It said many of CSE's recommended providers, "with the organization’s knowledge," coached families on how to "circumvent state restrictions and allow minors to continue receiving medical interventions in their home states," using non-gender dysphoria diagnosis codes to fool insurance and pharmacies and mailing medications directly to patients' homes.

It's not the first time North Carolina-based CSE has shown up on a list of organizations that allegedly facilitate the circumvention of state Medicaid restrictions and promote insurance billing fraud by obscuring the intended purpose of treatment approved for precocious puberty, hormone deficiencies and unspecific endocrine disorders, among other conditions. 

Medical advocacy group Do No Harm flagged CSE's work in a broader report this spring on the ecosystem of alleged GAC billing fraud.

CSE Executive Director Jasmine Beach Ferrara and Communications Manager Emma Chinn did not answer queries about the report's portrayal of CSE's work and, if uncontested, how CSE defends the work in light of federal investigations of GAC billing fraud.

The organization's staff page, still linked from its "about" page, has redirected to its home page for more than a year and a half, but Just the News found an intact archive with staff contacts from a week before President Trump's second inauguration in January 2025.

 

NEW UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATION: I spent several months investigating a nationwide network of advocacy organizations and medical providers helping families continue medically transitioning their children in defiance of state laws. My investigation centers on Campaign for Southern Equality (CSE), an LGBT advocacy nonprofit that connects families with cooperating medical providers across the country. CSE has distributed over $1 million in travel grants to more than 1,200 families, plus another $1 million to partner organizations, including funding for medical appointments. With CSE's knowledge, providers in its referral network told me the ways that they circumvent state restrictions on gender-transition treatments for minors. Some discussed using alternative diagnosis codes, such as “endocrine disorder,” to facilitate prescriptions or insurance coverage. Others described mailing medications directly to families' homes or sending prescriptions to pharmacies in states where these interventions are banned. Providers also discussed conducting virtual appointments with patients in those states. Others required patients to cross state lines for telehealth but did not appear to have a reliable method for verifying their physical location. My primary undercover scenario involved an 11-year-old girl in Tennessee who had only recently begun identifying as nonbinary, with no long history of gender-related distress. The providers I shared this scenario with seemed eager to treat her. Many indicated that puberty blockers could be prescribed after an initial evaluation lasting just one to several hours. My investigation uncovered practices that may violate state and federal laws and pose medical risks to children living hundreds or thousands of miles from their treating physicians. Read my full @CityJournal investigation: https://t.co/pUesvsGHHo

— Christina Buttons (@buttonslives) October 29, 2026

'The evidence of misconduct is astonishing'

The new report complements the Trump administration's recent enthusiasm for threatening to cut off federal money and prosecute providers for GAC billing fraud, and for improving care for detransitions by issuing new diagnosis codes that make them visible in medicine and help them get restorative treatment and insurance coverage.

In contrast to the Justice Department's hostility toward GOP-led states seeking to stanch the flood of abortion pills from out of state that render their pro-life laws toothless, DOJ's case against Texas Children's Hospital for hidden GAC practices on minors prompted a settlement that created the nation's first detransition clinic, which opened at TCH last week.

TCH whistleblower Eithan Haim recently posted what he called the first in a series of comprehensive reviews of detransitioners' medical records, with their consent, showing their doctors "employing what appears to be proxy diagnosis codes" as a "false pretext to secure insurance payment for hormones and surgery." 

The first review concerns Fox Varian, the detransitioner whose $2 million jury award against her medical providers for malpractice sparked panic across the industry. They used "breast hypertrophy" as a proxy for gender dysphoria to secure her double mastectomy, the same trickery recommended by CSE, according to Haim.

Rhode Island Hospital has also turned over more than 112,000 pages of records on GAC for minors in response to a DOJ administrative subpoena pursued through federal court in Texas. Though a Rhode Island federal judge banned DOJ from reviewing the records, the Texas federal court has required their submission for in-chambers review.

"While DOJ attorneys are fighting tooth and nail to obtain these records, establishment forces are doing everything they can to prevent that from happening," Haim said. "There is no mystery behind the unprecedented resistance to this otherwise standard request [...] the evidence of misconduct is astonishing."

Remember the RI judge who fake outraged over DOJ attorneys requesting gender dysphoria records from RI Hospital? She was wrong. RI Hospital sent over 112,000 records. Those records should be saved for criminal prosecutions. https://t.co/C3bbL3L9Gd

— Nicole Solas, Sued by the Teachers Union (@Nicoletta0602) October 30, 2026

Clinics use 'tricks' such as codes that 'don’t specifically say anything about gender'

Masquerading as a Tennessee mother seeking GAC for an 11-year-old nonbinary daughter with no "longstanding" history of gender confusion or healthcare evaluation for such, City Journal investigative reporter Christina Buttons said she connected with a CSE "care navigator" after filling out a form on the organization's Trans Youth Emergency Project page.

The Volunteer State's ban on GAC for minors is responsible for the Supreme Court's blessing of such laws more than a year ago, finding they classify based on age and medical use and refusing to recognize transgender people as a class.

"The providers I shared this scenario with had no problem treating a nonbinary child," Buttons wrote. "When I asked how soon [the girl] could obtain medication, many providers I questioned indicated that a prescription could generally be issued following an initial evaluation lasting one to several hours."

Buttons wrote on X that her investigation "uncovered practices that may violate state and federal laws and pose medical risks to children living hundreds or thousands of miles from their treating physicians."

Walking Buttons through the process of securing puberty blockers for her daughter without raising suspicion, the CSE navigator allegedly said prescribing the treatment is "not illegal" – unless it's explicitly for "gender dysphoria from a local doctor" – and that "a lot of folks are able to get the meds locally" through pharmacies or mail-order home delivery.

An Illinois clinic in CSE's referral network told Buttons that it had "an in-house pharmacy that stocked puberty blockers and worked with specialty pharmacies that could mail estradiol and testosterone vials directly to my home or send prescriptions to my local pharmacy," Buttons paraphrased the conversation.

The clinic uses a general "endocrine disorder" code for labs and medications to keep pharmacies in the dark about the purpose of the treatment, and Buttons' family could make virtual follow-up appointments between two visits to Illinois a year, the clinic employee allegedly said.

A Pennsylvania clinic referral told Buttons "my fictional child might need only one in-person appointment annually, with virtual follow-ups" from Tennessee, Buttons paraphrased. The nurse allegedly said prescriptions could be mailed directly or fulfilled through Tennessee pharmacies using "tricks" such as codes that "don’t specifically say anything about gender."

Asked about using an endocrine disorder code instead of a gender dysphoria code, a taxpayer-funded Oregon clinic allegedly told Buttons "that is one possible avenue" and "it is one for ours," subject to an insurance plan permitting the endocrine disorder diagnosis. Prescriptions could be mailed directly to her or filled at Tennessee pharmacies, the rep allegedly said.

A telehealth hormone provider told Buttons families can drive to a state "where the medications remained legal and the clinician was licensed, stop at a restaurant or rest area, and conduct a video appointment in their car before returning home," with puberty blockers "shipped through a specialty pharmacy" to her home, Buttons paraphrased.

Asked how the provider actually verifies patients have crossed state lines into a GAC-allowed jurisdiction, the officer manager allegedly said its staff couldn't view location information and patients were operating on the honor system. An email from the provider posted on a Reddit forum allegedly said it has "no way of tracking your location."

Greg Piper

Source: https://justthenews.com/accountability/watchdogs/youth-gender-clinics-disclose-how-they-evade-state-bans-deceive-insurance

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