DML Morning Briefing Thu. Oct. 20

Today is October 20. Below are some of the stories grabbing headlines this morning. I hope you share this briefing as doing so will make you the smartest person in the room.

1 – 12,000 fentanyl pills found packaged in candy at major airport checkpoint
Fox News reports: Authorities are encouraging parents to double-check their children’s Halloween candy following a massive fentanyl bust at Los Angeles International Airport.

Authorities on Wednesday seized approximately 12,000 suspected fentanyl pills that were found disguised in several popular Halloween candy brands at the California airport.

Authorities found the dangerous opioid inside boxes of Sweetarts, Skittles and Whoppers, officials said.

In a press release, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that narcotic detectives and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) responded to a TSA screening area around 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday after an individual attempted to go through airport security with bags of candy.

The suspect managed to flee but has been identified.

MY TAKE: What is Biden doing to stop the flow of drugs?  NOTHING, that we can see!

2 – BREAKING: UK Prime Minister Liz Truss RESIGNS – after only 45 days in office
The Associated Press reports: LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned Thursday — bowing to the inevitable after a tumultuous six-week term in which her policies triggered turmoil in financial markets and a rebellion in her party obliterated her authority.

She said “I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected.”

Just a day earlier Truss had vowed to stay in power, saying she was “a fighter and not a quitter.” But Truss couldn’t hold on any longer after a senior minister quit her government with a barrage of criticism and a vote in the House of Commons descended into chaos and acrimony just days after she was forced to abandon many of her economic policies.

Her departure leaves a divided Conservative Party seeking a leader who can unify its warring factions. A growing number of lawmakers had called for Truss to resign after weeks of turmoil sparked by her economic plan. The plan unveiled by the government last month triggered financial turmoil and a political crisis that has seen the replacement of Truss’ Treasury chief, multiple policy U-turns and a breakdown of discipline in the governing Conservative Party.

MY TAKE: This could be bad news for conservatives….

3 – High Schools Cancel Volleyball Games Against One School After Transgender Player Injures Girl
Breitbart reports: High schools in Cherokee County, North Carolina, have canceled volleyball matches against one school after a transgender athlete (a boy living as a girl) injured another girl at a recent game.

The injury occurred last month when a Highlands High volleyball player made a spike and smashed a Hiwassee Dam High player in the forehead, causing severe head injuries.

“The Hiwassee Dam player, a biological girl, suffered severe head and neck injuries, resulting in long-term concussion symptoms, including vision problems. The girl has still not yet been cleared to play again by her primary care physician or a neurologist,” reported Education First Alliance. 

The Cherokee County Board of Education then voted 5-1 to declare a “safety issue” and canceled all games against Highlands High after coach and Cherokee Board Member Joe Wood said he had “never seen a hit like this before.

“I’ll never put a child in a position to be seriously injured,” Wood said. “I think the odds (of injury) in these non-contact sports aren’t high. But in particular, in this meeting, a coach of 40 years said they’d never seen a hit like this. That was really what sealed the decision, at least on my part.”

MY TAKE: I’m not one bit surprised. END this insanity NOW!!

4 – ‘Screw Parental Interference’: Inside The Online Community Encouraging Kids To Transition
The Daily Caller reports: In sequestered parts of the internet — blacklisted from Google searches — parents are discussing the spread of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD), attributing their child’s newfound gender identity to online influence.

Reddit, a popular anonymous internet forum, harbors one such online community that promotes “affirming” a child’s gender confusion with or without adequate medical or psychological examination. The community, “r/trans,” allows self-identified minors to discuss cross-dressing, surgeries, and hormone replacement treatment with transgender individuals, most of whom identify online as adults.

Chloe Cole, an 18-year-old who detransitioned after undergoing cross-sex hormones and a double mastectomy, told the Daily Caller that she likely would not have transitioned if it weren’t for social media.

“My first exposure to transgender content was [online],” Cole said. “I saw female adolescents ages 12 to 19 talking about their transition. I feel like I wouldn’t have transitioned if I wasn’t exposed to that.”

At the age of 12, Cole began socially transitioning to a boy identity and told the Daily Caller that she began browsing Reddit communities.

“I was fed a lot of medical misinformation on [Reddit],” Cole said. “I was sort of pigeonholing myself into this ideology or community.”

MY TAKE: Where’s the ‘misinformation czar’ when you need them? Oh… since the misinformation is coming from the LEFT!!

5 – Is Instagram damaging your confidence? People who spend more time on social media struggle with their body image – and posts by friends and family are MORE dangerous than those by celebrities, study finds
The Daily Mail reports: Instagram is often slammed for creating unrealistic body ideals, but a new study suggests our loved ones are more to blame than celebrities.

In experiments, participants reported levels of satisfaction with their appearance whenever they saw other people’s social media posts throughout the day. Researchers found engaging with posts by friends and family to be more ‘damaging’ than engaging with content posted by celebs and influencers.

It’s possible that a desirable body image from a famous person is perceived as less attainable, so we worry about it less than if it were from a friend or family member.

The study was led by academics from Anglia Ruskin University in East Anglia and Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences in Austria, and published today in the journal Body Image.

‘Image-focused social media platforms provide limitless opportunities for users to make negative comparisons and internalise appearance ideals, which in turn leads to more negative body image outcomes,’ said study author Professor Viren Swami at Anglia Ruskin University.

‘Our study found that engaging with social media reduces appearance satisfaction regardless of who is posting the content.

MY TAKE: Social media, used in the wrong way, is POISON.