Lisa Marie Presley explained in her memoir why she decided to keep the body of her son Benjamin in her home for two months following his death. The late daughter of Elvis Presley made the revelation in her memoir, which was published posthumously by her daughter, Riley Keough. “There is no law in the state of California that you have to bury someone immediately,” Presley wrote in the book, “From Here to the Great Unknown.”  “Having my dad in the house after he died was incredibly helpful because I could go and spend time with him and talk to him,” she continued, per People.  “That was part of why it took so long,” Presley wrote. “I got so used to him, caring for him and keeping him there. I think it would scare the living f***ing piss out of anybody else to have their son there like that. But not me.” Benjamin, nicknamed Ben Ben by his family, died by suicide in 2020 when he was 27 years old.  Presley explained, “My house has a separate casitas bedroom, and I kept Ben Ben in there for two months … I found a very empathic funeral home owner.”  She continued, “I told her that having my dad in the house after he died was incredibly helpful because I could go and spend time with him and talk to him. She said, ‘We’ll bring Ben Ben [her nickname for her son] to you. You can have him there.’” “I felt so fortunate that there was a way that I could still parent him, delay it a bit longer so that I could become okay with laying him to rest,” she wrote. Keough wrote that it was “really important” for her mom to “have ample time to say goodbye to him, the same way she’d done with her dad.” The room with Benjamin’s body was reportedly kept at 55 degrees. Keough also related the experience of a tattoo artist coming over so both mother and daughter could get ink that matched Benjamin’s. When the artist, who came to the house, asked if he could see a photo to copy, Lisa Marie allegedly said, “No, but I can show you.”  “Lisa Marie Presley had just asked this poor man to look at the body of her dead son, which happened to be right next to us in the casitas. I’ve had an extremely absurd life, but this moment is in the top five,” Lisa Marie’s daughter wrote of the experience.  Presley died in 2023 of a small bowel obstruction caused by complications from previous weight loss surgery.

As Joe Biden’s run for re-election was on the verge of collapsing this summer, an unnamed White House official briefly went off-script amid all the chaos that was unfolding in the West Wing. Speaking to a variety of news outlets, including the New York Times, the White House official announced that so-called “gender affirming surgeries” should never be conducted on children: “These surgeries should be limited to adults,” the spokesman said. At any other period in this country’s history, that answer would’ve been ridiculed for one simple reason: It doesn’t go nearly far enough. Doing that to someone’s body is wrong, whether the victim is an adult or not. But this summer, the White House found itself besieged by trans activists who believe that doctors should be able to mutilate childrens’ bodies, without any interference from the government. There was “anxiety and concern through the trans community” over the anonymous White House official’s statement, according to the Guardian. This created a massive headache for the White House at a pretty inconvenient time. Biden was refusing to take the hint and step aside, and he was threatening to take the entire party down with him. Meanwhile, trans activists were doing their whole nails-on-a-chalkboard routine. So the White House quickly put out a new statement to shut these people up. This one was signed by Biden’s domestic policy adviser, Neera Tanden. And this time around, as the Guardian reported, the White House “reaffirmed support” for “gender-affirming” surgeries on minors. At the same time, the White House claimed that these surgeries aren’t actually happening to any significant degree: “Gender-affirming surgeries are typically reserved for adults, and we believe they should be,” Tanden said. This is a tactic we’re all very familiar with by now. The same approach was used to promote abortion, to great effect. In both cases, the Left understands that the policy they’re supporting is horrific. They also understand that sane people would throw them out of office if there was any honesty about what was actually happening. Therefore, instead of being honest, they lie about what they’re supporting — and what they’re funding. And eventually, inertia takes over. Clinton famously said abortion would be “rare.” For the Biden administration and trans activists, the claim has been that trans surgeries on children aren’t happening — and if they are happening, it’s only in the most extreme, rare cases. Here, for example, is a “fact-check” by a CBS affiliate in Missouri, called KMOV St. Louis. This aired in May of 2023, several months before Missouri passed a law banning child butchery in hospitals. Watch as the news station declares, flatly, that no children are undergoing trans surgeries in the state: This is the kind of “reporting” we’ve all heard seemingly millions of times. You’re a bigot if you claim that kids are being surgically mutilated. You’re spreading “misinformation.” Again and again, they’ll tell you it’s either not happening, or is only happening in the most rare cases. Harvard’s school of public health posted a study this summer, with this headline: “Gender-affirming surgeries rarely performed on transgender youth.” The activist group called the Human Rights Campaign put out a similar lie: “Surgery under the age of 18 is very rare and is decided on a case by case basis. … Gender affirming surgeries are NOT performed on children.” WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show Over the past few years, there’s been some reporting showing that specific hospitals are, in fact, performing surgeries on minors in the name of “gender-affirming care.” Boston Children’s Hospital, for example, performed at least 65 double mastectomies on children for that purpose, between 2017 and 2020. That’s documented in medical literature. And last year, The Daily Caller reported that a gender clinic in Pennsylvania “offered puberty blockers to kids as young as 8, [and] surgery referrals at 14.” The White House, trans activists, and medical associations have been able to maintain the fiction that these are extremely rare procedures — conducted by only a small handful of hospitals — because of a deliberate, large-scale media blackout on the truth. But yesterday, the group “Do No Harm,” which is an association of medical professionals, ended that blackout. They launched an online, publicly accessible database called “Stop the Harm,” which exposes the extent of child mutilation that’s occurring in hospitals across the United States. Before I go any further, it’s important to keep in mind that this database relies on insurance claims information, which means that if anything, it’s substantially undercounting the actual number of trans surgeries that are taking place because it doesn’t capture operations that were paid for in cash. Additionally, the database doesn’t include claims paid out by Kaiser insurance — which is a huge insurer, but their data was unavailable. And on top of that, the database only captures children who received a formal gender related diagnosis. Given those limitations, here’s what the group uncovered. Between 2019 and 2023, a minimum of 13,994 children underwent “sex change treatments.” Specifically, more than 5,700 minors had “sex change surgeries,” according to Do No Harm’s database. More than 8,500 received “hormones and puberty blockers.” And in all, more than 62,000 “sex change prescriptions” were written for minors. These procedures, in total, involved doctors billing insurance for roughly $120 million. And there’s evidence that a very small number of doctors are racking up huge bills. A single doctor at New York’s Mount Sinai Beth Israel hospital, for example, billed nearly $5 million over the last four years for “sex change interventions” involving children, according to Do No Harm. A doctor at Stanford billed more than $4 million for the same purpose. In Missouri alone, Do No Harm found that there were more than 194 minor “sex change patients” from 2019 to 2023, 44 of them received surgery, at places like St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Children’s Mercy Hospital. 151 received hormones and puberty blockers. So that “fact-check” from the CBS affiliate KMOV that I played earlier was a straight-up lie. There wasn’t anything remotely accurate about it. As striking as all of these numbers are, there’s another figure that’s even more astounding. If you look through the database, you’ll find that approximately 2,000 hospitals and medical facilities in this country performed some kind of gender transition, whether surgical or pharmaceutical, on a child between 2019 and 2023. Yes, thousands of hospitals and medical facilities — including some of the biggest children’s hospitals in the country — have been participating in this butchery. This is a practice that Left-wing activists say is “very rare,” if they don’t deny it’s happening entirely. But it is happening, all over the place. Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here! The perpetrators include the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Boston’s Children’s Hospital, the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Seattle Children’s, New York University, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. The list also includes smaller facilities like the University of Kentucky Children’s Hospital, the Children’s Hospital of New Orleans, and St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital in Idaho. Whatever you call this barbarism, there’s one word you can’t use to describe it. You can’t call it “very rare.” You also can’t deny it’s happening at all. At a minimum, thousands of hospitals and medical procedures are performing thousands of life-altering procedures on children. And some of the most powerful institutions in this country — from the government to the media — have been lying to our faces about it for years. That is now very clear. In fact, according to the American Hospital Association, there are a little more than 6,000 hospitals in the country in total. If about 2,000 have performed either surgical or pharmaceutical gender transition procedures on minors, that means a third of the hospitals in the country are involved. A third hardly qualifies as rare, much less very rare. It’s also clear that if Kamala Harris somehow becomes the president of the United States in a couple of months, this evil is only going to accelerate. Previously on this show, I’ve played footage from the various segregated Zoom calls that have been organized independently to promote the Kamala Harris campaign. There’s White Dudes for Harris, Black Women for Harris, and so on. Now I’ve obtained footage from the “Trans Families for Harris” Zoom call. And in this call, several parents said that they support Kamala Harris because they want the ability to change their child’s gender, despite the fact that changing their child’s gender is medically impossible. Here’s a parent named Jeff Bender, for example. He says that his 11-year-old son is now a girl who uses “she/her” pronouns, and it’s all because of the wisdom of his son’s second-grade teacher. And now Jeff is going to take his son across state lines to Illinois, which is more than three hours away — to begin so-called gender-affirming care. Watch: "Trans Families For Harris" had a Zoom call this week. This guy says that his 11 year old son started using female pronouns "because of [his] second grade teacher." This is why we shouldn't "limit our teachers access to our kids," he says. He's happy that his son was transed. pic.twitter.com/9KwUVNqLDV — Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) October 8, 2024 So he just comes out and says that what teachers say is more important than what parents say. He’s fine with teachers telling children to disregard their parents — which is something that no teacher, much less a second-grade teacher, should be saying.  You won’t be shocked to learn that this kind of sentiment was widely shared on this Zoom call. Another parent, a former Democrat congresswoman named Marie Newman, explained that her child was suicidal as a young teen. So she sent him to an intensive, 3-month group therapy program, with sessions lasting 12 hours per day. And just three days into this therapy camp, her son came home and realized he’s actually a girl named Evie. Watch: We’ve reached a point where the same people who claimed to oppose “conversion therapy” — whatever that was exactly — are now openly celebrating therapy sessions that supposedly “convert” their child into a different gender. Apparently that kind of conversion is completely fine. If you want to get indoctrinated into the LGBTQIA+ alphabet by your teacher, or your therapy camp, then that’s worth celebrating. But if anyone tells you that this is dangerous — that it puts you on the path to sterilization and life-destroying surgeries — then they’re engaging in “conversion therapy,” and they’re terrible people. This is the kind of dishonesty and manipulation that underlies the entire gender ideology movement — and has since its inception. There’s no consistency whatsoever. It’s an ideology that can only survive by burying as much information as possible so that people don’t realize what’s actually happening. And what’s happening is that a massive industry has sprung up to monetize an unprecedented social contagion. WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI The New York Times just reported that one out of every 33 high school kids now identifies as transgender. This is a massive increase in a very short period of time. As Robert Sterling pointed out, the DSM-IV, which was in effect from 1994 until 2013, estimated that transsexualism affected 1 out of every 30,000 males and 100,000 females. In other words, just a decade ago, researchers were supposedly off by a factor of 1,000 about the number of people who are “transgender.” This is a social contagion. That’s clear to anyone who looks at the data. It’s also a booming industry. And a lot of so-called physicians are taking full advantage of it. That’s why this week’s report from “Do No Harm” is so important. More Americans than ever are now aware of how widespread this agenda really is. And that is the first and most important step in achieving a goal that all sane people want, which is to protect children by shutting it all down.

Portland, Oregon, a city long known for its progressive politics and activism, is undergoing a sweeping political transformation. In a move that has sparked both hope and concern, residents have opted to replace their entire government structure in the upcoming November 2024 elections. This drastic shift comes as Portland faces increasing challenges, including rising crime rates, homelessness, drug use, and economic instability. The decision to overhaul the city government was driven by growing frustration with how local leaders have handled these crises. The city has been plagued by social unrest since the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, which sparked over 100 consecutive nights of protests in downtown Portland. Although many of the protests were peaceful, the mix of destructive elements, heightened tensions with federal law enforcement, and the city’s response left Portlanders disillusioned with the status quo. BOLD MOVE: #Portland City Council candidate Eric Zimmerman is posting his campaign signs next to the most problematic homeless encampments in District 4. This particular takeover has been festering for several years, pre-COVID, and is one of the main contributors to REI exiting… pic.twitter.com/o0FPPyKMZ6 — Brandon Farley (@TheRealFarley) October 6, 2024 Portland's decision to reshape its leadership includes moving to a new system with a weaker mayor and an expanded city council. This structure will replace the current system, which critics argue has failed to adequately address the city's mounting problems. The new system will also feature ranked-choice voting, which proponents claim will offer voters more options and better reflect their preferences. However, the rapid changes are viewed by some as a sign of desperation, rather than a carefully considered solution​. Central to Portland’s political debate is the issue of public safety. Portland has seen a sharp increase in violent crime since the city cut $15 million from its police budget following the 2020 protests. The elimination of the Gun Violence Reduction Team, which was criticized for disproportionately targeting Black and Brown communities, left a void in addressing the city's growing gun violence problem. In 2022, Portland recorded a staggering 101 homicides, the highest in its history. Although some reforms were intended to address police misconduct, critics argue that these changes unintentionally worsened public safety. #oregon #portland #beaverton https://t.co/7XHQqhufqP — Pioneer Driver ? Portland (@PioneerDriver) October 9, 2024 In response to these issues, several city council candidates have centered their campaigns on restoring law and order. Current council member Rene Gonzalez, running for mayor, has focused on a platform of public safety, pledging to prioritize enforcement and reinstate measures to curb crime. His main opponents, Mingus Mapps and Carmen Rubio, offer different visions for the city's future. Mapps emphasizes mental health services and economic revitalization, while Rubio advocates for progressive reforms balanced with pragmatic solutions. In addition to the mayoral race, Portland's city council election has attracted an unprecedented 98 candidates, representing a wide spectrum of ideologies. The candidates include everyone from business owners and nonprofit advocates to former police officers and Black Lives Matter leaders. This diversity reflects the city's deep divisions over how to handle its pressing issues. The election, which is switching from four at-large seats to twelve representing four districts, is expected to reshape the political landscape dramatically. Compounding Portland’s challenges is the city's controversial decision to decriminalize drugs through Measure 110, passed in 2020. The measure, which was widely supported by voters at the time, was intended to address the state's high rates of drug addiction by shifting the focus from criminalization to treatment. However, critics argue that the policy has only worsened the city's drug crisis, leading to open-air drug use and contributing to the sense of lawlessness in parts of the city. Even some early supporters of the measure, including district attorney Mike Schmidt, have since called for reinstating penalties for drug possession. The upcoming election, therefore, represents a critical turning point for Portland. Voters are being asked to decide not just on individual candidates but on the direction of their city’s future. Will the overhaul of city government and the election of new leaders bring the change that residents hope for, or will it further entrench the challenges that have plagued Portland in recent years? With many voters still undecided, the outcome remains uncertain, but one thing is clear: Portland is at a crossroads, and the decisions made in November could have lasting consequences for the city’s identity and governance. The post Portland’s Government Overhaul: Hope or Desperation Amid Rising Crime and Homelessness? appeared first on The Conservative Brief.

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