This is total BULL CRAP💩💩💩How can this be fair to the REAL WOMEN who have been training all their life to take home a medal from the Olympic Games……..PapaMike

Kiwi weightlifter Laurel Hubbard will make history at the Tokyo Olympics by becoming the first transgender athlete to compete at the Games.

Hubbard has been named among five weightlifting athletes selected to the New Zealand Team.

Hubbard, who won silver at the 2017 world championships and represented New Zealand at the 2018 Commonwealth Games before suffering a serious injury in competition, will likely become the first transgender athlete to compete at the Olympics.

While she will be the oldest weightlifter at the Games, she will also be a genuine medal hopeful with her qualifying lifts ranking her at fourth out of the 14 qualifiers in the 87kg-plus category.

The weightlifting team is Kanah Andrews-Nahu (women’s -87kg), Hubbard (women’s +87kg), Megan Signal (women’s -76kg), David Liti (men’s +109kg) and Cameron McTaggart (men’s -81kg.

Hubbard’s historic achievement for trans athletes will likely also spark controversy from others who insist she has an unfair advantage.

In 2015, the IOC issued new guidelines allowing athletes who transition from male to female to compete in the women’s category provided their testosterone levels are below 10 nanomoles per litre for at least 12 months prior to their first competition – a rule also followed by the International Weightlifting Federation.

However, recent studies suggest transgender women maintain an athletic advantage over their cisgender peers even after a year on hormone therapy.

Hubbard has competed in men’s weightlifting competitions before transitioning in 2013 but didn’t compete internationally.

Her gold medal wins at the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa, where she beat Samoa’s Commonwealth Games champion Feagaiga Stowers, sparked outrage in the island nation.

Australia’s weightlifting federation tried to block Hubbard from competing at the 2018 Commonwealth Games but it was rejected by organisers.

In an interview after finishing second in the world championships in 2017, Hubbard said: “The rules that enabled me to compete first went into effect in 2003.

“They are known as the Stockholm consensus with the IOC but I think even 10 years ago the world perhaps wasn’t ready for an athlete like myself – and perhaps it is not ready now. But I got the sense at least that people were willing to consider me for these competitions and it seemed like the right time to put the boots on and hit the platform.”

Hubbard’s career was feared to be over after a horror elbow injury at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, but managed to bounce back to compete at her best a year later.

She is now ranked 16th in the world rankings, but several of the athletes above her will be absent from the Games due to IWF rules that limit nations to only one lifter per category

“Trump Is A Racist, A Sexist, A Narcissist, A Homophobe, A Xenophobe, A Pathological Liar, An Authoritarian, And A Man That’s Definitely Unqualified To Be A Dog Catcher Let Alone President Of The United States, And Somebody Who Has Never Ever Believed In The Rule Of Law”…..PapaMike

Jemima McEvoy Forbes Staff

TOPLINE

Former President Donald Trump early on in the Covid-19 pandemic floated the idea of sending infected American tourists to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, according to an excerpt of an upcoming book which adds new detail to the behind-the-scenes chaos of the Trump administration’s controversial pandemic response.

KEY FACTS

Don’t let them take your temperature on your forehead as you enter the supermarket because it erases your memory. I went for macaroni and cheese and came home with two cases of beer.   It’s a five minute walk from my house to the pub It’s a 35 minute walk from the pub to my house The difference is staggering   Turns out it was a marble in the ashtray… Today I saw a dwarf climbing down a prison wall. I thought to myself That’s a little condescending People who wonder whether the glass is half empty or half full are missing the point. The glass is refillable. * *They say every piece of chocolate eaten shortens your life by two minutes. I’ve done the math. Seems I died in 1537. I got myself a seniors’ GPS. Not only does it tell me how to get to my destination, it tells me why I wanted to go there.

Most people don’t think I’m as old as I am until they hear me stand up. Had I known in March that it was the last time I would be in a restaurant I would have ordered the dessert. I don’t always go the extra mile, but when I do it’s because I’ve missed my exit. ….and keep smilin

Last year, there was a Mensa convention in San Francisco.  Mensa, as you know, is a national organization for people who have an IQ of 140 or higher.

Several of the Mensa members went out for lunch at a local cafe.

When they sat down, one of them discovered that their salt shaker contained pepper, and their pepper shaker was full of salt.

How could they swap the contents of the two bottles without spilling any, and using only the implements at hand?

Clearly — this was a job for Mensa minds.

The group debated the problem and presented ideas and finally, came up with a brilliant solution involving a napkin, a straw, and an empty saucer.

They called the waitress over, ready to dazzle her with their solution:  “Ma’am,” they said,” we couldn’t help but notice that the pepper shaker contains salt and the salt shaker pepper.”

But before they could finish… the waitress interrupted.

“Oh — sorry about that.”

She leaned over the table, unscrewed the caps of both bottles and switched them.

There was dead silence at the Mensa table.

Kinda reminds ya of the government, doesn’t it?

Adam Andrzejewski  Senior Contributor

With the stroke of his pen Thursday, President Joe Biden signed legislation giving millions of federal employees Friday off to celebrate Saturday’s new federal holiday, Juneteenth.

This makes 44 paid days off for the average federal employee annually, which is nearly nine full weeks of paid-time off each year.

Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19 to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. The Civil War was America’s bloodiest war, with between 752,000 and 861,000 soldiers dying on the battlefield. 49 states have already recognized Juneteenth as a holiday (South Dakota is the only holdout), though only a handful give it as a paid holiday to state employees.

On Wednesday, the U.S. House passed the bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday, after the U.S. Senate passed it the day before.

Signing it into law on Thursday, Biden made Juneteenth – observed this year on Friday, June 18 — a federal holiday for which “most” federal employees will have off.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management tweeted Thursday that in observance of the federal holiday, “most federal employees will observe the holiday tomorrow, June 18”— since the 19th falls on Saturday this year.

There are about 2.1 million civilian federal employees, another 1.3 million active-duty military personnel, and more than 500,000 postal service employees.

Before Thursday, federal employees received pay for 10 federal holidays, 13 sick days and 20 vacation days per year on average. Our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com estimate these benefits cost taxpayers $22.6 billion annually.

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Texas is planning to an episode entitled: “Survivor, Texas-Style!”

The 8 contestants will all start in Dallas, 

then drive to Waco, Austin and San Antonio.
Then over to Houston and down to Brownsville.
They will proceed up to Del Rio, El Paso, Odessa, Midland, Lubbock and Amarillo.
From there they will go on to Abilene and Fort Worth. 

Finally back to Dallas.

Each will be driving a “pink” Prius with bumper stickers that read:
1 “I’m a Democrat”
2 “Amnesty for Illegals”
3 “I love the Dixie Chicks”
4 “Boycott Beef”
5 “I Voted for Biden”
6 “George Strait Sucks”
7 “Re-elect Biden in 2024” —– and
8 “I’m here to confiscate your guns”

The first one to make it back to Dallas, alive  WINS!!!!! 

God Bless Texas!!!!!

The Manhattan district attorney’s office appears to have entered the final stages of a criminal tax investigation into Donald J. Trump’s long-serving chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, setting up the possibility he could face charges this summer, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

In recent weeks, a grand jury has been hearing evidence about Mr. Weisselberg, who is facing intense scrutiny from prosecutors as they seek his cooperation with a broader investigation into Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization, the people with knowledge of the matter said. The prosecutors have obtained Mr. Weisselberg’s personal tax returns, the people said, providing the fullest picture yet of his finances.

Even as the investigation has heated up, it remains unclear whether the prosecutors will seek an indictment of Mr. Weisselberg, which would mark the first criminal charges stemming from the long-running financial fraud investigation into Mr. Trump and his family company.

The investigation into Mr. Weisselberg focuses partly on whether he failed to pay taxes on valuable benefits that Mr. Trump provided him and his family over the years, including apartments and leased cars as well as tens of thousands of dollars in private school tuition for at least one of his grandchildren. In general, those types of benefits are taxable, although there are some exceptions, and the rules can be murky.

For months, prosecutors working for District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., a Democrat, have sought to pressure Mr. Weisselberg into cooperating with their investigation into Mr. Trump, and any deal could turn the trusted executive into a star witness against the former president. For now, Mr. Weisselberg appears to have rebuffed Mr. Vance’s office and continues to work at the Trump Organization.

The district attorney’s office recently questioned Mr. Weisselberg’s top lieutenant, Jeffrey S. McConney, before a special grand jury hearing evidence in the Trump inquiry, people with knowledge of the matter have said. The testimony was the first sign that the grand jury was hearing evidence about Mr. Weisselberg.

When hoping to turn an insider into a cooperating witness, prosecutors often seek leverage over the person, and then typically offer leniency in exchange for testimony or assistance.

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