Catching Up on the News With Alex Schadenberg

First published on June 9, 2025 

Dear Friends:

I have very sad news. Stephen Mendelsohn, a disability leader, long-time opponent of assisted suicide, and member of the EPC-USA board, died on June 1 in an accident. Stephen followed the US state bills and updated leaders on news stories. He will be missed.

In late May, I had a speaking tour in British Columbia (BC) where I had engagements in Vernon, Kelowna, Salmon Arm, and Vancouver over four days. In Vancouver, I visited St. Paul’s Hospital to see the euthanasia clinic that was imposed on the hospital by the BC Ministry of Health. The euthanasia clinic was opened in January 2025.

Background: In June 2023, the euthanasia lobby was pressuring the BC government to force Catholic hospitals (Providence Health Care) to provide euthanasia. They used the story of Samantha O’Neill (34) who requested euthanasia at St. Paul’s. The hospital did not provide euthanasia; they transferred O’Neill to St. John Hospice (operated by Vancouver Coastal Health) and she died by euthanasia on April 4, 2023. In December 2023, based on the pressure from the euthanasia lobby, the BC government expropriated property from Providence Health (at St. Paul’s) to build a killing center.

Former Chinese Military Doctor Says CCP May Use Taiwanese Troops’ Organs in Event of War

Dr. Zheng Zhi [pictured right] warned people of the plan at a screening of the award-winning documentary, ‘State Organs,’ in Taiwan.

A former Chinese military doctor, who witnessed the Chinese communist regime’s forced harvesting of organs from a living person years ago, said Beijing had long made plans to take Taiwanese soldiers’ blood, skin, and organs in the event of a Taiwan invasion.

Dr. Zheng Zhi, a former Chinese military doctor currently living in exile in Canada, traveled to Taiwan for several screenings of the award-winning documentary “State Organs” from June 4 to 15, which features Zheng’s eyewitness account as a resident doctor in a Chinese military hospital.

While at the General Hospital of Shenyang Military Region in the 1990s, the Chinese military, known as the People’s Liberation Army, outlined a combat plan every year, he said at one screening event.

“Once a war breaks out in the Taiwan Strait, the greatest pressure for them will be on logistics support,” he said.

Millions of troops may be mobilized to the front line of the Taiwan Strait, including possibly 2 million to 3 million logistics personnel, he said.

He said that from the Chinese regime’s view, “the most difficult part of the logistics to supply the front is the storage, refrigeration, and transportation of blood, as many soldiers will be bleeding or burned in combat,” and “blood supply will become the biggest pressure.”

The Explosion of Myocarditis: Dr. McCullough's Vaccine Testimony

https://www.theblaze.com/shows/pat-gray-unleashed/vaccine-myocarditis-mccullough

Blaze TV Staff, 05/25/25.

In a Senate hearing this week about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. Peter McCullough detailed his experience as a cardiologist — and after the shots, it’s not a good one.

“The topic today is myocarditis or heart damage from the COVID-19 vaccines. I’m a cardiologist. I know the topic well. I’ve examined thousands of patients with this problem — thousands. Before the pandemic, I had two patients ever with this problem,” McCullough testified.

“There’s 1,065 papers in the peer-reviewed literature on COVID vaccine myocarditis, so let me summarize them for you,” McCullough continued. “The first author is Verma and colleagues. New England Journal of Medicine. Forty-two-year-old man comes into Washington University Hospital with vaccine myocarditis.”

“The infection is ruled out; it’s the vaccine. He’s in the hospital. This is one of the best hospitals in the United States. He died three days after taking Moderna. They can’t save him in the hospital,” he explains.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

https://www.dailywire.com/news/dont-need-dei-in-our-state-republicans-move-to-close-government-university-dei-offices

By Leif Le Mahieu

The Tennessee General Assembly sent two bills cracking down on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives to Republican Governor Bill Lee’s desk on Tuesday as the legislative session came to a close.

One bill would ban publicly funded universities and state and local governments from maintaining DEI offices, while the other bill would prohibit those same entities from making hiring decisions based on race. Both bills passed with overwhelming Republican support.

“DEI violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson said on Tuesday. “We don’t need DEI in our state, Mr. Speaker. We need to hire people and promote people based on their merit. Diversity is a wonderful thing and it will happen. But we’re not going to make diversity the number one objective when we’re trying to serve our constituents and hire good people to take care of our constituents. It will be based on qualifications and merit.”

Lawmakers Pass Bill Barring Discipline Against Students Who Refuse to Use Peers’ Preferred Names, Pronouns

The Montana Senate on Friday cast the final vote approving a bill restricting public schools from taking action against students or staff who decline to use the preferred names or pronouns of other individuals — a move supporters have framed as a protection against compelled speech but opponents have criticized as damaging to transgender students. The controversial proposal now passes to Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte for his signature or veto.

House Bill 400, sponsored by Rep. Braxton Mitchell, R-Columbia Falls, has sparked considerable debate since it first appeared in the House Judiciary Committee in mid-February. Mitchell initially pitched the measure, which he titled the “Free to Speak Act,” as a protection of free speech rights in public K-12 schools. The bill would prevent individuals from facing disciplinary action for refusing to use the preferred name or pronoun of another and grant a person legal recourse for any punitive steps taken against them for using the non-preferred names or pronouns. HB 400 extends those same provisions to state employees as well.

The proposal drew support from conservative-leaning organizations including the Montana Family Foundation, but sparked strong pushback from public education advocates concerned about the effects HB 400 would have on educators’ ability to address bullying and harassment among students. It advanced on largely party-line votes through the House chamber and then the Senate Judiciary Committee before landing on the Senate floor April 10.

Bolt Out of the Blue: United Nations Committee Calls for Canada to Repeal Track 2 of its Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia Program.

By Ian McIntosh

This report comes in large part owing to the exceptional work done by Inclusion Canada -years in the making – who first issued this Press Release to announce this monumental news:

On Wednesday March 26, 2025, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities released a set of recommendations calling on the government of Canada to repeal Track 2 of its assisted suicide and euthanasia program. Specifically, Canada’s 2021 amendment to its Criminal Code that expanded through Bill C-7, which expanded eligibility passed promised safeguards.

Track 2 of the Canadian assisted suicide and euthanasia program allows people with disabilities (“grievous and irremediable medical condition”) whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable to request assisted suicide or euthanasia.

Arguing against the very premise of Track 2, the report notes that the Canadian federal government,”…did not challenge the Quebec Truchon decision which fundamentally changes the whole premise of medical assistance in dying when natural death is reasonably foreseeable to a new program that establishes medically assisted dying for persons with disabilities based on negative, ableist perceptions of the quality and value of the life of persons with disabilities, including that ‘suffering’ is intrinsic to disability rather than the fact that inequality and discrimination cause and compound ‘suffering’ for persons with disabilities.”

New York Times: Diane Coleman has Died

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/us/diane-coleman-dead.html?smid=url-share

By Clay Risen, published 11/20/2024, updated 11/22/24

Diane Coleman, a fierce advocate for disability rights who took on Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the right-to-die movement and the U.S. health care system, which she charged was responsible for devaluing the lives of Americans like her with physical and mental impairments, died on Nov. 1 at her home in Rochester, N.Y. She was 71. [Diane pictured right with sign stating "freedom rider"]

Her sister Catherine Morrison said the cause was sepsis. 

Ms. Coleman was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a disorder that affected her motor neurons. She was using a wheelchair by 11, and doctors expected her to die before adulthood.

Former NCAA Hurdler Demands "Stolen" Championship Be Returned After She Was Defeated by Male Athlete

Andrew Chapados, March 19, 2025

Minna Svärd says the president's executive order regarding men in women's sports does not go far enough.

Former track and field athlete Minna Svärd is asking the NCAA to award her a 2019 victory that she says was "stolen" by a male athlete participating in the women's division.

Svärd raced for East Texas A&M University in 2019 in the women's 400-meter hurdles and was the fastest female at any NCAA Division II school.

Svärd wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal and participated in subsequent interviews regarding a race at the NCAA championships where she posted a time of 59.21 seconds. Unfortunately, a male athlete named CeCe Telfer was also in that race, and with a time of 57.53, beat her by 1.68 seconds.

"It's been five years since that honor was stolen from me," Svärd wrote. "I want it back."

The Swedish athlete also revealed in an interview with Megyn Kelly that Telfer was allegedly ranked 390th in men's competitions before becoming the top female hurdler less than two years later. The male towered over his competition at events, dwarfing female athletes in side-by-side comparisons that made footage a travesty to watch.

Don’t Listen To The Emotional Blackmail Arguments Against Pardoning Derek Chauvin

https://www.dailywire.com/news/dont-listen-to-the-emotional-blackmail-arguments-against-pardoning-derek-chauvin

By Matt Walsh, 03/10/25

A couple of months ago we discussed once again the travesty of justice that was the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin [pictured right] . This was a trial that was conducted just down the street from ground-zero of the BLM riots of 2020, which destroyed Minneapolis’ police precinct, caused $500 million in damage to more than 1,500 businesses, and resulted in several deaths. We’re talking about the single most destructive riot in United States history, after the Los Angeles riots of 1992. And it happened in the same place where Derek Chauvin’s trial was being held. But the judge — who later declared that “every case is about racial justice” in some way — didn’t move the trial to a different venue. Instead, he made sure that Chauvin’s fate was determined by jurors who knew well that their city would burn to the ground if they didn’t convict. They had security fencing and National Guard troops all around the courthouse throughout the trial, just in case that message wasn’t clear.

And those jurors did exactly what you’d expect them to do, under those circumstances. They convicted Chauvin without even addressing the question of whether he had actually killed George Floyd. The jurors admitted it on CNN; they simply decided that Chauvin didn’t express enough concern for Floyd’s well-being. That was how they rationalized it. For their part, prosecutors repeatedly lied to the jury about the level of fentanyl in Floyd’s system at the time of his death. Specifically, prosecutors compared blood samples taken from Floyd before he was pronounced dead, to samples taken from overdose victims long after their deaths. And they pulled this off without the defense team noticing it. Their goal was clear: They wanted to downplay the sheer amount of fentanyl in Floyd’s system, which was well over a lethal dose. 

Autopen' Used on Official Docs Throughout Biden Presidency — including on Pardons while he Vacationed: Report

Joseph Mackinnon, 03/10/25

Missouri AG Andrew Bailey [pictured right] has requested that the Justice Department investigate the legality of Biden's presidential orders.

The Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project revealed Thursday that Joe Biden's signature on numerous executive orders, pardons, and other documents of national consequence appears to have been machine-generated.

Oversight Project Executive Director Mike Howell told Blaze News, "The main legal question here is who was the president over the last four years. That's what we are aiming to uncover. The prolific use of autopen by the Biden White House was an instrument to hide the truth from the American people as to who was running the government."

Modern Day Redcoats

Allen West pictured left, 03/04/25

Our great Constitutional Republic is about to enter into an incredible historic moment, its 250th anniversary of independence. Now, to many Countries across the globe that is just a drop in the bucket. But when one considers the great strides and achievements that these United States of America have made in 250 years, it is unbelievable. It is also rather unconscionable that the cultural Marxists of the progressive socialist left would disavow the Nation’s founding and history with such absurdities as the 1619 Project.

I remember America’s 200th birthday ... I was just a 15-year-old kid growing up in Atlanta. It was a moment of pride, and as I prepare for the 250th, it is a time of even greater pride. However, before we get to July 4, 1776, American Independence Day, just so you know, the Republican Party of Texas was founded by 150 Black men on American Independence Day, 1867. It was just two years after they had found out that they were free, June 19, 1865.

But, there is an even more important 250th anniversary that is approaching within two months. It is the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, where our American Revolution began. As part of my growth as an American Patriot, I will be in Lexington on Saturday, 19 April to be a part of the remembrance. I am especially looking forward to running the 111th Annual Lexington Five Miler which is part of the celebration of “the shot fired heard ’round the world.” Imagine that, the kid born in the inner city of Atlanta, Georgia, in a segregated, Blacks-only hospital, will be running a five mile race on the day 250 years ago, almost to the exact time, when men stood against the greatest military power the world knew at that time.

Bernie Moreno Wants to Give American Car Buyers Their Freedom Back

Lauren Fix, 03/05/25

https://www.theblaze.com/align/bernie-moreno-wants-to-give-american-car-buyers-their-freedom-back

The former car dealership owner has had enough of the EV mandate — and many Americans agree.

Finally — a politician who knows something about the car business.

I'm talking about Sen. Bernie Moreno [pictured above], an Ohio Republican who spent decades building a car dealership empire. That experience has led him to introduce legislation that would repeal emissions rules and give tax breaks to car manufacturers.

'Thanks to liberal bureaucrats who want to mandate what cars Americans can drive, states like mine are riddled with car lots filled with expensive EVs people simply don’t want.'

Moreno, along with a few other GOP senators, introduced bill S.711 — named the Transportation Freedom Act — to the floor on February 25, 2025.

This bill would repeal the multi-pollutant emissions standards for light-duty and medium-duty vehicles, repeal the next phase of heavy-duty vehicle greenhouse gas emissions standards; and repeal the Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules.

Teen Girl Faces Probe for ‘Misgendering’ Male Basketball Player

Frances Staudt is a sophomore in the Tumwater School District. During warmups she realized that a player on the opposing team happened to be a boy.

She alerted her coach and was told there was nothing they could do because state polices ban gender identity-based discrimination.

Frances withdrew from the game and was forced to watch from the sidelines. Watch my interview with Frances and her mother below.

“I should not have to give up everything that me and other girls have worked for just to let a boy play,” Frances told me. “And it is unsafe. Boys and girls are different on many levels of reasons, and they’re created differently. And so it’s an unsafe advantage. And that is not right.”

The school district is now investigating the teenager over charges that she misgendered the male player.

Death to DEI: The Real Reason Woke Policies Exist

Erik Carlson Mar 04, 2025

It is important to understand that many of the people who create, promote and fund movements and policies such as DEI, BLM, the Climate Change and LGBTQ+ agendas may not have the same goals, beliefs or values as the people who simply adhere to and support these types of movements and policies at a foot soldier level.

Many who follow and support these movements do so in good faith and believe that these movements and policies were created to do good, to provide a level playing field for people they believe are marginalized or victimized. Many people believe they are making the world a better place through adherence to these policies.

One Friday afternoon each month, to this day, I drive by a group of older white people at a busy intersection on my way home from work. In a very diverse, yet non-black area, they hold up BLM signs to the drivers passing by in the hopes of getting a reaction. I just roll my eyes at them when I drive by. They try to elicit honks and waves; they seem to crave attention; in my opinion, it somehow makes them feel better about themselves. Perhaps it washes away their white liberal boomer guilt.

Again, in my opinion, these particular people believe they are making a difference.

Kennedy Hits Pause on COVID Vaccine Project Worth Hundreds of Millions

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/kennedy-hits-pause-covid-vaccine-project-hhs/?utm_id=20250302

by Brenda Baletti, Ph.D., 02/26/25

Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. put the brakes on a multi-million dollar contract with the American biotech company Vaxart to create a new COVID-19 vaccine, Fox News Digital reported.

Kennedy on Feb. 21 issued a 90-day stop-work order on the contract until HHS determines whether it is “prudent and safe” to continue. The order came just as the next phase of the company’s clinical trial, involving 10,000 participants, was set to start on Monday.

In this phase of the trial, the company is planning to test the efficacy of its vaccine against existing mRNA vaccines, bypassing a placebo-controlled assessment.

EXMNA Insights: History Complicates the Idea of Islam as a Liberating Force for Black Americans

Malcom X & Muhammad Ali pictured right.*

The Nation of Islam (NOI), in its rejection of the names imposed by white slave owners, encouraged its members to abandon their "slave names" and replace their surnames with "X"—a symbol of their lost African heritage. Yet, in a striking twist of irony, many then adopted Arabic names that directly translate to "slave" in another context. Names like Abdul (slave of), Abdullah (slave of Allah), Abid (slave/worshipper), and Abida (female slave/worshipper) became common among converts, unwittingly reinforcing the very concept of servitude they sought to escape.

This contradiction underscores the deep complexity of identity reclamation among African Americans navigating religious and cultural self-definition. The NOI’s emphasis on Islam as an alternative to Christianity, which they viewed as the "white man’s religion," led many to embrace Arabic and Islamic traditions without fully reckoning with their historical implications. Arabic-speaking societies, including Muslim-majority regions, were deeply involved in the trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean slave trades, including directly capturing and selling slaves to the West. The term abeed (slaves, plural of abd or slave) is still used in Arab popular vernacular to refer to Black Africans.

Thus, the effort to sever ties with European oppression led to the adoption of another linguistic and historical framework, which carries the same subjugating connotations. The rejection of "Johnson" or "Smith" in favor of "Abdullah" or "Abdul Rahman" represents not an escape from servitude, but rather a tragic exchange—one more recent oppressor’s legacy for a prior oppressor. The true liberation they sought might have required a deeper interrogation of both Western and Eastern historical narratives. 

A Lesson on Why Washington Does Not Function

By Allen West

Yes, I know, I spent one term in the US Congress. Republicans, namely one Florida State Senator Don Gaetz, determined it was prudent to redistrict out the first Black Republican Member of Congress from Florida since Reconstruction. 

After all, why have a strong Black conservative Congressional Representative, retired Army officer, who honored his oath to the Constitution? And, who was unafraid to speak the truth? Combat does that to a person, regardless of who feigned indignation. I recall sending a letter to the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Hal Rogers of Kentucky, asking him about the priority of the (12) Appropriations Bills necessary to create a spending budget. Silly Freshman member of the House of Representatives, how dare you inquire such folly from a senior member of the body? And so I never heard back from Chairman Rogers.

See, per the Constitution, Congress is mandated to pass a budget each year, and they fail to do so repeatedly. Somehow, they, regardless of political party, always seem to fall short, and we hear words such as Continuing Resolution, meaning spending levels will continue. Then, all of a sudden, at the end of the year, when folks are focused on Christmas, Congress comes up with something called an Omnibus spending bill. It is normally the 3,000+ pages of gobbledygook, I call it a spending gumbo, and it passes with no one really reading it.

Therefore, appropriations bills are never passed as they should be. There is no priority for the appropriations bills. And the result is that wasteful spending continues, with added spending.