On June 22, Scott Smith was charged with disorderly conduct at Loudoun County’s school board meeting. Smith had attended the meeting in hopes of sharing the story of his daughter’s alleged rape, which he said happened when a boy wearing a skirt entered the girls’ locker room in a Loudoun County school.

When an LGBT activist told Smith his daughter was a liar, a shouting match ensued. Then, an officer grabbed his shoulder, Smith pulled away and a physical altercation took place ending with the father’s arrest.

All of this happened before he could tell his daughter’s story to the school board as they deliberated over transgender inclusion in women’s bathrooms.

The motion was later passed.

Smith’s attorney wasn’t worried about the charges; she even told The Daily Wire (subscription required) she was “sure the charges would be dropped.”

Woman Endures Horror on Philadelphia Train as Bystanders Watched and Did Nothing, Police Say

Enter Loudoun County’s lead prosecutor, Buta Biberaj.

Despite the unremarkable nature of Smith’s case, Biberaj showed up personally to prosecute him. She sought jail time against Smith.

“It is incredibly unusual for a disorderly conduct case to even go forward. The idea that they would actually be seeking jail time, I’d guess in my 15 years the number of times I’ve seen that happen would be zero,” Smith’s attorney told The Daily Wire.

“It would be completely unheard of for the prosecutor to handle a misdemeanor.”

Is the left destroying America’s legal system?

In fact, Biberaj appears to be a member of what one Heritage Foundation report refers to as the “rogue prosecutors movement,” a campaign made up of progressive prosecutors across the country — funded by left-wing billionaire George Soros — aimed at “promoting the fundamental transformation of our criminal justice system.”

“They brazenly usurp the constitutional role of the legislative branch by refusing to prosecute entire categories of crime, abuse the role of the county prosecutor, fail to protect victims of crime, and ignore the rising crime rates that flow from their radical policies,” the authors of the report wrote.

The Loudoun County lead prosecutor has certainly received funding from Soros.

Biberaj won the office in a 2019 election, after she received $845,000 in campaign funds from Soros, according to The Daily Wire.

Soros Behind Activists Who Followed Sinema Into Bathroom, Harassed Her for Betraying Biden

Her Republican opponent spent a total of $113,000, The Daily Wire reported.

So, again, why would Biberaj go against her usual agenda of leniency when it came to Smith?

She’s a Soros-funded political operative with the goal of using her position not to punish criminals, but rather to forward left-wing politics.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee last week awarded Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

While Ressa and Muratov’s work exposing their respective oppressive regimes should be applauded, there was a better choice for this year’s prize. Namely, the parties behind the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords, where Israel normalized ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.

The prize should have been shared between former President Donald Trump, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Emirati President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Sudanese Sovereign Council Chairman Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and Moroccan King Mohammed VI.

The accords were the first nation-to-nation Middle East peace deals in 25 years. Moreover, they mark an evolving Middle East. One that recognizes Iran, not Israel, as the greatest threat in the region. One that pursues a better, common future above the animosity and blood of the past. Other countries, including Saudi Arabia, have hinted at joining the accords.

The historic scale of the accords should not be underestimated.

Sudan was the home of the 1967 Khartoum Resolution, which included the three no’s: no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, and no negotiations with it. Well, today, the three no’s have become three yeses. They have unlocked countless economic, religious , security, social, and other opportunities between Israel and Muslim countries.

The outside-in approach of having Mideast countries normalize ties with Israel, as opposed to Mideast peace being contingent on Israeli-Palestinian peace, is a playbook that will be used in the future even if the Palestinians refuse to make peace with Israel.

Middle East peace should have been rewarded this year. Otherwise, why name it a peace prize?

Jackson Richman is a journalist in Washington, D.C. Follow him @jacksonrichman.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/why-didnt-the-abraham-accords-win-the-nobel-peace-prize

Former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit on Monday in a Washington D.C. court against the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol incident and against the National Archives in a bid to keep his presidential records classified, citing executive privilege.

Trump’s court filing, namely, argues (pdf) that the committee’s records request is too broad and doesn’t serve any legislative purpose.

“The Committee’s request amounts to nothing less than a vexatious, illegal fishing expedition openly endorsed by [President Joe] Biden and designed to unconstitutionally investigate President Trump and his administration,” the lawsuit said. “Our laws do not permit such an impulsive, egregious action against a former President and his close advisors.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), one of the chairs of the House select committee, and the national archivist, David Ferriero, were also named as defendants in the lawsuit.

“In cases like this, where a committee has declined to grant sufficient time to conduct a full review,” Trump’s court filing said, “there is a longstanding bipartisan tradition of protective assertions of executive privilege designed to ensure the ability of the Executive to make a final assertion, if necessary, over some or all of the requested material.”

The Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional should it be “read so broadly as to allow an incumbent President unfettered discretion to waive the previous President’s executive privilege, mere months following an administration change,” according to the lawsuit. The committee is seeking potentially millions of presidential records, including presidential conversations and communications with lawyers.

The lawsuit was filed by Jesse Binnall, who had represented Trump in a Nevada election-related lawsuit filed last year.

Subpoenas for documents and testimony were issued by the Jan. 6 committee against several former Trump administration aides. Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon publicly vowed not to comply with the congressional demands.

After Bannon’s comment, Biden said that the Department of Justice should prosecute him if he continues to defy the subpoenas. However, a Justice Department spokesman rebuked his claim, saying it will “make its own independent decisions in all prosecutions based solely on the facts and the law. Period. Full stop.”

It comes days after White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the Biden administration would not allow Trump to assert executive privilege to block the request from the House committee.

“The president has determined an assertion of executive privilege isn’t warranted for the first set of documents from the Trump White House that have been provided to us by the National Archives,” Psaki said on Oct. 8, adding that more troves of documents could be evaluated on a “case-by-case basis.”

The National Archives is reportedly scheduled to hand over the Trump administration documents next month.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-sues-house-jan-6-committee-national-archives_4055692.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

A former state senator shared his concerns over the influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in California and how he became a “terrorist” to the Chinese government for advocating for human rights.

Joel Anderson, a San Diego County Supervisor and former state senator and assemblyman, said he was prohibited from entering China after he issued a recognition acknowledging the anniversary of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice composed of meditative exercises and moral teachings originating in China in 1992.

“I got a six-page letter from the Chinese government saying that I was now considered a terrorist, and if I go to China that I will be arrested and sentenced,” Anderson said during an interview with EpochTV’s “California Insider” program.

Anderson said he began looking into the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners after one of his constituents sent in a letter requesting him to rescue her mother, a U.S. citizen who practices Falun Gong, who was arrested in China for her beliefs.

Anderson said he was shocked when he learned about the CCP’s organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners.

“They were being harvested like cattle to sell their body parts to tourists who are on medical tourism,” he said.

Anderson found there were already five countries that have stopped all medical tourism to China.

“Because you could literally order a kidney, a lung, any body part you wanted, and you could show up and have the surgery,” he said.

The average wait time for patients who need a kidney transplant is between three and five years in the United States, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

“It’s wrong. It violates every human right,” he said.

Anderson later proposed a bill expressing support for Falun Gong practitioners in the United States and China.

After its proposal in 2017, the Chinese consulate in San Francisco sent a letter to members of the state legislature, denouncing Falun Gong and claiming the bill might “deeply damage the cooperative relations between the State of California and China, and seriously hurt the feeling of Chinese people and the vast Chinese community in California.”

After receiving the letter, many legislators no longer supported the resolution, including those who co-authored it.

Then-Senate Pro Tem Kevin de León, who now is a Los Angeles city councilman, shelved the bill without a vote or discussion.

Anderson said a similar resolution had been proposed three times in Congress, and some congressmen from California supported it, but legislators from the same districts refused to go near it after receiving the letter.

“It was shocking to me that the Chinese government had so much influence in our state,” he said.

Anderson said that many residents and politicians at the local level don’t understand the CCP’s influence in California because the Chinese regime is only interested in cities that exert a greater impact in society in relation to economy and politics.

“The influence of the Chinese consulate in San Franscico is overwhelming and is well known,” he said.

Anderson praised former President Donald Trump for being the first president to stand up to China and its hegemony as well as its influence throughout the world.

“Sadly, once he left the office, the new administration has embraced this and allowed them greater latitude, and I have great fear,” he said.

Anderson encouraged Americans to write to their legislators and ask them to call on China to stop the genocide against people of faith.

“California is an incredible state with wonderful resources. If we want to be the leaders we say we are, then our actions have to reflect it,” he said. “All I’m asking is that they stand up and be consistent with their policies and hold China to the same standard that they hold Texas.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/former-senator-explains-the-chinese-communist-partys-influence-in-california_4055396.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

“Anarchist” rioters, commemorating an activist’s death, rampaged through downtown Portland, Oregon, last week causing nearly half a million dollars in damages, but police say they were powerless to control the mob because of a new law that restricts the use of tear gas, pepper spray, and other items typically deployed to control unruly crowds.

“A group of about 100 demonstrators broke windows and left graffiti scrawled on downtown Portland buildings Tuesday night at the end of a gathering commemorating the anniversary of a local activist’s death,” The Oregonian reported over the weekend. “Police eventually declared the event an unlawful assembly, according to social media posts from the demonstration, after some people lit fires in the street and set off fireworks.”

“No arrests have been made and investigations are underway,” according to law enforcement sources that spoke to the outlet. “The damage is believed to be over $500,000, and 35 separate locations were targeted, including banks, retail stores, coffee shops, and government buildings, according to police, who referred to the demonstrators as ‘anarchists.’”

The Daily Mail also noted that the event, planned by the activist’s mother in order to protest the year-long investigation that has so far produced no results, was billed as “not a peaceful event” and “a night of rage and anger.”

Shocking photos of the damage rolled in to social media late last week.

Press Release: Anarchists Damage Businesses Downtown, Investigations Underway (Photo)
Link: https://t.co/0D7Kmzcua2 pic.twitter.com/sSRO9YAR8W

— Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) October 13, 2021

Portland police ultimately handled the riot, but law enforcement told local media that their options were limited by a state law that limits how police can respond to disorderly conduct.

“Lt. Jake Jensen with the Portland Police Bureau joined the Pearl District Neighborhood Association meeting Thursday night on the heels of widespread vandalism in the area,” Portland’s KOIN reported last week. “Jensen said House Bill 2928 is the reason officers aren’t directly intervening as vandals damage downtown Portland property.”

“The reason that we did not intervene goes back to what we talked about last month with HB 2928 and the restrictions placed on us in a crowd control environment,” Jenson told the meeting. “That’s the way our legislature has said we need to operate in a crowd control environment. So that’s the way we are going to operate in a crowd control environment.”

HB 2928 largely bars the use of tear gas, pepper spray, and non-lethal ammunition, which police had previously been using to control crowds of rioters. The law applies to all law enforcement agencies in the state of Oregon.

“The fact of the matter is without being able to use pepper spray, without being able to use our 40mm less-lethal devices in that kind of environment, it really prevents us from having access to the tools we need in large part to keep ourselves safe,” Jensen said.

One resident asked Jensen whether Portland was now a “lawless city,” but Jensen assured neighbors that rioters who do major damage will still face repercussions, but that justice will likely be delayed until an investigation can be completed.

“In these cases, the consequences are going to come not on the night of, but in the follow-up investigation,” he said.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/anti-fascist-rioters-tear-through-portland-and-cause-500k-in-damage-cops-say-new-law-restricting-response-leaves-them-powerless?itm_source=parsely-api&utm_source=cnemail&utm_medium=email

Former police chief Chris Magnus in 2020 rejected federal grant for border towns

President Joe Biden’s pick to lead Customs and Border Protection, while working as police chief in Tucson, Ariz., rejected funding for a border security program championed by the Obama administration, the latest example of the White House’s commitment to undo years of immigration policy once thought of as a consensus between Democrats and Republicans.

Chris Magnus, a champion of softer policing tactics, rejected a federal grant in January 2020 that assisted border towns, arguing the program, first implemented by the Bush administration in 2006, was inconsistent with the Tucson Police Department’s priorities “and the expectation of the community we serve.”

His opposition to the grant was partially rooted in the Trump administration’s refusal to let Tucson spend part of the grant money on humanitarian aid. Magnus’s request went far beyond the parameters of the program, called Operation Stonegarden, which “funds investments in joint efforts to secure the United States’ borders.” A description of the latest iteration of the program under the Biden administration does not say whether funds may be used for medical treatment or housing illegal immigrants.

Operation Stonegarden was championed by former president Barack Obama, who injected millions more dollars into the program than was allocated by the Bush administration as part of a broader effort to deter narcotics trafficking and cartel violence. Former Department of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano called the grants “critical” and said they would “ensure that our first responders are equipped with the resources they need to confront the complex and dynamic challenges that exist along our borders.”

As the southern border sees a record number of crossings, the Biden administration remains committed to liberalizing the nation’s immigration system with a range of new policies, including relaxed asylum rules, stricter deportation protocols, and fewer raids against suspected illegal immigrants. Magnus appears prepared to oversee these policies. In 2017, he wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times that he was “deeply troubled” by the Trump administration’s opposition to local sanctuary policies, a practice by Democrat-controlled cities that sharply limits cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Magnus’s decision to reject the funds in 2020 sparked outrage from his own department, with the Tucson Police Officers Association calling the decision “bad for public safety in our community.”

“The Stonegarden deployments have resulted in hundreds of arrests that would not have occurred without this federal money. Additionally, the Stonegarden deployments have taken countless guns and drugs off the streets of Tucson,” the association’s president, Tony Archibald, said at the time. “Without these federally funded overtime deployments, an already understaffed police department will have a hard time addressing these crime issues.”

Toward the end of his second term, Obama instituted a policy that denied Department of Justice grants to any jurisdiction that refused to enforce federal immigration law. His Justice Department also released a rule in February 2016 that made it harder for sanctuary cities to help illegal aliens in federal custody avoid deportation.

That move was applauded by Republicans, with former Texas representative John Culberson (R.) saying he was “deeply grateful.”

Biden reversed the Obama-era policy and his Justice Department has sought dismissal of any Supreme Court cases concerning sanctuary cities.

On the campaign trail, Biden chided his former boss for overseeing a “long-broken and chaotic” immigration system. In a debate with former president Donald Trump, he said the Obama administration “made a mistake” by deporting hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens. He promised to make amnesty a centerpiece of his administration.

Last month, Obama granted an interview to ABC News where he offered veiled criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the migrant crisis. As thousands of Haitian migrants were stranded under a bridge on Del Rio, Texas, the former president said the scene was a “painful reminder that we don’t have this right yet and we’ve got more work to do,” before rejecting the idea of open borders as “unsustainable.”

“And the question is now: Are we gonna get serious about dealing with this problem in a systemic way, as opposed to these one-offs where we’re constantly reacting to emergencies?” Obama said. “And I think that that’s something that every American should wanna put an end to.”

Magnus’s confirmation hearing will be held in the Senate Finance Committee on Oct. 19.

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/biden-cbp-nominee-obama-immigration/

High-paid Atlanta officials simultaneously collected taxpayer-funded salaries, consulting fees

A pair of highly paid Atlanta government employees took hundreds of hours of paid time off to consult for Sen. Raphael Warnock’s (D., Ga.) political campaign, a double dip that saw them rake in nearly $100,000.

According to campaign finance records, Phillana Williams and Erica Pines received a combined $97,500 from Warnock during the Georgia Senate runoff elections. Williams and Pines held six-figure salary jobs with the city of Atlanta throughout the election period, during which the operatives took a combined 297 hours in paid vacation time, payroll records provided by the city of Atlanta show.

The move allowed Williams and Pines to minimize their public service responsibilities as they raked in lucrative payments from taxpayers and the Warnock campaign. A veteran Georgia political operative told the Washington Free Beacon that while congressional staffers often take time off “to lend a hand in the closing weeks of their boss’s campaign,” that time is unpaid.

“The employee of an unrelated and nonpartisan public office taking paid leave to make a buck on Warnock’s campaign is a bad look for everyone involved,” the operative said.

Williams, Pines, and Warnock did not return requests for comment.

Williams, who still serves as director of marketing and strategy in Atlanta’s Office of Entertainment, took 24 vacation leave days from Nov. 23, 2020, to Jan. 6, 2021—a total of 192 hours, City Records show. She went on to receive $62,500 from Warnock’s campaign on Jan. 26 through her consulting company, the Phillana Factor. In addition to her work with Warnock, Williams took $65,000 in combined payments for consulting work on President Joe Biden and Sen. Jon Ossoff’s (D., Ga.) campaigns.

From Oct. 24, 2020, to Jan. 15, 2021, meanwhile, Pines took 105 hours of “scheduled” paid time off from her role as Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) senior director. During that time, she received $35,000 from the Warnock campaign through Sweet Tea Consulting, an LLC that Pines did not establish with the state of Georgia until late June, according to Business Records.

The paid time off proved fruitful for Pines—she submitted her Letter Of Resignation to MARTA’s chief of staff in April, writing “it is time for me to leap full time into political consulting.”

At the state government level, Georgia’s State Personnel Board prohibits employees from “directing, managing, controlling, or participating in a political campaign for state office.” As city officials working on federal campaigns, however, Williams and Pines are not bound by that law.

Williams and Pines were not the only local government employees Warnock hired as political consultants. The Democrat also paid more than $75,000 to DeKalb County director of external affairs Meredith Lilly through her LLC, Love Strategies. The payments came after Lilly requested an unpaid leave of absence for “personal reasons” from Nov. 23, 2020, to Jan. 5, 2021, County Records obtained by the Free Beacon show.

Warnock has a long history with Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D.). Warnock served on the Democrat’s transition team in 2018—Bottoms later faced criticism when she used taxpayer funds to pay campaign aides for transition work before she took office, a move that “circumvented normal city hiring processes and broke with longstanding political practice,” according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Just months into her tenure, Bottoms appointed Warnock’s then-wife as the city’s “senior human trafficking fellow,” which also drew a six-figure salary.

Warnock defeated former Republican senator Kelly Loeffler by roughly 2 points in January. He is expected to face Republican challenger Herschel Walker in 2022.

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/local-govt-employees-took-hundreds-of-hours-of-paid-time-off-to-elect-warnock-docs-show/

Mental health professionals are no substitute for the police, city lawmakers learn

The Alexandria, Va., public school system learned a quick lesson in cause and effect: Fewer cops means more crime.

In May, driven by concerns of the “school to prison pipeline,” the lawmakers voted to remove police from Alexandria’s public schools. Last week, local lawmakers convened an emergency session and voted to reinstate armed school resource officers, at least until the end of the year, after a student brought a loaded gun into Alexandria City High School.

Those who attended the city council meeting to debate bringing back the cops on campus recounted horrifying stories. One student shared a video of her brother getting beaten in the middle of the school day. He ended up in the hospital and is now scared to return to class.

“He said that he’s actually really scared to die,” the student said of her brother. “He’s thought about even bringing pepper spray in school because he just feels that it’s a need.”

Alexandria is a microcosm of what is transpiring nationwide. Schools around the country face a crisis of on-campus violence, with a September survey indicating that threats of violence between students surged 104 percent in the 2020-2021 school year. The rise coincides with school districts across the country, including in major cities such as Los Angeles, voting to remove police from schools.

A year ago many parents were begging schools to open their doors. Now they’re begging left-wing lawmakers to let their kids actually learn without fear of violence. Back to basics.

Such is a familiar pattern for the left. Only after confronted with the grim reality of their pro-crime policies do they finally relent and drop the academic jargon about how cops are somehow responsible for violence.

The decision to remove police from schools came from the top. President Joe Biden ran on ending “the school to prison pipeline“—an activist mantra that really means he’s willing to sacrifice the safety and wellbeing of public school students to coddle thugs and criminals who express little interest in learning. And he assured us that doubling the number of “mental health professionals” would serve as a better deterrent for violence than simply enforcing the law.

The president—and his acolytes in Alexandria—are wrong, and starting with next month’s gubernatorial race in Virginia, voters must decide whether they’re willing to trade the safety of our children for idealistic liberal policy proposals.

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/democrats-learn-a-lesson-on-school-safety-in-virginia/

Yale Law School professor: “Please correct the record — I would not want to have to do it for you.”

Yale Law School dean Heather Gerken on Monday promised an investigation into the controversy surrounding Trent Colbert, the second-year law student and Federalist Society member who sent a lighthearted email inviting classmates to his “trap house.”

Gerken vowed not to “act on the basis of partial facts reported out in a charged media environment”—though dozens of primary-source documents corroborating the incident have emerged—and announced that Yale Law School deputy dean Ian Ayres would “assess the situation” and “help us think how best to move forward.”

It is unclear whether administrators will issue an apology for their conduct along the lines of the one they drafted for Colbert, as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has proposed.

Yale Law School told the Washington Free Beacon that Ayres’s investigation would not result in any further action against Colbert. “As our statement last week made clear, this is protected speech,” said Debra Krozner, the law school’s managing director of public affairs. “It will not lead to any action against the student.”

Gerken’s announcement comes in the wake of widespread outrage over the administration’s aggressive handling of the incident and its tendentious response to news reports about it, including from two prominent Yale Law professors who lambasted the university’s official statement.

That earlier statement, released Oct. 13 in the wake of a Free Beacon report about the process to which Colbert had been subjected, denied that the second-year law student faced “any disciplinary investigation” or action over his email.

The denial sparked fierce blowback from two Yale Law School professors who lambasted the dishonesty of their own university. One of those professors, corporate legal scholar Roberta Romano, threatened to “correct the record” if the law school did not do so itself. The administration’s actions toward Colbert, Romano wrote Krozner, are “in direct and total conflict with what you stated,” noting that the school’s diversity director had made “a sly threat” about the student’s career.

“Please correct the record,” she added. “I would not want to have to do it for you.”

Another Yale Law professor, who asked to remain anonymous, said the initial statement was “appallingly disingenuous and full of falsehoods.” Yale Law School “stated ‘no student is investigated or sanctioned for protected speech,'” the professor told the Free Beacon. “It’s hard to square that statement with the Dean of Student Affairs summoning a student for questioning in response to allegations by other students, with the Diversity Director ominously warning the student that if he doesn’t apologize his admission to the bar could be threatened, or with the Law School sending a message to the entire second-year class condemning the student’s email as ‘racist.’ If all that isn’t an ‘investigation,’ then it’s even worse—a pronouncement of guilt without investigation.”

The outrage has bubbled over into other elite universities. Keith Whittington, a legal theorist at Princeton and a member of the Academic Freedom Alliance, said Yale Law’s actions were “highly inappropriate and completely incompatible with maintaining a free speech culture in a law school.”

“There is no question that such actions send a chilling message across the student body and convey clearly that the law school is a hostile environment for conservative students,” Whittington told the Free Beacon.

The imbroglio started when Colbert, a member of the Native American Students Association and the Federalist Society, invited classmates to a happy hour cohosted by the two groups. In a Sept. 15 email, he announced that Popeyes chicken would be served at his “trap house,” a slang term for a place where people buy drugs.

The message elicited nine discrimination complaints in under 12 hours, according to administrators, which prompted Associate Dean Ellen Cosgrove and Diversity Director Yaseen Eldik to summon Colbert to a series of meetings in which they pressured him to apologize for his email—with Eldik going so far as to imply that Colbert could face trouble with the bar if he didn’t apologize. When Colbert didn’t send a written apology drafted by the administration, Cosgrove and Eldik emailed the second-year class about his initial message, which they characterized as “pejorative” and “racist,” adding that the administration condemned it in “the strongest possible terms.”

The student complaints emphasized Colbert’s membership in the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group that Eldik said was “oppressive to certain communities.” Those complaints intensified after the Free Beacon published audio of Eldik’s meeting with Colbert: Between Oct. 17 and Oct. 18, several students sent law school-wide emails denouncing Colbert and the Federalist Society, which one student group characterized as “violent.”

“The pooled legal knowledge of our membership cannot name every [Federalist Society] decision that has harmed our communities,” Yale’s Dred Scott Society wrote in a 2,555-word email on Oct. 18—”a testament to the extensiveness of this violence.”

Colbert’s actions, the society members continued, “are yet another example of the way that [Federalist Society] members attempt to weaponize discourse against the very people trying to have conversations in community with him”—conversations Colbert says were only initiated after the student complaints had been filed.

“Trent’s narrative of being a victim of cancel culture based on his membership in [the Federalist Society] attempts to both diminish the harm that he caused and erase the role that his own actions played in causing the harm in the first place. “

The president of the Black Law Students association, Marina Edwards, likewise rejected the idea that Colbert had been “cancelled.”

“Black students did not attempt to cancel Trent,” she wrote in an Oct. 17 email to the law school. “Calling out someone who behaves irresponsibly toward historically marginalized communities, regardless of their own identity, is not an act of oppression; it is an act of love and compassion for those whose lives are daily ripped apart and trampled upon by systems (and people) of oppression.”

Edwards did not respond to a request for comment.

If students are not attempting to cancel Colbert, they are attempting to remove him from his position as a student representative. In response to “concerns surrounding Trent Colbert’s conduct,” the law school’s student government said in an Oct. 16 email that it drafted an entirely new set of procedures for removing student representatives. It remains unclear whether the student government will use those procedures against Colbert.

Another student group, the First Generation Professionals at Yale Law School, sent an email on Oct. 18 to “affirm” Edwards’s message and “condemn the racist email sent by Trent Colbert.” The group said it “recognize[d]” the “harmful impacts” of “hostile media coverage” on black students and thanked Eldik for attempting to “educate Trent and repair harm within the [Yale Law School] community.”

The emails from Edwards and the Dred Scott Society also invoked the concept of “dialogue” pioneered by Paulo Freire, a Brazilian Marxist who praised Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution as “the most genial solution” to “oppressive” pedagogy.

“Critical dialogue is about holding space for positive growth and change,” Edwards wrote, citing “Freirian praxis.”

But, the Dred Scott Society clarified, “to engage in dialogue, we must all hold all of the cards.”

Fwd a Message About the Media Coverage in the Recent Days by Washington Free Beacon on Scribd

Fwd a Message About the Med… by Washington Free Beacon

Fwd a Reflection on the Federalist Society and Dialogue From the Dred Scott Society by Washington Free Beacon on Scribd

Fwd a Reflection on the Fed… by Washington Free Beacon

Fwd FGP Board Statement on Critical Dialogue at YLS by Washington Free Beacon on Scribd

Fwd FGP Board Statement on … by Washington Free Beacon

Update 8:15 p.m.: This piece has been updated with some corrections to the Scribd documents.

https://freebeacon.com/campus/convulsions-at-yale-law-school-administrators-do-damage-control-as-faculty-members-slam-schools-dishonesty/

A coalition of 17 state attorneys general is demanding that the U.S. Department of Justice immediately rescind a recent memo they say would “chill lawful dissent by parents voiced during local school board meetings.”

The DOJ memo, which has been the center of much criticism since its Oct 4 release, directs the FBI to work with state and local governments to address an alleged “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” against teachers and school leaders. It came shortly after National School Boards Association (NSBA) urged the Biden administration to invoke counter-terrorism laws to handle “angry mobs” of parents seeking to hold school officials accountable for the teaching of the Marxist critical race theory and for imposing COVID-19 restrictions on their children.

In a letter (pdf) sent on Monday to President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland, the chief legal officers argued that the memo doesn’t appear to be based on facts, but on a flawed NSBA narrative, which described disruptions at school board meetings as violent threats akin to “domestic terrorism.”

“The vast majority of incidents that NSBA cites involved disruptive and disorderly conduct rather than threats,” the letter reads. “In fact, in no known instance, has there been anything like the burning, looting, police assaults, vandalism and other criminal activity that occurred in the summer of 2020.”

The letter was referring to riots involving anarcho-communist group Antifa and Marxist group Black Lives Matter.

“Actual threats and violence towards school administrators, board members, teachers, or staff are rare,” the attorneys general noted, adding that there are already sufficient criminal and civil remedies available, without the need for FBI to intervene in “what is a quintessential local issue.”

The attorneys general further stated that the DOJ memo “is likely intimidating to parents,” who in many cases are, for the first time, exercising their First Amendment right to speak in a public forum.

“We as a country should celebrate their participation in our system of self-government, not silence them by accusing them of ‘domestic terrorism’ and threaten them with the prospect of the FBI knocking on their door to investigate their activities,” they added.

The letter was written by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, and co-signed by the attorneys general of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.

The letter comes as school board organizations in at least a dozen states distance themselves from the NSBA, citing disagreement over the way it characterized concerned parents. School boards in Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia, have released statements opposing the NSBA letter to the Biden administration or Garland’s memo or both.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/17-state-ags-demand-doj-cease-attempt-to-silence-parents-at-school-board-meetings_4055506.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2021-10-19&mktids=20531d34ef6623de9f28c4ac5de04d42&est=MXNescXAhp8HjCgmzkO7biTS%2FbYM%2BPZIeIGdxXw%2B1zbdVmqZmf5M6e1T%2F7290KwAxA%3D%3D

• Aaron Stevenson, DHS Insider and Intelligence Research Specialist for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: “An email sent out by the Director of USCIS, which notified us about a rule change coming forward, is going to shift the adjudicative authority of defensive asylum away from immigration judges and giving it to asylum officers, which are USCIS.”
• Ur Jaddou, Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: “The proposed system seeks to reduce processing times by transferring the initial responsibility for adjudicating certain protection claims from immigration judges to USCIS asylum officers. This rule would simplify the adjudication process for certain individuals who are encountered at or near the border, placed into expedited removal proceedings, and determined to have a credible fear of persecution or torture.” 
• Stevenson: “This is going to be the biggest change to immigration policy in my lifetime. It’s being done without anybody knowing what’s going on about it and there’s been no coverage for the American people to know what’s going on.”
• Stevenson: “[This new policy] leaves very little accountability to the public when this kind of operation exists. And when you couple that with giving the adjudicative authority away from an immigration judge to an asylum officer, you are removing any type of public pressure that they could apply on policies that they’re creating.”
• Stevenson: “If the asylum officers get this ability, I will say it’s going to be a rubber stamp of immediately getting ‘credible fear’ or ‘reasonable fear’ [asylum seekers] to be able to stay in the country if they’re going to be deported…also their path to citizenship.”
• Stevenson: “I will lose my job” for going public.

[WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oct. 18, 2021] Project Veritas released a new video today featuring an interview with current U.S. Department of Homeland Security [DHS] insider Aaron Stevenson, who serves as an Intelligence Research Specialist for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services [USCIS].

Stevenson decided to go public with information about a “reasonable fear” loophole that exists in the federal government’s immigration policy, which could allow potentially dangerous migrants to stay in the United States under false pretenses. He had previously sat down with Project Veritas for an interview in the shadows.

“An email sent out by the Director of USCIS, which notified us about a rule change coming forward, is going to shift the adjudicative authority of defensive asylum away from immigration judges and giving it to asylum officers, which are USCIS,” Stevenson said.

“If the asylum officers get this ability, I will say it’s going to be a rubber stamp of immediately getting ‘credible fear’ or ‘reasonable fear’ [asylum seekers] to be able to stay in the country if they’re going to be deported…also their path to citizenship,” he said.

Stevenson explained why he is so concerned with this latest federal government policy. He said that USCIS asylum officers are far less accountable to the American people than immigration judges.

“[This new policy] leaves very little accountability to the public when this kind of operation exists. And when you couple that with giving the adjudicative authority away from an immigration judge to an asylum officer, you are removing any type of public pressure that they could apply on policies that they’re creating,” he said.

“This is going to be the biggest change to immigration policy in my lifetime. It’s being done without anybody knowing what’s going on about it and there’s been no coverage for the American people to know what’s going on,” he said.

Project Veritas founder and CEO James O’Keefe asked Stevenson what kind of retaliation he expects as a result of going public while blowing the whistle on the federal government:

James O’Keefe, Project Veritas founder and CEO: “So, what do you think they [federal government] are going to do to you in response to you speaking to me?”

Aaron Stevenson, DHS Insider: “I will lose my job.”

O’Keefe: “Are you afraid of that?”

Stevenson: “No, because I think this is more urgent for people to realize — because this policy change is going to continue to drive in any alien that they [federal government] deem fit. This will drive a massive swing in immigration law.”

The DHS whistleblower also said that the public can go to www.regulations.gov to make their voices heard on immigration issues such as these. 

If more federal government employees have information that the public should know about, particularly encompassing vaccines and immigration issues, contact VeritasTips@protonmail.com. 

About Project Veritas

James O’Keefe established Project Veritas in 2010 as a non-profit journalism enterprise to continue his undercover reporting work. Today, Project Veritas investigates and exposes corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct in both public and private institutions to achieve a more ethical and transparent society and to engage in litigation to: protect, defend and expand human and civil rights secured by law, specifically First Amendment rights including promoting the free exchange of ideas in a digital world; combat and defeat censorship of any ideology; promote truthful reporting; and defend freedom of speech and association issues including the right to anonymity. O’Keefe serves as the CEO and Chairman of the Board so that he can continue to lead and teach his fellow journalists, as well as protect and nurture the Project Veritas culture.  

Project Veritas is a registered 501(c)3 organization. Project Veritas does not advocate specific resolutions to the issues raised through its investigations. Donate now to support our mission.

Subscribe to Project Veritas on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/veritasvisuals

Follow James O’Keefe on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesokeefeiii/

Follow Project Veritas on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/project_veritas/

Follow James O’Keefe on Telegram: https://t.me/JamesOKeefeIII

Follow Project Veritas on Telegram: https://t.me/project_veritas

https://www.projectveritas.com/news/dhs-insider-who-exposed-reasonable-fear-migrant-asylum-loophole-goes-public/

We now know Democrats used several means to score illegal votes in several states. We witnessed them counting ballots behind closed doors, bringing in endless piles of ballots days after the election, locking Republicans out of the counting rooms, pulling boxes of ballots out from under tables when all the observers were sent home, driving in vanloads of ballots in the early hours of the morning after Joe Biden fell far behind.

And now we have another clue on how they stole the election and who they stole their votes from.

Huffington Post today credited “low-income voters” with giving Joe Biden the win.

This is preposterous on its face since everyone knows Trump connected to working-class voters like no other president in the last 100 years.

But it does give us a clue on where they found these mysterious votes.

High turnout among low-income voters in the 2020 election — especially in battleground states — helped deliver victories for Joe Biden and Democrats in the Senate and House, concluded the study, “Waking the Sleeping Giant,” by the Poor People’s Campaign. The organization, an advocate for low-income Americans, launched a nonpartisan voter registration drive ahead of the 2020 vote across 16 states…

…But the 2020 elections saw the highest voter turnout in U.S.history, including among poor and low-income voters, noted the study.

Of the 168 million Americans who voted last year, 59 million of them— 35% of the total — had an estimated annual household income of less than $50,000, classifying them as “poor” or low-income, the analysis found.

https://dudepac.com/articles/democrats-reveal-big-clue-in-the-big-steal-operatives-manufactured-votes-from-low-income-voters-to-steal-the-battleground-states-start-the-canvassing

The Mismanagement of Man

San Francisco has a poop problem. Between 2011 and 2019, reports of human feces on public sidewalks quintupled, rising from roughly 5,500 to more than 30,000. Incidents have been on the decline since the COVID pandemic began, but residents still reported an average of 76 turds per day in the first half of 2021.

The Golden Gate city’s intestinal troubles are not news—conservative commentators have made a joke, and a talking point, out of them for ages. But they are metonymic for a dysfunction increasingly apparent in America’s big cities, from the West Coast to the East. Many major municipalities are marred by violent crime, homelessness, uncontrolled mental illness, and general disorder. This all in spite of an ever-advancing cadre of progressive leaders, who promise their latest tax hike will finally target the “root causes” of the breakdown.

Why are these big, blue cities breaking down? Climate scientist and Berkeley, Calif., resident Michael Shellenberger tackles the question in his latest book, San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities.

At core, Shellenberger’s answer is political. Though he takes pains to assure the reader of his liberal bona fides, Shellenberger insists that big cities, particularly San Francisco, have been captured by a too-progressive ideology. City leaders have begrudgingly embraced the priorities of the activist class that staffs the various NGOs providing key services, including support for the homeless, the mentally ill, and the drug addicted.

The result is urban disaster. Shellenberger covers the vogue for “housing first” policy, which emphasizes placing homeless people in housing without sobriety or medication requirements, and which he argues does not consistently reduce the pathologies that lead to homelessness. He discusses the “harm reduction” approach to drug policy, which can mean providing users with the materials to use without “coercing” them into treatment. And he outlines the rising skepticism of policing and public safety, alongside decarceral reforms, which have created an atmosphere supportive of criminal offending.

Of course, disentangling cause and effect in policymaking is hard. But California is one of just a handful of states to see dramatic increases in its homeless population over the past decade, and the state’s deliberate reduction in the punishment for minor property offending is associated with a spike in shoplifting. And the Golden State is proudly progressive—a progressivism doubtless even more common among the people who staff the NGOs that actually manage its big cities’ streets.

As far as a liberal’s case to liberals against the excesses of liberalism goes, San Fransicko is a useful contribution to the genre. It suffers from some of the usual flaws of popular nonfiction: Some chapters seem unnecessary, and one suspects the whole thing could have been slashed down to a 10,000-word essay. But the book does well the thing it is meant to do: set out the key contradictions in contemporary liberalism, as underscored by the governance failures of the places it is most common.

One of the peculiar features of American liberalism is the selectiveness of its paternalism. Liberals are happy to embrace coercive policies that affect the average citizen—vaccine mandates, say, or soda taxes. But when it comes to the least of us—the drug addicted, the mentally ill, the chronically homeless, the repeated victims of crime—it adopts an inexplicably laissez faire stance. This approach, sociologist Neil Gong has argued, is dramatically at odds with how those with means ask to be treated. While the mentally ill rich seek maximum paternalism, the mentally ill poor are afforded the freedom to be mad.

This tendency runs in apparent contradiction to the left’s usual statist bent. The anti-psychiatry movement, the push to deinstitutionalize and ban compulsory drug treatment, and of course the movement to defund the police, are all basically libertarian, inasmuch as they work to reduce the capacity of the state to regulate certain kinds of antisocial conduct. These regulations are considered per se illegitimate, because they fail to target the “root causes” of this behavior—racism, sexism, capitalism, etc.

Such “root causes” thinking is, of course, fallacious: Nothing about a cause’s proximity to an effect makes it more or less suited to policy intervention. But more important, it confuses the question of whom it is fair to manage—average citizens are fair game, whereas the oppressed are oppressed enough as is—with whom it benefits society to manage. The public dispute becomes over how to be compassionate to the schizophrenic (where compassion is always synonymous with license), wholly obviating discussion of the harms done to society by his camping out on the sidewalk, harms for which we increasingly lack moral language.

The sort of policies Shellenberger endorses at the end of the book—a statewide psych authority, expanded conservatorship, a more carrot-and-stick approach to mental health and drug abuse treatment—would probably benefit their objects. But they would also benefit the other members of society, who are entitled to be free of antisocial behavior. That entitlement, of the average American, has fallen out of fashion. But it is the entitlement at the core of the social contract, and governments of all sizes forget it at their peril.

San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities
by Michael Shellenberger
Harper, 416 pp., $28.99

https://freebeacon.com/culture/review-san-fransicko-why-progressives-ruin-cities/

Internal communications show staffers privately complaining about overtures from Catholic school officials

The Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) shut out religious groups from a controversial curriculum development process, according to internal documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The original draft of the agency’s sex education standards included plans to teach elementary school students about gender identity and transgender hormone therapy. Internal emails obtained by a concerned parent show the NDE added a Planned Parenthood ally to the 28-member advisory team for the standards, while it excluded input from religious education groups. The documents show NDE employees were privately aggravated that Jeremy Ekeler, the associate director of education policy at the Nebraska Catholic Conference, wanted to be included in the curriculum process because they suspected he would be critical of their approach.

“Jeremy is coming on pretty strong,” one NDE employee emailed with a frowning face symbol.

“I know. I really think they want to advocate for abstinence only education as well as gender identity, sexual orientation, etc.; but that is only my assumption,” another employee responded.

Ekeler, a former principal at a Nebraska Catholic school, was able to schedule a Zoom meeting with the NDE after inquiring three times about the development process. Ekeler said the NDE told him in August 2020 that the advisory team was already full—a claim he said in hindsight feels like a cop-out.

“To know that a tax-funded state entity boxed out the beliefs of such a huge portion of our population is sadly ironic,” Ekeler told the Free Beacon. “The NDE has preached inclusion and diversity through this whole thing and then they excluded anybody who doesn’t fit with their agenda.”

Ekeler vouched for three Catholic experts with relevant experience to be on the advisory team, which the NDE told him was handpicked with no formal application process. Two told the Free Beacon the NDE never reached out. The third did not respond. Planned Parenthood activists, however, had no trouble getting access to policymakers.

Internal emails show that Deborah Neary, a state board of education member, pressured the NDE to include Lisa Schulze, a Friends of Planned Parenthood board member and former Planned Parenthood employee, in the curriculum draft process. “I am very disappointed that none of the folks that I recommended to participate in the Nebraska Department of Education Standard Writing Team were selected,” Neary said in an email. Schulze and two other activists—the executive director of OutNebraska and a local professor dedicated to the “intersection of sexuality and social justice”—requested by Neary were eventually added to the advisory team, which provided feedback on the standards to the writing team.

The NDE did not respond to questions on how it selected the advisory team. The agency has denied any influence from activists in drawing up the standards.

The first draft of the health standards, published in March, detailed a curriculum to teach gender identity in first grade, transgender hormone therapy in fifth grade, oral and anal sex in seventh grade, and abortion in eighth grade. Fr. Sean Kilcawley is a Nebraska priest who is certified as a Pastoral Sexual Addiction Practitioner Supervisor. Ekeler recommended him to be on the standards advisory team, but Kilcawley never heard from the NDE. Kilcawley said the radical nature of the sex education standards can be attributed at least in part to the fact that there was no Christian representation in the drafting process.

“Young people are going to be googling the content they are learning in class,” he told the Free Beacon. “So if they’re teaching about overt sexual actions in class it can lead to more pornography exposure, which leads to compulsive sexual behavior, which has led to an uptick on child to child sexual abuse.”

The original Nebraska sex education curriculum proposed in March was nearly identical to the 2020 National Sexuality Education Standards. These national standards are a collaboration between three deep-pocketed progressive advocacy groups: the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), Advocates for Youth, and Answer. SIECUS and Advocates for Youth have raked millions annually from the CDC and abortion-focused nonprofits for decades, a Free Beacon review of 990 forms found.

All three of the national sex education groups have ties to the Nebraska curriculum process. Schulze worked for Answer at the University of Rutgers. Emails show Neary scheduled a meeting between NDE members and a policy director at SIECUS. The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation has given $20 million to Advocates for Youth since 2008. Warren Buffett, the billionaire progressive philanthropist who heads the foundation, is an Omaha native. The Women’s Fund for Omaha, where Schulze works as an education and training manager, owns $12 million worth of stock in Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway.

Neither Schulze nor Neary responded to requests for comment.

The state’s board of education in September suspended the health standards after months of pushback from parents. Ekeler compared the dispute between parents and the school system to the battle of David and Goliath.

“Two things happen before David casts the stone with the sling,” Ekeler told the Free Beacon. “First he’s made aware of the battle and then, in one of my favorite Bible verses, he ran to the giant. Our parents, once they were made aware, ran to the battle—and I don’t think they’re going anywhere.”

https://freebeacon.com/campus/nebraska-department-of-education-excluded-religious-groups-from-sex-ed-curriculum-team/

I am sure it is a totally unfounded rumor that the Central Intelligence Agency, the world’s most lavishly funded bastion of spooks, is about to shorten its name to “The Central Agency,” retiring the embarrassing and divisive word “intelligence.”

I don’t know how the rumor got started, but the news, reported Saturday by The Financial Times, that in August the Chinese had successfully tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile lit a fire under the rumor mill.

It was not so much the fact of the test as the ignorance of our so-called intelligence services that did the trick.

According to the FT, “The test has raised new questions about why the US often underestimated China’s military modernization.”

When it came to the Soviet Union, the CIA typically overestimated not only its military capabilities but also its economic strength. With China, the opposite seems to be the case.

“We have no idea how they did this,” said one spokesman quoted by the FT.

But why? Why didn’t we know?

The budget of the CIA is classified, but we know, thanks to Edward Snowden, that a few years ago it was somewhere north of $50 billion. But what do we get for all that dough?

This summer, we got a total misreading of the situation in Afghanistan.

Now we get a situation in which the deployment of a weapon designed to circumvent our missile defense capabilities catches the CIA “by surprise.”

As the FT reported, the United States and Russia are also developing hypersonic weapons, “including glide vehicles that are launched into space on a rocket but orbit the earth under their own momentum.”

These devices “fly at five times the speed of sound, slower than a ballistic missile. But they do not follow the fixed parabolic trajectory of a ballistic missile and are manoeuvrable, making them harder to track.”

So what are we paying for?

The Chinese launched a rocket that carried a hypersonic glide vehicle that, traveling at about Mach 5, circled the globe a couple of times in a low orbit before homing in on its target.

The device missed its target by more than twenty miles, but when you are talking about something capable of carrying a nuclear payload that is definitely too close for comfort.

Moreover, this was only a test. Presumably, succeeding missiles will be more accurate.

People familiar with the test said that it showed that China had made “astounding” progress on hypersonic weapons.

But again, the issue is not so much Chinese technical progress as U.S. ignorance.

Increasingly, it seems, the institutions we have relied on to protect us have degenerated into a state of politically correct rancidness.

The FBI seems to spend enormous resources infiltrating, egging on, and indeed fomenting the very plots they are supposed to be guarding against.

At least a dozen FBI agents were part of the plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

Were they there to protect the governor or to orchestrate the caper?

Julie Kelly has just shown that the Jan. 6 demonstration at the Capitol could well have been part of the FBI’s “Operation Cold Snap.”

(See also Darren Beattie’s story on possible FBI involvement in the events of Jan. 6 in Revolver News.)

Quoting a story from Buzzfeed, Kelly notes that the operation was a “‘far-reaching, multi-state domestic terrorism investigation’ to surveil—or more likely entrap, … people tied to the FBI’s hit list of right-wing militias.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. military seems more interested in combatting “white rage,” circumventing the chain of command to combat the Bad Orange Man, or complaining about the Army policy regarding fingernail polish, than actually protecting U.S. citizens and interests.

And the CIA? Besides missing threats (a habit that goes back at least to 9/11), they seem expert mostly to be creating their fair share.

Remember the story of that training exercise in Virginia at which they accidentally left some plastic explosive in the engine compartment of a school bus?

Yes, that’s right. “The CIA accidentally left a ‘putty-type’ battlefield explosive beneath the hood of a Loudon County, Virginia school bus after a training exercise . . . As a result, elementary and high school students spent two days riding the bus as the explosives bounced around under the hood.”

Oh dear. More and more, it seems, Lil Abner had it right: “The Country’s in the Very Best of Hands.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/china-develops-hypersonic-missiles-while-us-intelligence-agencies-cultivate-political-correctness_4053721.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

Sin City has no shortage of stages that suffered mightily amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and according to payouts of a federal grant program meant to help them and their employees, a significant portion went to a handful of wealthy magicians.

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Shuttered Venue Operators Grant has distributed more than $16 billion nationally. In Nevada, 206 entities have been promised more than $193 million in two waves of grants.

The list of businesses is reflective of Nevada’s flashy entertainment industry. Included in the grant-winners are a high-flying trapeze act, exclusive nightclubs, dance troupes, festivals, and others.

Four organizations were awarded the maximum $10 million allotted; Vegas mainstay David Copperfield’s Disappearing Inc. being one. Magician duo Penn and Teller’s business entity received more than $7.5 million.

Illusionist Criss Angel’s Magic Revolution not only received $6,964,936, but his production house, Angel Productions Worldwide, received $6,502,920 in a separate grant. Angel, whose real name is Christopher Sarantakos, is worth an estimated $50 million.

Also among the state’s top 10 recipients is Meleco Records, the Incline Village recording label belonging to Beach Boy founder Mike Love. The musician is reportedly worth $80 million. Meleco received $7,517,320.

According to the grant criteria, the magicians and others appear to qualify under the “live venue operator or promoter” classification. Reoccurring acts such as Copperfield’s and others have large organizations working behind the scenes to ensure the stage shows go off without a hitch.

Applicants are eligible to receive 45 percent of their 2019 gross revenue up to $10 million per grant. To qualify for the grant, businesses had to have been open on Feb. 29, 2020. Any federal Paycheck Protection Program loans the companies had forgiven would have to be subtracted from the total grants.

Top ten recipients in Nevada:

• $10 million: Brenden Theatre Corporation;

• $10 million: David Copperfield’s Disappearing Inc.;

• $10 million: Life Is Beautiful LLC (an annual festival held in Las Vegas);

• $10 million: The Smith Center for the Performing Arts;

• $7.6 million: Steve Beyer Productions Inc. (a promoter for cover bands and others);

• $7.52 million: Meleco LLC (the record label of Beach Boy member Mike Love);

• $7.3 million: Buggs & Rudy Discount Corp. (Penn and Teller);

• $7.15 million: MB BC Limited Liability Company (a Las Vegas nightclub);

• $6.96 million: Magic Revolution LLC (Criss Angel, who also received another grant for $6.5 million);

• $6.88 million: Galaxy Sparks LLC (a movie theater chain).

By Cole Lauterbach

https://www.theepochtimes.com/famous-las-vegas-magicians-get-millions-in-federal-shuttered-venue-grants_4054039.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

Attorney General Merrick Garland has now repeatedly and clearly demonstrated his intention to tow the party line, as it drifts inexorably from Constitutional principles and the Bill of Rights—in lieu of serving as an independent and objective enforcer of federal law.

He first exposed his partisan contempt for objective facts in a speech given back on June 15. There he stated that “In the FBI’s view, the top domestic violent extremist threat comes from racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, specifically those who advocate for the superiority of the white race.” Not Antifa. Not BLM.

As FBI field agents are well aware, the domestic threat posed by white supremacists was successfully dissipated in the ‘80s and ‘90s, largely as a result of high-risk large-scale undercover operations targeting the Aryan Nations and other white militia organizations. Garland’s speech parroted statements made in congressional testimony by FBI Director Christopher Wray on Sept. 17, 2020, wherein much the same conclusory statements were made, unsupported by data, reflecting Democrat talking points rather than independent determinations based on articulated facts.

Garland’s and Wray’s statements have lent credibility to the newly expanded definition of white supremacy to include all those who disagree with progressive policies—the moral justification thus being created for repressive tactics directed at eliminating dissent. And—significantly—at ostracizing dissenters.

Garland has now taken another step in the politicization of the Department of Justice, by categorizing parents disturbed by progressive indoctrination of their children as domestic terrorists. And the FBI, whose resources are already overtaxed—approximately 10,000 special agents to protect a nation of 330,000,000 plus—has been directed to investigate this imminent threat to national security.

In his Oct. 4 memorandum to the FBI Director, Garland warns parents that “in the coming days, the Department [of Justice] will announce a series of measures designed to address the rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel.”

Missing in the memo is any clue as to the federal jurisdiction that might justify the FBI’s involvement in what appears to be in essence the suppression of opposing views—suppression of the expression of opinions which are contrary to the views propagated by individuals and institutions currently wielding the reins of power. Garland’s misuse of the government’s overwhelming power—proscribed by the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights—is barred precisely because the Framers anticipated such abuse of power, and went to great lengths to prevent it.

The assault on the Bill of Rights appears to be coordinated and nearly overwhelming in nature.

From the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial, denied to the Jan. 6 unarmed Capitol Hill trespassers, to the utilization of tech companies as proxies to circumvent First Amendment limitations on government action, the onslaught has many fronts.

Apple is now monitoring and reviewing the images maintained by millions of customers on the cell phones that it sells. Ostensibly a measure to identify pedophiles, this is realistically a first step to monitor the public at large—actions by a powerful corporation that would be clearly illegal if conducted by the government without a warrant.

The right to a fair trial by a jury of one’s peers—the Sixth Amendment—was effectively eviscerated by the Biden administration’s declaration that mounted Customs and Border Protection officers were guilty of whipping illegal Haitian immigrants prior to any formal charges being brought

The administration’s disregard for free speech rights of millions of federal employees is evidenced by the White House’s list of prohibited words and phrases—a list that altogether too many corporate entities are quick to incorporate into their own private sector cultures.

Thus the Government achieves its proscribed goal of controlling speech through indirect means. And as is, or should be, self-evident, controlling permissible language is the first step toward controlling permissible thought.

An assault on property rights—heretofore secured by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments’ due process clauses—has utilized the back door of COVID-19 to justify regulation of small businesses, circumventing the legislative process, and severely restricting the exercise of business decisions by small entrepreneurs.

Civil rights have been curtailed by the insidious substitution of equity for equality—and by the insertion of critical race theory in lieu of the content of character theory of Martin Luther King.

The constitutional right to “security of person,” guaranteed in Article Three, along with the pursuit of happiness , as articulated in the Declaration of Independence, are being subtly undermined by the defund the police movement. How can happiness be pursued in an insecure, crime-ridden environment?

Rather, the assault on law-enforcement authorities has been ramped up. In the military, police, and in the Department of Homeland Security, witch-hunts are underway, with the search for dissenting opinion—mislabeled as a search for white supremacist conspirators—being encouraged and pursued by the media and left-wing think tanks. And the failure to provide secure borders undermines security on a number of levels, from the entry of violent criminals to the propagation of the dreaded virus.

Diversity of opinion is being routed out, and replaced by unquestioning obedience and propagation of dogma. How can the First Amendment’s freedom of religion be pursued when church and synagogue doors are barred whenever lock-downs are declared, while the doors to taverns remain open?

Powerful political leaders on the left—House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton—continually question the relevance of the Constitution, while enthusiastically supporting movements, such as the 1619 rewriting of American history, questioning the Framers’ relevance in the modern age.

The Second Amendment’s right to bear arms has been under constant attack from the Democrat Party. The attempt to place David Chipman, one of its most fervent opponents as head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms proved beyond the pale, even for middle of the road supporters of firearm bans. However, individuals such as Mark and Patricia McCloskey of St. Louis, who have exercised their Second Amendment rights in the defense of their security and their property, have been ridiculed by the media and prosecuted by local authorities.

The elephant in the room regarding blatant disregard of our precious rights is of course COVID-19. The Biden administration, as well as state executive officers, have used the pandemic to justify the sweeping away the right to privacy that justice William Douglas interpreted into the Constitution, as emanating from the “penumbra of rights“ that the founding document enshrined as guarantees for future generations.

These privacy rights have for years been used to justify the legalization of abortion as part of a woman’s “right to choose.” Yet these privacy rights and the right to choose are disregarded entirely when it comes to the right to choose as to whether or not a medical product is to be injected into one’s body.

Although members of the military have historically been bound by certain limitations on their ability to communicate personal views, the imprisonment of Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller subsequent to his statements dissenting from disastrous decisions made by general command officers with regard to Afghanistan, is chilling indeed.

The move, in addition to being clearly intended to send a message to others in the military who might be so inclined, is additionally another step in the administration program to suppress and eliminate dissenting voices in the military and federal agencies.

To further enforce the message, Marine officials are also investigating Lance Corporal Hunter Clark for having consented to appear at the podium with non-candidate Donald Trump at a rally on Saturday, Sept. 25. Clark received national attention after rescuing an infant in the course of the chaotic evaluation at Kabul airport in Afghanistan.

What we are witnessing is a purge.

The true purpose of using vaccination mandates to fire employees from schools, civil service positions, hospitals, airlines, law enforcement, has nothing to do with COVID-19 and everything to do with disenfranchisement and diminution of our previously inalienable rights. The purpose is to weed out dissent.

It is the next step, following and building upon the redefinition of white supremacy to include any who disagrees with the party line, anyone who dissents. Just as the labeling of angry parents as domestic terrorists is simply a subterfuge to weed out dissent. It is a campaign to disempower, to eliminate those with dissenting ideas, ideas that diverge from authorized, “correct” thought. Those who could pose a threat to the power elite.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/a-purge-is-starting-with-the-bill-of-rights_4048928.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

A prominent, nonpartisan state think tank is warning about what the billions in coronavirus stimulus money headed for Wisconsin will mean for government spending in the years to come.

The Institute for Reforming Government’s CJ Szafir said the American Rescue Plan and the CARES Act are flooding state and local governments with more money than they know what to do with. But he said, the money has to be spent, so local governments are looking at all the ways they can find to spend it.

La Crosse is considering dropping out of Wisconsin’s Expenditure Restraint Program in order to spend all of its $22 million in stimulus money.

Mayor Mitch Reynolds earlier this week said in order to stay within the ERP, La Crosse would have to cut its budget.

“We are really reaching a point that it’s so confusing that we’re making cuts, and we really have quite a significant amount of money coming in,” the mayor said at a meeting Monday.

The ERP program was created in the 1990s to incentivize local governments to spend within their means in exchange for unlimited state help.

Szafir said the federal stimulus packages are now erasing the idea of spending less.

“This is a clear example of federal government overreach and how the trillions of dollars of government spending has created bad incentives for local communities,” Szafir told The Center Square. “The Common Council even admits that they are not sure how they would spend the federal taxpayer money. And yet, as we see time and time again, politicians rarely turn down ‘free’ federal money.”

While dropping out of the Expenditure Restraint Program may cost La Crosse some state money over the next two or three years, the city will likely see more money from the state when it re-enrolls in the ERP.

“The policy question that taxpayers and state lawmakers should contemplate is how this will impact future budget debates. If the Common Council opts out and takes the stimulus money, the ‘restart’ should not reward them by artificially inflating their numbers for next year. Otherwise the Council will start from a much higher number in later years with taxpayers eating that increase without it even being substantively debated later on,” Szafir explained.

La Crosse’s Common Council left the opt-out question pending earlier this week.

Szafir expects the impact of the billions in coronavirus stimulus dollars in Wisconsin to impact budget and tax questions at all levels of government for years to come.

By Benjamin Yount

https://www.theepochtimes.com/irg-free-federal-money-will-change-how-local-state-governments-spend-going-forward_4054034.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

Black lives matter unless they’re dressed in blue, apparently.

This became all too clear in the early hours of Saturday morning, when police say an ambush-style attack hit three black off-duty deputies working a side job together.

The attack happened at a Houston, Texas, nightclub and left one of the deputies, Kareem Atkins, dead according to KTRK-TV. The other two men survived, but are now fighting to recover from serious injuries. Atkins’ best friend, Deputy Darryl Garrett, was also shot in the same attack.

Garrett’s fiance says the two men were like brothers and she is keeping the news of Atkins’ death from him so as to not jeopardize his recovery. A third deputy, Juquaim Barthen, was also injured in the shooting with non-life-threatening wounds.

The incident started as Atkins and Garrett were responding to a suspected robbery in the nightclub’s parking lot. Once they had the suspect on the ground, a second man emerged and gunned the deputies down. Barthen responded to the resulting commotion and was hit in the leg by gunfire.

Some Americans Already Pulling Their Accounts from Credit Unions Over Dems’ IRS Spying Plan

Atkins had just returned from paternity leave for his second child.

The suspected shooter is still on the loose.

If there was ever a place for Black Lives Matter to stand up for someone, this is it. One black man was killed and his family left without a father, while two other black men were hit in the same apparent ambush.Is Black Lives Matter a divisive organization?Yes No

Unfortunately, the organization has been completely silent on the matter.

The last couple of posts on the BLM’s Twitter account celebrate an award given to the group and another urges for “true justice” on George Floyd’s 48th birthday. These posts predate the shooting, and nothing has been uploaded to the account since.

Today is George Floyd’s 48th birthday. Remember: true justice means that he would still be here today, celebrating with his friends and family. Follow @GFMFoundation to stay up to date on how you can honor his birthday this week pic.twitter.com/ABowDMD1KZ

— Black Lives Matter (@Blklivesmatter) October 14, 2021

The group’s Facebook page did make a post after the shooting, however.

Obama-Apointed Judge Ignores DOJ, Jails Jan. 6 Defendants: ‘There Have to Be Consequences’

Instead of bringing attention to the senseless anti-cop violence in Houston and the lives it has destroyed, Black Lives Matter was instead pushing for the full removal of police from schools.

Thankfully, Americans can step up for their own countrymen where Black Lives Matter fails to do anything but utterly divide.

According to KPRC, The 100 Club, a group that helps the families of fallen law enforcement and firefighters, is giving $20,000 to the wife of Atkins and will continue to help with education and other finances.

Donations to The 100 Club’s “Survivor’s Fund” can be made here.

It isn’t the best time to be living in a large American city.

Throughout the country, it has become trendy to blame law enforcement for everyone’s problems, and community safety has suffered as a result.

Look no further than St. Paul, Minnesota, for an example of this phenomenon.

Alpha News reported last month that Ramsey County, which encapsulates the city, no longer will prosecute felonies stemming from “low-level” traffic stops. The county claims these procedures have a history of harming minorities.

George Floyd, a black man, was killed in St. Paul’s twin city, Minneapolis, by white police officer Derek Chauvin while under Chauvin’s knee for several minutes on May 25 of last year in a killing that set off nationwide protests and calls for police reform.

Some Americans Already Pulling Their Accounts from Credit Unions Over Dems’ IRS Spying Plan

This past April, Chauvin was convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

“As leaders in the justice system, we must step forward and fundamentally change a longstanding systemic injustice that has impacted generations of people in our community and across this country,” Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said in a statement on Sept. 8 of this year.

“Recognizing the role we play as prosecutors in perpetuating racial inequities that often result from these types of stops is an important first step in charting a new, less harmful course.”

These statements were corroborated by a collection of county officials and left-wing activists.

Has your community considered defunding the police?

“We have a vision of a vibrant community where all are safe and healthy and valued and thrive,” added Toni Carter, the Ramsey County board chair, according to Alpha News.

“And we know we can’t get there with an us-them mentality. We are working to listen to those who have been involved in these traffic stops, who have experienced the building of records, based upon one incident after the other, to determine what really works for all of us.”

Choi said the policy would apply only for traffic stops based solely on consent. If there is a “dangerous condition” involved, authorities may continue to make arrests, according to the statement.

Nevertheless, the clarification didn’t win the county many friends beyond the police chief. After all, lawlessness is lawlessness.

State Sen. Warren Limmer, who represents portions of nearby Hennepin County, was particularly furious.

‘Black Lives Matter’ Silent as Ambush Attack Kills Black Deputy, Injures His Two Fellow Lawmen

“It’s (Choi’s) job to put criminals away, not leave them on the streets,” Limmer told Alpha News. “Violent crime is still on the rise, and this is absolutely the wrong direction prosecutors should be going.”

The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, one of the most powerful police unions in the state, sided with Limmer.

“Basically, the county attorney just announced his office won’t uphold the law and won’t prosecute those who break it,” the union said in a statement.

“Ramsey County residents be warned: those that break the law won’t even get a slap on the wrist — they’ll get a high-five from the county attorney and be left to commit more, and more serious, offenses. Reduction of crime and public safety for all should be our focus as the crime rate escalates — and this isn’t it.”

It remains to be seen how Ramsey County’s crime rates and general welfare will evolve. One thing is for sure, though: St. Paul residents are less safe now than before this mess started.

Portland, Oregon, businesses and residents may be at the mercy of rioters and looters, but it’s not because their police don’t want to do anything.

It’s that they can’t.

According to KOIN-TV, the Portland Police Bureau told residents of the city’s downtown Pearl District that their hands were tied during a riot this past week that caused a half-million dollars worth of damage. The culprit? Democrats in the state legislature who limited their ability to use crowd dispersal tactics.

In a media release, the PPB said “around 100 anarchists caused substantial damage to businesses and government buildings in downtown Portland Tuesday night.

“Investigations into the criminal behavior are underway. No arrests have been made yet. At this point the damage is believed to be in excess of $500,000, and reports are still being compiled,” the media release read.

Some Americans Already Pulling Their Accounts from Credit Unions Over Dems’ IRS Spying Plan

“There were 35 separate locations that were targeted, including banks, retail stores, coffee shops, and government buildings.”

Portland Police eventually gave verbal dispersal orders to the antifa at the end of their riot last night. pic.twitter.com/xEvjT9ZmqR

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) October 13, 2021

Should HB 2928 be repealed?

While dispersal orders were given, there was no way to actually effect a dispersal. Why? It comes back to House Bill 2928, a piece of state legislation that prohibits police from using pepper spray, rubber bullets and other similar tools unless the use of deadly physical force would otherwise be justified, according to The Post Millennial.

That’s why KOIN saw police officers in their cars on Tuesday as the riot raged on.

“The reason that we did not intervene goes back to what we talked about last month with HB 2928 and the restrictions placed on us in a crowd control environment,” Lt. Jake Jensen told the Pearl District Neighborhood Association during a meeting on Thursday night, two nights after the destruction.

“That’s the way our legislature has said we need to operate in a crowd control environment. So that’s the way we are going to operate in a crowd control environment.

“The fact of the matter is without being able to use pepper spray, without being able to use our 40mm less-lethal devices in that kind of environment, it really prevents us from having access to the tools we need in large part to keep ourselves safe,” he added.

‘Insurrection’? Climate Change Protesters Attempt to Storm Interior Department Building

And that doesn’t matter how many police officers the department has, either.

“This issue, if I’m understanding, will not be solved no matter how many officers you bring back — yes or no?” said Bill Bagnall, secretary and director of communications of the Pearl District Neighborhood Association, during the meeting.

“Yes, that is correct,” Jensen said.

Another resident asked if the law meant “we are now like a lawless city, anyone can come in and just bash around and do all the damage they want without any repercussions whatsoever?”

Jensen said that arrests could be made and charges could be filed later.

“In these cases, the consequences are going to come not on the night of, but in the follow-up investigation,” he said.

That’ll convince the mob to stay away.

Keep in mind this is the second time in the past week a neighborhood group in Portland has asked the city for help dealing with lawlessness.

According to KATU-TV, a group of businesses in the Old Town neighborhood sent a letter to Mayor Ted Wheeler and Portland’s city commissioners with concerns about both their staff and visitors.

In the letter, the businesses said they were “writing to put on the record our profound concerns regarding the rapidly deteriorating conditions in our neighborhood and to demand immediate action to safeguard our visitors, staff and volunteers.”

“Old Town and the New Chinatown/Japantown Historic District was once home to the largest population of Cantonese-Chinese outside of San Francisco and one of the two Japantowns in Portland. Jewish merchants managed and owned businesses in the neighborhood. Our four organizations were founded to preserve an important part of Portland’s history and to celebrate the diversities of our city. Local government’s inability to protect this neighborhood disrespects this history.”

At one restaurant, the letter said, three staff members “experienced a combination of physical and verbal assaults” in a single day.

“It makes all of us want to cry. That’s what we were trying to communicate to our leaders of this city and this county. Our hearts are broken,” said Elizabeth Nye, executive director of the Lan Su Chinese Garden, one of the businesses that signed the letter.

Of all the cities in the United States that were consumed with antifa-related violence and defund-mania last summer, Portland stood head and shoulders above the rest. The chickens have long since come home to roost, however — and the state legislature has handcuffed the police with HB 2928.

Lt. Jensen claimed Portland isn’t a de facto lawless city, at least when it comes to rioters. Its residents might beg to differ.

UPPER DARBY, Pa.—A woman was raped by a stranger on a commuter train in suburban Philadelphia in the presence of other riders who a police official said, “should have done something.”

Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt of the Upper Darby Police Department said officers were called to the 69th Street terminal around 10 p.m. Wednesday after the assault on the westbound train on the Market-Frankford Line.

An employee of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority who was in the vicinity as the train went past called police to report that “something wasn’t right” with a woman aboard the train, Bernhardt said.

SEPTA police waiting at the next stop found the woman and arrested a man. The woman was taken to a hospital.

Bernhardt called the victim an “unbelievably strong woman” who provided police with a lot of information. She did not know her attacker, he said.

“She’s on the mend,” Bernhardt said. “Hopefully she will get through this.”

The entire episode was captured on surveillance video that showed other people on the train at the time, Bernhardt said.

“There was a lot of people, in my opinion, that should have intervened; somebody should have done something,” Bernhardt said. “It speaks to where we are in society; I mean, who would allow something like that to take place? So it’s troubling.”

Fiston Ngoy, 35, has been charged with rape, aggravated indecent assault, and related counts, according to Delaware County court records. Bernhardt said he is known to both SEPTA and Upper Darby police.

Court documents don’t list a defense attorney, and a listed number for him couldn’t be found Saturday.

SEPTA issued a statement calling it a “horrendous criminal act” and urging anyone witnessing such a thing to report it to authorities.

“There were other people on the train who witnessed this horrific act, and it may have been stopped sooner if a rider called 911,” the authority said.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/woman-raped-on-train-as-bystanders-did-nothing-police-say_4053456.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

A PENNSYLVANIA man has been arrested for raping a woman on public transportation while other riders watched.

Fiston Ngoy, 35, was identified by police as the alleged perpetrator.

Despite others being on the train during the assault, Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt said that it was a train employee who phoned 911.

Ngoy was arrested on the spot by Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority [SEPTA] officers on Wednesday.

Bernhardt had said it was “disturbing” to know that people had seen the assault happening and nobody stepped up to help.

“I have no words for it. I just can’t imagine seeing what you were seeing through your own eyes,” he said.

SEPTA issued a statement on the assault.

“There were other people on the train who witnessed this horrific act, and it may have been stopped sooner if a rider called 911,” said spokesman Andrew Busch. 

“SEPTA urges anyone who observes a crime being committed or any dangerous situation occurring to report it.”

Ngoy, who was charged with rape and assault, will stay in jail due to being unable to post bail.

The victim was taken to a nearby hospital to be treated for injuries as a result of the attack.

https://www.the-sun.com/news/3873106/pennsylvania-train-rape-attack/

A Walmart training program denounces the United States as a “white supremacy system,” according to a new report.

Writing in City Journal, Christopher Rufo, who has written about race-based indoctrination programs in other organizations, said a whistleblower gave him internal company documents upon which he based his report.

The Walmart program began in 2018 when Walmart inked a deal with the Racial Equity Institute of  Greensboro, North Carolina. It is recommended for hourly workers and mandatory for executives and has trained more than 1,000 people.

The program is based on foundational principles Rufo lists as “internalized racial oppression,” “internalized racial inferiority,” and “white anti-racist development.” Walmart said it “engaged REI for a number of training sessions since 2018” and has “found these sessions to be thought provoking and constructive.”

The program says the United States is a “white supremacy system,” crafted by Europeans “for the purpose of assigning and maintaining white skin access to power and privilege.”

American history is portrayed through a racial lens, claiming it began with the “construction of a ‘white race’” by colonists in 1680.

Walmart launched the program with the Racial Equity Institute in 2018 and has trained more than 1,000 employees on the core principles of critical race theory, including “intersectionality,” “internalized racial oppression,”and “white anti-racist development.” pic.twitter.com/Fy6wrMxb9U

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) October 14, 2021

The program hammers home that white Americans were raised amid “racist conditioning” that indoctrinates them into “white supremacy,” or the view “that white people and the ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and actions of white people are superior to People of Color and their ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and actions

The program prescribes “white anti-racist development” as a treatment for all those terrible attitudes whites hold.

All white people, the program claims, are guilty of “white privilege” and “internalized racial superiority,” by falsely believing that “one’s comfort, wealth, privilege and success has been earned by merits and hard work” when all the time a racist system was showering benefits upon them.

Qualities including “individualism,” “objectivity,” “paternalism,” “defensiveness,” “power hoarding,” “right to comfort” and “worship of the written word.” These “promote white supremacy thinking” and “are damaging to both people of color and to white people,” according to the program

Segregation is essential to discussing this, the program says, because “people of color and white people have their own work to do in understanding and addressing racism.”

The program claims that minority workers at Walmart suffer from “constructed racist oppression” and “internalized racial inferiority” by being subjected to the racist world around them.

Students at a Private School in DC Could Face Expulsion for ‘Misplaced Humor’

The Walmart program claims that whites are inherently guilty of “white privilege” and “internalized racial superiority,” or the belief that “one’s comfort, wealth, privilege and success has been earned by merits and hard work” rather than through the benefits of systemic racism. pic.twitter.com/hRz4LoXafL

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) October 14, 2021

According to the program, minority Americans have beliefs that include  “we believe there is something wrong with being a person of color,” “we have lowered self-esteem,” “we have lowered expectations,” “we have very limited choices” and “we have a sense of limited possibility.”

Minority Americans develop “self-hate,” “anger,” “rage” and “ethnocentrism” because of the racism that surrounds them.

To solve the problem, white workers are taught to embrace “guilt and shame,” support the concept that “white is not right” and acknowledge their part in racism.

So long to “truth, justice and the American way.”

Instead, Superman will now be seeking “a better tomorrow” as “America” is wiped away by DC Comics, which announced the change in a statement on Saturday.

“Superman’s new motto of ‘Truth, Justice and a Better Tomorrow’ will better reflect the global storylines that we are telling across DC and to honor the character’s incredible legacy of over 80 years of building a better world,” said DC Chief Creative Officer and Publisher Jim Lee.

“Superman has long been a symbol of hope who inspires people from around the world, and it is that optimism and hope that powers him forward with this new mission statement.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the “American Way” phrase began in 1940, debuting on a radio series called “The Adventures of Superman.”

The motto continued in the TV version of Superman that was crafted in the 1950s, but it was not universally used in the various versions of the superhero that came in the 1960s, according to Yahoo.

When Superman hit the big screen in a 1978 movie starring Christopher Reeve, the motto returned.

Many objected to the change.

DC Comics decide it’s time for Superman’s motto to “evolve”, so they ditch “American” from it. His motto changes from “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” to “Truth, Justice, and a Better Tomorrow”. And just like that, we lose a little bit more of our childhood. pic.twitter.com/yEfA9xr0y3

— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) October 17, 2021

This is how you say you hate America without saying you hate America. https://t.co/0AFawMhsiF

— Katrina Pierson (@KatrinaPierson) October 17, 2021

DC Comics removing ‘the American way’ from Superman slogan: report,
American Way is being canceled right before our eyes https://t.co/aZpaOJBVpQ

— Patriots United!!!🇺🇸🙏🏻🇨🇱!!! (@MichaelDilmore) October 17, 2021

First a token bi Superman and now DC completely abandons the ‘American Way’ for Superman’s motto.

Though lets be honest, modern woke comics stopped caring about ‘Truth and Justice’ a long time ago as well.
They rather endorse riots and division instead. https://t.co/ADT8xr6P3A

— Spooky Juno Maxwell 🎃 (@Goddess_Maxwell) October 16, 2021

Ron DeSantis Triggers Leftists by Issuing the Perfect Columbus Day Proclamation

LOL. No. No matter the amount of anti-American ideology that plagues @DCComics and @warnerbros, Superman will ALWAYS represent Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Shame on you @JimLee https://t.co/joqdA2OBR3

— André Hutchens (@ac_hutchens) October 16, 2021

Are you tired of ‘woke’ changes that ruin everything?

D.C. Comics jolted Superman fandom earlier this month when it announced that Jon Kent, the son of Superman, would be portrayed as bisexual in a separate story line, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Tom Taylor, who wrote the tale of the bisexual superhero, said the time was right for the character, according to Variety.

“I’ve always said everyone needs heroes and everyone deserves to see themselves in their heroes, and I’m very grateful DC and Warner Bros. share this idea,” Taylor said.

“Superman’s symbol has always stood for hope, for truth and for justice. Today, that symbol represents something more. Today, more people can see themselves in the most powerful superhero in comics,” he said.

A new, advanced Chinese weapon has caught the U.S. flat-footed, according to a new report.

In August, China tested a hypersonic nuclear-capable missile that left one source saying, “We have no idea how they did this,” according to the Financial Times, which did not disclose the names of its sources.

The test went like this: China launched a rocket carrying what is known as a hypersonic glide vehicle. The missile circled the earth in a low orbit toward its target, which it missed by roughly 25 miles.

Hypersonic vehicles travel at Mach 5 or faster.

The report from the Financial Times said the test reveal China “was far more advanced than U.S. officials realized. The test has raised new questions about why the U.S. often underestimated China’s military modernization.

The test came weeks before Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall warned that China now had the “potential for global strikes . . . from space.”

Writing about the Chinese advance on The Drive, Tyler Rogoway tried to explain the danger, saying that a hypersonic glide vehicle, as tested by China, “could make a very long maneuvering flight through the atmosphere at very high speeds to its target.”

The concept has the “potential to bypass not just missile defenses, but even many early warning capabilities,” he wrote, adding that “range limitations also become a non-factor and the timing of an inbound strike is also far less predictable.”

Taylor Fravel, an expert on Chinese nuclear weapons policy and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told the Financial Times that the weapons would allow China, which is not a party to any arms limit treaties, to bypass missile defense system.

“Hypersonic glide vehicles . . . fly at lower trajectories and can maneuver in flight, which makes them hard to track and destroy,” said Fravel.

In August, General Glen VanHerck, head of North American Aerospace Defense Command, said  China had “recently demonstrated very advanced hypersonic glide vehicle capabilities,” according to the Financial Times.

New Chines weaponry would “provide significant challenges to my NORAD capability to provide threat warning and attack assessment,” he stated.

Without commenting directly on the test, the Pentagon signaled it is worried about China.

“We have made clear our concerns about the military capabilities China continues to pursue, capabilities that only increase tensions in the region and beyond,” said John Kirby, the spokesman for the Department of Defense. “That is one reason why we hold China as our number one pacing challenge.”

US Cybersecurity Official Resigns Because ‘We Have No Competing Fighting Chance Against China’

A 2020 report in Science pictures the U.S. well behind the curve after years of stops and starts into hypersonic weapons.

“You see a flurry of activity, a lot of investment, and then we conclude it’s a bridge too far,” explained aerospace engineer Mark Lewis, director of defense research and engineering for modernization at the Department of Defense.

The report said the U.S. is “largely defenseless against such weapons, at least for now, in part because it can’t track them.”

Thomas Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, said the Pentagon is working on solutions.

“Unstoppable today does not mean unstoppable tomorrow,” said Shari Feth, a materials engineer at the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.

“There are technologies that could be developed that could be used for a more robust defense,” Feth continued. “But we have more work to do to get there.”

The U.N. climate change conference in Glasgow (COP26) is great news for corrupt governments in the developing world because it looks set to transfer huge sums of money into their hands.

Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian-born economist, has long warned the West against sending aid to Africa because of the corruption it creates.

Moyo’s book “Dead Aid” explained how foreign aid produces terrible outcomes in the developing world, such as economic laziness, cultures of dependence, and rampant corruption. She argued aid was killing Africa.

Warnings by Moyo, and others, have helped reduce the flows of foreign aid to third world governments know to be kleptocracies. But that has simply meant corrupt governments have had to work harder to get the West to send them money.

How have they done this? The method that has been widely used is playing the guilt card or the victim card.

The guilt card tells Westerners they should feel guilty because European empires and colonialism allegedly exploited the third world. But, unfortunately, the Left has so widely propagated this anticolonial mythology that it is becoming almost impossible to have a sensible discussion about the age of imperialism.

The victim card tells Westerners that the developing world is full of poor and starving people because villainous Western capitalists exploit them. Unfortunately, this socialist myth has been sold to many well-meaning but naïve, liberals through journalists and celebrities, or by screening heart-wrenching and sensationalist television images.

Since well-meaning liberals lack personal experience of the third world, they have no reality against which to measure the myths fed to them by left-leaning media and educators.

Playing the guilt and victims cards have also been routinely used by leaders of multilateral organizations like the U.N. and WHO. 

More recently, we have also witnessed third world leaders increasingly using China’s Belt and Road initiative to turn the foreign aid tap back on. Today’s version of great power competition has seen Western countries handing out aid to try and stop developing countries from aligning with China.

Sadly, this sort of aid is especially likely to lead to corruption—just as it did during the Cold War.

But now we are facing a new explosion of third world corruption, caused this time by the way Greens have successfully mobilized the politics of climate change. If governments in Africa and Asia get their way, the Glasgow conference on climate change will transfer huge amounts of money into their hands.

With the Glasgow summit in mind, the South African government (known for its corruption) has promised to go beyond its Paris greenhouse gas targets.

But there is a catch—along with other third world elites, South Africa expects taxpayers in the West to pay them to implement their targets.

So we see the South African government, a well-known kleptocrat regime, brazenly asking the developed world to hand over to them $269 billion to pay for proposed decarbonization projects. The South African document lodged with the U.N. said “substantial multilateral support” would be required for measures such as “a very ambitious power sector investment plan.”

So Glasgow funds will be used to fix South Africa’s broken Eskom electricity supply system, plus fix the country’s catastrophic debt-repayment problem created by Eskom’s corruption and maladministration. Eskom has been unable to supply the country with enough electricity since 2007.

Further, ending the country’s energy crisis by building giant new power plants at Medupi and Kusile failed because of corruption, looting, and planning incompetence. Glasgow funds could fix all these problems, but it would also provide new corruption opportunities.

Effectively, the developing world is putting forward yet another neo-socialist wealth transfer scheme, but this one is dressed up in the language of saving the planet from climate change.

But the developing world says they will only help save the planet on condition that Western governments help them meet their Glasgow promises by transferring billions (if not trillions) of dollars from Western taxpayers to developing world elites so they can meet over-blown targets.

There are two problems with this. Firstly, the developing world has a record of poor governance, meaning these governments can seldom deliver on promises or targets. Even worse, developing world elites generally spend the foreign aid monies they receive to enrich themselves rather than to actually build the intended projects.

So the reality is, the U.N. climate change conference in Glasgow looks set to become just another mechanism to feed the corrupt gravy train that third world elites have been running for decades. Far from paying for green decarbonization projects, any wealth transfers flowing from Glasgow are more likely to end up buying four-wheel drives for the children of the third world elites.

To understand what is likely to happen to the $269 billion for climate change projects asked for by the South Africans, one only needs to look at what happened to their $4.3 billion COVID-19 relief funding from the IMF. One corrupt government Minister alone was involved in COVID-19 fraud valued at $10 million, while other politicians and African National Congress-aligned cronies looted another $700 million out of PPE funds.

If South Africa’s elite were even prepared to steal from funds geared to saving lives by fixing a health system shattered by COVID-19, imagine what they would do with climate change aid (where no lives are at stake).

By bringing together third world elites carrying begging bowls with Western greens which are willing to be taken advantage of, the U.N. climate change summit seems almost certain to deliver a bonanza for all those corrupt elites with a legacy of running gravy trains.

But this still begs the question; will Western governments ever learn?

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/un-climate-change-funding-to-feed-corruption-gravy-train-of-developing-world_4050207.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2021-10-17&mktids=c140660d60f5031e37d861563fe83854&est=4kO6Ff%2F34Onnr30p%2Fdp7sjys9TTm9jr0cSEvEV9MVB8Rno2bI%2BnSEt6vo76ZGE2xpA%3D%3D

Jussie Smollett will finally face a trial for his 2019 stunt in which he claimed he was the victim of a racist, homophobic attack in Chicago.

On Friday, Judge James Linn rejected arguments from the actor’s lawyer that the charges against him should be dismissed, according to Fox News.

The claim being made was that under a deal with Cook County prosecutors in which charges were dropped without a trial taking place, Smollett performed community service and forfeited a $10,000 bond.

However, amid a firestorm of controversy over the deal, a special prosecutor was appointed who levied additional charges of lying to police against Smollett. On Friday, Smollett’s attorney sought to wriggle out form under those.

To have Smollett “hauled back into court again” would violate Smollett’s due process rights, attorney Nenye Uche said, according to USA Today. 

US Marshals Could Begin Rounding Up Trump Supporters Targeted in House Jan. 6 Committee

“It’s as clear as day – this case should be dismissed because of an immunity agreement,” Uche said. “A deal is a deal. That’s ancient principle.”

Sean Wieber, an attorney with the special prosecutor’s office, said the claim should be “summarily dismissed.”

“We have already dealt with this before,” he said. “Nothing we’ve heard today changes one iota (of the case). This can be comfortably denied.”

Linn said that he had heard it all before and dismissed those claims, saying he would not change now.

“I’m denying the motion to dismiss,” he said.

In a July hearing, Linn explained his reasoning.

“There was no trial in this case, there was no jury empaneled, no witnesses were sworn, no evidence was heard, no guilty pleas were ever entered … nothing like that [ever] happened,” Linn said of the case, according to WGN-TV.

“There was no adjudication of this case,” he said then.

Smollett’s trial will begin on Nov. 29.

Chicago Police Leader Defies COVID Vaccine Mandate, Calls It ‘Absolutely Wrong’

After saying there should be no trial, Uche later said that Smollett wants “nothing more than to go to a jury and clear his name.”

Smollett claimed two masked men approached him as he was walking home on Jan. 29, 2019, and “made racist and homophobic insults, beat him and looped a noose around his neck before fleeing,” Fox News reported. However, the account has since been discredited by the two men Smollett reportedly paid to conduct the “racist and homophobic” assault — Abel and Ola Osundario.

The two men alleged that Smollett transferred the sum of $3,500 to them in exchange for the jumping, hoping to “raise his profile,” according to Fox News.

The actor called the charges brought against him a “dog and pony show,” the outlet reported.

No matter what you think happened on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, there is no denying that it has been a gift, politically speaking, to the establishment left.

It bolstered leftists’ longstanding claims that the nation is filled with white supremacist terrorists just chomping at the bit to bring back the lynch mob and impose the vague form of fascism that anyone even remotely right-leaning is so often accused of supporting.

What is truly terrifying about those who stand accused of participating in the Capitol incursion, however, is the way they’re being treated.

There have been multiple reports of mistreatment and civil rights violations among the Jan. 6 defendants awaiting trial, none of whom, by the way, are facing charges of treason or sedition.

These are serious accusations — as they would be if we were talking about antifa insurgents or Black Lives Matter protesters, as well.

US Marshals Could Begin Rounding Up Trump Supporters Targeted in House Jan. 6 Committee

Thankfully, it appears a federal judge agrees.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth found Washington, D.C., jail officials to be in contempt of court this week over their treatment of a Jan. 6 defendant and has called on the Department of Justice to investigate whether the rights of other incursion suspects are being violated.

The director and warden of the D.C. Department of Corrections, Quincy Booth and Wanda Patten, respectively, failed to see that defendant Christopher Worrell received necessary medical treatment, The Washington Post reported.

Worrell faces four felony charges, including rioting and spraying pepper gel at law enforcement officers during the Capitol incursion.

He was arrested in March and has been held at the D.C. facility without bail. After breaking his wrist in May, it was recommended that he receive surgery, which has yet to happen thanks to the officials’ neglect.

During a hearing, Lamberth said this failure was “more than just inept and bureaucratic jostling of papers,” suggesting that it could have even been deliberate mistreatment.

“I find that the civil rights of the defendant have been abused. I don’t know if it’s because he’s a Jan. 6 defendant or not, but I find this matter should be referred to the attorney general of the United States for a civil rights investigation into whether the D.C. Department of Corrections is violating the civil rights of Jan. 6 defendants,” he said.

This is a disturbing example of what many fear could happen to our justice system if we are not careful.

For months, attorneys representing Jan. 6 defendants have been crying foul about how their clients are being treated. The allegations sound like they’re right out of the third world and include lack of access to clean water, lengthy periods of time in solitary confinement, and limited legal counsel.

‘Insurrection’? Climate Change Protesters Attempt to Storm Interior Department Building

By many accounts, the alleged rioters are being treated like political prisoners in a corrupt, illiberal system — and, sadly, I’m sure many would agree that that is essentially what they are.

However, the Post pointed out that the D.C. Department of Corrections has been accused of creating inhumane conditions before and not-so-subtly implied that it’s only now receiving any attention because the Jan. 6 defendants are white and conservative.

“Some veteran defense lawyers privately noted that complaints raised on behalf of mostly White and conservative Jan. 6 defendants [appear] to have won more traction from some political quarters than abuse claims brought by poorer Black and Hispanic defendants who make up the bulk of the jail population,” the outlet reported.

This is an interesting angle from the Post, considering it’s not exactly uncommon in today’s political climate for lawmakers and pundits to draw attention to all manner of alleged civil rights violations, particularly against minorities.

Of course, the left’s leveraging of such grievances for political purposes is not always proportionate to the actual wrongdoing, so we can take the claim at face value.

If the Jan. 6 defendants are not being singled out and this facility really is so atrocious, well, then it’s a good thing that their cases are bringing attention to gross and widespread civil rights abuses, right? Certainly.

Yet what is unique in the case of these supposedly privileged defendants is that their crime, which has been characterized by the establishment as a carefully coordinated and treasonous affair, seems to have had a suspicious degree of FBI involvement.

No matter how you look at it, the way the Jan. 6 defendants are being treated reeks of swamp corruption. We need to fight for a justice system that defends the rights of even the most politically polarizing prisoner.

Let’s sincerely hope that, no matter who is being mistreated in this D.C. prison, this incident will rip the mask off the people responsible.

It’s another day ending in “Y,” so there’s more upside-down, crazy stuff from the left.

As in — let’s all be Holocaust deniers.

That’s what Gina Peddy last week told Texas teachers in a school district near Fort Worth.

Peddy, an executive director of curriculum for Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, was training teachers on how to stock their classroom libraries in light of new legislation requiring schools to present varied viewpoints on controversial subjects, according to the Southlake podcast of NBC News Digital.

The details are contained in Texas Senate Bill 3, set to go into effect in December, and in House Bill 3979, which went into effect last month. The laws require the teaching of essentially traditional civics in Texas schools. They allow teachers to opt out of addressing controversial subjects, but if they choose controversy, they must present a balanced viewpoint.

US Marshals Could Begin Rounding Up Trump Supporters Targeted in House Jan. 6 Committee

That’s where Peddy decided that, somehow, the Holocaust is controversial. Peddy, in effect, said there’s more than one viewpoint to genocide.

“Just try to remember the concepts of [House Bill] 3979,” Peddy said, as she was secretly recorded, with the recording given to NBC. “And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust that you have one that has an opposing … that has other perspectives.”

Right.

Does Peddy really believe there’s more than one viewpoint on whether or not the Holocaust was justified? Or was she just using a juvenile way to object to the new Texas legislation, which tempers indoctrination in topics like critical race theory? Education professionals are supposed to teach the children, not act like them.

Actually, there’s a backstory to Peddy’s nonsense. At the macro level, it’s about what’s going on nationwide in public schools — parents are realizing the indoctrination that is taking place and are objecting.

And the priests and priestesses of Big Education are responding by telling parents to butt out.

At a local level, in Southlake and elsewhere, some parents have been concerned about the school district’s elevation of diversity and inclusion teaching.

Texas law prohibits teaching that could make individuals feel “guilt or anguish,” regarding their race, according to NBC.

There has been concern about the teaching of CRT, and some Southlake teachers are incensed that the school board voted to reprimand a fourth-grade teacher who had in her classroom a book on “anti-racism.”

Teacher Allegedly Threatens to Shoot School Administrators After Maintenance Staff Removes Plastic COVID Barrier from Classroom

(For those having trouble keeping up, you can consider the term anti-racism to be as against racist attitudes as Antifa is against fascism).

Not surprisingly, Peddy’s Holocaust comment has brought reaction.

Karen Fitzgerald, a spokeswoman for the school district, said the district is trying to aid teachers in compliance with the new legislation, not only in teaching but in books they provide students, according to NBC.

“Our district recognizes that all Texas teachers are in a precarious position with the latest legal requirements,” she said. “Our purpose is to support our teachers in ensuring they have all of the professional development, resources and materials needed. Our district has not and will not mandate books be removed nor will we mandate that classroom libraries be unavailable.”

Union spokesman Clay Robinson of the Texas State Teachers Association said the new legislation doesn’t cover classroom libraries. And he criticized what Peddy had said.

“We find it reprehensible for an educator to require a Holocaust denier to get equal treatment with the facts of history,” Robison told NBC. “That’s absurd. It’s worse than absurd. And this law does not require it.”

Republican State Sen. Bryan Hughes, who wrote Senate Bill 3, concurred. Schools don’t have to present both sides of “good and evil,” and there’s no requirement to ban books with only one perspective of the Holocaust.

“That’s not what the bill says,” according to Hughes.

Following publicity surrounding Peddy’s teacher training, Carroll school superintendent Lane Ledbetter posted on Facebook: “We recognize there are not two sides of the Holocaust,” and said the district would work to clarify expectations for teachers.

Some teachers have expressed concern over what they have in their classroom libraries. One anonymous interview conducted with two teachers by NBC addressed the statement that the district is not pressuring teachers to purge their bookshelves. “That’s a lie,” one responded. “It is a flat-out lie … How could you even make that statement?”

Asked by NBC what was at stake, the anonymous teacher said: “In books, children see what the world can be. And to have that taken away because we’re afraid of a few parents getting upset about a word or two or an idea that they have imagined is in a book is unthinkable.”

And true to form for ongoing militancy among those in the education establishment, one teacher’s classroom library has been covered with yellow caution tape, similar to what is seen at police or construction sites.

Ever think that maybe what we call public schools are really private schools, as in what Big Education thinks is its own private domain?

Senate Democrats want to pass a new “voting rights” bill that would limit laws requiring voter identification and produce a federal framework for voting.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been skeptical of such a bill, as he is wary of a federal takeover of voter laws. Voting law has traditionally been a province of states, not the federal government.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced the new bill on Thursday, and he is planning a vote on it for next week.

One positive sign for Republicans is Schumer saying that if Republicans have ideas “on how to improve the legislation, we are prepared to hear them, debate them, and if they are in line with the goals of the legislation, include them in the bill.”

Voter identification laws, though, are critical to maintaining a fair voting system.

US Marshals Could Begin Rounding Up Trump Supporters Targeted in House Jan. 6 Committee

The Bill of Rights Institute identifies several reasons that voting identification procedures by the states are a good idea:

“In general, it is a good idea to verify a voter’s identity in order to ensure a one-vote-per-person system.

“There are many cases in which people registered in multiple states vote multiple times.

“There are many cases in which deceased registered voters cast a ballot-someone is fraudulently claiming to be the deceased voter.

“Non-citizens vote in large numbers, though they do not possess the legal right to do so.”

Voting identification laws are a fundamental way that states can use to require free and democratic elections.

Furthermore, as states have traditionally been in charge of elections, this latest bill represents an attempt at federal overreach.

Our federalist system depends on having a certain balance of power between the federal government and the state governments, which this bill threatens to make worse.

The balance of power has long been eroded by increasing the power of the federal government, and this bill represents another step backward in the balance of power.

Democrats’ Sick Plan for Our Bank Accounts Proves They Think We’re All Liars

There is a strong chance that this voting rights bill will fail, as there is a 50-50 party division in the Senate and 60 votes are required to overcome a filibuster.

Some Democrats contend that new voting rights laws in Texas and other states are a return to Jim Crow-era laws. However, this new bill in the Senate would prevent the kind of good voter identification laws that are needed in this country.

Let us hope that the Senate Republicans do not allow this bill to pass. It would be a step backward and a sign of a dangerous federal government becoming even more powerful.

Being on leave during a major crisis is a good thing, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Friday.

The Department of Transportation let slip Thursday that Buttigieg, who adopted twins with his husband, Chasten, has been on paternity leave since August.

“For the first four weeks, he was mostly offline except for major agency decisions and matters that could not be delegated,” a spokesman for the Department of Transportation said. “He has been ramping up activities since then.”

Buttigieg will “continue to take some time over the coming weeks to support his husband and take care of his new children,” the spokesman said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the openly gay Cabinet member is a role model for the “importance of paid leave for new parents,” according to The Hill.

US Marshals Could Begin Rounding Up Trump Supporters Targeted in House Jan. 6 Committee

Not everyone was as fawning.

“Pete Buttigieg has been on leave from his job since August after adopting a child. Paternity leave, they call it. Trying to figure out how to breastfeed, no word on how that went,” Fox News host Tucker Carlson said Thursday.

Buttigieg was stung by the remark and said he is on call “24/7.”

“In his case, I guess he just doesn’t understand the concept of bottle feeding, let alone the concept of paternity leave,” Buttigieg said of Carlson. “But what is really strange is that, you know, this is from a side of the aisle that used to claim the mantle of being pro-family. What we have right now is an administration that’s actually pro-family.”

“I’m blessed to experience that as an employee, being able to have the flexibility to take care of our newborn children, which is by the way, work. It’s a joyful work. It’s wonderful work, but it’s definitely work,” Buttigieg added.

But Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee noted that Buttigieg has taken time off when America’s transportation sector is under scrutiny as a key cause of supply chain issues that are impacting Americans.

“We’re in the middle of a transportation crisis and the White House was hiding that Pete Buttigieg was on paid leave. Why did we just learn of this?” Blackburn tweeted, adding the secretary “should do his job.”

We’re in the middle of a transportation crisis and the White House was hiding that Pete Buttigieg was on paid leave. Why did we just learn of this?

— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) October 15, 2021

Biden Has Allowed Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg to Take Months-Long Paid Leave as Crisis Rages

Pete Buttigieg should do his job.

— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) October 15, 2021

Carlson, on Fox News, did not allow Buttigieg to have the last word, according to Newsweek.

“We made a brief, offhand joke about the Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, and this morning we discovered our error,” Carlson said.

“It turns out that Buttigieg is not a dwarfish fraud whose utter mediocrity indicts the class that produced him. No, not at all,” he said.

“Pete Buttigieg was once the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. So understandably, going forward, we are under strict orders from the Biden administration to take Pete Buttigieg very, very seriously. And of course we will. Our mistake,” he said.

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry has admitted that, at least in his role as the carbon-cutting evangelist to the world, he’s not terribly interested in China’s human rights abuses — including the oppression of the Uyghur people of Xinjiang province that some have called genocide.

According to Fox Business, when asked by an interviewer last month about “the process by which one trades off climate against human rights,” Kerry’s answer struck many as shockingly cold: “Well, life is always full of tough choices and the relationship between nations.”

That statement will come under additional scrutiny after financial records revealed Kerry and his wife have a stake in a controversial Chinese investment group that has funded work on facial recognition technology used by the Chinese Communist Party to identify Uyghurs.

The financial disclosure documents filed at the beginning of this year and reviewed by The Washington Free Beacon indicate that the climate czar holds “over $1,000,000” in an investment group called Hillhouse China Value Fund L.P.

“Kerry’s Hillhouse stake is through a trust in which his wife is the beneficiary,” the Free Beacon reported. “While Kerry’s wife is a beneficiary of the trust, he stated in the disclosure that they are not involved in managing the investments.”

US Marshals Could Begin Rounding Up Trump Supporters Targeted in House Jan. 6 Committee

Hillhouse, described by Bloomberg as “a $100 billion behemoth that’s made prescient bets on stocks, venture capital and private equity deals,” has made a big bet (prescient or not) on YITU Technology, a firm that is blacklisted by the U.S. because it helps President Xi Jinping’s regime track Uyghurs virtually anywhere.

“The facial recognition technology, which is integrated into China’s rapidly expanding networks of surveillance cameras, looks exclusively for Uighurs based on their appearance and keeps records of their comings and goings for search and review,” The New York Times reported in 2019.

“Chinese authorities already maintain a vast surveillance net, including tracking people’s DNA, in the western region of Xinjiang, which many Uighurs call home. But the scope of the new systems, previously unreported, extends that monitoring into many other corners of the country.”Does John Kerry have credibility on the world stage?Yes No
Completing this poll entitles you to The Western Journal news updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

What’s more, YITU reportedly has plans to expand overseas — meaning other oppressive governments looking to crack down on ethnic minorities could use the software as well.

The U.S. Department of Commerce placed YITU on its trade restriction blacklist in 2019, saying the company is “implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups.”

Intelligence analyst Anders Corr told the Free Beacon that Kerry’s investment in YITU is an “astonishing and disappointing revelation.”

“Kerry leads on the China issue, not just climate talks, and he and his family should be forbidden from investing in a manner that creates even the appearance of a conflict of interest,” Corr said.

Corr added that China’s AI industry is “one of a very few most important strategic sectors for its economic and military development,” and its growth would “enable the achievement of its goal to become globally hegemonic.”

“No American should invest in China’s AI capabilities, which only empower the country in its economic growth, and ultimately the military strength with which it will challenge the benign leadership of the United States,” he said.

Forget Ukraine, New Hunter Biden Emails Tie Him to Completely Different Country: Report

By the by, there’s another person in the orbit of the Biden administration who owns a stake in a Chinese AI company implicated in human rights abuses. Want to take a guess at who it is? C’mon, just guess. You’re probably not wrong.

“The president’s son, Hunter Biden, continues to own a 10% stake in a Chinese private equity firm that invested in another Chinese facial recognition company, Megvii, that was also sanctioned by the U.S. government in 2019,” the Daily Caller reported Thursday.

“While White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in early February that Hunter Biden was in the process of divesting his ownership stake in the Chinese private equity firm BHR Partners, business records accessed Thursday shows he still owns his 10% stake in the firm through his personal company, Skaneateles LLC.”

Perhaps Megvii wants to buy some paintings from a certain up-and-coming artist before Hunter officially ends their business relationship. But I digress.

Hunter isn’t going to be doing much of great importance for the next few years, whereas Kerry is tasked with getting China — the world’s biggest polluter — to go along with carbon reduction plans. He’s also seemingly looking the other way as China commits genocide.

Yes, one assumes his money is being invested in something akin to a blind trust, but Kerry of all people should have made it clear to his financial planners that putting money into firms that invest in companies like YITU is strictly off-limits.

Does that narrow one’s range of investment options? Well, life is always full of tough choices.

LOS ANGELES—In his first public statement following his indictment on federal corruption charges, Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas said he has “no intention of resigning” his seat and is focused on fighting the allegations.

“When I ran for City Council, I made it clear that my highest priority would be addressing the city’s homeless and housing crises, and that remains the case. There is no issue that matters more to Angelenos and to me,” Ridley-Thomas said in a prepared statement.

“That said, I have no intention of resigning my seat on the City Council or neglecting my duties. Doing so would be to the detriment of the people I serve, and I have no intention of leaving my constituents without a voice on matters that directly affect their well-being.

“Going forward, I intend to do two things: disprove the allegations leveled at me and continue the work I was elected to do most importantly, addressing the homeless and housing crisis.”

The 66-year-old Ridley-Thomas is a giant figure in local politics, previously serving on the Los Angeles City Council from 1991-2002, then serving in the state Assembly and state Senate before he was elected to the powerful county Board of Supervisors in 2008, serving until 2020 when he returned to the city council.

The 20-count indictment filed in Los Angeles federal court on Wednesday alleges that Ridley-Thomas conspired with Marilyn Louise Flynn, 83, former dean of USC’s School of Social Work, who prosecutors claim agreed to provide Ridley-Thomas’s son with graduate school admission, a full-tuition scholarship and a paid professorship at the university.

She also allegedly arranged to funnel a $100,000 donation from Ridley-Thomas’s campaign funds through the university to a nonprofit to be operated by his son.

In exchange, the indictment alleges, Ridley-Thomas, who was at the time a Los Angeles County Supervisor, supported contracts involving the School of Social Work, including contracts to provide services to the county Department of Children and Family Services and Probation Department, as well as an amendment to a contract with the Department of Mental Health that would bring the school millions of dollars in new revenue.

Ridley-Thomas is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles. Flynn’s arraignment was set for Oct. 25. Attorneys for both have denied any wrongdoing.

Ridley-Thomas’s attorney, Michael J. Proctor, said Thursday the councilman “was shocked by the federal allegations leveled against him, and with good reason. They are wrong, and we look forward to disproving them.”

Proctor said that at no point in Ridley-Thomas’s political career, “not as a member of the city council, the state Legislature, or the Board of Supervisors has he abused his position for personal gain. Mark Ridley-Thomas has been in public service for 30 years, and his actions have been open to public scrutiny for a full three decades. Over those 30 years, he has demonstrated the quality of his character.”

“We ask you to allow due process to take its course,” the attorney said.

Flynn’s attorney, Vicki I. Podberesky, said, “Marilyn Flynn has devoted her entire professional life to the field of social work. She has spent over 45 years in academia and has worked tirelessly for the improvement and betterment of the social welfare network in Los Angeles and around the country. Ms. Flynn has not committed any crime and we believe that the evidence in this case will ultimately support this conclusion.”

Ridley-Thomas is the third LA city councilman to be indicted in the past couple of years.

Jose Huizar pleaded not guilty in December to bribery and other federal charges in a racketeering indictment, and Mitchell Englander was sentenced in January to 14 months behind bars for lying to federal authorities about his dealings with a businessman who provided him $15,000 in secret cash payments and a night in Las Vegas.

On Friday, Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson raised concerns about the overall issue of corruption within municipal government.

“I’ve been on the council six years, there’s not been one year I’ve been on the council where one of my colleagues or more have not been either under investigation, indicted, or in the case of one member last year actually incarcerated and sits in jail at this moment,” Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson told KCRW. “I think there needs to be greater transparency about what all of us are doing.”

Harris-Dawson noted the shock of the allegations against Ridley-Thomas, someone who has been a leader in LA politics for nearly Harris-Dawson’s entire adult life.

“To see these charges come forward against someone who holds a Ph.D. in social ethics is quite jarring,” Harris-Dawson added.

Civil rights activists who have long lauded Ridley-Thomas’s service to the community have urged against a rush to judgment in the case. Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, said the handling of the case could have long-term consequences for Ridley-Thomas’s 10th Council District, which includes areas such as Arlington Heights, Koreatown, Leimert Park, Gramercy Park, Mid-City, Wilshire Center, and Baldwin Village.

“The federal charges against Thomas are serious,” Hutchinson said.

“However, Thomas’s constituents must be the ones to decide his fate. There must be no rush to judgment on his future on the council and in the district he represents. This would be a gross disservice to his constituents.”

Hutchinson’s comments followed Councilman Joe Buscaino’s call for Ridley-Thomas to surrender his council seat.

City Council President Nury Martinez, meanwhile, said the council “will need to take appropriate action” against Ridley-Thomas, although she did not provide specifics.

When Huizar was arrested last year in connection with his corruption case, the council voted to suspend him, leaving his staff to serve as caretakers for the district.

Such a move against Ridley-Thomas could have longer-range consequences, leaving the 10th District without an elected representative at a time when the city is in the midst of redrawing council district lines.

Councilwoman Nithya Raman, who sits on the Homelessness and Poverty Committee, called on Ridley-Thomas to at least step down as chairman of the committee and be stripped of other committee assignments “in the short term.”

“I have great respect for council member Ridley-Thomas both as a person and as a warrior against homelessness, and I’ve treasured the time we’ve spent working together on the Homelessness and Poverty Committee,” Raman said.

“But this committee’s work is of extraordinary importance and involves massive city investments, which require the public’s trust. It cannot be conducted under the shadow of a federal indictment. In the short term, council member Ridley-Thomas should step down from his committee assignments,” Raman said.

The indictment outlines an alleged scheme in 2017 and 2018 in which then-Supervisor Ridley-Thomas sought benefits from Flynn and university officials to benefit an unnamed relative, who was the subject of an internal sexual harassment investigation in the Assembly, likely to resign from elected office and significantly in debt.

While the indictment did not name the relative, Ridley-Thomas’s son, Sebastian, resigned from the Assembly in 2017 amid investigations into sexual harassment complaints. He insisted at the time that his resignation was due to health reasons, not a sexual harassment probe.

Sebastian Ridley-Thomas later became a professor of social work and public policy at the University of Southern California, despite lacking a graduate degree.

He was later terminated over questions about his original appointment and university concerns about the $100,000 that was donated from his father’s campaign funds to the School of Social Work, then directed to a nonprofit run by Sebastian Ridley-Thomas.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/councilman-ridley-thomas-has-no-intention-of-resigning-following-indictment_4052693.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

The intra-Democrat power struggle intensified this week as two top senators clashed over what one of their states needs.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—technically an independent, but who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination twice and regularly votes with the party—started the spat by penning an op-ed in a West Virginia newspaper that’s essentially a press release for President Joe Biden’s agenda, promoting what supporters say would be accomplished if Democrats ram a $3.5 trillion budget package through Congress.

The bill “is an unprecedented effort to finally address the long-neglected crises facing working families,” he wrote.

Sanders noted that the package is opposed by virtually every Republican and thus requires all Democrats in the upper chamber to support it, even using a process called reconciliation that lowers the threshold in the Senate from 60 to 50 votes. Democrats can break ties because they hold the White House.

“Poll after poll shows overwhelming support for this legislation. Yet, the political problem we face is that in a 50-50 Senate we need every Democratic senator to vote ‘yes.’ We now have only 48. Two Democratic senators remain in opposition, including Sen. Joe Manchin,” Sanders wrote.

Manchin (D-W.Va.) about an hour after the piece was published fired off a statement to reporters and on social media.

“This isn’t the first time an out-of-stater has tried to tell West Virginians what is best for them despite having no relationship to our state,” he said.

“Millions of jobs are open, supply chains are strained and unavoidable inflation taxes are draining workers’ hard-earned wages as the price of gasoline and groceries continues to climb. Senator Sanders’ answer is to throw more money on an already overheated economy while 52 other Senators have grave concerns about this approach,” Manchin said.

The longtime moderate reiterated his call for Congress to “proceed with caution on any additional spending” and vowed not to vote for “a reckless expansion of government programs,” adding, “No op-ed from a self-declared Independent socialist is going to change that.”

The public fight is the latest in a series of spats that have spilled from behind closed doors to the public sphere as so-called progressives and radical lawmakers like Sanders try to pressure Manchin, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), and other moderates to support the budget package.

Manchin and Sinema have stood strong and have called on the House of Representatives to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill that was passed with votes from both parties in the upper chamber.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has delayed a vote on that bill multiple times because the Congressional Progressive Caucus said its members would not support it unless the House first passed Biden’s package. Most Republicans in the lower chamber also oppose the bill, meaning there’s not enough votes to approve it.

Sanders publicly urged colleagues in the House not to vote for the infrastructure bill as they try to leverage the legislation to get the larger piece passed. Manchin, meanwhile, has refused to approve a budget package totaling more than $1.5 trillion, an amount progressives say is too low.

The back-and-forth Friday was presaged by Sanders dinging Manchin in a press conference on Wednesday, claiming it is “not fair” that “one or two people think that they should be able to stop what 48 members of the Democratic caucus want, what the American people want, what the president of the United States wants.”

Manchin has downplayed the rift in previous comments before his latest statement.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/manchin-responds-to-socialist-sanders-over-disparaging-op-ed-in-west-virginia-newspaper_4052673.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

SAN FRANCISCO—An Apple employee who led fellow workers in publicly sharing instances of what they called harassment and discrimination at the company said on Thursday that she had been fired.

Janneke Parrish, an Apple program manager, said the iPhone maker informed her on Thursday that she had been terminated for deleting material on company equipment while she was under investigation over the leaking of a company town hall to media. She told Reuters she denies leaking.

Parrish said she deleted apps that contained details of her finances and other personal information before handing her devices in to Apple as part of the probe.

Parrish said she believes she was fired for her activism in the workplace.

“To me, this seems clearly retaliatory for the fact that I was speaking out about abuses that have happened at my employer, pay equity and, generally, about our workplace conditions,” she said.

Apple said Friday it does not discuss specific employee matters.

Apple has recently experienced other examples of employee unrest. Last month, two Apple employees told Reuters they had filed charges against the company with the National Labor Relations Board. The workers accused Apple of retaliation and halting discussion of pay among employees, among other allegations.

Apple has said that it is “deeply committed to creating and maintaining a positive and inclusive workplace” and that it takes “all concerns” from employees seriously.

U.S. law protects the right of employees to openly discuss certain topics, including working conditions, discrimination, and equal pay.

Over the summer, current and former Apple employees began detailing on social media what they said were experiences of harassment and discrimination. Parrish and some colleagues began publishing the stories on social media and a publishing platform in a weekly digest titled ‘#AppleToo.’

Parrish said she was careful to respect company rules and never shared information that she believed to be confidential. She said she continued to publish the ‘#AppleToo’ digest after coming under investigation at the end of September.

“If anything, it’s made the importance of that work clearer than ever, when Apple’s response to criticism is to start internal investigations into those that it wants to see gone,” she said. “It’s easier for them to terminate people than it is for them to actually listen.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/apple-worker-says-she-was-fired-after-leading-movement-against-harassment_4052338.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

PHILADELPHIA—The Philadelphia parade celebrating Columbus Day ended at Marconi Plaza in South Philadelphia on Oct. 10. Marconi Plaza’s iconic Christopher Columbus statue was still covered by a wooden box and could not be displayed during the parade and celebration.

In addition to the active participation of different Italian American organizations, marchers include Mummers String Bands, and high school and elementary school marching bands. Hundreds of people watched the parade on-site and celebrated the Italian American heritage together.

“We’re honoring Christopher Columbus and the many contributions that Italian Americans have made to America in our history, and this is a great day,” Lou Barletta, a former congressman who is running for Pennsylvania governor, told The Epoch Times.

This year, the official name of the parade has been changed to “Italian­ American Day Parade.” While in many people’s eyes, it’s still the Columbus Day Parade.

Stephen D’Emilio, who grew up in South Philadelphia and is now the Commissioner of Haverford Township, told The Epoch Times: “I’m celebrating Columbus Day. That’s how I look at it. I’m not celebrating Italian Heritage Day. I came back to be here with my family and friends.”

The Wooden Box Covering Philadelphia Columbus Statue

Last summer, the 145-year-old Christopher Columbus statue was encased in a wooden box after it became a focal point for people who protested the death of George Floyd. The City of Philadelphia said the decision to cover the statue was based on public safety concerns and past violence.

But on Oct. 8, Common Pleas Court Judge Paula Patrick ruled that the city of Philadelphia must remove the box around the statue and issued an order allowing contractors to do the work immediately. However, the City of Philadelphia filed an emergency petition in Commonwealth Court and appealed the decision. Consequently, the Commonwealth Court reversed Judge Patrick’s ruling and ordered the boxes covering the statue to remain in place.

Many parade-goers argued that the city of Philadelphia should remove the box around the statue.

“It’s a disgrace that they have covered up the Columbus statue. It is an insult not only to the great Christopher Columbus, but it’s an insult to Italian Americans who are so proud of their heritage. And that box needs to come down,” said Barletta.

Louis Lanni, a candidate for Congress in the fifth district, also agrees that the wood box around the statue needs to come down: “it’s time to understand that we are one people of many different cultures. And among them are Italian people who appreciate the heritage and culture that Christopher Columbus brought to the American experience.”

The box could remain in place until appeals are heard. This case could go all the way up to the Supreme Court. As an Italian American, the Philadelphia city councilmember Mark Squilla feels a little frustrated because “it takes away from everything we’re talking about, the contributions of Italians and what they’re doing.”

George Bochetto, a nationally acclaimed trial attorney in Philadelphia, represents the appeal. He prefers to wait a few days to see the outcome of the appeal, “the box is going to stay for the time being. But we’re eventually going to get the box removed.”

History Can’t Be Changed: Columbus Day vs. Indigenous Peoples’ Day

The Philadelphia city officially recognized Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Oct. 11, effectively erasing Columbus Day. The actions were considered part of Mayor Jim Kenney’s response to the 2020 protests after the death of George Floyd. The Mayor’s order triggered a federal lawsuit seeking to reverse it and maintain Columbus Day as an officially recognized holiday. The city’s request to dismiss the federal case is still pending.

On Oct. 8, President Joe Biden became the first U.S. president to issue an official proclamation commemorating Indigenous Peoples’ Day. So far, there are 130 cities across the country that have ditched Columbus Day for Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and the list grows each year.

Many of the parade-goers opposed Philadelphia’s decision to rename Columbus Day.

“That’s the day that we, again, celebrate the contributions of Christopher Columbus and discovering America. And that name will never change in my eyes and many other millions of Americans,” said Barletta, who thinks the renaming of Columbus Day is an insult. “Columbus Day is for all of Italian Americans and should be for all Americans.”

“It won’t change. They can’t change history; they can’t rewrite history. And I can tell you these Italian Americans will not allow it to happen,” Barletta added.

Squilla and dozens of Italian American groups sued Kenney’s administration in federal court after his order to rename Columbus Day earlier this year: “We’re going through this controversy. What we want to do is to continue to celebrate Italian Americans’ contributions and make sure that people know that we will be proud of who we are, proud of our heritage, and proud of where we came from.”

Bochetto doesn’t think celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day should be at the expense of Columbus Day, “of course, our position is we’re happy to have an Indigenous Peoples’ Day. We want people to celebrate their ethnicity but don’t take ours away in the process. Let’s all have our holidays.”

Part of Cancel Culture Across the Country

Last year Philadelphia took down the statute of law-and-order Mayor Frank Rizzo, the first and only Italian-American to hold the city’s highest office.

From statues to monuments, symbols of the past are being torn down and renamed across the country. Some say this is righting the wrongs committed in the past, but others say it’s going too far.

Commenting on the covering up of the Columbus statue and renaming the holiday, Barletta said: “There’s no question they want to rewrite history; they want to change history. They want to keep the history that they like and then somehow try to erase the other history. It doesn’t work like that.”

He said he is glad that people are getting more aware of what is going on: “Eventually, people are going to see through what’s happening, and I’m glad that not only Italian Americans, but others should also rise up because their history can be wiped out as well.”

“It’s part of the cancel culture,” Bochetto said. “Not everything that happened in the past was so pleasant or wonderful, but we’re supposed to learn from it. And this is how we become a better society with a better outlook on life. We don’t just forget about it. We learn from it.”

Pharmacist Vincent Dibacco participated in the day’s celebration. He said: “If you oppose something that the minority wants, you’re no good, you’re nefarious, you’re wicked, but that’s not the way it is.”

He called on people to respect each other’s traditions and live in harmony: “This is a melting pot. Everyone’s going to have different opinions. We’re a little bit too sensitive. With things going on today, [we need] to be a little more tolerant of other people.”

Diane Pelosi, another parade participant, who works in a school said: “It’s our American history, and they’re trying to take it out of our schools. You can never wipe out history. And this is our Italian heritage. “

https://www.theepochtimes.com/iconic-philadelphia-columbus-statue-still-covered-by-wooden-box_4050356.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

The superintendent of a Virginia school district on Friday appeared to admit the district violated state law in failing to properly report alleged sexual assaults, as a state official confirmed the matter is under review.

Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler made the admission during a brief appearance before reporters, where he read a prepared statement and took no questions.

Ziegler said that the district made “errors in our state reporting regarding disciplinary incidents in schools,” adding that it “inadvertently omitted some information in the past.”

“That is extremely concerning, and we are taking steps to make sure that process is improved. I will say that I have no reason to believe at this time that any missing reports were due to an intent to hide any information from the Virginia Department of Education,” he said, blaming an alleged “lack of oversight” that was in place before he was appointed in June, even though he served as interim superintendent starting Jan. 1.

Ziegler appeared to be responding to a report by The Daily Wire that the district failed to record multiple instances of alleged sexual assault even though it’s required to by state law.

Ziegler said during a school board meeting on June 22 that he was unaware of any record of assaults happening in the district’s restrooms, nearly a month after a girl was allegedly raped by a male in a bathroom at Stone Bridge High School.

State law says that reports “shall be made” to school and district authorities regarding all assaults on school buses, on school grounds, or at a school-sponsored activity.

State law also directs district superintendents to annually report such incidents to the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). But a public database of reports showed at least one assault that was not reported to state authorities.

A Loudoun County Public Schools spokesperson declined to comment on Ziegler’s Friday remarks but did not dispute the characterization that Ziegler acknowledged state law was not complied with.

Superintendents who fail to comply or secure compliance with the reporting requirements are subject to sanctions.

A VDOE spokesman told The Epoch Times in an email that the agency has reviewed the submissions made by Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) concerning discipline, crime, and violation “and is in communication with LCPS regarding the accuracy of their reports and whether the division is in compliance with state reporting requirements.

The spokesman confirmed that the submissions are required annually and that superintendents are required to certify their accuracy.

“This is a matter that VDOE takes very seriously and is actively investigating discrepancies in the LCPS reports,” he said.

In his statement, Ziegler said he made misleading comments during the June meeting. He said his remarks came after wrongly interpreting a question about incidents in bathrooms as only involving transgender or “gender-fluid” students.

“I regret that my comments were misleading and I apologize for the distress that error caused families. I should have asked Board Member Barts clarifying questions to get to the root of her question, rather than assuming what she meant. I will do better in the future,” he said.

He also apologized for how the district handled two recent alleged assaults. “Let me say to the families and students involved: My heart aches for you, and I am sorry that we failed to provide the safe, welcoming and affirming environment that we aspire to provide,” he said.

A spokeswoman for father Scott Smith said in a statement to news outlets that Ziegler’s statement on behalf of LCPS “is the first acknowledgment that we have had that they are in fact responsible for their bad decision-making and policies that resulted in the two sexual assaults that happened in our high schools.”

“Today, Superintendent Ziegler said what we already knew: that the actions of the Loudoun County School Board and Administration ‘failed to provide the safe environment’ for the Smith’s daughter,” an attorney for the family added, before accusing LCPS of prioritizing “misguided policies of political correctness over student safety.”

Ziegler’s statement came as the county’s education leadership is under heightened scrutiny, in part because the board passed a policy that forces LCPS staffers to address students by any pronoun they choose, and lets students who claim to be another gender use that gender’s facilities.

The policy drew a fiery response at the June meeting, which was disbanded after Smith and another parent were arrested.

Smith recently revealed that his daughter was allegedly raped by a male inside a girl’s bathroom in her high school. He has described the male as utilizing the softness toward transgenderism to get inside the facility.

Smith has accused district leadership of covering up the assault.

The Loudon County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to The Epoch Times an incident took place in May at Stone Bridge High School but declined to provide more details, citing an ongoing investigation. It also declined to confirm reports that the same male was behind a sexual assault that took place at a different LCPS high school in October.

A Freedom of Information Act request seeking more details on the incidents and the arrest of Smith was sent.

LCPS told The Epoch Times earlier in the week via email that school board members “are typically not given details of disciplinary matters” and were not aware of the alleged rape until it was reported on in media outlets.

A member of the school board facing a recall petition resigned from the board on Friday, and attorneys for the Smith family filed a lawsuit this week against the district.

Allen Zhong contributed to this report.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/loudoun-county-superintendent-appears-to-admit-district-violated-state-law-by-not-reporting-sexual-assault_4052269.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

Morale among Border Patrol agents has plummeted to an all-time low as they struggle to process unprecedented volumes of illegal immigrants, while knowing they’re unable to secure the border against cartel activity. Many blame their own leadership for enabling it.

“Day after day, they just look like they want to eat their gun,” an agent told The Epoch Times, referring to some local agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, who he says are bearing the brunt of it. “They just look like hell. It’s hard to put it—you just start seeing the life leaving people’s faces.”

The agent, Jose (not his real name), spoke to The Epoch Times on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions.

U.S. authorities have apprehended more than 1.5 million illegal immigrants since January, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.

“It’s a very, very hopeless feeling for the Border Patrol,” Jose said. “Of course, we’re all still doing our jobs as best we can. Nobody is giving up, but it’s definitely more of a hopeless feeling just in general.”

During August, the average daily number of illegal immigrants in Border Patrol custody along the southwest border was just shy of 10,000, according to CBP. Agents are spending most of their time processing illegal immigrants rather than being on the front line along the border.

“None of us signed up to be secretaries for these family units coming in,” Jose said.

Border Patrol agents have been especially overwhelmed in the two busiest sectors—the Rio Grande Valley and Del Rio in Texas.

In one week in September, border agents scrambled to deal with an influx of nearly 15,000 mostly Haitian illegal aliens in Del Rio alone. The effort left highway checkpoints closed and hundreds of miles of the U.S.–Mexico border unpatrolled.

“If we went back to actually doing our jobs, it would be amazing,” Jose said. “But right now, the common thought on this is that we’re just aiding and abetting illegal aliens—furthering their illegal activity. Many border agents are spending the majority of their time taking care of the humanitarian needs of illegal aliens rather than out on the border stopping criminal activity.

“And that’s not what any of us signed up for.”

Leadership

The Biden administration has said it’s concentrating on the “root causes” of illegal immigration and views it as a race issue.

“Immigration, we consider, is part of racial equity—which is a broad issue, but that’s how the president has spoken about that crisis over the past several months,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in the early days of the Biden presidency.

President Joe Biden was quick in January to dismantle many of former President Donald Trump’s border security measures, which, along with his campaign rhetoric, has resulted in record surges of illegal crossings this year.

The president tapped Vice President Kamala Harris in March to address the growing border crisis, and she has since traveled to Central America and Mexico to discuss the issue with leaders from those nations.

Harris was outspoken against Border Patrol and ICE agents (comparing them to the KKK) in 2019 during the last surge of illegal immigrants, and again in 2020, when specialized border agents were deployed to Portland, Oregon, to defend a federal courthouse from Antifa and other rioters.

And Border Patrol agents haven’t forgotten.

“We knew Kamala Harris didn’t like us in the very beginning. She attacked us, called us storm troopers … in Portland, and she hated us and we knew it,” another agent, Alex, told The Epoch Times, on condition of anonymity.

“So then, she becomes our vice president and is now a border czar of the very agency she hates.

“From top down, when you have complete leadership that fundamentally does not like you; when you have agents that you don’t know if they’re working for the cartel; if you have half of America that thinks you’re the enemy and you put kids in cages and kill them, all because of propaganda, it weighs on you.”

Alex said his children are bullied at school because he’s a Border Patrol agent.

“They’re asked if I kill kids, put kids in cages,” he said. “The border encompasses everything. So that’s why it weighs down. Because I have to think my choice to be a Border Patrol agent is negatively impacting my family’s emotional state and well-being as well. So that’s also a pretty heavy weight.”

He said it’s not a simple fix to find another job. He’s not prepared to get the COVID-19 vaccine at this stage and federal agencies are mandating it. Border Patrol agents have until Nov. 22 to be fully vaccinated or else face being fired. Several agents The Epoch Times has spoken to fall into that category. Some are submitting their retirement paperwork, while others are counting the days until they’re eligible. Agents can retire at age 50, but often stay on until mandatory retirement at 57.

“We’re not making any difference. Zero, nothing. I always say, today’s turnback is tomorrow’s gotaway,” Alex said, referring to illegal aliens that turn back to Mexico before being apprehended and those who get away from Border Patrol and enter the United States.

Then-head of the Del Rio Border Patrol Sector Austin Skero said on June 24, as illegal immigration continued to escalate: “None of us really feel good about the current situation we’re in. So it has taken a toll on morale. Our agents are frustrated. They’re frustrated, but they’re highly motivated.”

Focus

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s three-part plan to address illegal immigration is to invest in the countries that people are leaving, to build “safe, orderly, and humane pathways” for migration, and to rebuild the asylum system and refugee program. So far this year, illegal immigrants have hailed from more than 160 countries.

Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said in a June 24 community meeting in Del Rio that the agency’s focus is to streamline the processing of illegal immigrants.

This year, the administration released hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants into the United States with a notice to appear, which indicates the scheduled date of their immigration court case.

However, the border agencies got so swamped that agents were directed to speed things up by handing out a “notice to report,” which is a request for the illegal immigrants to check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within 60 days.

It’s unclear how many subsequently reported to ICE. The Epoch Times has submitted a freedom of information request for that data, but hasn’t received a response.

On Oct. 8, the Biden administration announced its intention to cancel existing border fence contracts in the Rio Grande Valley and Del Rio border sectors. Harris, in 2019, had called Trump’s border wall project his “vanity project” and the surge of illegal aliens an “emergency of his own creation.”

During the last crisis in 2019, Border Patrol agents were accused of running state-sanctioned concentration camps and putting “kids in cages” at the overwhelmed facilities along the border.

The Border Patrol agency took a hit in morale at the time, but this year is much worse, agents say.

“It’s definitely much more profound,” Jose said.

“We’re not securing the border anymore. We’re not fighting the incursion, we’re just rolling over and taking it. It’s just being a secretary. It’s not fixing anything, it’s not helping America.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/border-patrol-morale_4041518.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

At its roots, communism is an ideology that strives on the capitalization of extremists. Under communist rule, moderates are not allowed to exist. You either support the communist revolution or risk being labeled as an enemy of the people.

This idea of dividing and conquering can be seen in successful communist revolutions throughout history. Whether it’s Russia, China, or Cuba, communists followed the same steps to turn a population against one another.

They first identify an issue to be used as a vehicle to gain supporters and call for a violent revolution. They then polarize that issue, forcing people to choose sides. By eliminating the middle, only the extremists of either faction remain. Conflict will inevitably erupt between these factions, weakening the established systems and allowing communist dictators to seize power.

When Lenin incited the Russian Revolution in 1917, he categorized people into two categories. There were those who supported his revolution and those who did not. There was no middle ground. If you were moderate, you conflicted with the revolutionary ideals and were marked for destruction. A brutal 6-year struggle ensued, resulting in an estimated 7 to 12 million deaths. But when the dust settled, Russia was ruled by a communist dictatorship for the next half-century.

This trend of using violence and destruction as a tool has been seen in other communist revolutions as well.

During Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution in China, extensive campaigns wiped out intellectuals and scholars who were seen as a threat to communist teachings. Red Guards, a name given to the paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong, began to organize “struggle sessions” and purges across China. These were designed to root out and eliminate any threats to Mao Zedong’s unquestioned rule.

During this time, moderates and opponents of the party were sent to “re-education” camps. Mao’s Red Guards faced off against “rebel groups” across China. And traditional Chinese culture, one of the longest in history, was almost completely wiped out in a few short decades. But as with every communist revolution, after millions of deaths and years of suffering, the people do not become free but are instead trapped under communist tyranny.

Communism claims to build a “heaven on Earth,” but what it delivers is little more than a glorified prison. From the years of violence and destruction, people become conditioned to obey the party without question. And that is the ultimate goal of communism, not to create a utopia but to subject people to its tyranny.

But what led to this destructive belief? How did its violent revolutions begin? And how is it that communism continues to find popularity? In this special series exclusively on Epoch TV, award-winning investigative reporter Joshua Philipp uncovers the dark origins of the communist ideals that we see today.

_

Follow EpochTV on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EpochTVus

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EpochTVus

Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/EpochTV

https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-communist-push-to-eliminate-moderates-and-incite-conflict_4051343.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

Facebook announced updates to its harassment policy on Wednesday to protect public figures, journalists, and activists from harmful content and attacks, according to a new statement from the social media giant.

The changes follow the recent congressional testimony of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, who shared concerns about the company’s practices.

Haugen, a former product manager on Facebook’s civic misinformation team, on Oct. 3 revealed that she was the individual who provided the internal documents for a Sept. 14 exposé by The Wall Street Journal that claims Instagram has a “toxic” impact on the self-esteem of young girls.

She has accused Facebook of repeatedly putting profit before doing “what was good for the public,” including clamping down on hate speech.

Now Facebook has announced its new policy to better protect users concerned about bullying and harassment on the platform.

“It’s important that everyone on our apps feels safe to engage and connect with their communities. We do not allow bullying and harassment on our platform, but when it does happen, we act,” Global Head of Safety Antigone Davis said in the statement.

“We remove content that violates our policies and disable the accounts of people who repeatedly break our rules,” Davis added.

The announcement was coordinated with National Bullying and Awareness Day in the United States. The actions seek to offer additional protections to anyone who feels threatened on the platform, especially through the large-scale harassment sometimes experienced by leading influencers.

The statement focused on two areas of change. First, Facebook’s new policy will remove “coordinated efforts of mass harassment.” This change could include comments, direct messages, and other targeted attempts to harass users in a coordinated manner.

The second change includes more protections for public figures. Defined to include celebrities, creators, journalists, and politicians, the new policy will remove:

• Severe sexualizing content
• Profiles, pages, groups, or events dedicated to sexualizing the public figure
• Derogatory, sexualized photoshopped images and drawings
• Attacks through negative physical descriptions that are tagged to, mention, or posted on the public figure’s account
• Degrading content depicting individuals in the process of bodily functions

The protections will also specifically protect influencers in the “underrepresented community, including women, people of color, or the LGBTQ community.”

In addition to Facebook, the policy changes will include interactions on the Facebook-owned app Instagram.

Not everyone is in favor of the updated policies. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) posted a controversial YouTube video Monday calling the Facebook whistleblower a “Trojan horse.”

He said in the video’s description that “contrary to the media’s casual assertions that Republicans and Democrats see eye to eye on this issue, let me assure you we do not.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/facebook-updates-harassment-policy-to-protect-public-figures-journalists-and-activists_4051280.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

An ethics complaint has been filed against White House press secretary Jen Psaki after she indulged in a bit of political cheerleading during a White House briefing.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel calling for an investigation of an alleged Hatch Act violation by Psaki, according to The Hill.

The Hatch Act bans government employees from partisan campaign activities and other political activity while acting in their official capacity.

CREW, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said Psaki crossed the line Thursday during a White House briefing when she gushed over Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia. McAuliffe is locked in a tight race against Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin.

Psaki was asked if the White House was interpreting the race as a referendum on President Joe Biden’s policies, which McAuliffe strongly supports.

Judge Judy Ditches Longtime Bailiff Because of Cost Concerns – But She Makes $47 Million Per Year

“Well, I have to be a little careful about how much political analysis I do from here and not (inaudible) into that too much,” she said, according to a White House transcript of the briefing.

“Look, I think the president, of course, wants former Gov. McAuliffe to be the future governor of Virginia. There is alignment on a lot of their agenda, whether it is the need to invest in rebuilding our roads, rails, and bridges, or making it easier for women to rejoin the workforce,” she said.

“I will say as — I will leave it to other outside analysis to convey that off-year elections are often — are often not a bellwether, but — and there’s a lot of history here in Virginia. But, again, we’re going to do everything we can to help former Gov. McAuliffe, and we believe in the agenda he’s representing,” she said.

The letter from CREW said Psaki’s comment was a foul when it came to the Hatch Act.Did Jen Psaki violate the Hatch Act?Yes No
Completing this poll entitles you to The Western Journal news updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

“By mixing official government business with support of a candidate for partisan political office in the weeks before the election and engaging in political activity while on duty, Ms. Psaki appears to have used her official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election, political activity that is prohibited by law,” the letter said.

Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany scolded the establishment media for not making a peep when Psaki crossed the line.

“Why does the media not hold @PressSec accountable for potential Hatch Act violations? She has twice advocated for political candidates from the podium. There is no problem in engaging in First Amendment political activity, but it must be done separate and apart from the podium,” she tweeted.

Why does the media not hold @PressSec accountable for potential Hatch Act violations? She has twice advocated for political candidates from the podium.

There is no problem in engaging in First Amendment political activity, but it must be done separate and apart from the podium. https://t.co/ICLldHRCgs

— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) October 15, 2021

Trump Appointees Take Legal Action Against Biden Administration for ‘Unprecedented Decision to Oust Them’

Psaki shrugged off the complaint as a case of poor word choice, according to CNN.

“I take ethics seriously. So does the president, of course,” she said in an interview.

“As I understand it, if I had said ‘he’ instead of ‘we,’ that would not have been an issue at all, and I’ll be more careful with my words next time,” Psaki said. “Words certainly matter.”

“While the President has publicly expressed his support for McAuliffe, we’ll leave it to the press and the campaign to provide commentary on the race,” Psaki told CNBC.

Earlier this year, the Office of Special Counsel ruled that Marcia Fudge, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, violated the Hatch Act in talking about Democrats’ chances to win an upcoming election in her home state of Ohio.

The Jan. 6 Capitol incursion was not an insurrection, as many left-wing politicians and pundits have claimed.

Sure, some of those present during the incursion were rioters who broke the law. They should be punished accordingly.

But the idea that the events of Jan. 6 constituted some sort of domestic terror attack is nothing but a calculated narrative developed by establishment elites in their attempts to garner more power.

Leftists know this. Otherwise, they would apply the “domestic terrorism” label to other attempts to storm federal buildings.

On Thursday, a large group of climate change protesters tried to enter the Department of the Interior, according to Ellie Silverman, a reporter for The Washington Post.

Judge Judy Ditches Longtime Bailiff Because of Cost Concerns – But She Makes $47 Million Per Year

“Climate protesters are now rallying outside the Department of the Interior. They’re trying to get inside but police are blocking the entrance. I can see a few Indigenous women through the doorway who are sitting on the floor inside the building and linking arms,” Silverman tweeted.

Climate protesters are now rallying outside the Department of the Interior. They’re trying to get inside but police are blocking the entrance. I can see a few Indigenous women through the doorway who are sitting on the floor inside the building and linking arms. pic.twitter.com/gDNamGAWiH

— Ellie Silverman (@esilverman11) October 14, 2021

Protesters are remaining on the steps and won’t move out of the doorway where several police are blocking passage into the building pic.twitter.com/0ps7FHkP1A

— Ellie Silverman (@esilverman11) October 14, 2021

She further noted that “protesters are remaining on the steps and won’t move out of the doorway where several police are blocking passage into the building.”

As you might have guessed, the establishment media hasn’t been so eager to cover this story.

Most likely because it totally debunks the left’s Jan. 6 propaganda.

If these activists happened to be conservatives protesting against vaccine mandates or Bidenflation, the media would be covering it ad nauseam.

Female Dem Gov Fond of Lecturing Public on ‘Good Behavior’ Allegedly Grabbed Man’s Genitals in Meeting

Panicky headlines declaring the return of the Jan. 6 “insurrectionists” would spread like wildfire across social media.

But instead, since the protesters happen to be supporting a cause backed by the establishment elite, the media has remained largely silent.

The rioters who illegally stormed the Capitol in January should be condemned for their actions, just as these activists should be condemned for theirs. This isn’t how anyone should peacefully protest.

That being said, neither group is made up of “domestic terrorists” or “insurrectionists.”

Anyone who tells you as much is simply pushing a partisan agenda.

All student athletes in Texas public schools would be required to compete on teams that match their sex assigned at birth, under a bill that cleared the state House on Thursday.

House Bill 25, which was approved in a party-line 76–54 vote, would restrict public school students to playing on sports teams matching the biological sex listed on their birth certificates received at or near the time of their birth. It now heads to the state Senate, where it is expected to pass.

The text of the bill says it is intended to ensure that “sufficient interscholastic athletic opportunities remain available for girls to remedy past discrimination on the basis of sex.”

“The bill I’m bringing before you today protects girls’ safety and their right to equal access to athletic opportunities,” state Rep. Valoree Swanson, the Republican who introduced the bill, said on the House floor. “This is a right guaranteed to our girls under Title IX.”

The current version of the bill allows legally modified birth certificates to be accepted, but only if the changes were made to correct “scrivener or clerical error,” according to the bill’s text.

State Rep. Mary E. González, a Democrat who chairs the Texas House LGBTQ Caucus, argued that the measure could cause mental harm to transgender students.

“If you care about mental health, and I know you do, then do this simple thing and not advance this piece of harmful legislation,” González said. “We actually also know that this is a nonissue, that there is no issue with transgender and intersex students playing sports.”

House Bill 25 also faced criticism from pro-transgender advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, which called the bill “cruel” and “unconstitutional.” It also alleged the bill would “deny transgender youth the right to play sports,” although the bill allows any student to play on sports teams that correspond with the sex listed on their birth certificates.

Earlier this year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he would sign into law Senate Bill 29 if it cleared the state legislature. The bill, the language of which was identical to that of House Bill 25, was killed by House Democrats who avoided debating it until it missed a midnight deadline.

“For five years the University Interscholastic League (UIL) in Texas has had a rule in place prohibiting boys from playing girls in girls’ sports,” Abbott said at that time on Fox News Town Hall with several other Republican governors. “But the Texas Legislature is working on a bill to codify that, which I will sign.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/texas-house-passes-bill-requiring-students-compete-on-sports-teams-matching-sex-assigned-at-birth_4051505.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

Investments raise ‘serious questions as to whether Kerry can negotiate in good faith with Beijing on climate change’

Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) called on the Biden administration to fire climate envoy John Kerry over his China investments on Friday, saying the financial activities raise “serious questions as to whether Kerry can negotiate in good faith with Beijing on climate change.”

Rubio’s comments came in response to a Washington Free Beacon report on Thursday that Kerry and his wife disclosed a stake worth at least $1 million in a Chinese investment group that is a top shareholder of a Chinese tech company blacklisted by the United States for human rights violations.

The company, YITU Technology, helped develop facial recognition surveillance software that allows the Chinese government to sort individuals by race and ethnicity and specifically target the Uyghurs, according to the New York Times. In 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce sanctioned the company for human rights violations.

“Now it makes sense why he is actively working against my Uyghur Forced Labor Act, which would make it impossible for products made with slave labor in Xinjiang, China, to be imported into the United States,” said Rubio in a Fox News column on Friday. “Kerry has been working against my legislation, and has convinced President Joe Biden to stay silent on the bill.”

“President Biden now has a choice: stand by the man profiting from slave labor or fire him.”

Rubio added that “rumors have swirled in Washington” for weeks about Kerry’s opposition to a Senate-approved bill that would bar imports of Chinese goods made with slave labor. Rubio, the bill’s sponsor, expressed concern last month that Kerry was quietly lobbying against the legislation, which has stalled in the House.

The climate envoy had already faced scrutiny from Republican lawmakers for repeatedly downplaying China’s repression, imprisonment, and forced labor of the Uyghur people. Kerry has said he prioritizes climate change issues over human rights while meeting with Chinese officials, telling Bloomberg News last month that “life is always full of tough choices.”

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/rubio-calls-on-biden-to-fire-climate-envoy-kerry-over-chinese-investments/

Secretary of transportation has been ‘mostly offline’ as calamity engulfs Biden administration

“Can Pete Buttigieg have it all?”

So reads the subject line of Thursday’s edition of Politico‘s “West Wing Playbook” newsletter, which includes a bombshell revelation about the wunderkind secretary of transportation:

While U.S. ports faced anchor-to-anchor traffic and Congress nearly melted down over the president’s infrastructure bill in recent weeks, the usually omnipresent Transportation secretary was lying low.

One of the White House’s go-to communicators didn’t appear on TV. He was absent on Capitol Hill during the negotiations over the bill he had been previously helping sell to different members of Congress. Conservative critics tried (unsuccessfully) to get #WheresPete to trend and Fox News ran a story on October 4 with the headline: “Buttigieg quiet on growing port congestion as shipping concerns build ahead of holidays.”

They didn’t previously announce it, but Buttigieg’s office told West Wing Playbook that the secretary has actually been on paid leave since mid-August to spend time with his husband, Chasten, and their two newborn babies.

A spokesperson for the Department of Transportation told Politico that Buttigieg has been “mostly offline” as the bipartisan infrastructure package was derailed by Democratic bickering and the supply chain crisis escalated to the point at which Christmas could be ruined for millions of Americans.

Buttigieg’s secret absence has coincided with a precipitous decline in President Joe Biden’s approval rating, which stood at 50 percent in mid-August. It has since fallen below 44 percent, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.

Although he has not shown up to his actual job, the secretary hasn’t taken a break from self-promotion. Mayor Pete, a documentary film about Buttigieg’s failed run for president in 2020, premiered Thursday at the Chicago International Film Festival.

https://freebeacon.com/politics/pete-buttigieg-paid-leave/

Left-wing billionaire George Soros is throwing at least a million dollars behind an effort to stop the hiring of hundreds of new police officers in Austin, Texas, according to campaign finance documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

The Hungarian-born political activist gave $500,000 through the Soros-backed Open Society Policy Center to a political action committee in opposition to a ballot initiative that forces the city to employ two police officers per 1,000 residents.

Soros’s donation, made on Oct. 12, is his second of the month and comes as Austin experiences a decades-high spike in violent crime. The city has seen at least 67 homicides this year, the highest since at least 1981. Aggravated assaults are also up at least 10 percent, following a 26 percent spike in 2020.

On Oct. 1, the Open Society Policy Center cut its first $500,000 check to Equity PAC, a Texas-based political organization that backs left-wing causes. The donation is the latest example of Soros’s involvement in various left-wing causes at the local level. In 2020, Soros donated over $600,000 to a Texas-based left-wing group that backed the election of José Garza, who now serves as district attorney for Travis County, where Austin sits.

Since 2015, Soros has spent more than $17 million on various local races, including donations to left-wing prosecutors and state legislators. Virtually every candidate backed by Soros and the Open Society Foundations has supported a dramatic reduction in or elimination of cash bail and other policies critics say lead to higher crime.

Other large donors to Equity Pac include the Texas American Federation of Teachers, which gave $10,000, and Movement Voter PAC, a left-wing organization based in Maryland. The Washington, D.C.-based Fairness Project also contributed $200,000.

Voters will decide on the ballot initiative at the polls on Nov. 2 or via early voting from Oct. 18 through Oct. 29. Estimates for the cost of hiring new officers range from $54 million to $120 million a year, per the city’s chief financial officer.

https://freebeacon.com/policy/soros-drops-1-million-on-anti-police-effort-in-austin/

Embattled Loudoun County, Virginia, School Board member Beth Barts, who was the subject of a recall petition, announced Friday that she will resign from her position in November.

“This was not an easy decision or a decision made in haste. After much thought and careful consideration, it is the right decision for me and my family,” Barts said in a statement on Facebook. “Please accept this letter as my formal resignation from the Loudoun County School Board effective November 2, 2021.”

The Epoch Times has contacted the Loudoun County School Board for comment. The Loudon County Public School system also confirmed her resignation on Friday, saying it will start the process of filling the Leesburg District seat.

“I want to thank Board Member Barts for her service to the Leesburg District,” School Board Chair Brenda L. Sheridan said in a statement. “The School Board will announce its process for filling the Leesburg seat at its October 26 meeting and anticipates filling this position at its December 14 meeting.”

Last week, a Virginia judge denied Barts’ motion to dismiss a Loudon County parents’ organization’s petition to recall her before also removing Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj from the case. The decision represented a victory for opponents of critical race theory, a quasi-Marxist ideology that is the center of a culture war that’s going on across the United States.

The group Fight For Schools and other organizations alleged that Barts was involved in a private Facebook group that violated the School Board’s Code of Conduct and local laws after the page’s members allegedly tried to attempt to reveal private information about—or doxx—parents as well as opponents of critical race theory and similar ideologies.

Asra Nomani, vice president of strategy and investigation for Parents Defending Education and a key opponent against critical race theory being taught in schools, hailed the announcement that Barts will be resigning.

“The first domino falls,” Nomani wrote to her 66,000 Twitter followers. “This will not save her from investigations into her corruption,” she added.

School Board Vice Chairwoman Atoosa Reaser said in March that Barts repeatedly violated the school board’s code of conduct. Responding to allegations that she was part of a Facebook group that tried to doxx parents, Barts said earlier this year that “it’s not my job to be liked. It’s my job to ask hard questions, work to provide the best education for our kids, make sure our teachers are paid what they really deserve, and represent the people of Leesburg.”

Barts’ resignation comes just days after the Department of Justice announced it was tasking FBI agents and U.S. attorneys to discuss strategies to address alleged threats against school administrators, teachers, and board members. The move has drawn significant condemnation from Republican lawmakers and officials, who alleged the agency is now treating concerned parents as political enemies.

Barts’ resignation announcement also came after the father of a 15-year-old girl who attends a Loudon County high school told news outlets that his daughter was sexually assaulted by an unnamed boy in the bathroom. Scott Smith, the father, suggested that the boy allegedly exploited left-wing school bathroom policies around gender.

Smith announced plans to sue the school district this week.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breakingnews/win-for-virginia-parents-after-loudon-county-school-board-member-announces-resignation_4051436.html?utm_source=News&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-10-15-2&mktids=84517224257328c8d4c8df7eaa7509b0&est=c33aPqSbP9SHamPN5lkkOSi2%2F1b6JQzlpA998KDWUffm15nh5kKKve%2FrebVY9QVXqg%3D%3D

It became clear long ago that the establishment media have no interest in holding Democrats to the same standard they have for Republicans.

On Thursday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki potentially violated federal law in a room full of those establishment media members, and none of them even seemed to notice.

Washington Free Beacon reporter Matthew Foldi posted a video to Twitter showing Psaki essentially endorsing Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe during her daily news briefing.

“Again, we’re going to do everything we can to help former Governor McAuliffe, and we believe in the agenda he’s representing,” Psaki said.

“Another day, another possible Hatch Act violation” by the press secretary, Foldi said.

Judge Judy Ditches Longtime Bailiff Because of Cost Concerns – But She Makes $47 Million Per Year

Another day, another possible Hatch Act violation from @presssec @jrpsaki

PSAKI: “Again, we’re going to do everything we can to help former governor McAuliffe, and we believe in the agenda he’s representing.” https://t.co/7jGMPEha3j pic.twitter.com/196GDDLvae

— Matthew Foldi (@MatthewFoldi) October 14, 2021

McAuliffe, who was governor from 2014 to 2018 and also served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, holds a lead of less than 3 points over Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin with the Nov. 2 Virginia election approaching, according to the polling average from FiveThirtyEight.

The slim lead is certainly cause for concern among Psaki and the rest of the Biden administration in a state President Joe Biden won by 10 points in 2020.

Last month, Foldi posted a separate clip of Psaki seemingly endorsing California Gov. Gavin Newsom from the podium leading up to his recall election.

“Hopefully this will be helpful to the efforts of the governor,” Psaki said at the time of Biden’s visit to California.

Hatch Act violation by @PressSec @jrpsaki?

Psaki on Biden’s campaign stop to help #CAGOV @GavinNewsom with the recall: “hopefully this will be helpful to the efforts of the governor”

Sounds like a WH employee advocating for the success or failure of a political candidate pic.twitter.com/0RtU9FE36O

— Matthew Foldi (@MatthewFoldi) September 9, 2021

According to the U.S. Office of the Special Counsel, the Hatch Act of 1939 prohibits federal executive branch employees from engaging in political activity while on duty.

The USOSC said the activity forbidden under this federal law includes any “activity directed at the success or failure of a political party, candidate for partisan political office, or partisan political group.”

Video: Psaki Flashes Fake Smile, Mocks Reporter, Storms Out of the Room Without Her Mask On

By using her news briefings to express her support of certain candidates, there is certainly an argument to be made that Psaki is engaging in political activity while on duty.

Kayleigh McEnany, who held the same position under former President Donald Trump that Psaki now holds, said the conduct constitutes violations of the Hatch Act.

“Why does the media not hold @PressSec accountable for potential Hatch Act violations?” McEnany wrote on Twitter.

“She has twice advocated for political candidates from the podium. There is no problem in engaging in First Amendment political activity, but it must be done separate and apart from the podium.”

Why does the media not hold @PressSec accountable for potential Hatch Act violations? She has twice advocated for political candidates from the podium.

There is no problem in engaging in First Amendment political activity, but it must be done separate and apart from the podium. https://t.co/ICLldHRCgs

— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) October 15, 2021

During the Trump administration, establishment media members routinely accused Trump staffers of violating the Hatch Act.Should Psaki face charges under the Hatch Act?Yes No
Completing this poll entitles you to The Western Journal news updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

For example, when Trump announced his intentions to give his acceptance speech for the 2020 Republican nomination from the South Lawn of the White House, the Los Angeles Times published an Op-Ed accusing the administration of malpractice.

While Times contributor Erwin Chemerinsky admitted the Hatch Act does not apply to the president or vice president, he said White House staffers would have to work to set up for and record the speech, which he said would violate the law.

While Trump’s decision to give the speech from the White House instead of another location likely did not give him any sort of political advantage, the media still jumped on him for it.

Meanwhile, Psaki’s use of her stage in front of a national audience to advocate for Democratic candidates certainly could provide an advantage simply because of the number of Americans she can reach with her message. The establishment media suddenly don’t seem to care.

This is not all that surprising given the media’s tendency to protect Democrats as much as possible. Even so, it is yet another misstep from the Biden administration for which it has not been held accountable.

The Ohio State Board of Education has rescinded a racial equity resolution it adopted last summer, citing a “troubling focus” on students’ skin color rather than their character.

The resolution in question, approved in July 2020 amid the nationwide unrest sparked by George Floyd’s death, highlighted “significant gaps” in academic performance between black students and their white peers, acknowledging that “profound disparities” between white and non-white students “exist in all parts of the Ohio education system.”

To address the said racial inequity, the resolution directed the Ohio Department of Education (DOE) to require training for all employees and contractors to “identify their own implicit bias,” and recommended that all Ohio school districts reflect on potential bias in their curricula and policies for hiring, staff development, and student discipline.

Following a four-hour debate on Wednesday night, the education board voted to repeal the 2020 resolution by a margin of 10-7, with two members absent, reported Advance Ohio.

In a new resolution put forward as a replacement, the board said it has observed since last July “not only a growing national divide but a troubling focus on the color of one’s skin rather than on the content of one’s character.”

“The Board seeks excellence in education for all children and families, without prejudice or respect to race, ethnicity, or creed,” the resolution reads, adding that it not only acknowledges the disparities between students of different races, but also those among “additional diverse groups, such as economically-disadvantaged students.”

The new resolution no longer asks that the Ohio DOE employees or contractors undergo implicit bias training, citing a legal analysis of the original resolution by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. In his opinion released last month, Yost said the board does not have authority to require private contractors to take such training.

While the Wednesday resolution doesn’t specifically mention critical race theory (CRT), it condemns any attempt to teach the idea that people of a certain race are inherently racist and should feel guilty for historical injustice and oppression committed by those of that race—one of the key premises held by CRT proponents.

“The Board affirms its condemnation of racism, hate speech, hate crimes and violence in the service of hatred,” it reads. “The Board condemns any standards, curriculum, or training programs for students, teachers, or staff that seek to divide or to ascribe circumstances or qualities, such as collective guilt, moral deficiency, or racial bias, to a whole race or group of people.”

Board member John Hagan, who voted in favor of the new resolution, said the original one excessively focused on race.

“I think the initial resolution was very pointed,” Hagan said, according to Advance Ohio. “It kind of said the boogeyman in the problem with these gaps is based on race. I don’t think anyone questions whether race might be a factor in this. But there are a lot of factors.”

House Judiciary Committee Republicans sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding an ethics review and public report regarding the AG’s memo, which directs the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and U.S. Attorneys to use law enforcement to investigate parents who “intimidate” school board members.

“This letter is to express our serious concerns about your recent decision to involve federal law enforcement entities in local school board debates and to stifle First Amendment-protected political speech. Your actions are not just inappropriate, but also appear to have been improperly influenced by politics and by your family’s interest in the matter,” wrote the Republican Judiciary Committee members in their letter (pdf), including Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.).

The letter is referring to the memorandum that Garland sent to federal agency heads on Oct. 4 directing the FBI and U.S. Attorneys to mobilize their states’ law enforcement to investigate parents who “threaten violence” toward school board members or administration officials.

“While spirited debate about policy matters is protected under our Constitution, that protection does not extend to threats of violence or efforts to intimidate individuals based on their views,” stated Garland’s memo.

Garland’s memo came only days after the National School Board Association (NSBA) sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking him to crack down on parents who are “threatening” school boards.

“As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes,” stated the NSBA’s letter.

Parents across the United States and most prominently in Loudon County, Virginia, have been speaking out at crowded school board meetings to oppose some of the curriculum being used in their children’s public schools and divisive ideas such as America is systemically racist. Parents in many areas have also been questioning some of the sexual content in the books being used at their children’s schools.

Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas) one of the Reps. who signed the letter to Garland, said he attended Loudon County public schools for most of his childhood but that now the curriculum being taught is an “embarrassment.”

“I also want to know where he thinks he has the power to send FBI into communities to go after parents who are simply going to the school board to express their discontent with what’s happening in school boards,” Roy told Newsmax on Thursday.

A Virginia mother, Asra Nomani, told The Epoch Times those parents are only advocating for what they think is best for their children.

She is the vice president of strategy and investigation with Parents Defending Education, an organization working to “reclaim our schools from activists promoting harmful agendas,” their webpage states.

Nomani said in an Oct. 8 interview that parents going to school board meetings are, “asking the school board serious questions about how money is spent, the ideology that’s being promoted in the classroom, and these school board members don’t like getting these hard questions.”

“What’s happening in Loudoun County, Virginia, is incomprehensible. … And parents obviously have a right to exercise free speech and demand accountability from public officials. … This should be the time for all parents to get engaged. Do it lawfully, exercise your free speech, but certainly, we have to have some accountability at these local school boards,” Rep. Johnson said during a recent interview with Fox News.

Nomani’s advice to parents is to not be intimidated by the DOJ’s directive but to continue to voice their opposition to the ideas they disagree with, at public school board meetings and videotape their interactions.

The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Republicans’ letter to the AG.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/gop-congress-members-demand-answers-from-doj-about-parents-free-speech-rights_4051237.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

A controversial letter sent to President Joe Biden, in which the National School Boards Association (NSBA) asked that some parents attending school board meetings be considered domestic terrorists, was the final straw for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA).

The letter (pdf) prompted the Department of Justice to announce that the FBI and U.S. attorneys would discuss ways to address threats against school employees and board members, a task traditionally left to local law enforcement.

After what it describes as “significant deliberations,” the PSBA voted unanimously to withdraw from the National organization and sent a statement (pdf) to its Pennsylvania members Thursday, explaining the decision.

“The value of the NSBA federation membership has been questioned numerous times over the past several years both within Pennsylvania and amongst many other state school boards associations,” the statement to members says. “This misguided approach has made our work and that of many school boards more difficult. It has fomented more disputes and cast partisanship on our work on behalf of school directors, when we seek to find common ground and support all school directors in their work, no matter their politics. Now is not the time for more politics and posturing, it is the time for solutions to the many challenges facing education.”

PSBA serves 500 school districts and 4,500 elected school board directors. It said a school board meeting should be the model of democracy in action.

“Civility is the bedrock of this approach to local governance,” the statement said. “Board members, the public, and parents need to be held to a high standard of responsible participation in this process. No school board member or administrator should ever be the subject of threats or violence—it is shocking that someone would ever use violence to solve a difference of opinion over educational policies. However, attempting to solve the problems with a call for federal intervention is not the place to begin, nor a model for promoting greater civility and respect for the democratic process.”

PSBA has been unhappy with NSBA for quite a while. “It has been a struggle for the board and leadership of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association to identify a reason to continue to be a part of a federation that is not focused on bipartisanship, civility, and seeking solutions to the internal problems,” the statement said.

PSBA is not alone in its displeasure with NSBA. Florida School Boards Association sent an Oct. 11 letter (pdf) to NSBA encouraging a review of NSBA’s leadership and urged a public acknowledgment of the federal overreach expressed in its letter to the president. “As you are aware, we did not submit payment for 2020–2021 dues, which were due July 1, 2021,” the Florida association wrote. “We have been clear about reassessing the value of our affiliation with NSBA due to concerns surrounding NSBA’s governance, leadership, transparency, and failure to embrace non-partisanship.”

The Montana School Boards Association issued an Oct. 5 statement (pdf) saying NSBA did not consult the Montana organization before it issued its request. “We have full trust and confidence in the civility of constituents, the sincerity and good intentions of those providing input and trusted local law enforcement to address any isolated criminal issues that may arise,” the Montana statement said.

In an Oct. 6 statement, Denotris Jackson, executive director of the Mississippi School Boards Association called the NSBA letter inflammatory. “It has created great dissension, much unproductive discussion, and a rise of distrust in public school board members and educators,” Denotris wrote. “Hearing from passionate stakeholders can be a sign of healthy community engagement. NSBA’s action is counter-productive to board efforts to engage parents and other stakeholders in the activities of the district and to our efforts to solicit stakeholder input and support.”

Parents Defending Education, an advocacy group, contacted state school board associations for comment on the NSBA’s letter to Biden. According to its website, 16 states have distanced themselves from the NSBA’s letter as of Oct. 14, including Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wyoming.

NSBA did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/pennsylvania-school-boards-association-quits-national-school-boards-association_4050838.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

A North Carolina parent cited state law in pointing the Wake County School Board to possible felonious, sexually explicit material found in one of its libraries.

Chad Slotta told the board in its Oct. 5 meeting that one of his children found the book, “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison in the school’s library.

The book, Slotta said, describes illicit sex between minors, a 10-year-old who engages in a sex act during a church youth group behind a church parsonage, sexually explicit language, and allusions to bestiality.

“Now I feel grieved and embarrassed to even discuss this issue in a public forum, but in the defense of innocence and decency of not only my child but the classmates, I can’t remain silent,” Slotta told the board during public comment.

It’s unacceptable that an adult trusted to educate children, “either knowingly or through ignorance,” would permit the dissemination of objectively obscene material to children, Slotta said.

Slotta later read from NC General Statute 14-190.1, which states that it’s a class-one felony for a “person, firm, or corporation to intentionally disseminate obscenity” that depicts or describes in a “patently offensive way” sexual conduct that could be directed at children as a potential audience.

‘At Best, Broken; At Worst, Corrupt’

Slotta asked the board to initiate a “thorough and transparent” review of the books currently available and the process by which they are chosen.

“The process by which books and material are added to our school libraries is at best broken, and at worst, corrupt,” Slotta said. “It’s broken if an elected or unelected person or committee failed to properly vet this book and others like it from coming into the school. The process is corrupt if an elected or unelected official or committee vetted the book and others like it and thought, ‘Hey, this would add value to our children,’ then sourced them intentionally in our schools.”

Slotta later told The Epoch Times that as he’s watched the brewing controversy of sexualized material being found in K-12 school systems across the country, he’s identified several other titles in his child’s online school library.

“I didn’t want to transfer a national narrative on our local situation unless those things were actually happening here,” Slotta said. “Unfortunately, we discovered that in fact books we saw being reported on and others, which in our opinion are more obscene and more graphic, were in the library where our child attends school.”

Other books he named were “Out of Darkness,” by Ashley Hope Perez, in which he said there are multiple sexual descriptions, one of which being a group of boys fantasizing about group sex; and “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” by George M. Johnson, in which he said there are vivid details about sexual acts.

Slotta didn’t name the specific school his child attends because, he said, his goal is not to get anyone fired, but to effect change by initiating the review that would question the legality of the material within the context of a K-12 scholastic setting.

In response to Slotta’s concerns, a Wake County board member forwarded Slotta a written policy by which parents can request a review and removal of certain material.

“What the board member didn’t get back to me on was the process by which these are added to the media center,” he said. “I suspect that’s going to be more of a challenge for them to respond to just given the nature of those materials, but that will be a major emphasis of our inquiry going forward.”

Appropriate Discernment

Within the school setting, Slotta said “sexuality” and “biology” should be discerned.

“We send our kids to school to be taught science and mathematics, and a part of that discipline of science includes anatomy and biology, but when it comes to human sexuality, which to me is a very different discipline, I think that belongs at home with the parents, not in the schools with the teachers,” Slotta said.

When reached for comment, the Wake County Public School System’s (WCPS) communication director sent The Epoch Times the WCPS’ policy on the parent’s right to inspect materials and submit an objection.

“If the committee determines that any material violates constitutional or other legal rights of the parent or student, the principal or the committee shall either remove the material from instructional use or accommodate the student or parent,” the policy states.

F.A.C.T.S. Task Force

Earlier this year, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a Republican, had enacted the F.A.C.T.S. (Fairness and Accountability in the Classroom for Teachers and Students) task force to provide an online portal through which teachers and students can submit examples of critical race theory (CRT) in the North Carolina school systems.

CRT is based on the Marxist philosophy that describes society as a class struggle between oppressors and the oppressed; it labels white people as the oppressors and all other races as the oppressed.

In the report, themes of race shaming, sexualization of children, allusions to surgical castration in children’s literature, and accusations of xenophobia against political figures surfaced.

Democrats, including Gov. Roy Cooper, have said that the allegations of CRT being taught in schools is “conspiracy-laden politics.”

Cooper later vetoed a bill that would have prohibited teachings that promote concepts that are contrary to “equality and rights of all persons.”

This week, Robinson faced criticism over comments he made in a church while being filmed.

The video was posted on Twitter by a group called Right Wing Watch.

In referring to homosexuality and transgenderism, Robinson said these issues “have no place in school.”

“There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling a child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth, and yes I called it filth,” Robinson said.

The White House and North Carolina politicians, including Gov. Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein, condemned Robinson, and various LGBT groups called for his resignation, to which Robinson later said he wouldn’t “back down.”

In a press conference on Oct. 12, Robinson said that by “filth,” he was referring to the material, not the LGBT community.

“The narrative that’s been driven that I have something against the LGBT community is absolutely false,” Robinson said.

American is not a theocracy, he added.

“I don’t have the right to tell anyone how they live their personal lives,” Robinson said.

Though he may disagree with one’s lifestyle on a “personal and spiritual level,” he said it’s his job to protect people’s rights.

Robinson then said the question around the material being found in schools is a legal issue.

“You can look at this and clearly see that this is quite possibly, probably is child pornography being presented to our children,” he said, referencing images he had displayed beside him from the book “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” by Maia Kobabe, which depicted explicit sexual acts.

Both “Gender Queer” and “Lawn Boy” were pulled from The Fairfax Public School system in Virginia after a parent spoke out against the books at a school board meeting.

When asked in what school systems the book was found, Robinson’s director of communication said it “came to our office’s attention from Cedar Ridge High School in Hillsborough, North Carolina. However, we know that it is in at least six counties: Buncombe, Durham, Gaston, Mecklenburg, Orange, and Wake.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/parent-challenges-north-carolina-school-board-to-investigate-sexually-explicit-material-found-in-school-library_4050934.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

Musician Aaron Lewis shredded the Democratic Party as he performed a new country anthem during an acoustic set in Texas last week.

Lewis played his most recent single, “Am I the Only One,” a ballad about the state of the nation in the coronavirus era.

In doing so, he shared his thoughts on what Democrats are doing to life and liberty, going so far as to tell the crowd that they are responsible for every “scar” on our battered country.

The Staind frontman and popular solo artist, known for his poetic and reflective music, broke into a long diatribe that was not fit for radio as he ripped Democrats for dividing and destroying America.

“I really look back on this timeframe in history and wonder how we were allowed — how we allowed such ridiculousness to happen in this country,” he said during an Oct. 7 show in Grand Prairie, Texas. “We’ve allowed a virus that was created by man to destroy the entire fabric of mankind.”

Report: Judge Judy Ditches Longtime Bailiff Because of Cost Concerns – But She Makes $47 Million Per Year

WARNING: The following video contains graphic language that some viewers will find offensive.

Strumming his guitar, Lewis told the raucous crowd, “See, I liked American history at school. I paid close attention in that class. Yeah, but did we all pay attention? Because if we all paid attention in our f***ing history classes, we would know that the Democrats are responsible for every f***ing scar that exists on this country.

“Let’s go through history, shall we, real quick? Every American Indian massacre. Every f***ing slave aside from eight that was ever owned in this f***ing country was owned by f***ing Democrats.

“Every segregational law, every racist law, every Jim Crow law, every f***ing KKK meeting was done by the g*****n Democrats,” he said, to wild cheers from the audience.

“Can we please embrace history so we don’t f***ing repeat it? Please! Go look it up yourself. Please, I’m begging you, do not take my word for it. Get off Google and go look it the f*** up yourself.

“The Democrats are responsible for every f***ing scar that exists on this country. Period. The f***ing end. I implore all of you, please go look it up yourself. I don’t want you to believe me,” he said.

“I don’t want you to think that just because I have this microphone what I’m saying is true. I want you to go and look it the f*** up yourself. Find out for yourself. Wake up.”

After concluding a verse of the song, Lewis asked his audience to recall the riots that overtook America last year. He obliterated the leftist activists who used the unrest to go after cultural landmarks and lit up those who supported and enabled them.

“So last year during those riots that the Democrats sponsored, that the Democrats supported, that the Democrats bailed criminals out of jail for, that our vice president created a fund to bail out the people that were committing crimes during riots — those statues they were tearing down? … They’re all Democrats,” he said.

Woke Pop Star Fond of Policing Pronouns Says It’s Offensive to Call Extraterrestrials ‘Aliens’

“Every statue they just tore down, all of them, they’re all Democrats. Isn’t that something? Ain’t that something? Just think about that for a second,” he said before continuing the song.

Lewis has gravitated toward country music in recent years. He has also clearly gravitated toward politics.

His music has endeared him to rock fans for its sincerity and beauty. Lewis isn’t done being sincere, even if he’s not always so eloquent.

Fall 2021 has a 1980 vibe to it. Shortages. A faltering supply system. Inflation. Rising unemployment.

Even if you don’t remember it personally, I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of the lines of cars waiting to buy gas from the 1979 Oil Shock. Global oil supplies dropped after Ayatollah Khomeini’s revolution in Iran, a major producer.

That was the atmosphere that elected Ronald Reagan president in 1980. It’s similar to what we’re going through now.

On Oct. 13, President Biden took the command approach. He ordered the Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports to operate 24 hours a day. Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Huntington Beach) responded, “I am glad the Administration is finally acting on this issue and now it’s time to approve the Major Disaster Declaration I asked for more than a week ago.”

She also introduced legislation to ban cargo ships idling or anchoring off the coast of Orange County. But she, too, is treating the symptoms instead of the causes of the problem. Where would the ships go? Wouldn’t that make the supply problems worse?

Reagan’s Free Market Fixes

What would Reagan do today? Although no historical periods offer exact analogies, there are some instructive parallels.

1. Cut Regulations

One of the first things Reagan did when in office was cut regulations on the energy industry. Specifically, although President Carter had introduced some decontrol of oil, in 1981 Reagan ended all production limits and price controls on oil. Critics predicted soaring prices for oil and gas at the pump. The opposite happened. Production soared and prices dropped.

It took a lot of speeches to control natural gas. A fine one was the Great Communicator’s address to the nation on February 26, 1983. He pointed out the regulations keep prices higher and hurt consumers. Here’s a short YouTube video clip of Reagan’s speech.

In 1985, he got Congress to advance partial decontrol. Full decontrol of oil prices took place only in 1989, the year after he left office.

The equivalent today would be to reduce the voluminous regulations on the shipping industry in California. For example, in August 2020 the California Air Resources Board imposed massive new regulations on the industry.

Reported CalMatters, “Ships and trucks will be required to cut thousands of tons of air pollution in communities near ports, freeways and warehouses under a pair of rules unanimously adopted by the Air Resources Board today. …

“Some of the nation’s most powerful businesses—oil companies, engine manufacturers and ports—opposed the new rules, saying the battered economy cannot weather changes that could reach nearly $7 billion. The air board’s hearings on the two rules lasted more than eight hours, with dozens of people voicing support and opposition.

“Moving goods from ship to truck to warehouse accounts for nearly a third of California’s economy, but about half of its air pollution (pdf). Much of the pollution affects disadvantaged communities and communities of color near ports, freeways and freight corridors.”

The supposed damage to “disadvantaged communities and communities of color” often is brought up nowadays as an excuse to shut down industry. But I grew up in the 1960s in Southeastern Michigan when nearby factories, such as the massive River Rouge plant, spewed out pollution most of the day. We choked on it until it was cleaned up in the 1970s.

But my parents always remembered something else. “When the smokestacks stopped” was the phrase they used many times. That began in 1930 as the Great Depression dug in. My grandfathers lost their jobs. To them, smokestacks meant industry and jobs. Detroit then was the Paris of the West. In World War II it was the Arsenal of Democracy. Even factory workers enjoyed the world’s highest standard of living.

In California, those losing the jobs due to overregulation of the shipping industry naturally are those who live next to the shipyards. If you kill the work, you kill the jobs.

2. Cut Taxes

Except for winning the Cold War against the Soviet Union, Reagan is best remembered for cutting taxes and reviving the economy from “stagflation”—stagnation plus inflation. The top income tax rate dropped from 70 percent under Carter, to 50 percent by 1983, then to 28 percent in 1986. Equivalent rates for the middle class were cut. Everybody paid less.

The economy soared by 7 percent in 1983, and an average of 4 percent after that. Until President Bush foolishly raised taxes in 1990.

The Reagan cuts were incorrectly framed as “putting money in the pockets of the people” to spend and circulate cash through the economy. Actually, the main aim was to encourage investment in creating new businesses and jobs. People don’t invest unless they can make a decent return on their investment. Otherwise, capital flows to other, more congenial tax climates in other countries.

Biden today is doing the opposite. He’s negotiating with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) to massively raise taxes as part of their Build Back Better waste program. The cost: $3.5 trillion, although that likely will be reduced to maybe $2 trillion. Still an enormous amount.

Another big factor is uncertainty. Do you know what taxes you’ll be paying next year? Especially if you run a business? Businesses need certainty to plan for the future.

People who have been in government their whole lives, like Biden and Pelosi, have no idea how tough it is to run a for-profit business. If you don’t make a profit, you go broke. If you have a narrow profit margin, and higher taxes and regulations move that margin into negative territory, you go broke.

Cutting taxes and regulations Reagan-style would encourage the creation of new businesses to deal with the port and other problems. Granted, some of these problems will take years to alleviate. And the pandemic would have caused problems no matter what. But much as a healthy person can get through a disease better than an unhealthy person, so a healthy tax and regulatory environment makes it easier to survive an economic shock.

Although the renewed federal attack on business is only nine months old under Biden, in California the assault goes back decades. I don’t need to rehash here such previous ET columns of mine as “Local Tax Increases Slam Californians” and “California Businesses Exiting Faster Than Ever.”

Reagan showed us the way out of a similar crisis 40 years ago. His solutions would work again. It’s still true, as he said, “Government isn’t the solution. Government is the problem.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-reagan-cure-for-clogged-ports-and-goods-shortages_4051191.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

Time and geographical distance have a way of making ugly history seem like an impossibility in our own world.

While few can imagine themselves as complacent Germans or obedient Nazis during the Holocaust, the truth is that many simply don’t read the writing on the wall — except those who have been through it.

Xi Van Fleet, a Chinese immigrant who fled Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, is seeing it happen all over again with the way concerned parents who speak up at school board meetings are being bullied, silenced and painted as domestic terrorists.

“When I was in China, I spent my entire school years in the Chinese Cultural Revolution, so I’m very, very familiar with the communist tactics of how to divide people, how they canceled the Chinese traditional culture and destroyed our heritage,” Van Fleet told Fox News in a recent interview.

“All this is happening here in America.”

Lawmakers: CDC May Be Manipulating COVID Data, Underreporting Vaccine Side Effects by Factor of 5

Indeed it is. In recent months, the Loudoun County School Board in Virginia has become ground zero in the culture war being waged for the hearts and minds of children in public schools.

Parents spoke out about the destructive critical race theory curriculum, but things came to a head in early summer after two parents were arrested at a meeting about gender-confused children using their preferred bathrooms.

The authorities ultimately shut it down as an unlawful assembly, and video of the arrest went viral and became the impetus for a memo issued by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

In it, he said that federal law enforcement “takes these incidents seriously and is committed to using its authority and resources to discourage these threats, identify them when they occur, and prosecute them when appropriate.”

BREAKING: Attorney General Merrick Garland has instructed the FBI to mobilize against parents who oppose critical race theory in public schools, citing “threats.”

The letter follows the National School Board Association’s request to classify protests as “domestic terrorism.” pic.twitter.com/NhPU03YOYq

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) October 4, 2021

As it would turn out, one of those parents arrested at that meeting was not an agitator; rather, he was Scott Smith, a father whose daughter was allegedly brutally raped in the girls’ bathroom by a boy in a skirt, The Daily Wire reported.

The school board was trying to cover up his daughter’s plight so as not to jeopardize their preferred agenda, and they got an added bonus in Smith’s arrest that supplied the convenient scapegoat needed to shut down all outside debate from parents.

This is precisely what Van Fleet, whose son graduated from Loudoun County High School in 2015, is sounding the alarm as she sees tactics being used that are right out of the communists’ playbook.

“I have to say, this will backfire. If intimidation works, America has fallen a long time ago,” Van Fleet said. Let’s hope so.

Video: School Board Served with $200 Million Lawsuit in Middle of Meeting Over Mask Mandate

Intimidation has been always popular and effective in implementing authoritarian rule, but social media has turned it into an easy go-to for political enemies, who can now use footage like the video of Smith’s arrest to make their point.

If the footage and the arrest taken out of context are enough to mobilize the Department of Justice, there’s no telling where this will end.

“I do have a question: What’s [the] next step? Is the Tiananmen Square crackdown the next, or the parents who one day risked their lives just to speak out for the children? That’s why I’m here,” Van Fleet said.

Totalitarian takeovers don’t happen overnight, and many people don’t bother to connect the dots that come along slowly.

Like victims on the Titanic who let near-empty lifeboats go by as they stood on the deck of their “unsinkable” ship, so many people sit on the sidelines thinking totalitarian regimes can’t take over America.

But these brutal regimes don’t start with re-education camps or gas chambers; they start with social pressure and silencing the opposition before moving on to officially outlawing dissent.

So-called progressive ideas are crammed down and take hold, even if they may not be popular at first, because opposing them comes at too high of a social price. Then they’re codified and opposition is criminalized.

The last stop is the authoritarian takeover that always ends in bloodshed and misery, but by then the people are too powerless and broken to put up a strong resistance.

There will eventually be a point of no return if Americans aren’t careful, and Van Fleet is using her firsthand knowledge to warn us. Our choice is to listen to her now and push back, or there will be no choice left at all.

Words like “brave” and “hero” have lost all meaning in today’s culture.

Such terms used to be reserved for those willing to risk their lives and reputations for the greater good.

Now, those labels are given exclusively to those who say and do exactly what the mainstream culture demands of them. Unlike these supposed “heroes,” Gina Carano doesn’t acquiesce to the culture’s demands.

Doing so has cost her greatly and yet, the former MMA star turned fan-favorite actress has remained unwilling to abandon her conservative principles.

Lawmakers: CDC May Be Manipulating COVID Data, Underreporting Vaccine Side Effects by Factor of 5

After Disney fired her from working on “The Mandalorian” series, Carano was given a second chance with The Daily Wire’s budding film studio.

The two had joined forces to create a movie produced by Carano titled “White Knuckle,” which would have seen Carano “star as a traumatized woman who hires a long-hauler to track down an infamous serial killer,” according to Deadline.

As the film was set to enter production, the filmmakers over at The Daily Wire ran into a bit of a hiccup.

Hollywood was going to force every member of the cast and crew to abide by vaccine and mask mandates. In response, Carano, yet again, stood by her principles.

“After we announced our first project this summer, the Hollywood unions started debating vaccine mandates for cast and crew, and I wasn’t into that,” Carano said in a message to the crew at The Daily Wire.

“I don’t believe anybody gets to make your medical choices for you and I’m not willing to force masks and vaccines on anyone else.”

According to The Daily Wire co-founder and co-CEO Jeremy Boreing, Carano demanded production of the movie be canceled.

“Hollywood decided they would force masks and force vaccines on the crew. And Gina walked into my office here in Nashville and said, ‘Nah, I’m not doing that. We’re going to have to find a different movie,’” Boreing said.

Former NBA Player Says Blood Clots from COVID Vaccine Ended His Season, League Tried to Bury It

“And I said ‘Gina, you’re a member of the union, your union is the problem.’ She said, ‘To hell with it, I’ll quit my union. Let’s make a movie up in Montana where they can’t get after us.’”

So, instead of abiding by Hollywood’s mandates, Carano and The Daily Wire did just that.

In the place of “White Knuckle,” the group is now working on a western titled, “Terror on the Prairie,” which Boreing said is set to debut in March or April of 2022.

Will Carano be seen as a hero for her actions here? Certainly by some.

But when it comes to the mainstream media, she’ll likely be maligned as an anti-vax conspiracy theorist, simply for having the audacity to stand up for the medical freedom of others.

Carano made this choice knowing she’d be hated for it, knowing she’d be misrepresented by the establishment.

That’s what makes Gina Carano brave. That’s what makes her a hero.

During a Loudoun County school board meeting in June, Scott Smith was arrested, hit in the face and dragged out before he could tell the board what had happened to his daughter.

According to Smith, she had been raped in a school bathroom by a boy wearing a skirt.

Smith’s attorney confirmed the account and said the boy had been charged with two counts of forcible sodomy, one count of anal sodomy and one count of forcible fellatio, all in connection with the May 28 attack.

The local sheriff’s office confirmed that a report of “forcible sodomy and sexual battery” matching the date and location of Smith’s story did indeed exist.

At the time of the June 22 meeting, the school board was deciding whether or not to move forward with a new policy allowing “transgender” students — in practice, any students who claim to identify as the opposite sex — to use the bathrooms of their choice.

Lawmakers: CDC May Be Manipulating COVID Data, Underreporting Vaccine Side Effects by Factor of 5

School superintendent Scott Ziegler assured parents at the meeting that there was no cause for concern, saying, “To my knowledge, we don’t have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms.”

New reports indicate this was a flat-out lie — the school knew of the May 28 assault and chose to cover it up while officials conducted public discussions about potentially allowing males into female locker rooms and bathrooms.

Wayne Byard, Loudoun County Public Schools public information officer, said it was actually the school that contacted the sheriff’s department “within minutes of receiving the initial report on May 28,” according to WTOP-TV.

In a Wednesday statement, the Loudoun County school board claimed it had chosen to remain silent “in order not to interfere with the police investigation,” Newsweek reported.

But the school board didn’t simply remain silent. It seemingly lied when Ziegler claimed “we don’t have any record of assaults occurring” in the district’s restrooms.

What’s more, the 15-year-old boy who allegedly raped Smith’s daughter had been charged with sexually assaulting another student on school property five months earlier, according to Newsweek.

This is a massive scandal. Every media outlet should be reporting on Loudoun County’s apparent cover-up.

That being the case, it’s no surprise that the establishment media is completely ignoring this story.

After all, it debunks one of the left’s most precious narratives: that allowing men into female spaces poses no danger to women.

Mom Who Survived Mao’s Purge in China Horrified to See What’s Happening in American School Board Meetings

As Ziegler was trying to convince Loudoun County parents of this idea, he even quoted a left-wing source, saying, “Time Magazine in 2016 called that a red herring, that the data was simply not playing out that transgender students were more likely to assault cisgender students in restrooms than were other students.”

This media spin totally misses the point.

Parents aren’t primarily worried about transgender individuals turning out to be predators. Rather, they share the reasonable concern that predators may attempt to take advantage of transgender policies.

After all, there’s no way to verify whether someone is actually suffering from gender dysphoria or if they’re simply saying so to gain access to gender-specific areas.

When any man or woman can say they’re of the opposite sex, knowing they’ll be taken at their word, predators are given a free pass to potential victims in places where they’re at their most vulnerable.

School officials, establishment media outlets and left-wing activists will do everything they can to keep that truth from getting out.

Thankfully, their efforts won’t be enough, for one simple reason: Parents aren’t going to stop until their children are safe.

New York City mayoral candidate Eric Adams met with a Chinese Communist Party-run foreign influence flagged by the U.S. government for seeking to “directly and malignly influence” officials to push pro-Beijing policies.

Adams, the Democratic Party nominee in the upcoming New York City mayoral election, met with leaders from the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) during a 2017 trip to China.

The CPAFFC has been dubbed the “public face” of the United Front – a billion-dollar effort executed by the Chinese Communist Party seeking “to co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party” and “influence foreign governments to take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijing’s preferred policies,” according to the federal U.S.-China Security and Economic Review Commission.

Also referred to as “avowedly an arm of the party-state,” CPAFFC has been flagged by the U.S. State Department for its campaigns to “directly and malignly influence” American officials.

Despite the CPAFFC’s track record of conducting foreign influence operations, Adams met with the group in October 2017 during his ongoing tenure as the Borough President of Brooklyn, New York. A CPAFFC press release – “Director Zhang Heqiang Meets with the Mayor of Brooklyn, New York City” – describes the meeting, which took place in Beijing.

The Director “introduced to him the work functions of [CPAFFC] and its work in the United States.”

“In the future, he hopes to further promote Brooklyn’s exchanges with China and enhance bilateral cooperation in the fields of youth exchanges, culture, and commerce,” CPAFFC summarized regarding Adam’s takeaway from the meeting.

In a letter addressed to President Joe Biden, Republicans are asking the executive to reverse his “anti-American energy policies” in order to increase domestic energy production and meet the demands of Americans as gasoline and food prices continue to rise.

Since taking office, Biden has distanced his administration from almost every policy endorsed by President Donald Trump.

Under Trump’s energy policies, America in 2019 become energy independent for the first time in 62 years, fulfilling a key campaign promise made during the 2016 election. Among these policies was the authorization of the Keystone pipeline and the approval of the use of hydraulic fracking, policies rejected by his predecessor, President Barack Obama.

By April 2020, the impact of these policies became clear as the price of gasoline plummeted to an average of around $1.94 per gallon, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

A string of executive orders in the early days of Biden’s presidency reversed several Trump-era policies, fulfilling promises that Biden made on the campaign trail in 2020 that he would “transition [away] from the oil industry.”

Biden prefaced one such executive order with a summary of his administration’s policy: “Where the Federal Government has failed to meet that commitment in the past, it must advance environmental justice.”

To achieve these ends, Biden again halted construction on the Keystone pipeline and suspended new oil and natural gas leases on federal lands, among other executive actions.

Since Biden’s inauguration, data from the EIA shows average gas prices have increased every month, shooting up from $2.42 per gallon in January to $3.272 per gallon in September. Further indicating decreased energy production, crude oil prices also hit a 7-year high at $80 per barrel, prices last seen in October 2014.

As prices continue to increase, Biden has tried to regain control by enticing the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries Plus (OPEC+), comprised of OPEC nations such as Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela, along with non-OPEC members like Russia, to produce more oil to lower costs. Thus far, these efforts have been ignored.

At the same time, Democrats have touted their $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill’s new climate policies, which Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has promised will constitute “an extremely aggressive [transformation of the U.S. energy system] away from fossil fuels.”

Now, Republicans in the House led by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are calling on the president to “[rescind] Executive Orders and other policies designed by your Administration to reduce access to to our country’s oil and natural gas resources.”

“Instead of continuing to call for increased prosperity for OPEC+ affiliated nations that seek to harm the United States,” McCarthy wrote, “we should meet American needs with American produced energy.”

McCarthy further decried Biden’s fledgling negotiations with OPEC+, noting that the organization includes U.S. enemies like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela. “It is not in America’s interest to rely on these nations for energy,” McCarthy ruled.

McCarthy then turned to the benefit of Biden loosening his “anti-American” restrictions on energy production, saying that relaxing these “will increase American economic and job growth, enhance national and energy security, and lower energy prices for American families.”

The Republican congressman added that the United States producing more oil would actually reduce global emissions, arguing that “the United States produces energy with an environmental responsibility that exceeds those of [OPEC+ nations] upon which you wish for America to rely.”

McCarthy then addresses specific policies that he thinks ought to be reversed, including Biden’s “canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, proposing to ban fracking, declaring a moratorium on leases on federal lands and water for oil and natural gas production, and changing tax law to harm domestic production.”

At the same time that Biden is “knee-cap[ping]” domestic production, McCarthy said, Biden is helping foreign production.

As examples, McCarthy cites Biden’s tacit “green-light” to the Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline. He also notes that “The liberal reconciliation bill that your Administration is supporting would dramatically increase our reliance on China for rare earth and critical minerals to meet your climate agenda.”

The Republicans concluded the letter with a plea that Biden “work with us to preserve America’s energy security and reverse your disastrous energy policies.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/gop-asks-biden-to-reverse-anti-american-energy-policies_4049475.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

Border Patrol agents arrested a convicted sex offender who crossed the Rio Grande River near Laredo, Texas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed on Thursday.

Agents apprehended a group of illegal immigrants on Tuesday in south Laredo. One of the men was found to be 44-year-old Alejandro Cano-Morales, a Mexican national with an active warrant who was registered as a sex offender.

He had been convicted of child molestation in Decatur, Georgia, in 2011.

Cano-Morales was arrested and turned over to the U.S. Marshals Service, according to a local news release from CBP on Thursday.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said last week that the Border Patrol has experienced a major spike in criminal alien crossings of the border as the crisis continues to escalate.

Lawmakers: CDC May Be Manipulating COVID Data, Underreporting Vaccine Side Effects by Factor of 5

Paxton shared the concerns during an interview on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends First.”

When asked, “How many are getting in?” he responded with concern. “I don’t even think we know,” Paxton said.

“I think my state isn’t told much about what’s actually happening. We’re not given the statistics. We’re given broad statistics, but we don’t know exactly how many people are escaping,” the attorney general said.

As Republican governors head to the southern border, Texas Attorney General @KenPaxtonTX sounds the alarm as the border patrol nabs gang members and sex offenders coming into the United States.https://t.co/pY61XYHeBz

— Fox & Friends First (@FoxFriendsFirst) October 6, 2021

He said the number of criminal alien crossings had increased significantly over last year.

“We do know that the numbers are up supposedly about 400 percent from just a year ago for criminal aliens coming into our country. So it’s a significant increase. The Biden administration knows it and they support it,” Paxton added.

Paxton also was asked, “How much worse could this get before something is done about it?”

The attorney general’s words offered little hope for a response from the Biden administration.

“I don’t think they have any intention, the Biden administration has no intention of stopping it even if it gets worse. The numbers are so significantly more than they’ve ever been, yet there’s no effort on their part to follow federal law or to even follow court orders,” said Paxton, a Republican and outspoken critic of the Biden administration.

The Biden Administration Is About to Reinstate One of Trump’s Signature Policies

“They’re allowing it. They’re inviting it. They’re wanting it,” he added.

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott joined a group of 10 GOP governors for a news conference at the U.S.-Mexico border last week to address the growing crisis.

The news conference followed the action of 26 Republican governors who sent a letter last month to President Joe Biden to request a meeting to address the crisis.

“As chief executives of our states, we request a meeting with you at The White House to bring an end to the national security crisis created by eight months of unenforced borders,” the governors said in the letter.

“The months-long surge in illegal crossings has instigated an international humanitarian crisis, spurred a spike in international criminal activity, and opened the floodgates to human traffickers and drug smugglers endangering public health and safety in our states,” they said.

“A crisis that began at our southern border now extends beyond to every state and requires immediate action before the situation worsens.”

YouTube suspended Steven Crowder’s channel for one week on Wednesday, claiming the conservative pundit and comedian violated the platform’s rules against hate speech.

YouTube’s counsel sent an email to Crowder’s attorney, William Richmond, informing him of the strike against Crowder’s account and explaining that a September 30 video uploaded to Crowder’s channel “targets the transgender community in an offensive manner,” according to a copy of the email. YouTube has blocked Crowder from posting videos to his main and auxiliary accounts for one week. The email said in part:

We write again on YouTube’s behalf regarding your client, Steven Crowder. YouTube has repeatedly instructed Mr. Crowder regarding its hate speech policy and warned him against continuing violations of that policy through content he uploaded to YouTube. YouTube specifically warned Mr. Crowder that videos he uploaded showed a pattern of recklessly targeting the LGBTQ+ community for abuse and insults. It warned that further uploading of content that targets, insults, and/or abuses the LGBTQ+ community would result in additional penalties.

On September 30, Mr. Crowder uploaded another video that YouTube has determined continues his prior conduct. The video entitled ““Special Guest ALEX JONES on ‘Great Reset’ & Joe Rogan TRIGGERS Leftists AGAIN!” contains a segment that targets the transgender community in an offensive manner, for example, by indicating that trans people pose a rape threat to women. Consistent with the recklessness provisions of its hate speech policy, YouTube has removed this video from the service and assessed a strike against the Steven Crowder channel. Per YouTube’s strikes policy, this results in a one-week upload freeze for the channel. Further violation of YouTube’s hate speech policy will result in additional penalties.

Crowder’s team is unsure of the exact reason for the strike and has requested time stamps from YouTube on the September 30 video earning the channel another strike. According to Crowder’s website:

“During the September 30 show, we discussed a news article entitled ‘Female inmate now pregnant after California pro-trans policy forces women’s prisons to house biological men despite prisoners’ pleas, warnings: report,’ and there was a short comedy sketch after that. The news article was a report on female prisoners becoming impregnated when they were forced to share cells with biological men.”

YouTube told The Daily Wire in a statement: “We removed content from and issued a strike to the StevenCrowder channel for violating our hate speech policy, through repeated targeting of the LGBTQ+ community. Hate speech is not allowed on YouTube, and in some cases, we remove content or issue other penalties–such as a strike–when a creator repeatedly targets, insults and abuses a protected group based on attributes such as sexual orientation or gender identity and expression across multiple uploads.”

Crowder responded on Twitter Wednesday: “A hard strike from YouTube and Wow… this is terrifying. We covered SPECIFIC, documented instances of rape. @YouTube says not allowed. All parents should take note. If you believe in the insane notion of biological sex, you will be silenced.”

YouTube’s latest strike against Crowder is at least the third of this year. In response to YouTube cracking down on his content, Crowder sued the platform in May. As The Daily Wire reported:

“As of last Thursday, May 14, my lawyer Bill Richmond and I have filed a notice of a lawsuit against YouTube and are seeking an injunction to prevent them, to stop them from currently deplatforming us,” Crowder said. “We’ve officially sent a notice of a lawsuit. Very different level – this is the big one, boys and girls.”

Crowder’s account was locked, demonetized, and given a strike warning in March for allegedly spreading misinformation about the 2020 election. Crowder denied ever making any false claims on Monday’s show and noted that YouTube’s justification lacked a specific charge against Crowder.

Crowder said the first and second hard strikes against his channel were similarly vague, leaving the host and his attorney guessing at what could have triggered YouTube’s actions. The first strike came over an anniversary video of “15 days to slow the spread.” YouTube claimed that Crowder violated its policy against spreading COVID misinformation.

This article has been updated with comments from a YouTube spokesperson.

The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-is-terrifying-youtube-suspends-steven-crowder-for-hate-speech-covering-transgender-community-in-an-offensive-manner?itm_source=parsely-api&utm_source=cnemail&utm_medium=email

U.S. Marine Corps Judge Glen Hines has docked Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller $5,000 in pay and ordered a letter of reprimand against the combat veteran for his criticisms about how senior military officials handled the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Hines handed down his sentence Oct. 15, concluding the legal matter. The Secretary of the Navy will decide whether Scheller receives an honorable discharge or a general discharge under honorable conditions.

Defense attorney Timothy Parlatore said he thinks the sentence was fair.

“We were happy with the sentence. I think the judge carefully considered all of the facts and circumstances of this case, and the sentence was an appropriate reflection of what Lt. Col. Scheller did,” he said.

“After hearing what government said and going back and viewing videos, [the judge] found a lot more context to them than the cherry-picked statements the government presented,” Parlatore said.

According to Parlatore, Judge Hines criticized the government’s conduct, including for leaking case documents about Scheller. The judge said it’s not the court’s role to investigate the leak, but that there should be a probe into the matter.

“He commented on the severity of pretrial confinement for a case of this nature,” Parlatore added. “He saw a Marine in pain and in emotional anguish, which is pretty much what we argued.”

Parlatore said Scheller won’t comment on the matter until his discharge is processed. Neither the prosecution nor a Marine Corps spokesperson have responded to queries from The Epoch Times.

Scheller was charged for making statements such as, “Potentially, all of those people did die in vain if we don’t have senior leaders that own up and raise their hand and say we did not do this well in the end.”

At his Oct. 14 trial, the Marine apologized for being disrespectful, but renewed his calls for accountability.

“I believe the General officers have demonstrated that they are unable or unwilling to hold themselves accountable. As a result, I believe fundamental change needs to occur in the military,” he said. “I am being held accountable for my actions. The General officers should be held accountable for their failures.”

Scheller also criticized the Marine Corps for apparently leaking confidential records about him to Task and Purpose.

“I was painted as a violent extremist, fascist, and the journalist even made a connection to Hitler. Obviously, you can understand that I was very angry following the article,” he said. “After everything I’ve been through, I feel it’s reasonable to conclude that the Marine Corps and Task and Purpose were working together in an effort to smear my name.”

The Marine further pointed out that he hasn’t been charged with making false statements “because everything I have said is true.”

“If the Marine Corps could have charged me with it, they would have,” he said.

Some government officials, for their part, accused Scheller of fanning the flames of insurrection. Task and Purpose reported on case documents that purportedly show how Marine Corps officials believe Scheller’s comments about topics such as “revolution” violated Defense Department policy.

Scheller’s case captured the national spotlight, with numerous Republican lawmakers criticizing the prosecution as politically motivated. Reps Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) testified on Scheller’s behalf at the Oct. 14 hearing.

“It takes great courage to speak out against leaders who lead those under them to failure & to death,” Greene said yesterday after testifying. “It takes even more courage to plead guilty in the face of unknown consequences. Why is Scheller the one on trial?”

Greene said on Steve Bannon’s War Room that she would either hire Scheller or help find him a job.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breakingnews/judge-docks-lt-col-scheller-5000-in-pay-criticizes-governments-conduct_4050828.html?utm_source=News&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-10-15-2&mktids=983475a60e152c8dfffb045376f51a8b&est=uXY2tIzfiXwjQnCWDnM3fElqSRNEW6qNgGiTJyh9UCPc9fsgToJuCd27o78E5xxAIQ%3D%3D

Two books containing sexually explicit material that were removed from a school system in Virginia last month were part of an effort to sexualize children, a parent who led the effort to draw attention to them says.

Fairfax County Public Schools pulled “Gender Queer” and “Lawn Boy” after Stacy Langton spoke out against the books at a school board meeting.

Both books contain explicit material, a review of them shows.

“I think at the end of the day, it’s about grooming our children, because it’s an assault on their psyche,” Langton said on NTD’s “Capitol Report.”

“And it’s sexualizing children and sort of normalizing pedophilia, which is what the images are.”

In a surreal moment during the Sept. 23 meeting, Langton began quoting from the books, drawing admonishment from school board members. “There are children here,” one said.

Staffers also stopped showing Langton on a large screen situated above the members, and the period of time when Langton read the quotes is muted in the official version of the meeting due to “sexually explicit language,” according to a note on its YouTube channel.

The books were pulled by the district “while we carry out a review of suitability,” a spokeswoman told The Epoch Times via email. Two panels made up of staff, students, and parents are conducting the review to see if the books are appropriate for children, and they’ll make a recommendation to the assistant superintendent of instructional services, who will make the final decision on them.

The spokeswoman didn’t know who initially approved the books.

Maia Kobabe, the author of “Gender Queer,” declined to comment. Her publisher, Oni Press, said in an email that the book “is an important, timely piece of work that serves as an invaluable resource for not only those that identify as nonbinary or genderqueer, but for people looking to understand what that means,” adding that “limiting its availability is short-sighted and reactionary.”

Jonathan Evison, the author of “Lawn Boy,” didn’t respond to a request for comment.

He wrote on Facebook that nobody among those decrying his book has actually read it. “At this point, I’m just wearing all these challenges as a badge of honor. … The hardest single audience for a writer to reach these days is a young audience, and these people are literally just begging young people to go read ‘Lawn Boy.’”

The insertion of the books into the system is part of “a greater attempt to undermine morality,” Langton said, noting that the books have also been included in districts in other states.

“The unique thing about what happened to me as a result of the meeting was that I joined social media,” she said.

“I joined Twitter so that I would have the ability to interface with the public. And I’m getting material sent to me by parents all over the country who have now been woken up, and they’re going and looking at their kids’ backpacks, and they’re looking at their kids’ books, and they’re going to their kids’ libraries, and they’re sending me material that is very similar and equally disgusting. And it’s pornography, and it’s pedophilia, and it’s happening nationwide.”

Langton first heard about the books from a mother in Texas, and parents in multiple states have spoken out about them. North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a Republican, has also highlighted some of the images and said they’re inappropriate for children.

Langton urged parents to mobilize for their children even after the recent announcement by Attorney General Merrick Garland that federal officials will get involved in situations deemed harassment or threats of violence against school board members and others involved in education.

“I think the purpose of Merrick Garland’s letter was to discourage parents from even going and participating in the process, because it seems like a scary thing, right? I don’t think it’s ever happened, actually, that our government has come out against ordinary citizens and parents in this manner,” she said.

“And it is a scary thing, but I tell everybody, don’t be afraid, and you know, you’re not doing anything wrong. I don’t advocate violence. I would never say to do anything of any violence or harm to anyone or to any school board member. We’re here to talk and say we need this problem fixed because it must stop.”

Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) was one of the many lawmakers pushing back against the Department of Justice over the announcement. She sent a letter demanding answers.

McClain told NTD that the agency appears to be targeting parents “for going to the school board and demanding answers about what’s being taught in the classroom.”

“I can’t understand why the school board, why the DOJ, and why the FBI wants to silence parents’ voices,” she said. “That sounds a little communistic and Marxist to me.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/virginia-parent-explicit-books-sexualizing-children-undermining-morality_4049481.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

Frustrated over Republicans stonewalling their efforts to raise the debt ceiling, Democrats in the House have introduced two measures that would abolish the debt ceiling or significantly reform it by placing it largely out of Congress’s jurisdiction.

The legislation, which was introduced by Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), contains two separate approaches to the debt ceiling.

Option A: Abolish the Debt Ceiling Altogether

The first of the two brief bills contains only two lines. The first is “A bill to repeal the debt ceiling,” and the second declares any standing law relating to the debt ceiling repealed.

For much of U.S. history, no such thing as a debt limit existed, but it slowly came about as a congressional assertion of authority over the president.

Before 1917, Congress could approve individual loans or individual methods to be used by the Treasury, but often lending and spending were left to the president’s discretion.

After the nation became involved in World War I, Congress issued its first blanket debt limit with the Second Liberty Bond Act, which limited the debts that the Treasury could incur to $15 billion. Given the president’s large financial discretion, the bill was intended to limit how much then-President Woodrow Wilson could borrow to finance the war.

Aside from a few scattered bills approved by Congress to cap the aggregate debt limit that the president could borrow, the president continued to exercise largely unilateral control of state finances until the 1970s.

In the 1970s, the revelations surrounding the Watergate scandal led Congress to look deeper into the states’ finances, culminating in a reassertion of authority with the Budget Act of 1974.

The bill introduced annual itemized budgets passed by Congress, the budget reconciliation process, and limited the public debt to amounts approved by Congress. Since then, Congress has had unilateral authority to set borrowing limits on the president and the Treasury.

With the legislation, federal spending and revenues became a legislative prerogative rather than an executive one. Since then, the original oversight purpose of the bill has become obfuscated by largely party-line splits over raising the debt ceiling.

Members of both parties have often used the debt ceiling as a mechanism to play political hardball. In 2006, Democrats in the Senate—including then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) and now-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)—almost unanimously voted against raising the debt ceiling. Republicans have used the same move since then, most notably in 2011 and 2013 under President Barack Obama.

Despite this history of hardball, the move does give Congress the ability to extract concessions from the president, or to make a symbolic gesture of protest against the current administration. Democrats’ 2006 rebellion came as just such a protest vote. During Obama’s tenure, Republicans were able to use the mechanism to obtain a concession from Obama to cut spending.

Now, Boyle’s bill would abolish the debt ceiling altogether, leaving no limits on how much debt the United States can incur. If the measure were approved, neither the president nor Congress could place limits on the maximum acceptable national debt without repealing Boyle’s bill.

Some Democrats are supportive of the bill’s goal.

Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) told his colleagues on the House floor that the debt ceiling should be eliminated altogether. Reps. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), David Trone (D-Md.), Dwight Evans (D-Pa.), Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), and Earl Blumenhauer (D-Ore.) signed on as co-sponsors of the bill. Despite expressing support for the bill, Yarmuth hasn’t signed on as a co-sponsor.

Option B: Give Treasury Secretary Power to Raise Debt Limit

The second option would once again restore the power to raise the debt limit to the executive branch. The option is put forward in Boyle’s second proposal, called “The Debt Ceiling Reform Act.”

If approved, the public debt would “be treated as being equal to such greater dollar amount as the Secretary of the Treasury may periodically determine.” In brief, the bill would allow the Secretary of the Treasury—currently Biden-appointed Janet Yellen—to unilaterally raise or lower the debt ceiling.

As an appointee of the president, that would return the power to the executive branch and give the president significant influence over the debt limit.

Due to its constitutional power over federal spending, revenues, and debt, Boyle’s bill would allow Congress to keep some influence over the debt limit.

The bill says that the decision of the Treasury secretary to raise or lower the debt ceiling can be overridden by a “subsequently enacted” law. This would give Congress the ability to maintain oversight, but actually executing such oversight would be difficult.

Currently, Congress can use parliamentary maneuvers to approve legislation to raise the debt ceiling along a party-line vote. In 2006, Republicans raised the debt ceiling along party lines; Schumer has indicated that Democrats plan to do the same to raise the current debt ceiling.

But bills to override the Treasury secretary’s debt ceiling decision wouldn’t be able to use the same maneuvers in the Senate, where 60 votes are required to begin debate on a bill before it can be passed by a simple majority. Historically, members of the Senate have voted to raise the debt ceiling when the president is a member of their party, while efforts not to raise the debt ceiling have arisen from the opposition party.

Members of the president’s party are likely to continue to be hesitant to override the decision of his Treasury appointee, and to deny the 60 votes needed for any legislative efforts to do so. Without a supermajority of resistance to the decision in the upper chamber, overriding the Treasury secretary’s decision will be a challenge.

This proposal also has shown to be more popular among the Democratic caucus than the first.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has indicated that she supports Boyle’s second proposal, telling a reporter, “I think it has merit.”

The second bill also has significantly more co-sponsors, with a total of 16: Reps. Coleman, Espaillat, Evans, and Blumenhauer joined Boyle as co-sponsors again; Reps. John Yarmuth, Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Susan Wild (D-Pa.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Mike Levin (D-Calif.), Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), Marilyn Strickland (D-Wash.), Danny Davis (D-Ill.), Bill Foster (D-Ill.), Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), and Donald Beyer (D-Va.) also signed onto the bill.

Democrats have insisted that reforms of the debt ceiling are necessary to avert crises in the future.

Boyle’s proposals represent the first effort at cementing his party’s demands into law, but will likely face resistance in the Senate, where Republicans have unanimously refused to raise the debt limit, if Pelosi passes either in a House vote.

Both bills are currently tied up in the House Ways and Means Committee.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/democrats-introduce-bills-to-abolish-reform-debt-ceiling_4047897.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

WTF??? [US Patriot]

A public elementary school in the Seattle area has reportedly canceled a Halloween-themed parade after school district officials said it “marginalizes” students of color, especially those from the black community.

Benjamin Franklin Day (B.F. Day) Elementary School, which serves the neighborhood in a northeastern suburb of Seattle, decided to discontinue the “Pumpkin Parade” holiday tradition this year on the advice of the school’s racial equity team, according to Seattle-based conservative radio host Jason Rantz.

In an Oct. 8 newsletter to parents obtained by Rantz, the school explained the rationale behind the decision to cancel the Pumpkin Parade, which traditionally involves a procession of children in Halloween costumes.

“Halloween events create a situation where some students must be excluded for their beliefs, financial status, or life experience,” the letter read. “Costume parties often become an uncomfortable event for many children, and they distract students and staff from learning.

“Large events create changes in schedules with loud noise levels and crowds. Some students experience over stimulation, while others must deal with complex feelings of exclusion. It’s uncomfortable and upsetting for kids.”

Instead of the Halloween festivities, students at B.F. Day Elementary may participate in fall events that are considered more inclusive, such as “thematic units of study about the fall” or review “autumnal artwork” while “sharing all the cozy feelings of the season.”

In a statement provided to Rantz, a spokesperson for Seattle Public Schools said the district supports the decision to cancel the parade, which “historically marginalizes students of color” who don’t celebrate the holiday.

“In alliance with SPS’s unwavering commitment to students of color, specifically African American males, the staff is committed to supplanting the Pumpkin Parade with more inclusive and educational opportunities during the school day,” the spokesperson stated.

Some parents are upset with the cancellation of the parade. David Malkin, whose 7-year-old son is enrolled at B.F. Day, questioned whether the move actually helps anyone.

“I don’t see any way in which this actually addresses any inequities to the extent that there are any inequities,” Malkin told Rantz on his show. “You know, this just seems like grandstanding on behalf of the principal and the staff who are predominantly white.”

Malkin, who is Asian, also said the decision lacked input from him or other parents.

“I’m sure they don’t want to hear from anyone of any race or ethnicity that doesn’t really want to go along with them in lockstep,” he said.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/seattle-school-cancels-halloween-pumpkin-parade-says-it-marginalizes-students-of-color_4048972.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

SEATTLE—Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said a Facebook representative provided false testimony in a lawsuit that accuses the company of violating state campaign finance laws.

The Seattle Times reported that in court filings the Democratic attorney general says both the social media giant and its attorneys knew the testimony was false.

Ferguson sued Facebook last year, for the second time, alleging the company has “repeatedly and openly” violated state campaign transparency laws by selling political ads without providing legally required details of the spending.

“Facebook is a commercial advertiser, yet it views itself above this law,” Ferguson wrote in a new filing. “Even after a previous lawsuit and the original complaint in this case, it still refuses to provide the public access to all required information about political ads.”

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the newspaper.

The company has argued that Washington’s campaign finance laws are unconstitutional and violate both the First Amendment’s free speech protections and the Commerce Clause, which gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce.

In a court filing, Facebook says that it did not provide false testimony because the issue the Attorney General’s Office was asking about was outside the agreed-upon scope and time frame of the questioning.

Washington’s strict campaign finance laws require ad sellers such as Facebook to disclose specific information on the names and addresses of people who buy ads, who the ads target, and the total number of views of each ad.

Facebook calls the law “onerous” and says it violates the First Amendment by compelling the company to make disclosures about political speech—information about who is buying political ads—that it would not otherwise make.

The Associated Press

https://www.theepochtimes.com/washington-attorney-general-facebook-gave-false-info-in-campaign-suit_4049011.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

GoFundMe has said it took down a campaign worth more than $180,000 that was started by a nurse who sought to overturn a Texas hospital system’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

The campaign was created by Jennifer Bridges, a former registered nurse at Houston Methodist hospital who was fired along with hundreds of other staff members earlier this year after refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

“When our team initially reviewed the fundraiser, it was within our terms of service as the funds were for legal fees to fight vaccine mandates,” Heidi Hagberg, a spokesperson for GoFundMe, said in a statement to news outlets this week. “The fundraiser has since been updated to include misinformation which violates our terms of service.”

Hagberg didn’t elaborate on the nature of the alleged misinformation. The Epoch Times has contacted GoFundMe and Bridges for comment.

GoFundMe also stated that it has taken down “hundreds” of other fundraisers that allegedly contained “misinformation related to vaccines.”

Earlier this year, Bridges told Fox News that because she already contracted COVID-19, she doesn’t need to get the vaccine. Several studies have shown that a prior COVID-19 infection provides long-lasting and robust protection against the virus, and one Israeli research paper released about a month ago found that natural immunity confers greater protection than the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Bridges also confirmed to the Epoch Times in June that she was fired by Houston Methodist, which was one of the first hospital systems to mandate vaccines in the United States.

“We worked so hard last year,” she said at the time. “I mean, we were there through thick and thin when we had no help … it was horrible. And these people that are putting forth these rules right now for us and kicking us to the curb, they weren’t there. They weren’t even in the building to be seen for months. They were staying at home while we were doing all the work.”

A spokesperson for Houston Methodist at the time described some of Bridges’ comments as false.

“Our leaders have supported our employees every step of the way,” the spokesperson said over the summer. “We greatly appreciate what all of our dedicated employees have done for our patients, and our leaders have been by their side since the beginning.”

A lawsuit that was filed by Bridges and a number of other healthcare workers against Houston Methodist was dismissed by a judge in June. Their attorneys, who have argued that mandatory vaccines violate the Nuremberg Code against medical experimentation, have appealed the judge’s decision.

Last year, GoFundMe courted controversy when it took down fundraising pages for Kyle Rittenhouse, a teenager who was charged in a shooting during widespread riots and unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/gofundme-takes-down-180000-fundraiser-for-nurse-seeking-to-overturn-vaccine-mandate_4048962.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

It’s showdown time in Chicago, as the leader of the union representing its police officers squares off with Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot over her demand that all city workers report their vaccination status to the city by Friday or be put on unpaid leave.

Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara said that the union will resist and take the city to court if it tries to enforce its mandate on vaccine reporting.

“He’s threatening litigation, I say, bring it,” Lightfoot said, according to The Washington Post.

Catanzara said that if the union heeds his advice and the city plays hardball by implementing its threat, Chicago streets will be very different.

“It’s safe to say that the city of Chicago will have a police force at 50 percent or less for this weekend coming up,” according to NBC.

Report: Judge Judy Ditches Longtime Bailiff Because of Cost Concerns – But She Makes $47 Million Per Year

“Whatever happens because of that manpower issue, that falls at the mayor’s doorstep,” Catanzara said in a Youtube video message to Chicago police officers.

He made it clear that he expects to win a war of wills.

“I can guarantee you that no-pay status will not last more than 30 days,” Catanzara said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. “There’s no way they’re going to be able to sustain a police department workforce at 50 percent capacity or less for more than seven days without something budging.”

He said that the city has refused to work with the union.

“The reality is the city acknowledged from the beginning their obligation to bargain in good faith over this subject,” Catanzara said, according to WGN-TV. “They have refused.”

Catanzara has said that the union’s issue is not whether or not to be vaccinated.  He said he opposes the mandate and the requirement to disclose an officer’s vaccination status.

He has urged union members to file requests for exemptions to the rule on Thursday, the day before the city’s deadline, and not tell the city their vaccination status.

Lightfoot has said the city is ready for whatever comes after Friday.

Prosecutors Release 5 Suspects in Deadly Gang Shootout with No Charges, Citing ‘Mutual Combat’

She said that Catanzara was “doing a patent disservice to his members every single day” by opposing her mandate, according to the Post.

“What we’re focused on is making sure that we maximize the opportunity to create a very safe workplace,” Lightfoot said, according to NBC.

“The data is very clear. It is unfortunate that the FOP leadership has chosen to put out a counter-narrative. But the fact of the matter is, if you are not vaccinated, you are playing with your life, the life of your family, the life of your colleagues and members of the public,” she continued.

But the union is not budging.

“I don’t know how the mayor in good conscience can force this to go forward, and risk sending half the police department home, and subjecting the citizens of this city to that,” Catanzara said, according to WLS-TV.

Aldermen Marty Quinn and Matt O’Shea issued a letter to the mayor that said, in part, “We are extremely concerned that our communities will be put in serious danger.”

Alderman Anthony Napolitano made his case clear.

“I think the mayor has done her due diligence, as well, but we’re asking that there be a repeal of this mandate,” he said.

A new report seems to confirm what we all already knew about the Ashli Babbitt case: She was shot unjustifiably.

For those who may not remember, Babbitt was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer while trying to open a door that led to the House chamber during the Jan. 6 incursion.

Judicial Watch reported on Wednesday that it had obtained 532 pages of documents from the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police, all regarding Babbitt’s death.

Witness testimonies indicated Babbitt was not holding a weapon at the time of the shooting and that the officer involved, Michael Byrd, looked “upset” after shooting her.

A Capitol Police sergeant testified that he didn’t know why Byrd shot Babbitt.

Report: Judge Judy Ditches Longtime Bailiff Because of Cost Concerns – But She Makes $47 Million Per Year

“I saw Lt. Byrd kind of. I don’t know if it was before or after,” the sergeant said. “I don’t know if something happened to him [that] caused him to take the shot or not.”

“These previously secret records show there was no good reason to shoot and kill Ashli Babbitt,” Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said.

“The Biden-Garland Justice Department and the Pelosi Congress have much to answer for … over the mishandling and cover-up of this scandalous killing of an American citizen by the U.S. Capitol Police.”

Byrd has been treated as a hero by some establishment media outlets.

“She was posing a threat to the United States House of Representatives,” he said in an August interview with NBC News.

“I know that day I saved countless lives. … I know members of Congress, as well as my fellow officers and staff, were in jeopardy and in serious danger. And that’s my job.”

The Capitol Police concluded an internal investigation seven months after the shooting, declaring Byrd’s actions “lawful and within Department policy,” according to Fox News.

After a full year of the establishment media and the Black Lives Matter crowd preaching ad nauseam about police misconduct and abuse of power, it was strange to see them fall completely silent regarding Ashli Babbitt’s death.

Or maybe it wasn’t so strange.

Obama-Apointed Judge Ignores DOJ, Jails Jan. 6 Defendants: ‘There Have to Be Consequences’

Ashli Babbitt internal police docs reveal ‘there was no good reason for shooting’ https://t.co/AlVB8gadTG pic.twitter.com/gTFp6yxeml

— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) October 14, 2021

After all, Babbitt was a white woman, which means her unjustified killing doesn’t play well into their race-baiting narrative.

In July, The Western Journal conducted an interview with Michelle Witthoeft, Babbitt’s mother. Witthoeft blasted Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for failing to investigate the circumstances of her daughter’s death.

“Nancy Pelosi … I feel like, orchestrated the death of my daughter,” Witthoeft told The Western Journal.

“I’ve reached out to Nancy Pelosi’s office several times, and she has yet to call me back because she’s too busy playing in her clubhouse with all of her elite people.”

She went on to remind Pelosi that she should be serving the people.

“You know, it’s the people’s house. It’s not your house, Nancy. It’s the people’s house. That’s my message to Nancy Pelosi,” Witthoeft said.

“The Capitol Police should be held accountable like every other police department in the country.”

It’s well past time that Witthoeft and Babbitt’s other family members were afforded the justice they deserve for the death of their loved one.

Now we all know the truth. Hopefully, justice comes soon.

Once a terrorist, always a terrorist? Don’t tell that to President Joe Biden.

A new report from Fox News revealed that Afghan citizens who were part of the repressive Taliban regime that was overthrown at the dawn of the Afghan war will be welcomed with open arms into America.

The report said that civil servants who helped the Taliban carry out its policies during the years from 1996 to 2001 will be exempted from rules that bar other terrorists from entering the country.

Fox said it obtained a draft document from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The document reportedly indicated the Department of Homeland Security will allow Afghan citizens who collaborated with the Taliban in the past, which would normally ban them on what are called terrorism-related inadmissibility grounds, into the United States — choosing not to hold their past against them.

The USCIS website says, “The definition of terrorism-related activity is relatively broad and may apply to individuals and activities not commonly thought to be associated with terrorism. As a result, Congress created a statutory exemption provision through which the Secretaries of Homeland Security and State may exempt individuals from the grounds of inadmissibility.”

Report: Judge Judy Ditches Longtime Bailiff Because of Cost Concerns – But She Makes $47 Million Per Year

The document tried to indicate that many of those the Biden administration wants to let into America might not have fully embraced the Taliban’s terrorist regime.

“Many individuals who worked in civil service positions before the declaration of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in 1996 continued to do so after the declaration,” the planning document said, according to Fox News. “Some did so under duress or other situations of hardship.”

“Some used their positions in humanitarian capacities to mitigate the repressive actions of the Taliban regime, often at great personal risk. Some of these civil servants later worked for or helped the International Security Assistance Force, the U.S. government or the Afghan government that was established in Dec. 22, 2001,” it said.

The Obama administration had first proposed the exemption that Biden, who was vice president during the Obama era, now seeks to implement. However, the exemption was proposed in January 2017, and the administration was out of office before it could act.

Fox said it was told by an administration official it did not name that the change would not alter other parts of the vetting process.

“The effect [of the memo] is that people who worked as doctors, grade school teachers, civil servants or low-level government employees wouldn’t automatically be barred from ever entering the United States because they worked in those professions,” the official said.

The document Fox reviewed said individuals who helped the Taliban carry out their brutal regime must pass “all background checks and pose[s] no danger to the safety and security of the United States, and other threshold requirements.”

The exemption comes in the context of the Biden administration seeking to resettle about 95,000 Afghan citizens.

Republican Rep. Yvette Herrell of New Mexico has said that after visiting Fort Bliss, where many Afghans are being held pending resettlement, she has questions and concerns, according to Fox News.

Lt. Col. Scheller Pleads Guilty to All Charges of Contempt and Disrespect of Superior Officers, Failure to Obey Orders

“We already know there’s weakness in the vetting process and the screenings, and we want to make sure as this continues, we can make sure the American people can feel safe and secure about the entire process,” she said.

Herrell said that despite the efforts of those working with refugees to care for their needs, the overall process is not what it should be.

“There’s no accountability, this was a rushed process by this administration,” she said. “We know it is flawed.”

A restaurant owner in Portland, Oregon, wrote a letter to city leaders saying she loves her city but it is no longer safe for business as liberal policies continue to allow crime to surge.

“Over the last year and a half, the occurrence of close contact psychotic outbursts from houseless people, aggressive behavior, abuse and damage to our property is a daily norm,” Kristen Murray, owner of the Maurice cafe in downtown Portland, wrote in her letter, according to Fox News.

“It threatens myself, my staff, my customers, my business, your citizens and the mass of unwell people need so much support as well. Our lives are all valuable,” she added.

Murray talked about the situation Thursday morning on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”

When asked why she wrote the letter, she expressed her love for her city.

Report: Judge Judy Ditches Longtime Bailiff Because of Cost Concerns – But She Makes $47 Million Per Year

“I love Portland, and I believe in Portland being able to come out of this. It’s just gotten so wildly unbalanced right now and it’s not safe, unfortunately,” Murray said.

Her letter has led to an upcoming meeting with city officials and other business leaders to address Portland’s crime problem.

“The city is at a breaking point and it has been, but things have really exploded over the last couple of months, weeks, and I really don’t want to close up shop,” she added.

“The city has to make some dramatic changes,” Murray said.

Some have blamed the city’s rising crime on its attitude toward policing. In June, the city went after a police officer for his actions during one of the many leftist riots in Portland in 2020, leading the city’s team of anti-riot cops to resign and disband.

Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that Portland Police Bureau Officer Corey Budworth was indicted on a charge of fourth-degree assault relating to an Aug. 18, 2020, incident in which he struck a rioter with a baton.

Leftist Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt charged Budworth.

Today, Multnomah County @DAMikeSchmidt announced that a grand jury indicted Portland Police Officer Corey Budworth with one count of Assault in the Fourth Degree for alleged criminal conduct that occurred during a protest in August of 2020. https://t.co/iUoe4uqUzf pic.twitter.com/owYOdkAYZq

— Multnomah County DA’s Office (@MultCoDA) June 15, 2021

Lt. Col. Scheller Pleads Guilty to All Charges of Contempt and Disrespect of Superior Officers, Failure to Obey Orders

“In this case, we allege that no legal justification existed for Officer Budworth’s deployment of force, and that the deployment of force was legally excessive under the circumstances,” Schmidt said in a statement.

“My office will continue to do everything we can to ensure justice is done without error or delay and that we make sure our work and practices are rooted in fairness and equity,” he said.

Schmidt pursued Budworth, who was working as a member of the police bureau’s all-volunteer Rapid Response Team during last summer’s incident.

Oregon Public Broadcasting reported the officer with the baton in the following Twitter video is Budworth:

WARNING: The following video contains vulgar language that some viewers may find offensive.

Cop 37 shoves woman hitting her from behind in the head with baton, then hits her again in the face with baton while she is sitting on the ground pic.twitter.com/t4phwbWpsK

— John #FreePalestine (@Johnnthelefty) August 19, 2020

Budworth was found to have done nothing wrong by his superiors, given the circumstances. But he was hit with a criminal charge, to which he pleaded not guilty on July 12.

Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan blasted Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the Biden administration’s border crisis, declaring he is “lying to the American people.”

Documents leaked to Fox News this week revealed 160,000 migrants have been released into the United States since March. Homan offered his perspective on that during a “Fox & Friends First” interview on Thursday morning.

“The numbers show that the secretary has been lying to the American people,” Homan said.

Former acting ICE Director, Tom Homan, sounds off as we learn 160,000 migrants have been released into the U.S. under the Biden Administration.https://t.co/0aujDkzXx9

— Fox & Friends First (@FoxFriendsFirst) October 14, 2021

Report: Judge Judy Ditches Longtime Bailiff Because of Cost Concerns – But She Makes $47 Million Per Year

The Fox report also said that since Aug. 6, the Biden administration has released about 32,000 immigrants into the U.S. via parole — which gives migrants a temporary legal status and the ability to apply for work permits.

“Why are they using paroles?” Homan said. “Because they’ll be eligible for a work visa when they get here.”

“Again, here is the secretary not taking any enforcement posture, not doing anything to slow the flow,” he said.

“They’re calling their friends and neighbors back home, saying, ‘Not only did I get released. I got a job.’ This is just another enticement,” Homan said.

“This is just open borders gone wild.”

The border crisis led nearly three dozen Republican House members to send a letter to President Joe Biden on Friday to demand action.

“The recent surge of illegal aliens entering the United States in Del Rio, Texas, demands that you finally give the border crisis that you created the attention it deserves,” the letter read.

“The American people are fed up with false reassurances that the border is closed,” it said.

The House members said Biden’s open border policies were the cause of the crisis.

Rep. Biggs Visits Wasted Border Wall Materials, Demands Biden Restart Construction ‘Now’

“There is one main driver for the current surge of illegal immigration: your policies have left the border open,” the letter said.

The lawmakers wrote that the border crisis is “directly linked” to Biden’s refusal to follow border laws.

“The surge of aliens into Del Rio and the accompanying lawlessness that developed because of the surge is directly linked to your refusal to comply with [District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s] order,” the letter read.

Arizona Republican Rep. Andy Biggs, one of the signers, released a statement along with the letter.

“It is well past time for President Biden to acknowledge the border crisis that he has created and enforce laws to secure the border,” Biggs said.

“Biden has worked overtime to erase Trump administration policies and programs, like Remain in Mexico, that were securing our border and discouraging illegal immigration,” he said.

“We are demanding that the President provide Congress with accurate information about the extent of the border crisis so that we can understand the full impact of his open border policies.”

The dramatic rise in gas prices under President Joe Biden was entirely predictable given his attack on oil production since taking office.

Now, the White House is reportedly trying to make nice with domestic producers in hopes they can increase supply and thereby bring down the cost.

In some locations, including Miami and New York City, the price of gas topped $5 per gallon this week.

The price is the highest it’s been since 2014.

The 7-year high in gas prices under Joe Biden makes consumers “want to cry,” ABC Miami reports. pic.twitter.com/3ClvYRxNbY

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 12, 2021

Report: Judge Judy Ditches Longtime Bailiff Because of Cost Concerns – But She Makes $47 Million Per Year

According to AAA, the national average price for a gallon of regular gas is $3.29, up from $2.18 during the same time period a year ago.

No doubt, some of the rise can be attributed to increased economic activity as the nation pulled out of the pandemic.

However, a slew of decisions by the Biden administration has also put upward pressure on the price of crude.

Recall the executive orders the new president issued on his first day in office alone, which included canceling the Keystone XL pipeline and halting oil exploration on federal lands just as the U.S. had reached energy independence during the Trump years.

In June, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland issued an order ceasing all oil exploration activities in the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve, which had been greenlit as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed by former President Donald Trump.

ANWR is believed to hold over 10 billion barrels of untapped oil reserves.

One barrel of oil refines to about 20 gallons of gasoline, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

All of Biden’s actions, of course, sent a signal to the oil market that the United States, which became the top producer in the world in 2018, will be delivering less in the months and years ahead.

Kamala Harris Staffer Rudely Interrupts Interview When Reporter Asks About Build Back Better Agenda

A year ago we were energy independent, a net exporter, and a gallon of gas was 2 bucks and change. After less than a year of a war on fuel producers here and giveaways to Russia, all those gains are reversed. The surprise is how quickly everything changed. https://t.co/JD3dF4mBjg

— David Asman (@DavidAsmanfox) October 12, 2021

“Crude oil prices have doubled since November to $83 per barrel, and petro-states want to maintain higher prices to fund their governments,” The Wall Street Journal editorial board noted.

“But U.S. producers have also been slower to revive output as the Administration is threatening the oil and gas industry with a panoply of taxes and regulation. Producers aren’t going to drill more wells today, even at today’s higher prices, if they don’t think they will produce future profits.”

The White House appears to be finally taking notice, probably spurred on by the president’s falling poll numbers, including on his handling of the economy. Fifty-five percent disapprove of Biden’s performance in that regard in the latest Quinnipiac poll.

“Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, met in Saudi Arabia with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,” Reuters reported late last month, and Sullivan raised the issue of rising oil prices.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki later told reporters the administration will “continue to speak to international partners, including [the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries], on the importance of competitive markets and setting prices and doing more to support the recovery.”

U.S. imports of crude oil from Russia are also up significantly in 2021 compared to any of the years Trump was in office, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Becoming more dependent on Saudi Arabia and Russia certainly does not seem like a good development for America’s energy security.

“The White House has been speaking with U.S. oil and gas producers in recent days about helping to bring down rising fuel costs, according to two sources familiar with the matter,” Reuters reported Wednesday.

Psaki could not confirm the meeting took place, telling reporters, “I’m actually not aware of any contact with oil and gas companies around this particular issue.”

If Biden is serious about getting gas prices down, here are a few ideas that might help: Greenlight the Keystone XL pipeline, restore Trump’s policies regarding exploration for oil and natural gas on federal lands, don’t raise taxes and regulations on energy producers and stop devaluing the currency with massive new rounds of deficit spending.

Do these things, and the economy will fully recover — and the price of gas will come down.

Amid school closures, cancelled holidays, and compulsory mask wearing, 2020 was a difficult year for children, but none more so than for those who lived in abusive homes.

A recently released annual child abuse report from the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services showed that in 2020, the state registered a 43 percent increase in child abuse deaths compared to 2019.

That is, 73 children died from child abuse in 2020 compared to 51 deaths in 2019. The increase is new and significant; reports going back to 2010 average 37 deaths a year. And it is notably higher than the 17 COVID-19 deaths in children aged 0-19 recorded in Pennsylvania not only in 2020, but also counting all COVID-19 deaths in Pennsylvania children up to Oct. 7 this year, according to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

The child abuse report (pdf) also shows that in 2020, there were 115 near deaths compared to 93 near deaths in 2019.

Reports of suspected child abuse also dropped by 22 percent, from 42,252 reports in 2019 to 32,919 reports. This decline in reports coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic can be attributed to the reduced contact between children and mandated reporters during that time, the report says. COVID-19 mitigation measures like school closures meant children had fewer interactions in 2020 with mandated child abuse reporters, such as teachers, coaches, and scout leaders who work or volunteer with children and are required to report cases of suspected child abuse.

The report also detailed 4,941 substantiated statewide reports of child abuse. Of those, 1,932 were sexual abuse cases, the leading category, and 1,384 were physical abuse/bodily injury. Other categories include serious physical neglect, serious mental injury, sexual exploitation, and trafficking.

As in previous years, parents continue to be the persons most responsible for abusing children, with 1,417 fathers and 1,332 mothers found guilty of child abusers. The report describes other abusers as siblings, babysitters, school staff, relatives, and others who have access to children.

There are issues that do not rise to the level of suspected child abuse but show a need for intervention. In these cases, Statewide General Protective Services provide reports to the Department of Human Services, which then send them to each county’s Children and Youth Service Agency to respond.

Children and Youth Service Agencies handled 87,018 cases like this in 2020. Of those, 20,892 cases involved a caregiver with a substance abuse problem—by far, the most common concern. Other categories of concern include a caregiver placing a child at risk or failing to protect a child, educational neglect/truancy, homelessness, domestic violence, a lack of supervision, and inappropriate discipline.

In these cases, the department’s aim is to prevent abuse or neglect, and preserve and stabilize family life wherever appropriate, the report said.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/more-children-died-from-abuse-than-covid-19-in-2020-in-pennsylvania_4046836.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

Support the truth. Become a member of The Western Journal.

A student allegedly raped his daughter in the bathroom, and the dad said the school has been covering it up.

► Click HERE to subscribe to “WJ Live” on YouTube: http://w-j.co/s/51c85

► Don’t miss an episode of “WJ Live”! Click HERE to get it delivered directly to your inbox: http://w-j.co/s/ef7f7

Federal Judge Rules Religious Exemptions to Vaccine Mandates Must Be Allowed

Follow The Western Journal on social media:

► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WesternJournal
► Twitter: https://twitter.com/WestJournalism
► Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wjlivepodcast/

Loudoun County parents used the public comment portion of Tuesday’s school board meeting to call for the resignation of the district’s superintendent over an alleged sexual assault cover-up.

Angry parents demanded Superintendent Scott Ziegler and other school board members resign over allegations that the Loudoun County School District and leadership covered up two sexual assaults on two separate school campuses, the Daily Wire originally reported.

Over 60 concerned parents spoke at the meeting, including many who carried signs encouraging Ziegler’s resignation.

“This is not China, this is the United States of America, and we will not be silenced,” one mother said, according to Fox News.

“Remove the superintendent immediately and then resign for your negligence and duplicity. End this nightmare!”

Vaccine Tyranny: UCLA Doctor Escorted Off Property for Refusing Vax, Then He Reveals His Plan

The father of the first alleged sexual assault victim was arrested at a Loudoun County school board meeting on June 22 for “unlawful assembly” after attending the meeting to oppose a transgender student policy that allowed students to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with.

Smith said his ninth-grade daughter was sexually assaulted by a boy wearing a skirt who entered a girls’ bathroom at Stone Bridge High School on May 28.

At the same board meeting where Scott was arrested, during the hearing on the transgender student policy, Beth Barts, a school board member, said “our students do not need to be protected, and they are not in danger.”

Barts continued, asking Ziegler, “do we have assaults in our bathrooms or locker rooms regularly?”

“To my knowledge, we don’t have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms,” Ziegler responded.

“Have we had any issues involving transgender students in our bathrooms or locker rooms?” school board Chairwoman Brenda Sheridan asked.

“I think it’s important to keep our perspective on this, we’ve heard it several times tonight from our public speakers, but the predator transgender student or person simply does not exist,” Ziegler responded.

Juvenile court prosecutors told Smith that the suspect was under house arrest at his mother’s townhouse, but on Oct. 6, a 15-year-old boy was charged with sexual battery and abduction for forcing a girl into a classroom, where he inappropriately touched her, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.

Smith’s attorney said the suspect is the same boy who attacked Smith’s daughter at a different school months earlier, the Daily Wire reported.

Tennessee Bill That Places Restrictions on Boys’ Use of Girls’ Restrooms Faces a Legal Challenge

On Aug. 11, the school board voted on and approved Policy 8040, which requires teachers to call students by their “chosen name and gender pronouns that reflect their gender identity without any substantiating evidence” and allows transgender students to participate in sports and use bathrooms that correspond to their chosen gender identity.

“The 8040 policy was rushed through to a vote without consideration for the safety of all students, simply to satisfy a liberal agenda — a policy that you knew full well would allow our children to be abused inside our schools,” one mother said at the Tuesday school board meeting, Fox News reported.

“At least two young women are recent victims of sexual assaults in our high schools, one of them in a restroom.”

“What is worse than a child being raped at school? The coverup by those who are trusted with the safety and well-being of children,” another mother said.

“Today, Scott Ziegler must resign for the unconscionable act of allowing an alleged rapist back into school to rape again, and for that coverup.”

One 14-year-old LCPS student, Katie Young, said “8040 and many policies that are being proposed are not to make people more comfortable or to accept others but instead to change the way my peers and I think, so that we will become the next generation of social justice warriors.”

“I am 14 years old, the fact that I have to be here defending my rights to not have your radical agenda shoved down my throat in school is not only concerning, it’s upsetting,” she added.

“My peers and I are not tools to further your political agenda.”

Content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of the DCNF’s original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

A version of this article appeared on the Daily Caller News Foundation website.

On Friday, President Joe Biden announced his plans to redesignate nearly two million acres of land as national monuments. Despite attempts by many to paint the move as a positive development, it is another clear example of overreach by the federal government.

According to a Thursday news release from the Department of the Interior, Biden plans to “restore protections” to the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah.

Former President Barack Obama designated Bears Ears National Monument in 2016 after pressure from tribal nations, the department said. The monument originally spanned 1.35 million acres, all of which were under the supervision of the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.

Grand Staircase-Escalante was established as a national monument in 1996 by former President Bill Clinton. After three adjustments from Congress, the monument came to encompass 1.87 million acres.

In 2017, former President Donald Trump announced the significant reduction of both monuments. Bears Ears National Monument was reduced to 228,000 acres, and Grand Staircase-Escalante was cut nearly in half to about 1 million acres.

Attorney: Entire Family Given COVID Vaccine Instead of Flu Shot, 2 Children Now Suffering Heart Issues

At the time, NPR reported that many Native Americans were upset by Trump’s decision.

“The Navajo Nation has made repeated requests to meet with President Trump on this issue,” Navajo Nation president Russell Begaye said in a statement. “The Bears Ears Monument is of critical importance, not only to the Navajo Nation but to many tribes in the region.”

However, Trump made clear that the move was not meant to strip land from Native Americans, but rather to put decisions about the land back in the hands of the people who live there.

“No one values the splendor of Utah more than you do … and no one knows better how to use it,” Trump told a crowd in Utah during the announcement of the reduction.

Trump did not make the decision on his own, either. He had the support of Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, according to NPR.

By reducing the amount of land controlled by the federal government, Trump gave the people of Utah — including Native Americans — control over land that was rightfully theirs.

Nonetheless, Biden felt the need to undo Trump’s work and bring the land back under federal control. Predictably, the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition praised the move.

“By taking this action, President Biden will be recognizing the deep and enduring ancestral and cultural connections that Tribes have to this landscape and taking a step toward honoring his commitment to Indigenous People by acknowledging their original place in this country that is now our shared home,” the group said in a statement.

“The Bears Ears Intertribal Coalition looks forward to the President’s continued leadership in ensuring that a new model of collaborative management between the Tribes, state and federal land agencies is immediately put into action and that a comprehensive Land Management Plan can be developed for the greater Bears Ears landscape.”

Biden Raises More Questions About His Mental State by Repeatedly Forgetting Name of His Employee

The problem with that statement is that the federal government should not have a say in those conversations. Instead, Native Americans should be working directly with the state of Utah to develop plans for the land.

This is not the first time during the Biden administration that bureaucrats have signaled their lust for more land and power. Last month, the Interior Department announced plans to relocate the headquarters of the Bureau of Land Management to Washington, D.C.

Trump had previously moved BLM headquarters from D.C. to Grand Junction, Colorado. Its relocation back to Washington hints at its increased ties to the political elite under the Biden administration.

“There’s no doubt that the BLM should have a leadership presence in Washington, D.C. — like all the other land management agencies — to ensure that it has access to the policy-, budget-, and decision-making levers to best carry out its mission,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.

Contrary to leftist belief, not everything needs to be federalized.

Instead of letting the state of Utah consult with Native American organizations and other groups with a vested interest to determine the best use of its land, Biden has once again turned to federal government expansion as the solution.

If recent actions are any indication, the Biden administration does not plan to stop its land-grabbing any time soon.

Leaked Border Patrol documents accessed by Fox News revealed that from March onwards, the Biden administration has let over 160,000 illegal immigrants into the United States.

According to Fox, the documents showed that since August the Biden administration has used limited parole authorities, in a broad way, to ensure that at least 30,000 undocumented migrants could be eligible to work in the country.

The Biden administration, since March 20, released over 94,570 illegal aliens into U.S. with Notices to Report.

Individuals who have these notices only have to make their presence known at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office when they reach their final destination.

One who checks in at an ICE office, as the policies surrounding such notices require, will not face deportation or detainment for the duration of their immigration proceedings.

Federal Judge Rules Religious Exemptions to Vaccine Mandates Must Be Allowed

NEW/THREAD: According to Border Patrol documents provided by a source, the federal gov has released over 70,000 illegal immigrants into the U.S. since August 6, including 31,977 released via parole (temp legal status, eligible for work permits).
94,570 released via NTR since 3/20 pic.twitter.com/ag5OMsYw27

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) October 13, 2021

On top of the notices, Fox uncovered that the Biden administration has also let around 32,000 undocumented migrants into the country by granting them parole.

Being granted parole gives an illegal alien somewhat of a legal status, which includes the ability to sign up to obtain a work permit.

Fox reported that Federal law permits parole authority for “urgent humanitarian purposes” and in situations that bring “significant public benefit” on a case-by-case basis.

An example of when this authority was used was when the Biden administration granted parole to several Afghan refugees who were flown into the country as part of Operation Allies Welcome, according to Fox.

But, the documents the news outlet accessed showed that the Biden administration has been using this legal provision a lot.

“By law and regulation a parole shall only be granted on a case by case basis and only for significant humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. Neither of these appear to apply to the current situation,” Former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott told Fox after taking a look at the documents.

Scott believes that the Biden administration is misusing its parole authority.

Rep. Biggs Visits Wasted Border Wall Materials, Demands Biden Restart Construction ‘Now’

“As a field chief, I don’t believe I ever approved more than 5 or 10 paroles in a year,” Scott said.

“When I did, I ensured that the alien was monitored continuously and was detained or removed as soon as the circumstances allowed.”

Should these not be enough, Fox also learned that from Aug. 6 on, the Biden administration released 40,000 undocumented migrants “on their own recognizance.”

Furthermore, the Biden administration let 128 single adult illegal immigrants inside the country without Alternatives to Detention.

ATD usually includes “tracking by an ankle monitor or phone,” Fox reported.

Speaking to Fox, a Customs and Border Protection official said that things like using NTRs, paroling and signing up illegal aliens in ATD “[provide] mechanisms to require family units released from CBP custody to report to ICE within a specified time.”

“The documents give a partial snapshot into how the Biden administration has been releasing enormous numbers of migrants into the U.S., often with little to no oversight, supervision or immediate risk of deportation,” the Fox News report stated.

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter Wednesday to Attorney General Merrick Garland to demand an explanation concerning his memorandum to the Federal Bureau of Investigation over “serious concerns” regarding parents at school board meetings.

The letter, first reported by the Daily Caller, was led by Lousiana Rep. Mike Johnson and joined by 18 additional GOP House members on the committee.

“This letter is to express our serious concerns about your recent decision to involve federal law enforcement entities in local school board debates and to stifle First Amendment-protected political speech. Your actions are not just inappropriate, but also appear to have been improperly influenced by politics and by your family’s interest in the matter,” the representatives wrote.

“As members of the House Committee on the Judiciary, we have a responsibility to conduct oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and we trust that you will fully cooperate with our inquiry,” they added.

Part of the letter’s request included a call for Garland to submit himself to an ethics investigation.

(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) — … by Henry Rodgers

The House members concluded with the “request you promptly consult with the designated agency ethics official to determine if your actions in this matter have resulted in an ethics violation for a breach of impartiality.”

“Judiciary Republicans trust that Mr. Garland will submit to our requested ethics inquiry, publicly release its results, and take whatever actions are necessary to protect the integrity of the office of Attorney General, including either recusing himself from this issue and/or rescinding the October 4th memorandum,” Johnson told the Daily Caller.

Part of the controversy stems from allegations that Garland’s son-in-law profits from work to promote critical race theory.

“The Justice Department usually has very broad standards for the appearance of impropriety that would trigger at least the inquiry into whether there was a conflict of interest,” former U.S. Assistant Attorney Andy McCarthy said during a recent interview with Fox News.

Garland’s son-in-law reportedly co-founded and works with the company Panorama Education. An educational workshop released by the company includes materials that promote critical race theory and fixate on overcoming “white supremacy,” according to Fox.

“The idea is that Garland’s son-in-law is profiting lucratively from peddling this stuff to the schools. And Garland, even though the Justice Department doesn’t appear to have jurisdiction to do what it’s done, is siccing the FBI on parents who are dissenting against these kinds of materials,” McCarthy added.

Garland’s Family Ties to CRT Exposed After He Threatened to Curb Parents’ ‘Intimidation’ of School Boards

Garland sent the Oct. 4 memorandum to the FBI concerning “threats” against school personnel.

“In recent months, there has been a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff who participate in the vital work of running our nation’s schools,” the attorney general wrote.

“The Department takes these incidents seriously and is committed to using its authority and resources to discourage these threats, identify them when they occur, and prosecute them when appropriate,” Garland continued.

“In the coming days, the Department will announce a series of measures designed to address the rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel,” he went on. “Coordination and partnership with local law enforcement is critical to implementing these measures for the benefit of our nation’s nearly 14,000 public school districts.”

The only commendable thing I can say about the current state of the Democratic Party is that Bill Clinton could never get elected these days.

That’s because his party has become a giant hive of scolds who treat their charges as if they’re in some kind of woke moral panopticon. While the transformation had been underway long before #MeToo, COVID-19 and George Floyd, those events accelerated it like nothing else could. Look at any Democrat’s Twitter, for instance. Wear your mask. Get the vaccine. Pay your fair share. Call it “Indigenous People’s Day.” Stop toxic masculinity. Behave.

That’s not to say they’re not hypocrites who break their own rules. However, they’d better pretend that’s not the case, and do it with a straight face. Bill Clinton went about it with a wink and a nod. Gross, sure, but it’s somehow less obnoxious than new Democrats, like New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

First, here’s a quick primer on what Grisham is all about, courtesy of her Twitter account:

The overwhelming majority of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in New Mexico continue to be among those who are not vaccinated.

We have the tools to protect New Mexico from COVID-19 – please wear a mask & get vaccinated: https://t.co/NmTeemuFrhhttps://t.co/JuvqAQkfIV

— Michelle Lujan Grisham (@GovMLG) October 7, 2021

Vaccine Tyranny: UCLA Doctor Escorted Off Property for Refusing Vax, Then He Reveals His Plan

Get vaccinated.https://t.co/NmTeemuFrh https://t.co/eX9Nh4KHhl

— Michelle Lujan Grisham (@GovMLG) September 30, 2021

You never know whose life you could be saving, or who could be saving yours, by slowing the spread of #COVID19.

This Memorial Day weekend, stay close to home. Keep your distance from others, don’t gather in groups, and wear a face covering if you must go out in public. pic.twitter.com/LyhgzSuy0r

— Michelle Lujan Grisham (@GovMLG) May 24, 2020

In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it’s essential that we adopt more stringent clean car standards that increase fuel economy​, which is why I announced today that New Mexico will be proposing, adopting and implementing clean car standards by the end of next year. pic.twitter.com/z6BJjolj8c

— Michelle Lujan Grisham (@GovMLG) September 24, 2019

Today on #NationalComingOutDay, we recognize members of our LGBTQ+ community. With your help, I am dedicated to making New Mexico the inclusive, diverse, and welcoming state, it can be. pic.twitter.com/PUdiLWxmwM

— Michelle Lujan Grisham (@Michelle4NM) October 11, 2021

Woke. Didactic. Po-faced. Michelle Lujan Grisham is the modern Democrat, ready to let people with differing opinions know they’re Not Funny™ and Not Welcome™. It’s little surprise she was a potential pick for Joe Biden last summer during his veepstakes.

Dad Cracks Eye Socket of Alleged Pedophile He Caught Touching Boy, 9, at Bus Stop

Let’s just say he dodged a bullet — because it turns out the scold has issues with her own behavior.

According to Fox News, the New Mexico governor quietly admitted this summer she had paid out tens of thousands of dollars in a settlement with a former staffer over allegations she grabbed his crotch back in 2018. This week, Grisham quietly announced the sexual assault settlement was actually in the hundreds of thousands of dollars — more than twice as much as had been originally reported.

James Hallinan, a spokesman for Grisham’s 2018 campaign, said the governor spilled water in his lap and then grabbed his crotch through his clothes as she laughed. The Albuquerque Journal reported the incident took place in front of other campaign staffers.

The accusations first surfaced in 2019; Hallinan said he was talked out of reporting the alleged assault by Grisham’s campaign manager. In an April campaign filing, Grisham’s campaign reported it had paid $62,500 to Hallinan, who now has a communications and public relations firm.

On Monday, Grisham’s campaign acknowledged that Hallinan has been paid a total of $150,000 as part of the settlement — although the governor denied the allegations.

Campaign spokeswoman Kendall Witmer said Sunday that the settlement “resolved suspect and varied claims made by Mr. Hallinan, including his search for employment and clients following his tumultuous tenure on the 2018 campaign.”

“The campaign reached this settlement in 2020 due to the expense of litigating business disputes and to prevent any distraction during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Witmer added.

“Gov. Lujan Grisham will continue to work tirelessly for the people of New Mexico, delivering on record economic growth, educational investment, and tax cuts for New Mexico’s families — all while leading the state through the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Did she mention Grisham was busy with the pandemic? Because the governor was so busy with the pandemic, she didn’t have any time to fight the accusation she’d sexually abused a campaign staffer, which had nothing to do with the pandemic.

Lujan Grisham also disputed characterizations that there was a parallel between the accusation against her and the accusations that sank former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Want to guess why?

“I was focused on the pandemic, and I’ll stand by that decision every minute of every day,” Grisham said.

The pandemic! Of course.

Granted, everyone should be given the benefit of the doubt and due process if the case goes to court. However, the Democrats are the ones who dynamited those bedrock values. Believe all victims, after all. Grisham should have fought this if she wanted to clear her name. Instead, New Mexico’s personal scold looks a bit like a humorless distaff version of Bill Clinton.

Just when you thought the Democrats couldn’t get any worse.

Next time you see a climate change protest in the news, be aware it may be backed by the Chinese Communist Party.

Chinese Communist Party-linked foreign influence group sponsored a climate change conference seeking to mobilize youth advocates in America, the National Pulse can reveal.

The entity sponsoring the recent conference, the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), is part of Beijing’s “United Front” effort, which the U.S. government identifies as seeking to “to co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party” and “influence foreign governments to take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijing.”

CUSEF’s website notes that it “sponsored” the Sino-American Youth Dialogue on Climate Change, carried out in collaboration with two schools: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Tsinghua University.

“Co-hosted by Tsinghua University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Sino-American Youth Dialogue on Climate Change (SAYD) will be held in October 8, a month prior to COP26. The aim of the event is to offer a platform for young people from China and the U.S. to put forward ideas and suggestions for the COP26 to address climate change and sustainable development,” CUSEF explains before posing the following questions to attendees:

What should governments do to confront climate emergency?

How should businesses develop sustainability strategies to achieve net zero emissions?

What are the actions that we, as individuals, could do to reduce wastage and gas emissions?

The conference explicitly seeks to mobilize youth activists, as its theme is “making carbon neutral, youth in action.”

“Through discussions and sharing among youth delegates and field experts, the forum hopes to reach consensus on the issue and form valuable policy recommendations,” the conference’s website adds.

Fauci Congratulates Wuhan Collaborator On ‘Deserved’ Xi Jinping Award.

Among the event’s speakers were CUSEF founder Tung Chee-hwa, Chinese Communist Party officials, and presidents from both MIT and Tsinghua University. Tsinghua University’s involvement in the conference also follows the school reportedly launching cyberattacks against the U.S. government and having a “clear connection” to the Chinese government on issues of technology and national security according to the U.S. State Department.

The school is the alma mater of regime leader Xi Jinping and hosts a “Marxist” journalism school, training the next generation of Chinese state-run media propagandists with the assistance of the New York Times, CNN, and others.

“We should be committed to a firm and correct political orientation. Our School has been actively exploring the theory and practices of Marxist Journalism, namely, to applying the Marxist theory in observing the world, selecting and handling news production,” the dean’s introduction letter reads.

Twitter’s recent banning of accounts critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is deplorable. But it also forces us to really start considering how Western social media and big tech companies can defend freedom of speech, instead of being used as tools against us by authoritarian states such as the Chinese regime.

The issue of tech-based freedom of speech platforms, and the damage they can do to free societies if left entirely unregulated, is not exactly a new one. In recent years, however, it has become even more troublesome, as authoritarian states have taken to using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even LinkedIn to wage disinformation campaigns, affect elections, split and divide a society, and in general, cause havoc.

When called upon to take proper action against authoritarian states that undermine free societies, the tech companies have had a rather consistent defense—namely that their platforms will ultimately bring greater freedom of speech, and therefore they should not be forced to take action. While it seems like an honorable argument, it’s a hollow and ignorant one, especially at this point in time. The prospect of making more money is what prevents the big tech companies from taking any real action. Mark Zuckerberg has tried to woo the Chinese regime by asking CCP leader Xi Jinping to name his unborn child back in 2015, or when he went jogging in a heavily polluted Beijing—these are images that no PR campaign will ever be able to counter. It showed Zuckerberg’s real allegiance to the CCP, and it certainly wasn’t freedom of speech.

These arguments, thoroughly debunked, are no different than when monarchists argue for keeping the monarchy because it brings undefined economic benefits, which has never actually been proven, or when business lobby groups argue against actions that counter Beijing’s economic and trade violations because they believe free trade will somehow lead to democracy, freedom of speech, and rule of law in China. We know that belief is hollow and false, but it keeps on repeating until some part of us just accepts it.

Dealing with fake news and disinformation within our societies will certainly be a long and difficult march. But when it comes to dealing with China, Russia, and other authoritarian or neo-totalitarian states that use our own tools of freedom of speech against us, the solution is actually really simple.

Take Twitter, for example. If a state blocks its people’s access to Twitter, then block the state’s access to the social media platform, including government officials. This should apply to the Chinese regime as it has officially blocked Twitter in mainland China. However, some citizens have been able to circumvent the “great firewall” and major Chinese companies can access Twitter through a government approved VPN.

Such a policy wouldn’t even have to touch upon the thorny issue of what can or cannot be said on such platforms. Instead, it would zero in on one simple question: Does the state using the platform allow its own people the same access? If not, then it’s out: access for access.

Not only would this policy add real pressure on authoritarian states to open up access to such tools for its people, but it would severely limit their abilities to use others to sow disinformation in the United States, affect outcomes in elections in the United Kingdom, or try to split and divide the European Union.

Safeguard Defenders has campaigned against China’s state broadcasters, CGTN and CCTV, and has seen them taken off the air in several countries. For China, it is a loss of prestige. But in reality, Beijing’s disinformation work is almost entirely carried out on social media, with few viewers of its stale news shows on TV. In fact, after CGTN’s license was revoked in the UK, an informant told Safeguard Defenders that the media company replaced its “social media first’ policy with a ‘social media only’ policy. It knows what really matters.

An “access for access” policy would be straightforward, fair, predictable, open, and as a bonus, rather easily applicable. No dictatorship could cry wolf, because with such an open and fair policy the outcome would be entirely on them.

Give those who block freedom for its people a simple choice, and leave that choice to them.

My greatest surprise is the fact that as an option and as a way forward, it is not even discussed. It seems, somehow, to be out of bounds, outside of people’s imaginations. Considering the resources needed in combatting bots, in seeking pedophiles and those committing cyber crimes online, implementing such a policy would be easy in comparison.

To better manage disinformation online is going to be a long and epic struggle, and at this time no one has all the answers. However, there are areas that are black and white, and while we ponder the bigger issues of disinformation, it’s a good place to start.

It’s time for our social media giants to take some actual steps to defend and promote freedom of speech, instead of merely giving us empty gestures.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. 

Peter Dahlin

Peter Dahlin is the founder of the NGO Safeguard Defenders and the co-founder of the Beijing-based Chinese NGO China Action (2007–2016). He is the author of “Trial By Media,” and contributor to “The People’s Republic of the Disappeared.” He lived in Beijing from 2007, until detained and placed in a secret jail in 2016, subsequently deported and banned. Prior to living in China, he worked for the Swedish government with gender equality issues, and now lives in Madrid, Spain.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/how-western-social-media-can-do-more-than-just-pay-lip-service-to-uphold-freedom-of-speech_4045126.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

‘Companies relentlessly criticize the United States for social injustice,’ says Vivek Ramaswamy, author of ‘Woke Inc.’

In an interview with Jan Jekielek on “American Thought Leaders,” Vivek Ramaswamy outlined “the unholy alliance of big government, corporations, and woke dogma.” He also addressed the ongoing intrusion of communist China into the United States through its promotion of “wokeism.” Ramaswamy is the founder of several successful companies, including Roivant Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company, and author of a new book, “Woke Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam.”

Here are excerpts from this important interview:

Mr. Jekielek: You make a pretty interesting case, and in some ways, it’s kind of counterintuitive. You basically say that stakeholder capitalism is supposed to create accountability, but it actually does the exact opposite and empowers America’s enemies in the process. Incredible.

Mr. Ramaswamy: It’s counterintuitive because stakeholder capitalism is the philosophy that a business ought to serve not just its shareholders, by pursuing profit, but also ought to serve other societal interests, including those of not only employees, but other societal stakeholders, ranging from minority communities to the climate. Now on the face of it, that sounds pretty benign.

But the argument I make in the book is, first of all, it’s actually a violation of American democracy to concentrate in the hands of a small group of investors and executives the power to not only decide what products get voted to the top, but also what ideas get voted to the top. And that’s the role our democracy plays, where everyone’s voice and vote count equally.

Mr. Jekielek: It’s actually quite fascinating to learn some companies do have the Chinese regime as a major stakeholder, but don’t really disclose that very much and instead focus on all the much prettier-looking stakeholders here in America.

Mr. Ramaswamy: The great policy error over the last 30 years in the United States was thinking that we could use capitalism as a vector to spread democracy abroad, that we could export Big Macs and Happy Meals and think it would somehow spread democracy in places like China.

What we’ve learned over the last 30 years is that China has actually turned that model on its head. Instead of using our money to get them to be more like us, they’ve now used their money to get us to be more like them. They’ve sent back Disney movies and Nike sneakers as Trojan horses to advance their values.

I’ll tell you what I mean. Companies relentlessly criticize the United States for social injustice, as the woke brand of stakeholder capitalism or what we call woke capitalism does. Nike criticizes racial injustice. Disney criticizes injustices ranging from transphobia to states’ policy on abortions.

As these companies criticize the United States, they also don’t say a peep about actual human rights abuses in China, such as what’s happening in Xinjiang Province today, where over a million Uyghurs are enslaved in concentration camps and subjected to forced sterilization in some of the worst human rights abuses committed by a major nation since the Third Reich in Germany. These companies don’t say a peep about it.

Mr. Jekielek: Vivek, frankly, I have the same worry, deeply. There’s a famous quote: “The issue is not the issue. The issue is the revolution.” We’ve heard this a lot. In all of these Marxian systems that we’ve seen over the years, the issue is the revolution. The division is actually a major part of the purpose of the ideology, even if many of the people participating in it don’t fully realize that’s the case.

Mr. Ramaswamy: You’re spot on. I heard a really dark joke, but it reveals the way in which foreign actors have recognized that very fact, to be able to divide us from within. I talked earlier on the show about how China is using wokeism. By the way, they even have a Chinese word for wokeism—“baizuo.” They’re using that to divide us, using that as a chink in our armor to divide us from within by getting corporations to criticize injustice here without saying a peep about injustice over there and deflecting accountability for their human rights abuses.

The joke was that, let’s say that Mao Zedong suddenly wakes up from the dead and returns to China in his second coming, and he’s talking to a farmer in the countryside. He asks the farmer, “Oh, do we have a food shortage? Do we have enough food for our people?” And the farmer first tells him, “Oh, yes, the food shortage ended a long time ago. Now we have so much food. We have too much food that our people are actually starting to get sick from diabetes.”

And Mao Zedong goes, “Oh, OK, very good. Very good. But weren’t we supposed to produce more steel than Britain within a few decades?” This is something that Mao Zedong actually laid out as part of his central plan as well. And they said, “Actually, even one of our provinces today alone produces more steel than all of the United Kingdom put together.”

And he says, “OK, very good, very good. But most importantly, what about the Cultural Revolution led by the proletariat in the field? How is that going?” To that, the modern Chinese farmer says, “Oh, we don’t do that anymore. We outsourced that to America.”

There’s something dark in that joke, but that actually reflects the essence of what’s going on. Ironically, communist China has embraced our capitalist worldview, the American pursuit of excellence, and the inner American animal to be No. 1. They’ve now imported that as their own and have exported their modern wokeism, which is really the avatar of the old school Chinese communism—the Red Guard was effectively sent over here to undermine us from within.

And I’m sorry to say it’s working masterfully for them. This becomes the beginning of the end of American greatness and the American empire, unless we’re able to actually turn that around and harness and rediscover our own culture of excellence, our own culture of the unapologetic pursuit of excellence through our system of free enterprise, and through our democracy in ways that require seeing past the superficial demands of the woke movement.

Mr. Jekielek: As we finish up here, you actually have a very interesting idea about how to create a common U.S. identity again, and this is through civic engagement. You argue for mandatory civic engagement. I find that a pretty fascinating idea.

Mr. Ramaswamy: One of the ways I talk about doing that is weaving civic service into education. For example, taking the institution of summer break itself, you don’t have to change a thing about life structure. You don’t have to change a thing about infringing on the liberty of free adults, because taking children to school is already mandatory. But let’s weave into school the component of civic service, of actually serving your country.

Our civic duties ought to be shared equally. That’s something we can instill starting at a young age that builds solidarity around the idea of a shared American identity, rather than a fractious group identity, which is the woke way.

Reviving that shared Americanism and that shared American identity dilutes the woke agenda to irrelevance.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity by Jeff Minick

https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-alliance-of-big-government-big-business-and-woke-dogma_4022945.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram