Chinese Operatives Ran A Massive TikTok Campaign To Help Dems In The Midterm Elections

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  • TikTok accounts operating on behalf of Chinese state media published content that criticized Republicans and favored Democrats ahead of the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, a Forbes investigation found.
  • Despite TikTok rules requiring accounts to disclose their government ties, at least three Chinese government-affiliated accounts with millions of views did not clearly describe their status to users.
  • “This opens a new dimension for conversation about TikTok,” Conor Healy, director of government research at surveillance research group IPVM, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

TikTok accounts operating as voices of Chinese state media promoted messages that appeared to denigrate Republican candidates and favor Democratic ones ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, according to a Forbes investigation.

While the Chinese-owned social media app has verbally affirmed the need to crack down on election disinformation and foreign interference, several news-oriented accounts failed to disclose their affiliation with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) state-owned media on the platform, Forbes found. The accounts racked up tens of millions views on posts that covered divisive topics, such as abortion and race, as well as critical clips that mostly targeted Republican candidates ahead of the 2022 midterms.

“This opens a new dimension for conversation about TikTok,” Conor Healy, director of government research at surveillance research group IPVM, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The accounts are managed by MediaLinks TV, which registered as a foreign agent for China with the Treasury Department in 2019 and distributes the U.S. branch of China Central Television (CCTV), CGTN, according to the company’s LinkedIn page. MediaLinks also operates the CCTV and CGTN apps, according to Apple.

The largest accounts are @Panadorama, @The…Optimist and @NewsTokss, the latter of which expressly covers U.S. national news, according to Forbes.

NewsTokss in particular ran content that overall shone Republican politicians in an unfavorable light and praised Democrats, Forbes found.

A video from July was introduced with the caption “Cruz, Abbott Don’t Care About Us,” referring to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and the state’s governor, Greg Abbott, according to Forbes. Another from October criticized Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida for having “Done Absolutely Nothing.”

Some content swayed against Democrats; one NewsTokss video in October asked viewers whether President Joe Biden’s promise to enshrine abortion rights served as a “political manipulation tactic,” Forbes found.

None of the videos clearly disclosed their ties to CGTN or the Chinese government, but the accounts’ profile bios did spell out, “Material distributed by MediaLinks TV LLC on behalf of CCTV. More info at DOJ, D.C.,” Forbes reported.

“That’s not disclosure,” Healy said. Between May 8 and July 6, NewsTokss received 8.3 million views but only 57,600 profile views, suggesting many users who watched the videos may not have realized a foreign government was pushing the content, Forbes reported.

Further, by redirecting users to the Department of Justice (DOJ), MediaLinks shrouded its status as a foreign agent.

However, such high-profile accounts should be easily identifiable as state-run, Healy argued to the DCNF.

“Either they don’t care and don’t have the protocols in place to deal with this, or they’re letting it happen,” he said.

In September, TikTok announced a new pilot policy of “mandatory verification for accounts belonging to governments, politicians, and political parties through the midterm elections” in November.

“We plan to introduce our state-controlled media policy and corresponding labels globally next year as part of our continued focus on media literacy,” a spokesperson for TikTok told Forbes.

Chinese company ByteDance owns TikTok, causing suspicion that the company takes orders or signals from the CCP and prompting politicians to call for banning the app across the federal government.

Technology and China researchers have long expressed concerns about China’s election interference via social media content; cybersecurity firm Recorded Future warned ahead of the 2018 midterm elections found Chinese-run accounts “disseminating breaking news and biased content surrounding President Trump and China-related issues.”

CGTN did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

MICAELA BURROW

Reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Congress-created ‘health’ group pushes gender-switching ‘trauma care’ for kids

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The state has no place in the raising of children, except in cases of child abuse when a child might become a ward of the state. But the American government has found its way into your home to assist you in raising your child.

The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) came out in support of attempts to switch children’s genders in a statement titled “Gender-Affirming Care is Trauma-Informed Care.” The organization “was created by Congress in 2000 as part of the Children’s Health Act to raise the standard of care and increase access to services for children and families who experience or witness traumatic events.

Less than two months ago, U.S. President Joe Biden claimed that American states had “no right to restrict treatments like hormone blockers or sex change operations for transgender children.” He called any denial of such treatments “outrageous” and “immoral.” Texas Governor Greg Abbott, on the other hand, signed an order that designated giving children hormone therapy to be child abuse. Biden takes it for granted that a child is capable of determining his or her gender identity, a decision that will affect a child throughout his or her entire life. Such a presumption also strips parents of their rights to raise their children. There is a reason why children need adult care and supervision.

If you are of a Judeo-Christian background and adheres to the Genesis verse about “male and female He created them,” your religious rights are also being encroached upon. It is wrong for the state to meddle in the business of families by using the publicly-funded public school system to teach underage children that they can “choose” their gender. Youngsters are ill-equipped to make sound choices for their longterm best interests, even under the best of circumstances.

Since the NCTSN asserts that “gender affirming care is trauma-informed care,” the message is that if parents oppose “gender-affirming” care, the state can deem them to be subjecting their child to “trauma.” Under this model of “healthcare,” there is no consideration of the power of peer pressure among youth, nor of the natural emotional instability of youth as they transition into adulthood. Congress is tightening its grip upon families, trampling the rights of parents, and rejecting a child’s natural need for sound direction and stability. Given the religion of wokeism, an entire generation is at risk.

Children are being used in a dangerous experiment as pharmaceutical companies sell puberty blockers and psychoactive drugs, and trans clinics sprout up everywhere. In Canada, if all doesn’t go as planned,  when you’re 18 or older, you can qualify for help to kill yourself. An egregious Canadian law has been “sanitized” as a “service” called MAID (Medical Assistance In Dying); the law no longer requires “a person’s natural death to be reasonably foreseeable.” Among criteria to qualify for MAID: the patient must “have enduring and intolerable physical or psychological suffering that cannot be alleviated under conditions the person considers acceptable.” Proponents of the spreading euthanasia death cult put a pretty face on death, convincing victims that they are doing it to help them. A recent ad campaign showed “loved ones waving bubble wands next to the ocean, having picnics in the forest with friends and watching a puppet show.” Although the U.S. is not there yet, doctor-assisted suicide is still legal with conditions in ten US states and the District of Columbia, and given woke trends, it likely will not be long before America catches up to Canada. Now there is debate in Canada about offering MAID to underage kids, even babies if they are suffering from a “defect.” The message: just put them (and their parents) out of their misery.

It’s no secret that there is more psychological pain in the transgender community. These kids need rescuing from the woke system.

Data indicate that 82% of transgender individuals have considered killing themselves and 40% have attempted suicide, with suicidality highest among transgender youth.

What society and mainline churches (which are far too quiet on the issue) did not realize early enough is that there is no limit whatsoever to woke madness, or to the lust for money and power at any expense, including the sacrifice of a nation’s children. The proponents of this madness have no respect for the intrinsic value of human life.

Watch this powerful video from a detransitioner:

Given the natural turbulence of youth, brought on by hormones and an innate process of natural separation from parents as they embark on adulthood, it is dangerous to allow transgender indoctrination in schools. The NCTSN document instructs:

Believe and validate youth when they share their gender identities with you by always using and validating the names, pronouns, and identities that youth share with you, even if those change while they are exploring their identities. Many children are aware of their own gender identity as early as 3-5 years old.

Vulnerable kids are in the grip of a range of “experts,” many of whom (including Dr. Rachel Levine) are deeply troubled themselves and are too quick to attribute the cause of a youngster’s difficulties to gender dysphoria. Kids are being taught that their gender is fluid, and they can be whatever gender they want to be, including more than one (“they”). This is a recipe for emotional and physical trauma, both short term and long term. Children who are susceptible to this indoctrination find other kids who are likewise susceptible, and they encourage one another. These children are indoctrinated and backed by the powerful trans lobby and the state. What better way to make a child feel empowered? But it’s only temporary. The manipulative adults behind all this gloss over the fact that youngsters are ruled by short-term emotions. Indoctrinated trans kids are inevitably cut off from communication with nature’s support system: their parents who love them and are invested in them. Parents are deemed to be abusive adversaries of their own children if they attempt to intervene. These kids are little match for adult, seasoned woke propagandists in the media and the state apparatus.

AUTHOR

CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

EXCLUSIVE: Katie Hobbs’ Office Threatened County Board With Arrest, Indictment If They Didn’t Certify Results

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  • Katie Hobbs’ office threatened Mohave County Supervisors with arrest and prosecution if they failed to certify the results of their elections before the state deadline.
  • Kori Lorick, the State Elections Director and Hobbs’ top deputy, sent multiple emails to the Board warning them of consequences, including the “disenfranchisement of voters.”
  • Mohave was one of several GOP-led counties in Arizona that asked for more time before certifying results to examine election integrity issues.

Democratic Arizona Secretary of State and Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs’ top deputy threatened the Mohave County Board of Supervisors with prosecution if it didn’t certify her election results before a Monday deadline, according to emails and documents reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Arizona State Elections Director Kori Lorick wrote several letters and emails to members of the board, warning them of criminal charges if the refused to certify the results in time. The letters included threats of lawsuits against the members for “nonfeasance,” as well, per the emails.

“The Secretary of State did contact our County and cited A.R.S. Section 16-1010 as a statute that could be used to prosecute [the board] if they did not certify the election,” said Matt Smith, the Mohave County Attorney, to the DCNF. The statute is an Arizona felony statute regarding election officials who “fail to perform their duties” under the law; as a Class 6 felony, upon conviction, it could result in up to two years’ imprisonment.

“The threat of legal action, including personally, came from the Arizona State Elections Director [Kori Lorick],” said the board’s chair-elect, Supervisor Travis Linginfelter. While previous reporting noted that the board’s members were warned of prosecution by their counsel, the board’s members have now stated that the threats came from Lorick, who reports to Hobbs, as well.

“Our office will take all legal action necessary to ensure that Arizona’s voters have their votes counted, including referring the individual supervisors who vote not to certify for criminal enforcement under A.R.S. 16-1010,” Lorick wrote in an email to the board obtained by the DCNF. Governor-elect Hobbs has neither resigned as Secretary of State nor recused herself from election oversight and certification.

Hobbs was elected governor of Arizona on Nov. 8 to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, defeating the Republican candidate Kari Lake, who has now sought to contest the election results. Republicans also lost Arizona’s U.S. Senate race, where Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly defeated Republican investor Blake Masters to win a full six-year term.

Lorick’s threat of prosecution was one of several efforts made by Hobbs’ team to force Mohave County to certify its election results before the Nov. 28 state deadline. Republican members of the board, like in other counties in the state, had sought to hold public hearings regarding the validity of voting machines used in their precincts, over concerns that they were not properly approved by the Secretary of State’s office.

Lorick also sent a letter to the board warning that their voters could be “disenfranchised” if they did not certify by the deadline. The letter, obtained exclusively by the DCNF from Lingenfelter, states that the board “has a non-discretionary duty to canvass the returns of the election,” and that a failure to do so “will only serve to disenfranchise that county’s voters,” mirroring her warnings to other GOP-led counties that their votes “may be excluded” from the final tallies, thereby affecting results.

Mohave County was one of several counties seeking more time to review election integrity issues, though it is the only county whose elected representatives are known to have been threatened with arrest. Cochise County, another GOP-led county in the state that has not certified its results, is currently the subject of a lawsuit by Hobbs’ office, though none of their members have reported criminal prosecution.

The Mohave County board eventually certified the results of the election on Monday, Nov. 28, before the deadline expired, though the threat of individual legal consequences for members may have altered their willingness to delay certification, like Cochise. During the video broadcast of the canvas meeting of the board, Supervisor and Chair Ron Gould mentioned that the actions were “under duress.”

The legislative certification of election results is a routine process that occurs in jurisdictions across the country, with legislators mostly having the ability to raise objections to results during the certification process. The most notable such challenge occurred in the U.S. Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, when Republican lawmakers and supporters of then-President Donald Trump raised objections to returns of Electoral College votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania.

In Pennsylvania, Luzerne County’s Board of Elections has declined to certify the returns of ballots. The county faced widespread paper shortage issues on Election Day and was the subject of a court case, which was covered exclusively by the DCNF.

Unlike Mohave’s board, however, members of Congress are constitutionally protected from arrest for political actions made in session under the “speech and debate clause” of the Constitution, which has analogous provisions in most state constitutions for their legislators. Smith told the DCNF that no such provision exists under Arizona law for the board.

Hobbs’ office did not respond to a request for comment.

AUTHOR

ARJUN SINGH

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Don’t Confuse Trusting the Experts with Knowing the Facts

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If someone were to ask you how you know Australia exists, what would you say? If you haven’t been there yourself, it can be a surprisingly difficult question to answer. You might point to your grade school geography teacher who first told you about the country. “I know it exists because my teacher told me it exists,” you might say. Alternatively, you might mention a friend of yours who has visited the country and can testify to its existence. Finally, you might point out that you’ve consulted an atlas and confirmed that the country does, in fact, appear on the map.

Though each of these justifications may sound compelling, they all lean on a critical linchpin: trust. “Trust me,” your teacher says, “I’ve looked into this.” “Trust me,” your friend says, “I saw it with my own eyes.” “Trust us,” the atlas publishers say, “we’ve consulted the experts.”

To be sure, these are often trustworthy sources, but it’s important to acknowledge that in some fundamental sense you are choosing to believe what others have told you. If you’ve never verified it yourself, you don’t really know Australia exists, you just trust that it exists.

The reason this question is important is that it reveals to us just how much we defer to authority in our thinking. It’s easy to regard ourselves as being incredibly knowledgeable, but if we’re honest, it’s much more that we’re incredibly trusting. We have accepted what “authority” has told us in just about every domain, and with very little pushback.

C.S. Lewis drew attention to this phenomenon in his book Mere Chrstianity. Indeed, the following passage is what inspired the present article.

“Do not be scared by the word authority. Believing things on authority only means believing them because you have been told them by someone you think is trustworthy. Ninety-nine per cent of the things you believe are believed on authority. I believe there is such a place as New York. I have not seen it myself. I could not prove by abstract reasoning that there must be such a place. I believe it because reliable people have told me so. The ordinary man believes in the Solar System, atoms, evolution, and the circulation of the blood on authority — because the scientists say so. Every historical statement in the world is believed on authority. None of us has seen the Norman Conquest or the defeat of the Armada. None of us could prove them by pure logic as you prove a thing in mathematics. We believe them simply because people who did see them have left writings that tell us about them: in fact, on authority. A man who jibbed at authority in other things as some people do in religion would have to be content to know nothing all his life.”

As Lewis points out, there’s nothing wrong with believing things on authority. We do it all the time, and it helps us make our way in the world.

But while there’s nothing inherently wrong with trusting various sources, I’d argue we tend to be a bit too trusting as a culture. We take authorities at their word, even when we probably shouldn’t.

The whole COVID fiasco is surely a great example of this. How much evidence did it take to convince the average person to get the vaccine? Embarrassingly little. People also bought into lockdowns and mask mandates simply because some “experts” said these policies were a good idea.

The climate change issue is another great example of how much we put blind trust in intellectual authorities. Since most of us have no expertise in the matter, we resign ourselves to taking the experts at their word. But it’s ok, we are assured, because “97 percent of climate scientists agree.” Since we know there’s a “consensus” we can trust them, right?

Not so fast. Ask yourself, do you really know there’s a 97 percent consensus? Did you look at the raw data regarding expert’s opinions yourself? If you haven’t, then on this too you are deferring to authority. You are trusting the source of that 97 percent figure. Specifically, you are trusting that the people who came up with that figure aren’t misleading you and that their collection and representation of the data on expert’s views is reasonable, unbiased, accurate, and complete.

Remember, you don’t actually know that 97 percent of climate scientists agree, you trust that 97 percent of climate scientists agree. (As it happens, this figure is more dubious than most people realize).

Again, there’s nothing wrong with trust. But we need to be careful of trusting too easily, because things are not always what they are reported to be.

So how can we avoid trusting too easily? My proposal is that we adopt what I call “citation needed” culture.

As the name implies, the idea here is to create a culture where we habitually demand evidence, especially for contentious ideas. Any time someone makes a claim, your instinctive response should be “citation needed.”

Growing up, we learned to take things at face value, to take the teacher at their word. But this is a bad habit, one we would do well to abandon. Especially as adults, we need to adopt a healthy skepticism and question everything, even the things everyone seems to agree on.

“Citation needed” culture is also about getting as close to the primary source as possible so as to minimize how many people you need to trust. When you get your information from politicians, the chain of trust is likely politicitan-journalist-scientist-data. That’s a lot of opportunity for distortion (intentional or otherwise). If you can, it’s better to go straight to the scientist, or better yet, the raw data itself (assuming you can interpret it).

Another part of “citation needed” culture is intellectual humility. No matter how “obvious” or “self-evident” something seems, if your claim comes down to “I’m trusting an authority” then you probably shouldn’t be too dogmatic about it. This is especially pertinent for heterodox ideas like conspiracy theories. Did the Holodomor happen? I think so, but I haven’t looked into it for myself. I’m trusting the people who have, just as much as I’m trusting the geographers who tell me Australia exists.

The problem is that people often argue dogmatically for claims on the basis that “everyone knows” this is true, or that “experts agree” this is true. But appeals to majority or authority don’t fly in “citation needed” culture. Show me the receipts, and then I’ll believe you.

In addition to the phrase “citation needed,” then, the other phrase that should be a common refrain is “I don’t have enough knowledge to have an informed opinion on this.” It’s far better to admit ignorance than to pretend you know something when you really just heard it on TV.

Murray Rothbard put it well, commenting on the field of economics. “It is no crime to be ignorant of economics,” he said, “which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a ‘dismal science.’ But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.”

The same goes for every other field, whether it be history, climate science, infectious diseases, or geography. Trust authorities to your heart’s content if you like, but beware of confusing trust with knowledge.

AUTHOR

Patrick Carroll

Patrick Carroll has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo and is an Editorial Fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education.

RELATED ARTICLE: McGill’s “fact checker” fails to find critical flaws in Died Suddenly

This article was adapted from an issue of the FEE Daily email newsletter. Click here to sign up and get free-market news and analysis like this in your inbox every weekday.

EDITORS NOTE: This FEE column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Musk Releases Details On How Twitter Censored The Hunter Biden Laptop Story

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This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

Matt Taibbi, contributing editor at Rolling Stone, released what Elon Musk has referred to as “The Twitter Files,” Friday afternoon detailing how the social media platform suppressed a New York Post story regarding a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden.

The NYP story revealed an email — which was verified soon after by the Daily Caller News Foundation — that connected President Joe Biden with an executive at the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, with the executive thanking the president’s son for “giving me an opportunity to meet your father.” Taibbi alleged that former head of legal, policy and trust Viyaja Gadde played a “key role,” in the decision to suppress the story, which was made without the knowledge of then-CEO Jack Dorsey, but without any government involvement.

Taibbi tweeted an email indicating that Twitter’s trust and safety team initially explained to other employees that it made the decision to suppress the story — the company even went so far as to prevent it from being sent in private messages — because it violated Twitter’s policy for sharing “hacked materials.” Taibbi tweeted two additional emails that show Twitter employees discussing posts flagged by the Democratic National Committee and Biden staff, and communication on how to moderate the posts.

Democratic Rep. Khanna of California reached out to Gadde personally after the story was suppressed, concerned that Twitter’s actions were a “violation of the 1st Amendment [sic] principles,” according to Taibbi. Carl Szacbo, general counsel at trade association NetChoice that advocates for limited government intervention online, sent a letter to Twitter’s head of Public Policy, Lauren Culberston, noting that while members from both parties were frustrated with Twitter’s response to the situation, the three Democratic lawmakers they had polled were in agreement that social media companies needed to moderate more, arguing that “the First Amendment isn’t absolute.”

Sharing the NYP story was banned on Twitter from Oct. 14-16, 2020, a move that Twitter’s former head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, described as a mistake in an interview on Nov. 30, 2022. Dozens of former intelligence officials criticized the NYP story in October 2020 as likely linked to Russian disinformation in an open letter, according to Politico; however, the veracity of the laptop’s contents has been confirmed by several major news organizations since the DCNF.

Facebook also prevented users from sharing the story, which alleged that the laptop’s hard drive contained video of Hunter Biden using drugs while engaging in sexual activities.

Months before the NYP story, tapes leaked by Andriy Derkach, a member of Ukraine’s Parliament with connections to Russia’s intelligence, alleged that Joe Biden had pressured the former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fire a prosecutor that was investigating Burisma, where his son was a member of the board, when he was the Vice President.

Twitter did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

JOHN HUGH DEMASTRI

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

War on Parents: Is Disney Learning Pride Goeth Before the Fall?

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Disney is back in the news, this time appearing to eat a small slice of humble pie for leading the charge in the War on Parents.

How sincere or long-lasting Disney’s new tune will be is anybody’s guess, but let me start by saying something I’ve said many times before:  There have always been gay and transgender people.  Nobody should hate them or shoot them up in a nightclub.  But that doesn’t mean I want them in charge of public policy.  I do not want the tail to wag the dog, or for religious liberty to come under assault in a country founded on religious liberty.  If the radical communist-inspired gay political agenda upsets you, roll up your sleeves and get to work – the right way.

Disney went all out in pursuing its self-described “not-so-secret gay agenda” and “adding queerness”, in its own words, to children’s programming.  Which led me to wonder why any parent of young children would invite Disney into their living room.  But this week, returning Disney CEO Bob Iger said it’s “important to listen to an audience. It’s important to have respect for the people you are serving.”  He suggested the company should refrain from getting so involved in politics.

You might recall Disney had publicly condemned Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law aimed at preventing the sexualization of young children in public schools.  Disney went even further and said it would work to repeal the law.  This led to a battle with the state of Florida over the company’s special self-governing status in Orlando.  “I was sorry to see us dragged into that battle,” Iger said this week.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was not impressed with Iger’s comments.  He said the state has no plans to restore Disney’s legal privileges in Orlando.  “They brought this upon themselves,” DeSantis said. “All we did was stand up for what was right.”

You have to wonder if the big flop at the box office of Disney’s “Strange World” – an animated feature film about a gay teen romance – had something to do with Iger’s expression of regrets.  The film could lose as much as $100 million dollars.  The shareholders aren’t gonna like that.

It remains to be seen whether the Magic Kingdom will really listen to them or anybody else.  I have my doubts.  Disney has been pedal-to-the-medal sexualizing children and pursuing the radical gay agenda in recent months:

  • it’s new Christmas TV series features children holding signs saying “We Love You Satan”
  • it bowed to pressure from the Left and started running political and issue ads on its streaming service, Hulu
  • it teamed up with other companies to give grants to college students to make films promoting abortion
  • it funds an advocacy group that is creating propaganda to influence policymakers to advance the LGBTQ agenda in schools
  • it lobbied the Senate to pass the so-called Respect for Marriage Act which, critics say, threatens religious liberty

Disney has a lot of gay and Woke employees.  It’s not clear Iger can make any headway against what is now a very entrenched sick company culture that demands the right to sexualize your children and to have you pay them to do it.  It’s also not clear Iger even wants to.  After all, he’s the guy who said the Florida parental rights bill seemed wrong to him and would harm children.  He also said his stance wasn’t about politics.  I don’t know about you, but I get very nervous when somebody advocates for a left-wing cause and tells me they’re not political.

Will Disney change course?  I’m from Missouri.  Show me.  Meanwhile, keep your money in your wallet.

©Christopher Wright. All rights reserved.

RELATED VIDEO: Disney Backs Down on the Culture War | Critical Race Theory, Drag Queen Story Hour, and More!

Musk Meets With Apple, Averts Ban

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I would imagine that the idea that Musk would launch his own phone and operating system in direct competition with Apple put the fear of G-d into China slave master, Tim Cook.

Wall Street Journal: A potential battle between Apple Inc. and Twitter Inc. appears to have been averted after a meeting between Elon Musk and Tim Cook. Mr. Musk, the new owner of Twitter, said he had met with the Apple chief executive in a set of tweets Wednesday (Wall Street Journal).

Elon Musk: Good conversation. Among other things, we resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store. Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so (Twitter).

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

If You Really Wanted to Destroy the United States…

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Save this column. It should be the script for every elected official who actually wants to save the Republic.

If You Really Wanted to Destroy the United States, Then . . .

It would be hard to imagine any planned agenda to destroy America that would have been as injurious as what we already suffered the last two years.

By Victor Davis Hanson. November 30, 2022

First, you would surrender our prior energy independence.

Reduce new gas and oil leases on federal lands to the lowest levels of any president in history. Cut back production at precisely the time the world is emerging from a two-year lockdown with pent-up consumer demand.

Make war on coal and nuclear power. Drain the strategic petroleum reserve to make the pain for consumers more bearable for midterm election advantage.

Cancel the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil and gas field. Block pipelines like the Keystone oil pipeline and the Constitution natural gas line.

Overregulate and demonize frackers and horizontal drillers. Ensure there is less investment for their exploration and production.

Make use of internal combustion engines or fossil fuel power generation prohibitively expensive. Achieve a green oil-dependency along the lines of contemporary Europe.

Second, print trillions of dollars in new currency as the lockdowns end, demand rises, and consumers are already saturated with COVID-19 subsidies. Keep interest rates low, well below the rate of inflation, as you print more money. Ensure that passbook holders earn no interest at the very time prices skyrocket to the highest per annum level in 40 years.

“Spread the wealth” by sending money to those who already have enough, while making it less valuable for those deemed to have too much. Ensure runaway high prices to wean the middle class off its consumerism and supposedly to inspire them to buy less junk they don’t need. Damn the rich in the open and in the abstract, court them in the concrete and secret of darkness.

Third, end America’s physical boundaries. Render it an amorphous people and anywhere space. End any vestigial difference between a citizen and resident. Up the current nearly 50 million who were not born in the United States —27 percent of California’s population—to 100 million and more by allowing 3 million illegal aliens to enter per year.

Fourth, destroy the public trust in its elections. Render Election Day irrelevant. Make proper auditing of 110 million mail-in/early ballots impossible. Normalize ballot harvesting and curing.

Urge leftist billionaires to infuse their riches to “absorb” the work of state registrars in key precincts to ensure the correct “turn-out.”

Blast as “election denialists,” “insurrectionists,” and “democracy destroyers” anyone who objects to these radical ballot changes, neither passed by the U.S. Congress nor by state legislators. Weaponize the FBI, CIA, and Department of Justice.

Fifth, redefine crime as one rich man’s crime, another poor man’s necessity.

Let those who need “things” exercise their entitlement to them. Rewrite or ignore laws to exempt the oppressed who take, or do, what they want as atonement for past systemic racism and oppression.

Six, junk the ossified idea of a melting pot and multiracial society united by common American values and ideals. Instead, identify individuals by their superficial appearance. Seek to be a victim and monetize your claims against perceived victimizers. Call anyone a “racist” who resists.

Encourage each tribe, defined by common race, ethnic, gender, or sexual orientation affinities, to band together to oppose the monolithic “white privilege” majority. Encourage social and tribal tensions. Racially discriminate to end discrimination.

Greenlight statue toppling, name changing, boycotting, cancel culturing, ostracizing, and Trotskyizing. Erase the past, control the present, and create a new American person for the future.

Seven, render the United States just one of many nations abroad. Abandon Afghanistan in shame. Leave behind thousands of loyal Afghan allies, billions of dollars in equipment, a billion-dollar embassy, and the largest air base in central Asia. Appease the theocracy to reenter the Iran nuclear deal.

Beg enemies like Venezuela, Russia, and Iran to pump more oil when it is politically expedient for us to have abundant supplies—oil that we have in abundance but won’t produce. Discourage friends like Guinea from producing more energy and cancel allies’ energy projects like the EastMed pipeline.

Trash but then beg Saudi Arabia to pump more oil right before the midterms for domestic political advantage.

Eight, neuter the First Amendment. Enlist Silicon Valley monopolies to silence unwanted free speech while using Big Tech’s mega profits to warp elections. Declare free expression “hate speech.” Criminalize contrarian social media.

Nine, demonize half the country as semi-fascists, un-Americans, insurrectionists, and even potential domestic terrorists. Try to change inconvenient ancient rules: seek to pack the court, end the filibuster, junk the Electoral College, and bring in two more states.

Twice impeach a president who tried to stand in your way. Try him when he is an emeritus president and private citizen. Raid his home. Seek to indict a future rival to the current president.

Ten, never mention the origins of the COVID virus. Never blame China for the release of SARS-CoV-2 virus. Exempt investigations of U.S. health officials who subsidized Chinese gain-of-function research. Ignore the Bill of Rights to mandate vaccinations, mask wearing, and quarantines.

We have done all of the above. It would be hard to imagine any planned agenda to destroy America that would have been as injurious as what we already suffered the last two years.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

Air marshals warn that Biden’s handlers are ‘demolishing our chances to stop another 9/11’

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Are Biden’s handlers criminally incompetent, or do they actually want to bring disaster and ruin upon the United States?

Air marshals sound alarm about being sent to border: ‘Demolishing our chances to stop another 9/11

by Elizabeth Heckman, Fox News, November 28, 2022:

The executive director of the Air Marshal National Council delivered a clear message to the Biden administration Monday, warning that air travel is becoming less safe as marshals are diverted to the border.

Sonia Labosco joined “Fox & Friends First” to call on the Biden administration to stop sending air marshals to the southern border and return them to their duties patrolling commercial flights.

“We have been decimated. We have been depleted. We’re on less than 1% of flights. These ground-based duties that they’re pulling us out of the sky to go to the border are just demolishing our chances at stopping another 9/11.”

Labosco said Americans will suffer because many believe they’re safe in the presence of a trained air marshal, but “they’re just simply not.”

Labosco said marshals feel “torn” about being at the southern border while not doing the job they were trained to do.

“They have a humanitarian heart. We empathize with what’s happening at the border as human beings. However, it does not take away the responsibility or the oath that we have as air marshals to protect our aviation domain.”

Labosco said she has not heard back from the Biden administration after voicing concerns over recent safety risks on flights.

“We actually wrote him another letter over the weekend because we had a level four and a level three incident. Level four means that they tried to breach the cockpit. Level three, we had two of those, which means there were life-threatening behaviors on one of those aircraft. An individual had a straight razor to a passenger’s throat. So these are very serious incidents.”

The Air Marshal National Council is “calling on the president and DHS Secretary Mayorkas, to please stop this deployment of air marshals from the aircraft and reallocating them to the border,” said Labosco….

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

EXCLUSIVE: Tara Reade Calls GOP-Majority House To Investigate Alleged Sexual Assault By Joe Biden

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Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include a statement from Reade regarding her work with RT

Former Senate aide Tara Reade called on House Republicans to launch an investigation into allegations that she was sexually assaulted by then-Sen. Joe Biden in 1993, telling the Daily Caller that she would be willing to testify under oath.

“It would be a very different thing, if I could testify under oath,” Reade told the Caller, adding that she would “provide whatever information [Congress] needed and [Congress] could ask me whatever questions they wanted.”

“I think we need to have the conversation, instead of me being erased, and other women that were erased that tried to come forward,” Reade added, saying that House Republicans should launch an investigation while they have a majority.

Reade alleged that Biden sexually assaulted her in a Senate corridor in 1993 by pinging her against a wall and reaching under her clothing before sexually violating her. She said she filed a police report in 2020 about the incident, and that no thorough investigation has ever taken place.

Interns and others that worked alongside Reade in Biden’s Senate office denied knowing that any sexual misconduct took place between Reade and Biden, the New York Times reported in 2020, citing interviews with the former staffers. She could also not remember some details about the incident, including the exact time, date and location, according to the outlet.

Biden’s staffers who worked with Reade at the time, including aide Dennis Toner, chief of staff Ted Kaufman and executive assistant Marianne Baker, all denied that Reade came forward to them about the alleged sexual assault.

Toner and Kaufman told NPR in 2020 that they did not remember Reade and that she did not come to them about the allegations. Congressional records show that she worked for Biden for approximately nine months.

Baker issued a statement saying, “In all my years working for Senator Biden, I never once witnessed, or heard of, or received, any reports of inappropriate conduct, period — not from Ms. Reade, not from anyone. I have absolutely no knowledge or memory of Ms. Reade’s accounting of events, which would have left a searing impression on me as a woman professional, and as a manager. These clearly false allegations are in complete contradiction to both the inner workings of our Senate office and to the man I know and worked so closely with for almost two decades,” NPR reported.

If the Senate staff that served under Biden “had to go under oath, I think they would have to admit something very different,” Reade said.

“He would put his fingers underneath the back of my neck, underneath my hair, and then run his finger up and down,” Reade said. He would “massage my shoulders, and touch me. It was just weird,” she added, noting this happened before the incident in the hallway.

Spokespeople for Biden have repeatedly denied the allegations.

The White House did not respond to the Daily Caller at the time of publication about the allegations and whether Biden would be willing to testify under oath.

Reade claims her mother called into “Larry King Live” in August of 1993 and asked host Larry King what her daughter could do other than go to the press with “problems” she encountered after working for a “prominent Senator.”

Audio shows that a woman did call in to the show at the time, and Reade has claimed that the woman on the line is her mother.

“I’m wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in Washington? My daughter has just left there, after working for a prominent senator, and could not get through with her problems at all, and the only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him,” Reade’s mother allegedly said.

King responded, “in other words, she had a story to tell but, out of respect for the person she worked for, she didn’t tell it?”

“That’s true,” Reade’s mother allegedly said.

Reade’s friend said that she told her about the alleged assault at the time, and another friend and Reade’s brother have said that Reade informed them of the alleged assault over the years, The New York Times reported.

Reade told the Caller she filed a sexual harassment report through the Senate in 1993, and that the report was filed on paper. If the paper still exists, it would be sealed with Biden’s papers at the University of Delaware, Reade added.

She continued that when she brought her complaints to her superiors, she was “threatened” and ultimately dismissed from her duties.

One of the press secretary’s staff at the time told Reade, “we’ll f***ing destroy you, if you go forward,” Reade told the Caller.

The intimidation and trauma led Reade to not come forward for years, she said.

“I was 28-years-old, it was scary to hear at the time. It was at the beginning of my political career, and it kind of shut me up,” Reade continued.

House Republicans have announced that they are launching an investigation into Biden, alleging that the president was “involved” in his son Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings.

Republican Kentucky Rep. James Comer, a ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, did not provide comment on Reade’s request.

Biden supporters have used a 2020 probe into Reade allegedly providing a false statement under oath in an attempt to discredit her.

South Bay, California, defense attorneys investigated whether Reade had falsely described her education credentials under oath. A spokesperson for her undergraduate college provided a statement to CNN saying she never graduated, according to the Intercept.

The probe was concluded and no charges were filed, according to the Intercept, and Reade has sent letters to several publications demanding that their claims about her alleged false claims be clarified.

Reade’s critics have also accused her of working with the Russian government, citing her four op-eds published in the Russian government publication RT.
Reade told the Caller, “no Russians were there in 1993 when Joe Biden sexually assaulted me. No Russians were there when Biden team threatened me, used their power and resources to try to silence  me. My political opinions about Russia are simply not relevant to what happened.”
“I was proud of the handful of op-eds that were published. I tried to have one published in the New York Times but it was rejected. Bottom line, I was Joe Biden’s full time staffer in 1993 when he sexually harassed and assaulted me. Any other conversation about what I thought or even who I worked with now is irrelevant to the crime he committed in 1993 and as to why Biden has never even been investigated,” she added.

AUTHOR

DIANA GLEBOVA

White House correspondent.

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

After the ‘Respect for Marriage Act’, will the U.S. follow Spain down the ‘disrespect for marriage’ rabbit hole?

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Spain is on the way to recognising 16 types of families, none of them the traditional nuclear family.

The Respect for Marriage Act has sailed through the US Senate, amidst great jubilation. Twelve Republicans, including former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, voted with Democrats to pass the legislation by a vote of 61-36. Now it goes to the lame-duck House of Representatives, where it is certain to pass.

This will be one of President Joe Biden’s signature achievements. The Act will basically codify Obergefell v Hodges, the US Supreme Court decision which legalised same sex marriage. If SCOTUS happens to overturn Obergefell, as many people fear, same sex marriage will still be safe.

The President tweeted that: “our nation is on the brink of reaffirming a fundamental truth: love is love.”

New York Senator Chuck Schumer, whose daughter is a married lesbian, tweeted: “the Senate has sent a message to Americans everywhere: No matter who you are or who you love, you deserve dignity and equal treatment under the law.”

Heart-warming sentiments, these. What lies ahead for same-sex marriage now that the US Congress is about to codify “love is love”?

The Senators who voted against the Respect for Marriage Act warn that it will be used to strip religious institutions of their tax-exempt status. Texas Senator Ted Cruz commented that “Not only does the so-called Respect for Marriage Act open the door for a weaponized IRS to target religious non-profits, but it will start a race to the bottom, forcing the most extreme marriage laws from any state onto every other state.”

In a speech to the Senate Utah Senator Mike Lee reminded his colleagues that the possibility of a conflict with religious freedom was also predicted in the oral arguments before SCOTUS:

Justice Alito asked whether, should states be required to recognize same-sex marriages, religious universities could lose their tax-exempt status. His response, the response from [then] Solicitor General Verrilli was chilling. He said, quote, “It’s certainly going to be an issue. I don’t deny that. I don’t deny that, Justice Alito. It’s going to be an issue.” …

But if you want to look even further ahead, consider Spain, which legalised same-sex marriage in 2005, ten years before Obergefell v Hodges. After almost two decades of experience, it is moving on to bigger and better things. The government there is a left-wing coalition and the Minister of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda, Ione Belarra, belongs to Podemos, a party at the extreme left of the left-wing.

Next week she will present a draft of a new law on families to the Spanish Parliament. This lists 16 kinds of families, according to an exclusive in the ABC newspaper.

The bill’s explanatory memorandum states: “The family no longer exists, only families, in the plural, exist”. Based on rulings by Spain’s Constitutional Court, it declares that “the concept of family is not limited to those of matrimonial origin”.

Accordingly, the Minister says that Spain must give full legal recognition to this array of families and to protect and support them with government services.

Here is the list:

  • Two-parent families
  • Single mother or single father families
  • Young families
  • LGBTI families
  • Families in need of support
  • Multiple families
  • Blended families
  • Immigrant families
  • Transnational families
  • Intercultural families
  • Families living abroad
  • Families returned from aboard
  • Vulnerable families
  • Married couples
  • Defacto couples
  • Single-person families

The linguistic and legal creativity is astonishing. What’s notable about the list is that none of the 16 categories corresponds to the traditional definition of family: a married woman and a man and, if they exist, their children.

In Minister Belarra’s narrative, two-parent families (familia biparental) include married couples and defacto couples and could even squeeze in gay and lesbian couples. Married couples (personas unidas en matrimonio) include heterosexual and homosexual couples. She has even created new words to describe gay and lesbian couples (familia LGTBI homomarental y homoparental).

Clearly Belarra’s aim is to create a blizzard of labels in which the nuclear family disappears from view. It will no longer have a privileged place in Spanish law or a special claim on government services.

Furthermore, Spanish schoolchildren will be catechised in the new order of things. According to the draft bill, “family diversity is a principle of the educational system”. The list of family types must be included in textbooks and in the syllabus for trainee teachers.

What if parents object?

They can’t.

The bill specifically states that “parents or responsible adults may not limit or impede the access of children and adolescents to information and their participation in activities to raise awareness and disseminate family diversity that take place within the educational framework, in order to avoid restricting their rights to education and the free development of their personality”.

Spain is a country where politicians like Ione Belarra are unafraid of defending and imposing loopy laws. Once in power, opposition energizes them and fills them with righteous conviction. Whether or not her proposals succeed completely, it is clear that the nuclear family in Spain is in the sights of a very large LGBTQI cannon.

In the near term, the Spanish experience will not easily transfer to the United States, which has a federal system of government and a larger and more intellectually diverse population.

However, it’s a clear warning of what lies ahead. If American courts and legislatures can redefine marriage to include gay and lesbian couples, why can’t they include polyamory or polygamy?

Or still worse, redefine marriage to include so many relationships that it means nothing at all?

AUTHOR

Michael Cook

Michael Cook is the editor of MercatorNet. He lives in Sydney, Australia. More by Michael Cook.

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EDITORS NOTE: This MercatorNet column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

From 8,000,000,000 to Zero

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David Warren: The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement is a thing. Who’d have guessed progressive modernity would be humanity’s end? 

The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement is officially a thing, I learn from the usual reliable media sources. Its founder, Les Knight, advocates intelligent non-breeding.

While most World. Economic Forum and environmental crusaders only want the world’s population to be reduced by seven billion or so, Mr. Knight would like to eliminate the whole amount.

Like many other progressive people, he likes to flatter the young for their intelligence and wisdom. By coincidence, they are also our largest potential breeding group. Mr. Knight’s TV presentation (on Fox this week) goes like this:

“My plan is for everyone to think before they procreate, and if people really think about it, think it all the way through, and have the wherewithal not to procreate, which is a really big problem all over the planet. . .44 percent of young people are saying ‘no I don’t think I wanna do that.’”

“Just because they’ve thought about it.”

Now, I doubt that 44 percent of the young have come to this decision, formally, but they seem to be not breeding, and thus giving encouragement to the extinguishers.

Elsewhere in demographic trends: the world’s population is reported to have hit eight billion. If this is true, the counters predict nine, and perhaps ten, then an accelerating drop. For the world seems to favor extinction, and in the absence of sufficient babies, the live population is aging very fast. This is happening even in remote villages.

Grand United Nations plans for sustainable development, family planning, and decarbonization, are the largest international bureaucracies devoted to the goal of population elimination. But what if people resumed having babies? Would that not change everything?

While men can have babies, according to progressive belief, I wonder if they will when their average age passes seventy. Whether women, once they have attained this average age, will also be getting pregnant, I have no opinion. I have learned not to comment on the female body.

For the next generation or so, the population will rise from cumulative habit, but then it will begin crashing – almost everywhere.

Through the decades that I have been following the numbers (as a journalist, not a scientist), I have noticed that the more authoritative ones go consistently over the top, exaggerating the speed of population growth. They are also inclined to overestimate the current population, thanks, I think, to political and ethnic pressures to drive the numbers, usually up.

Indonesia and Red China are, I would guess, two of the most guilty of this. The Chinese have quietly conceded that 100 million of their citizens don’t exist. The Indonesians have tried to reduce the proportion of Christians, Buddhists, and others, in the gentlest possible way, by creating millions of imaginary Muslims. Indeed, I am skeptical of the size of the Muslim population overall, and this makes me less alarmed about Islamization.

On the other hand, the population of Africa may be going up quicker, as the number-crunchers are beginning to admit. It is not that the Africans are more fecund, exactly, but that they instinctively form families. They have a greater resistance to modernity, and while the international population may soon stagnate, it will then grow in Africa as it shrinks everywhere.

The future of the human race may thus be “out of Africa,” just as it was (supposedly) in distant antiquity.

So this is, arguably, the best news for the survival of homo sapiens sapiens. Only we, the non-Africans, are likely to disappear, leaving the whole planet free for any African excess.

Elsewhere, the reasons for decline are not, over-simply, the declining need for children to support us in old age. This cliche has satisfied the curiosity of social scientists for too long. The reality is a complex of associations with increasing wealth, and technological improvements.

Common attitudes have become less and less religious, and people cease to be impressed by old-fashioned moral certainties. They have decided to afford not only material goods, but spiritual luxuries. Today, they can believe what they want, instead of having to limit themselves to the plausible.

With increasing per capita wealth (universally) comes increasing arrogance, pride, and smugness; spoilt children, narcissism, and so on: all the spiritual markers of modernity. This cannot be precisely measured, however – statistics are useless for intangibles, and so they aren’t even gathered.

The result can however be verified. Fewer children are proportionally hatched, and then fewer in each subsequent generation.

Not just the tiny flat Maldive Islands may disappear beneath the waves as a consequence of global warming. Vast Japan will become so many uninhabited mountains; though sufficiently tall to keep sticking out of the water.

Population decline is already advancing in other rich, over-developed nations. And where the population is still growing, in places like Canada, Germany, or the United States, it is because governments encourage immigrants to settle in numbers sufficient to pay the pensions of our retired. This is, in effect, the latest form of slavery.

Yet it makes perfect sense, in the longer term, because as the immigrant streams dry up, the pensioners will also have dessicated. Not since the dinosaurs have we had such a die-off.

Were it not for Ukraine, I might think we had already reached the point where we couldn’t have wars anymore. There are recruitment issues in all the world’s great armies. But Mr. Knight can be pleased that euthanasia, suicide, and drug deaths are flourishing, especially among young males, now that they are no longer needed as soldiers.

Extinction follows from minute, but aggregate, changes in perception. Previously, for the majority, the desire to live was even larger than the desire to conserve coal or diamonds. Surprisingly, we didn’t need reasons to persist. Typically, we tried to live as long as possible. God, too, was generally perceived to be alive, and “an influencer” in human life.

Who’d have guessed that progressive modernity would be our extinction event?

You may also enjoy some of our most popular columns from the last dozen years:

Howard Kainz’s How It all Ends: Muslim and Christian Versions

Francis J. Beckwith’s Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God?

AUTHOR

David Warren

David Warren is a former editor of the Idler magazine and columnist in Canadian newspapers. He has extensive experience in the Near and Far East. His blog, Essays in Idleness, is now to be found at: davidwarrenonline.com.

EDITORS NOTE: This The Catholic Thing column is republished with permission. © 2022 The Catholic Thing. All rights reserved. For reprint rights, write to: info@frinstitute.org. The Catholic Thing is a forum for intelligent Catholic commentary. Opinions expressed by writers are solely their own.

What is immediately needed from the Biden admin to aid the Chinese protesters?

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After over two years enduring life under Xi Jinping’s “zero-COVID” policy, a viral video of screaming residents in a burning apartment building in Urumqi, Xinjiang, and the ensuing outrage have been enough to ignite the pent up fury of the Chinese populace.

According to many accounts, more than the officially reported casualty total of 10 victims died in the fire because residents were trapped in their homes as the fire raged due to their doors being locked from the outside during more than three months of lockdown.

This horrific outcome of the “zero-COVID” policy has caused subsequent protests in Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Wuhan, and other cities calling for Xi and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to step down. The broad display of the Chinese regime’s flag, the singing of the national anthem, and the display of blank sheets of white paper are symbols of protest against the regime.

The protesters are heroically brave and bold as they incur great risks. The police presence, CCTV, omnipresent recognition software, and tracking techniques increase the risk of being identified even if they seek anonymity. This risk will remain for many months to come. A lesson from the CCP’s history is instructive. One of Mao Zedong’s comments regarding the intent of the “Hundred Flowers” campaign briefly allowing some criticism of the CCP was to “lead the snake from the hole.” That is, to allow critics to reveal themselves and thus face annihilation when the inevitable crackdown occurred. This time will be no different as the protesters will not overthrow the Chinese regime, and leaders will be identified and heavily punished.

The CCP is determined to remain in power and employ all of its tools, the surveillance state, the police and intelligence services, and finally, as with the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) units to hold onto power. Given the power imbalance between the protesters and the regime, they will lose if there is no international pressure to shield them.

Lamentably, recognizing that the Biden administration is not supporting them as U.S. power can, the protesters are under terrific strain and will be disciplined by the regime. In sum, what is happening in China is a humanitarian disaster and gross human rights abuse that should compel the world’s attention.

Acknowledging this reality, there remains much that the Biden administration must do to assist as well as to make the regime pay a greater price for what already has occurred and the inevitable crackdown. While the administration’s response so far is a failure in every respect, it must respond appropriately as the protesters and their global supporters look to the United States for leadership. The United States is engaged in intense security competition with the Chinese regime, and the administration must respond accordingly. Five major points are salient.

First, ideological warfare is a key aspect of this cold war, and these protests are a rare opportunity to draw contrasts between the Chinese regime and the West. The Biden administration must find its footing and lead. It must call attention to the stark brutality of the CCP. There are three elements of an immediate response. The first is that these actions underscore what has been evident since 1949: the CCP regime is not legitimate. This message must be advanced consistently. Second, Xi’s public diplomacy and soft power efforts, including the CCP’s effort to build a “common destiny for all mankind,” has been destroyed by the protests. Any future that the Chinese regime creates will be dystopian. But it falls to the United States and its allies to employ the chasm of the regime’s propaganda and the harsh reality. Third, the gruesome fire in Urumqi and the subsequent protests should be immortalized just as were the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, the Solidarity Movement in Poland in the early 1980s, the 1956 Hungarian rebellion, or the 17th of June 1953 uprising against the Soviets and East German regime during the Cold War.

Second, Washington must immediately pressure Beijing with a presidential address to shield as many protesters as possible. The Biden administration must demand that the protesters’ civil rights will be protected and that there must not be mass suppression or another Tiananmen Square massacre. The effectiveness of the CCP’s surveillance and oppression makes another Tiananmen unlikely. In fact, the regime will likely enforce a “silent Tiananmen,” eliminating the leaders and most active protesters through digital as well as traditional means of punishment.

Third, the Urumqi tragedy and subsequent protests are an opportunity to expose to the world—including U.S. audiences on Wall Street and Silicon Valley, as well as all those who have profited from trade with China—the poisonous fruits of their cooperation and engagement with Chinese entities. This cooperation and engagement have only made the CCP stronger and better able to tighten its hold on the Chinese people.

Fourth, the protests reveal that there are effective civil society and popular movements in China, and they can challenge the regime. They must be supported publicly by the United States and other governments, but with technologies that permit these groups to communicate and penetrate China’s “great firewall” to access the open internet. In a particularly damning event, the fact that Apple modified its AirDrop file-sharing software for its phones in China consequently hindered the protesters to Apple’s everlasting shame. Rather than yielding, Western governments should use this opportunity to encourage advancing technologies that allow Chinese citizens unfettered access to the internet to build civil society within China.

Fifth, Western governments may seize this opportunity to collaborate more closely with human rights organizations and international committees like the Nobel Committee, and the Chinese diaspora to advance human rights within China. This cooperation should yield results in official documents and bilateral and multilateral meetings, as with the G-20. Moreover, the Biden administration should create a focal point, a human rights czar for China that would be useful to support the human rights of the protesters and all of China’s citizens.

At this moment in history, the free world is standing on the shoulders of the protesters. Bold action is needed from the Biden administration to combat the Chinese regime. The protests provide the opportunity to enlist the great capabilities of the Chinese people and the West to work together to cause the downfall of the CCP.

Originally published by The Epoch Times

AUTHOR

Bradley Thayer

Bradley A. Thayer is Director of China Policy at the Center for Security Policy.  He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.  He is a widely published author in a broad range of U.S. national security concerns, including the causes and consequences of China’s rise and its adverse implications for the U.S., its allies, and the other states in international politics; U.S., European, and Chinese grand strategies; the history of Chinese and Western strategic thought; China’s use of force; the origin, development, and rule of the Chinese Communist Party; the history of Communist thought and its evolution from Marx and Engels, through Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Gramsci, the Frankfurt School and critical theory to today; United States national security policy; nuclear deterrence; cyber warfare and deterrence; nuclear proliferation; terrorism; Arctic security; and NATO and transatlantic relations.  His most recent books are the coauthored Understanding the China Threat and the coauthored How China Sees the World:  Han-Centrism and the Balance of Power in International Politics.

EDITORS NOTE: This Center for Security Policy column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Who is Intentionally Destroying America and the World?

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It is a dangerous time! We are dealing with Evil and nobody knows it. What a tragedy! There are lots of political discussions and arguments on radio/TV and internet, but no one knows the real enemy. As a former soviet attorney, I was writing and exposing our aggressive foe for forty years, but the Evil is multiplying every day and has already infiltrated our security agencies, morality, and democratic institutions.

To stop me, the FBI unlawfully submitted my name to the FISA Court and the Court made me a Foreign Agent in 2002.

Consequently my books and columns have been sabotaged and banned, preventing you from reading them… I don’t trust either the FBI or CIA and nothing could intimidate and threaten me…

Yes, there are a lot of dealings to uncover, expose, and investigate in America, but without knowledge of Russia and its KGB’s Mafia/Army it is impossible. Like the recent quadruple murders of the student in Idaho, I knew the source of Evil immediately. The police and the FBI have no idea where to go for the solution. The name of the city Moscow doesn’t tell them anything. There are other indications of the Evil-culprit unknown to them. When I saw the photo of the knife, the recent mutilation of animals jumped in my mind instantly. The FBI and police will fail, until they read my books or columns for free. Knowledge is Power!

Friends, we are continuing dealing with the Dems’ lying thugs’ collusion with the KGB, known to you during the last seven years in America. We now have less than two years to expose them for what they really are. This is our last chance to prevent a rout of the Republican Party and the downfall of the American Constitutional Republic. The Dem help their partner, the KGB’s Mafia/Army to infiltrate our entire society and its democratic institutions. All troubles in America and the world derived from the same source and Joe Biden’s connection to it. In fact, Joe Biden and the Dem Party are the center of all our troubles. The time is now to open the eyes of the American public and the world to show how Commander-in-Chief with dementia let his staff—holdovers from Obama manage his presidency. Details are in my books and columns, read them for free.

Mini/Madoff, Sam/Crypto-creep, FTX are also Socialist lying thugs like George Soros, Bernie Sanders and Bill Clinton, they all run by the KGB’s Mafia/Army, the old Soviet agency of Mind Control and Censorship. Find in the internet the picture of three: Tony Blair, Bill Clinton and Sam/Crypto-creep sitting on the same bench—there is an embodiment of the 20th century fraud transition to the 21st century. The investigation of the Dem’s fraud and the absence of accountability will confirm my writings and exposure of the source—Putin’s Russia and the KGB’s Mafia/Army. Moreover, the Dem’s closeness and intimacy with the partner, provided them the knowledge of how the “operation disinformation” works. They use it to mislead America. For this reason, I am repeating endlessly Socialist modus operandi: lies, deception, fabrication, and fraud. Woke is a fraud, its real name Sovietization of America.  Read The Russian Factor, XLIBRIS, 2006.

The KGB’s Mafia/Army Runs America and the World

Experiencing some disappointments with the midterm election, the GOP asked people to provide a personal opinion about that. Hence my proposal for the GOP is as follows: First, the Impeachment of Alejandro N. Majorca’s has no sense and brings no solution. The man responsible for the open borders policy is Chief executive with dementia, who runs by the staff. The Founding Fathers left to us the only solution for the case—The 25th Amendment. We must be decisive, proactive and implement the law. The dementia and Biden’s lies start catching up with him and will open a Pandora Box of the KGB’s foreign involvements. Watch the Dem leaders Obama, Schumer, Kirby, and Biden: they are using the Russian policy of “Disinformation.” America and the world have become their victims!

Watch how they use Stalinist Political Correctness, which is a linguistic ploy to deceive you. Schumer praised the policy of open borders saying: We need people to work and immigration provides us with those people. He is using Stalinist PC—we are dealing with illegal migrants from 180 countries, not with legal immigration! Working within the Soviet legal community, through my friends, I knew pretty well the KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov 1967-1982. As Stalin’s devoted disciple, he designed the simultaneous infiltration by the KGB into the American media and Security Apparatus. I heard about that design in the 1960-1970s I did not believe it. I have never thought about witnessing that alive in America. I did. Read my book The Russian Factor: From Cold War to Global Terrorism, XLIBRIS, 2006

The investigation of the Crypto-King will present the KGB’s ties with two Dems sitting on the bench with him: Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. They and the KGB were demolishing America in the 20th century, but our Security Apparatus knows neither Russia nor the KGB’s Mafia/Army and this is the result of current crises. We will pay a dear price in the future. Communist China continues this relay race from Russia in the 21st century. The TikTok is the continuation of a more deep infiltration of the KGB’s Mafia/Army in the 20th century, which is now destroying the American Constitutional republic from within. Russia and China are the tandem covertly working against America and Western civilization for the last hundred years. People of the world know that a new Republican leadership is going to start deep investigations of the corrupt Swamp. Don’t be surprised by the bravery of the Chinese protesters, they have hope for the new Republican leadership…

Look at the unprecedented anti-lockdown protest in China today. It will definitely be a brutal, violent crackdown by the Communist totalitarian regime, like it was in the 20th century Russia. Remember, Stalin has established two identical security apparatus in Russia and China. The massive protests in China can delay the Communist planned invasion of Tavian. It can be even worse: the brave protesters calling for “Down with Xi” and “Zero Covid.” Those are the signs of instability and future bloodshed by the regime. The U.S. President Joe Biden is missing in action! Joe was silent on Hon-Hong and many other Communist aggressive actions. Watch and analyze Biden’s Covid policy in America. Don’t you see some similarities with Chinese ones?

If you haven’t read my books or columns, you don’t know many important events, dealings, and occasions. I have been following Joe Biden since 2013-2014, when Obama appointed him a point man for Ukraine. Biden didn’t hide his ideology and openly collaborated with Vladimir Putin. His interview called quid-pro-quo was on TV many times. Biden threatened not to give $Billion to Ukraine unless the prosecutor investigating Hunter’s case is fired. Old and corrupt pro-Russian Ukrainian gov. had fired the prosecutor. We saw a collaboration between Putin/Biden against the young democratic Ukraine. Then, Biden was a part of a criminal cabal, weaponized by the FBI and CIA, investigating Trump for seven years. A cabal was run by three Presidents: Clinton, Obama, and Putin. This cabal runs Biden’s administration today—it is Joe Biden’s case to investigate, not Hunter’s case.

In this connection, I have to remind you that Vladimir Putin had played a very substantial role then and continued to participate closely with Biden now through the cabal and the “Axis of Evil.” Those are the countries fighting Western civilization for the last 7-8 decades under the Russian umbrella. They are North Korea, China, Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, and so on. Don’t be surprised that some of them reminded us of their existence like Stalinist North Korea, China, and Venezuela. Russia’s fraud also played a role in all our elections. Like linguistic propaganda and “operation disinformation” Putin’s KGB Mafia/Army had introduced to Dems the “criminal voting operations.” I gave you an example of a “fraudulent voting operation” in Russia in my book. That exact operation was executed by the Dems in America. They needed only chaos and several weeks to implement fraud using the chaos.

Returning to the GOP suggestion. The second step for the House is the process of Impeachment against the Border Czar—Kamala Harris, appointed by Commander-in-Chief. This is the crime of the century, infiltration of 4-5 million of illegal migrants to America—a total chaos and humanitarian crisis on a massive scale for thousands of victims, adults and children. This is a result of the long-term Democrats collusion with Putin’s Cartels in Mexico—coordinated by the Russian Intel. Yes, Putin’s KGB Mafia/Army in Mexico and Central America have been developed by Stalin in the 1950-1960th. You can read the details in my books and columns. This illegal migration costs us trillions! Moreover, current illegal migration will produce another attack of 9/11 in America…

Lauren Boebert is right: “The Swamp continues their disgusting and corrupt behavior without any regard for ethics.” She had never lived under Soviet Socialism and doesn’t know that we are in the transition period from Capitalism to Socialism started by Bill Clinton. The KGB’ Mafia/Army together with America’s Socialist Party have very successfully transformed our Constitutional republic to Socialism for the last three decades. The GOP leaders had not learned anything during that time, they continued informing the public openly about their plans, giving Socialist lying thugs the opportunity to maneuver within their ploys.

Look at the Biden’s recent maneuvers with the oil from Venezuela and the loyalty with the Railroad Union. Both have connections and the elements of Socialism and both have been infiltrated by the KGB’s Mafia/Army in the 20th century. Potential Rail strikes can cost $2 billion per day. It is definitely a threat to consumers, especially in the Christmas Season. I don’t know how it will play out, but I know that all those activities are deliberately coordinated to divert your attention from indoctrinated children, public safety, raising crime, inflation, and the price of gas. All listed issues are the features of building Socialism in America and demolishing the American Constitutional Republic. The main culprits of all of that is the Putin KGB’s Mafia/Army and a so-called Democrat Party!

Is there any strategic reason to deal with Venezuela? No. There is only a political reason—Socialism. Dem’s agenda is a big green scam to build Socialism and the policy of “climate change” its bases for it. Do you know why Joe Biden killed our energy independence? The answer is simple: to use the policy of “climate change” to build Socialism. To learn who invented that policy and why, just read my book: What is Happening to America? The Hidden Truth of Global Destruction Part III, published October 2022.

Seventy years ago, Comrade Stalin predicted America’s future: “America is like a healthy body and its resistance is Threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual Life. If you can undermine these three areas, America will Collapse from within.” — Joseph Stalin.  As a child of Stalinism, I confirm: those words belong to Comrade Stalin. I have heard him speak many times and read all his articles and books. Those words have been spoken by Stalin. After reading this column, please, look around our beloved America the Beautiful. Don’t have a heart attack, but learn about our foremost enemy—Russia. Learn the truth to save our unique and brilliant political system, designed and left to us by our Founding Fathers…

To be continued www.simonapipko.com and at www.drrichswier.com/author/spipko/

©Simona Pipko. All rights reserved.

Elon Musk Releases Twitter Transparency Reports Detailing Account Bans and Speech Suppression

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Since January 2020, over 11 million accounts were challenged for violating the COVID-19 information policy, 11,230 accounts were suspended, and 97,674 pieces of content.

Geller Report and Pamela Geller are still banned.

Elon Musk: The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself. The public deserves to know what really happened (Twitter).

Twitter’s First Transparency Reports Are Here and They’re Eye-Opening

By: Julio Rosas  |  November 29, 2022:

Twitter has published its first set of transparency reports about how the site had operated prior to multi-billionaire Elon Musk taking over the company. Among the reports, the social media giant states they are no longer enforcing its COVID-19 “misleading information policy.”

Musk had promised the release of the transparency reports, saying it is necessary to regain the trust of the public.

Since January 2020, over 11 million accounts were challenged for violating the COVID-19 information policy, 11,230 accounts were suspended, and 97,674 pieces of content were removed:

The world has changed dramatically since this pandemic was first declared a public health emergency. Since then, public health experts, medical professionals, scientists and researchers have been educating and informing us on how to stay safe, and Twitter has worked to highlight and empower that vital public conversation. As the global vaccination rollout evolves and the pandemic enters a new phase, we are committed to ensuring our rules and enforcement match the changing nature of the content we’re seeing on Twitter.

Similarly, as the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines expands around the world at varying degrees of pace and scale, people continue to turn to Twitter to discuss what’s happening and find the latest authoritative public health information. As such, we continue to prioritize removing or annotating potentially harmful and misleading information to ensure that users can readily find credible information during this critical phase.

January 2022 saw the most accounts banned, totaling over 2,200 accounts. This past September, the last full month the policy was in effect, Twitter says only 173 accounts were suspended.
The report comes as Musk promised to reinstate thousands of Twitter accounts, as soon as this week, so long as the accounts did not violate any laws or participate in mass spamming.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.