Why Government Is the Biggest Obstacle to Educational Freedom

In Massachusetts where I live, average private school tuition hovers around $23,000. For secular private schools, the cost is typically much higher, with Boston-area private school tuition often exceeding $40,000. This price tag is way too high for most families to afford, but emerging microschools are typically a fraction of the cost of other private education options.

For example, the Wilder School is a new Acton Academy-affiliated microschool that costs about $12,000 a year, while Life Rediscovered, a new homeschool resource center offering up to five days a week of full-day, drop-off learning, costs about $10,000. Even established local microschools, such as Bay State Learning Center that was founded in 2014 and that I wrote about in Unschooled, have similar tuition costs and frequently offer financial aid or sliding scale tuition.

These tuition costs are still too high for many families to afford, but they are more accessible than many other existing private options. Supporting the creation and growth of more microschool programs through deregulation and by removing entrepreneurial barriers would reduce costs even further.

Today’s education reformers who are interested in expanding education options typically focus on school choice policies that redistribute existing taxpayer funding of education to families to use toward approved education-related expenses, including tuition. These efforts succeed in weakening government control of education and providing more learning options to more families, as the recent introduction of universal school choice in Arizona demonstrates. They should be commended and replicated. But school choice policies aren’t the only ways to expand education options and access.

Encouraging the proliferation of private, low-cost microschools, hybrid schools, and learning pods is an important, and often overlooked, opportunity to offer more low- and middle-income families more education options without taxpayer money.

This is the key emphasis in James Tooley’s excellent book, The Beautiful Tree, where he describes a vast network of small, low-cost, unregulated private schools that he discovered in some of the poorest slums and most remote rural villages in India, China, and throughout the African continent.

In these places, where parents were astonishingly poor and government-run schools were often readily available and conveniently located, the parents instead chose these unregistered private schools for their children.

Tooley himself was surprised by this, given that his consulting work brought him first to the Indian city of Hyderabad to assess the status of elite private schools. Reflecting on his journey in a 2020 article republished by FEE, Tooley wrote:

“So, on a day off from consultancy, I went into Hyderabad’s slums, down an alleyway and found a small school in a residential building. It wasn’t a state school, but a low-cost private one, charging in those days about $1 a month. Then I found another, and another, and soon I was connected to a federation of 500 of these low-cost private schools, serving poor and low-income communities across the region.”

The microschools, hybrid schools, and learning pods that are sprouting across the US represent a patchwork of low-cost, private education options similar to the schools discovered by Tooley. These microschool models are very often low-cost, unregistered, private education options that serve a local community eager to abandon government-run schooling. Scattered throughout urban, suburban, and rural areas, these pods and microschools are formed by parents or teachers, or both, who are showing that they can offer low-cost, private education options that parents want and where children thrive.

A main barrier to the continued proliferation of these learning models is the fear of encroaching government oversight and regulation. Tooley expressed the same concern about the low-cost private schools that he discovered around the world.

“Sometimes governments try to close these schools altogether,” he wrote. “More commonly they pass regulations that impose impossible conditions, such as the need for very large playgrounds in areas of urban overcrowding, or the insistence that all teachers must achieve the same level of certification and pay as their government counterparts, even though this would make it impossible for the schools to charge low fees.”

Preventing government involvement in the free-market of education choices is crucial to the creation, expansion, and accessibility of these emerging learning models.

Some states are trying to enact policies to protect learning pods and microschools. West Virginia, for example, recently passed legislation recognizing learning pods and microschools and loosening state compulsory school attendance laws for the students attending such programs.

In addition to preventing regulation of these emerging, innovative private learning models, state and local policymakers can reduce the many barriers to entry and operation that education entrepreneurs encounter. For example, local zoning restrictions often limit where and how microschools, hybrid schools, and learning pods can operate, often pushing these programs into undesirable locations on busy streets or without access to outdoor space for children’s play.

Deregulation, along with removing common barriers to education entrepreneurship, can help to unleash education innovation and encourage a vibrant, affordable marketplace of learning possibilities.

Listen to Kerry’s weekly LiberatED Podcast on AppleSpotifyGoogle, and Stitcher, and sign up for her email newsletter to stay up-to-date on educational news and trends from a free-market perspective.

AUTHOR

Kerry McDonald

Kerry McDonald is a Senior Education Fellow at FEE and host of the weekly LiberatED podcast. She is also the author of Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom (Chicago Review Press, 2019), an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and a regular Forbes contributor. Kerry has a B.A. in economics from Bowdoin College and an M.Ed. in education policy from Harvard University. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and four children. You can sign up for her weekly newsletter on parenting and education here.

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

Does Iran Have a Hit Team in the U.S.?

Former U.S. and Iranian intelligence officials tell a haunting tale.


Iran’s Quds Force, which the Biden White House has reportedly discussed removing from the terrorism list, has more than a hundred active agents operating inside the United States, according to former U.S. and Iranian intelligence officials.

Their current goal is to penetrate the security perimeter surrounding former President Donald J. Trump and to kill him.

The Iranian plot is not a secret: Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamene’ I, boasted in January that Iranian agents inside the United States were tracking the former president’s movements, and could penetrate the security systems protecting him.

That boast appeared in the form of a chilling video, posted to the Khamenei’s website and to Twitter by regime sympathizers and intelligence analysts, showing Quds Force operatives targeting the president on the tee of his West Palm Beach golf club. It ended with a photograph of Qassem Soleymani, the Quds Force commander killed by a U.S. drone strike outside the Baghdad airport on Jan. 2, 2020, and a black screen: “Revenge is Definite.”

They have also threatened to kill former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and CIA Director Gina Haspel in retaliation for their role in the drone strike that killed Suleymani and 17 others on Route Irish at the Baghdad airport. “Ironically, that’s the same road where Suleymani had killed dozens of Americans,” said John Maguire, a former CIA deputy station chief who worked in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.

U.S. intelligence agencies, including the FBI, have known for over a decade about Iranian programs to recruit and train Quds Force operatives – preferably non-Iranians – capable of penetrating Western countries.

“The Quds Force started creating this capability in Baghdad in 2004,” Maguire said. “They wanted educated candidates; ideally, candidates with foreign travel documents and experience traveling in the West. The Quds Force organized, controlled, trained and supported this capability.”

The prospective agents learned how to make improvised explosive devices out of common materials, how to identify concealed fire positions for a sniper attack, and how to conduct surveillance and counter-surveillance, among other operational skills. Many went to Lebanon for a full year’s paramilitary and martial arts training with Hezbollah.

Once these “super-agents” had completed their training, they were dispersed around the world “and we lost them,” Maguire said. “But we do know that they have been coming to the US in increasing numbers since 2011.”

I published photographs of a group of these “super-agents” in my 2005 book Countdown to Crisis: the Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran. I obtained the pictures from former Iranian intelligence officer, Hamid Reza Zakeri. One set showed the group during the armed counter-surveillance training in Tehran. A second set showed the same men back in Iraq in civilian clothes.

Iran’s clandestine U.S. network may have emerged from the shadows in April when the FBI conducted a raid on a Washington, DC, apartment complex and arrested two men for impersonating federal officers.

The two men, Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Sher-Ali, 35, were found in possession of U.S. driver’s licenses and credit cards in different names, chip cards identifying them as DHS officers, and an astonishing arsenal of weapons, including sniper gear, high-capacity magazines, counter-surveillance detection equipment, a mini door ram and a Halligan tool used for breaching locked doors.

Investigators rushed the arrest because the two men had been tipped off in an email from a U.S. Secret Service agent that they were under investigation. Four Secret Service agents were suspended just before the April 5 arrest, including one on first lady Jill Biden’s personal protection detail, according to the FBI.

“Because of the breakneck pace of the investigation, there are many facts that we still do not know,” federal prosecutors said in a court filing. “But the facts that we do know about the Defendants – that they lied about their identities for years, stored a cache of weapons and surveillance equipment in their apartments, compromised law enforcement agents in sensitive positions, and tried to cover up their crimes – leave no doubt that their release poses a public safety risk.”

Court papers filed by federal prosecutors at the time painted an alarming picture of the two men and their alleged activities. They regularly boasted of their ability to conceal-carry DHS Glock 19 Generation 5 pistols, and provided favors to Secret Service agents, including a rent-free Penthouse apartment. They communicated with their Secret Service friends using official DHS email addresses.

The two men “fit the Quds Force profile well,” former CIA officer Maguire said.

One witness interviewed by the FBI observed Taherzadeh use a Private Identity Verification (“PIV”) card “to access a laptop that is labelled with a “DHS” symbol.” When Taherzadeh logged onto the laptop using the PIV card, the witness “saw a federal logon privacy notice” on the screen. Taherzadeh also boasted of having a list of all the government agents living in their apartment complex.

In a subsequent filing, prosecutors fleshed out the mission of the two men. “They compromised United States Secret Service (USSS) personnel involved in protective details and with access to the White House complex by lavishing gifts upon them, including rent-free living.”

They also “procured, stored, and used all the tools of law enforcement and covert tradecraft: weaponry, including firearms, scopes, and brass knuckles; surveillance equipment, including a drone, antennae, hard drives, and hard drive copying equipment; tools to manufacture identities, including a machine to create Personal Identification Verification (PIV) cards and passport photographs; and tactical gear, including vests, gas masks, breach equipment, police lights, and various law enforcement insignia,” prosecutors alleged.

Heidar Ali told one witness that he had ties to Pakistani intelligence, the ISI, but his passport records also showed four trips to Iran through Mashad, a known hub of the IRGC, and multiple trips to Qatar and to Iraq.

Both men possessed U.S. passports, suggesting they had become naturalized U.S. citizens.

The deeper they dug, the more alarmed prosecutors became. In yet another filing before the court, they noted that “with every new fact uncovered in the investigation…. the story only gets worse.”

“Certainly, infiltration of the [Secret Service] presidential detail would be a key goal,” said Charles (Sam) Faddis, a senior CIA operations officer who spent more than twenty years working in the Middle East and South Asia and now publishes the online And Magazine. He is also a former US Army JAG officer.

“I think everything we know about these guys suggests strongly this is a Quds Force Op. They have the profile. The gear recovered is exactly what I would expect to find in a safe house for a team doing the initial casing preparatory to an attack of some kind.”

Defense attorneys argued that prosecutors had failed to prove a foreign connection and were “making a mountain out of a molehill.” The Obama-appointed judge in charge of the case, G. Michael Harvey, agreed and ordered the release of the two suspects, arguing that they did not “pose a danger” to the community.

Judge Harvey is also the presiding justice over many of the Jan. 6 detainees, some of whom have been in pre-trial detention for seventeen months. Obviously, in Judge Harvey’s eyes these grandmas and grandpas pose a much greater “danger to the community” than two heavily armed men with counter-intelligence training and foreign travel to a terrorist nation.

Prosecutors have not alleged that either defendant was a Quds Force operative.

In writing about the case, former CIA operative Sam Faddis noted that Taherzadeh and  Ali “began posing as law enforcement agents in February 2020, the month after a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad killed” Qassem Suleymani, and that the Iranians “have made no secret of their intent to get revenge for the killing of “Soleymani.”

The very day the two men were released in Washington, the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Ground Forces, Mohammad Pakpour, publicly declared that killing US officials was not enough and “we should avenge Qassem Soleymani’s blood in other ways!”

Eventually, the DC court transferred the case to Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who on May 12 denied a request by the Defendants to allow them to travel during supervised home detention.

There are other rumblings that could presage an Iranian terror attack inside the United States in the coming months.

Earlier this month, authorities in Argentina grounded a 747 cargo jet recently sold to Venezuela by Mahan Air, which regularly transports arms and IRGC fighters to Syria and elsewhere.

Among the Iranians listed as crew on the flight was the former CEO of Qeshm Fars Air, designated by the U.S. Department of Treasury for providing “material support” to the Quds Force and to Mahan Air. Officials in Argentina and neighboring Paraguay are investigating whether the aircraft was used to ferry arms or terrorists and have requested assistance from the FBI.

Iran has stepped up its presence elsewhere in Latin America as well, signing a 20 year cooperation agreement with Venezuela on June 10 and dispatching former Revolutionary Guards commander Mohsen Rezai on a secret trip to Nicaragua and Cuba, where he met with security and intelligence officials.

But the Biden administration appears oblivious to the threats. Just last week, in an apparent gesture of appeasement to the Iranian regime, the State Department and Homeland Security loosened immigration restrictions on persons who had “only” provided non-lethal support to terrorist organizations, including the Quds Force, making it easier for Iran to infiltrate agents into this country.

“Given Iran is actively plotting to kill former American officials, the administration should carefully explain if and how this [rule] might apply to a potential affiliate of the IRGC,” former Trump administration official Richard Goldberg told the Washington Free Beacon.

My Iranian sources say that regime officials boast among themselves that they will successfully carry out an attack on President Trump or one of the Trump administration officials involved in the killing of Soleymani before the mid-term elections this November. The daughter of Soleymani mocked former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a recent tweat, “Live in fear, liar.”

We can only pray that the FBI and the Secret Service presidential security detail are up to the task and have not already been compromised.

©Kenneth R. Timmerman. All rights reserved.

Picking and Choosing Who Should Be Allowed to Reproduce

STORY AT-A-GLANCE 

  • The World Health Organization began working on an anti-fertility vaccine in the 1970s, in response to perceived overpopulation. For 20 years, the WHO’s Task Force on Vaccines for Fertility Regulation worked with population control in mind
  • In 1993, the WHO finally announced a birth-control vaccine had successfully been created to help with “family planning.” The anti-fertility vaccine uses hCG conjugated (chemically bonded) to tetanus toxoid, used in the tetanus vaccine. As a result, a woman will develop antibodies against both tetanus and hCG
  • HCG is the first signal that tells the woman’s body she’s pregnant. In response to this signal, her ovaries then produce progesterone, which maintains the pregnancy to term. By combining hCG with tetanus toxoid, it causes this crucial pregnancy hormone to be attacked and destroyed by the woman’s own immune system
  • In 1995, the Catholic Women’s League of the Philippines won a court order halting a UNICEF tetanus program that was using tetanus vaccine laced with hCG. Three million women between the ages of 12 and 45 had by that time already been vaccinated. Anti-hCG-laced vaccines had also been found in at least four other countries
  • Also in 1995, the Kenyan government launched a WHO tetanus campaign under the guise of eradicating neonatal tetanus. An investigation found the vaccine given to girls and women, aged 15 to 49, contained hCG, and evidence suggests this was an intentional population control agenda

“Infertility: A Diabolical Agenda,” is the fourth vaccine-related documentary by Dr. Andrew Wakefield. It tells the story of an intentional infertility vaccine program conducted on African women, without their knowledge or consent.

While it’s been brushed off as a loony conspiracy theory for years, there’s compelling evidence showing it did, in fact, happen, and there’s nothing to prevent it from happening again.

The Backstory

As explained in the film, the World Health Organization began working on an anti-fertility vaccine, led by Dr. G.P. Talwar in New Delhi, India, in the 1970s, “in response to perceived overpopulation.” For 20 years, the WHO’s Task Force on Vaccines for Fertility Regulation worked with population control in mind.

In 1993, the WHO finally announced a birth-control vaccine had successfully been created to help with “family planning.”1 The paper trail reveals that by 1976, WHO researchers had successfully conjugated, meaning combined or attached, human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) onto tetanus toxoid, used in the tetanus vaccine. As a result, when given to a woman, she develops antibodies against both tetanus and hCG.

HCG is a hormone produced by cells surrounding the growing embryo. These hormone-producing cells protect and support embryonic growth and eventually form the placenta.

As explained in the film, hCG is the first signal that tells the woman’s body she’s pregnant. In response to this signal, her ovaries then produce a second hormone, progesterone, which maintains the pregnancy to term.

By combining hCG with tetanus toxoid, it causes this crucial pregnancy hormone to be attacked and destroyed by your immune system, as it’s now misperceived as an invading pathogen. Since hCG is destroyed, progesterone is never produced and, hence, the pregnancy cannot be maintained.

So, if you’re already pregnant when taking this witches’ brew, it will likely result in a spontaneous abortion, and if you’re not already pregnant, you won’t be able to get pregnant, as this crucial pregnancy hormone is under constant attack by your immune system. Repeated doses prolong these effects, effectively rendering you sterile.

The WHO Has Been in the Depopulation Business for Decades

As detailed in a Scientific Research paper published in 2017,2 “WHO publications show a long-range purpose to reduce population growth in unstable ‘less developed countries.’”

In other words, the WHO’s longstanding policy has been to support depopulation in third world countries, and they’ve studied depopulation strategies in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil, The Philippines, Thailand, Egypt, Turkey, Ethiopia and Colombia for decades.3

While creating an anti-fertility vaccine for those who really don’t want children is one thing, using deception to lure girls and young women into taking it is another entirely. As it turns out, the WHO is not above using deception and trickery to shut down fertility in populations they deem unworthy of reproduction.

The Great Deception

The central figures of the film are two Kenyan gynecologists, Drs. Wahome Ngare, and the late Stephen K. Karanja. Both state in the film that infertility is now the biggest gynecological problem in Africa. In recent years, there’s been a significant increase in women losing their pregnancies and couples who cannot conceive.

“I have seen the tears. They lose their identity. You die inside,” Antoninah Mutinda says. She knows, because she’s one of the African women whose fertility has been mysteriously impacted. After her third miscarriage, she was tested and found to have extremely high anti-hCG antibodies. She now suspects the tetanus vaccine she was given may be the culprit.

The anti-fertility vaccine was rolled out in the mid-‘90s, but despite support from the Kenyan leadership and “elite groups,” it was not popular among Kenyan women, who were concerned about the potential for abuse. They worried it might be disguised as a regular tetanus vaccine program.

Their concerns were valid because, as it turns out, this had already happened. In 1995, the Catholic Women’s League of the Philippines won a court order halting a UNICEF tetanus program that was using tetanus vaccine laced with hCG. Three million women between the ages of 12 and 45 had by that time already been vaccinated. Anti-hCG-laced vaccines had also been found in at least four other countries.

Undeterred by bad press, that same year, 1995, the Kenyan government launched a WHO tetanus campaign under the guise of eradicating neonatal tetanus. There were telltale signs that something was wrong, however, because it was already standard practice to vaccinate pregnant women against tetanus. Now, the WHO insisted women who weren’t pregnant needed the shot as well, in case they were to become pregnant.

Karanja learned of the deceptive anti-fertility campaigns in other countries during a medical conference in 1995, and became immediately suspicious of the tetanus campaign in his own country. Karanja convinced leaders of the Catholic church — one of the largest health care providers in Kenya — to test the tetanus vaccine being given, to make sure there was no foul play.

Without explanation, the WHO suddenly abandoned the campaign. Alas, 19 years later, in 2013, they were back. All girls and women, 15 to 49 years of age, were instructed to get vaccinated with a series of five injections, six months apart. This, it turns out, is the exact schedule required for the anti-fertility vaccine to produce sterility. Regular tetanus prevention requires only one injection every five to 10 years, and under no circumstance would you need five of them.

Vaccines Test Positive for Anti-hCG

The Catholic Church decided to test the vaccines, and collected three sample vials directly from clinics during the 2014 campaign. The samples were then sent to three independent laboratories for testing. As feared, they found hCG in them. Another six vials were then collected, and tested by six independent labs. This time, half were found to contain hCG.

At this point, the Catholic Church went public, urging girls and women to not comply with the vaccination campaign. In an effort to settle the dispute, an investigative committee was formed, consisting of three representatives selected by the Catholic bishops, and three government officials.

It was agreed that the nine vials already collected would be retested, along with 52 samples from a distributor who sells tetanus vaccine to the Kenyan government. This time, a more precise type of test, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), was chosen.

Dr. Nicholas Muraguri, director of medical services for the Kenyan government, contracted agriQ Quest to perform this testing. However, he urged them to test samples provided directly by him rather than the vials previously agreed upon. AgriQ Quest decided to analyze both batches.

The vials that tested positive for hCG using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), still tested positive using HPLC, but none of the samples provided by Muraguri tested positive.

A Decades’ Long Cover-Up

Shockingly, the government then demanded agriQ Quest “alter their report to indicate that they were safe to be administered.” When agriQ Quest refused, the government, the WHO and UNICEF responded by launching a public attack, accusing the Catholic Church of “peddling misinformation.”

And, since the only samples found to contain hCG were those provided by the Church, the government accused them of tampering with the vials in an effort to undermine confidence in the vaccine.

An added twist here is that the vials that tested positive had the same batch numbers as vials that tested negative. Only later did agriQ Quest discover that these negative vials had fake labels on them. They were not, in fact, from the same lots as those that tested positive. They weren’t even made by the same manufacturer.

AgriQ Quest also claims they can prove the positive samples were not tampered with, because they did not test positive for hCG in general. The test clearly shows the hCG was conjugated with tetanus toxoid, and this cannot occur by simply adding hCG to a vial of tetanus vaccine.

The conjugation — the chemical linking or bonding — of hCG to the tetanus toxoid can only occur during the manufacturing process. This is the smoking gun that proves the neonatal tetanus vaccine campaign was a cover for a population control campaign.

Muraguri also lied when he claimed the Kenyan government had only one supplier of tetanus vaccine. As it turns out, there were two. Biological E. Limited provided a regular tetanus vaccine, while the hCG-positive batches came from Serum Institute of India — the same country where most of the WHO’s anti-fertility research had been conducted.

Both Ngare and Karanja paid a steep price for their vigilance. The medical board called them for disciplinary action. Karanja was issued a gag order, and since 2014 was not allowed to speak publicly about vaccines in Kenya. He broke that gag order for this film. April 29, 2021, Karanja died, allegedly from COVID infection.

A Truly Diabolical Agenda

Speaking for millions of women just like her, Mutinda, who has now struggled with infertility for years, says:

“To imagine there’s a system somewhere, that some people somewhere are behind my inability to carry pregnancy to term, that is a diabolical agenda!”

Before his untimely death, Karanja shared a message with the world, through the makers of this film:

“When they are through with Africa, they’re coming for you.”

Sources and References

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

Mass Immigration Won’t Stimulate Post-COVID Economic Recovery

Washington, D.C. — A new study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) finds that calls to increase already record levels of immigration would only add to existing economic woes like decreased labor force participation and growing income disparities, while doing nothing to curb soaring inflation.

Proposals currently being pushed by business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and far-left mass immigration advocates would further harm American workers struggling to cope with 40-year high inflation. The study reveals that an even greater influx of new immigrants would drive down their wages even as prices continue to rise across the board.

“The so-called labor shortage is largely the product of poor policymaking by the White House – from massive economic shut-downs triggered by COVID to reckless spending,” said Dan Stein, president of FAIR. “The same folks who created these ruinous policies and made poor decisions now propose to solve non-existent or unrelated problems with even more ruinous immigration policies.”

With a focus on the period between the height of COVID and March 2022, Mass Immigration Won’t Stimulate Post-COVID Recovery: Debunking America-Last Economic Myths finds that:

  • Labor force participation rates have been steadily increasing since bottoming out in April 2020, and are likely to continue rising. The U-6 unemployment rate (workers who are unemployed, underemployed, or discouraged from even seeking jobs) stood at 6.9 percent at the end of the examined period and remains stagnant, dropping slightly to 6.7 percent last month. When combined with those who left the labor force due to COVID but haven’t yet rejoined it, there are around 14 million available American workers to fill some 11 million job vacancies.
  • An end to massive government stimulus programs (a key cause of inflation) means that more sidelined American workers are seeking to return to the labor market.
  • An even greater infusion of immigrant workers would not lower inflation. It would merely inflict more economic pain on middle- and lower-income Americans as the law of supply and demand drives down wages that are already inadequate to keep up with rising costs.

“If mass immigration were a panacea for inflation and spot shortages in the labor market, these problems would have already solved themselves. Between September 2020 and March 2022, the foreign-born population of the U.S. has grown by 2.5 million and now totals some 49 million, largely due to disastrous open borders policies of the Biden administration,” noted Stein.

“There is more than an ample supply of labor in this country. What is lacking? Sound policymaking to properly tame inflation while encouraging idled American workers to fill available jobs. As is typical of the Biden administration and a cheap labor lobby with access to lawmakers in both parties, their proposal is to compound these problems by putting already failed immigration policies on steroids,” concluded Stein.

The full report, Mass Immigration Won’t Stimulate Post-COVID Recovery: Debunking America-Last Economic Myths, can be found here.

EDITORS NOTE: This FAIR report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The White House Goes Full Pravda

I’ve often said the rise of the authoritarian Left is the greatest challenge of our time.  You can see the truth of that statement in the way the Biden administration is trying to shut people up and snuff out competing points of view.

A reporter tried to ask the White House press secretary about favored media outlets being invited to special White House press events while others are shut out and blacklisted.  His microphone was cut off halfway through his question.

A recent executive order threatens consequences for any public school official who merely questions a child’s desire for gender-transitioning drugs and surgery.  Can’t have the new orthodoxy disrupted, you see.

White House climate advisor Gina McCarthy urged social media companies to “really jump in” and stamp out misinformation pointing out the inflationary costs and unreliability of green energy sources.  Can’t have the magnificent green energy transition disrupted, you see.

McCarthy’s urgings are part of a larger administration effort to work with climate activists and Democrat-controlled congressional committees to silence political opponents.  The White House is recruiting activists and academics to discredit dissenters on climate change.  Open records requests have been filed to find out just how far the speech suppression efforts go.

It’s been widely reported the DHS Disinformation Governance Board is merely paused, not shut down.  Getting less attention is a new White House Task Force headed by Kamala Harris targeting supposed online harassment, abuse, and disinformation.  The Task Force is in the business of policing online speech that offends the administration.  You can dress this up any way you want, but it’s still censorship.  Get your Stalin on, baby.

So what we have here is a government that seeks to take people’s free speech rights away.  This is just the opposite of what government is supposed to do.  Government is supposed to protect our rights, not take them away from us.  [See the Instant Graduate Degree in Political Science]

As for free speech rights, you have the right to be wrong about climate change or anything else.  The answer to erroneous speech is not government censorship; it’s more speech.  If you think the green energy transition will lead to nirvana, make your case, don’t shut me up.

I guarantee you do not want to live in a world where the government decides what is true and disallows speech it deems to be false.  You should listen to the survivors of communism in my speakers bureau who will tell you it is truly awful to live in a country where you have to whisper what you really think on street corners and agree in advance with the person with whom you are speaking you will tell the authorities you were only talking about football if you are questioned about what the two of you said to each other.

So here’s my message to everybody, the Biden administration included: The more you try to shut me up, the more I’m going to scream and I’ve got the trial attorney experience to do it.  If you want to silence me, you will have to pry this microphone from my cold, dead fingers.  Climate change is a hoax and transgenderism is communism.  There, I said it.  Come and get me.

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©Christopher Wright. All rights reserved.

Impeach Joe Biden for the Border Invasion

Five Texas counties declared the crisis at the southern border an “invasion” and called on Texas Governor Greg Abbott to stop illegal immigration.  Dead bodies, gang-rapes, and aliens coming through in camouflage clothing are now common occurrences in these counties.

Joe Biden’s open borders policies are to blame.  Here are some more policy changes to add to the long list I’ve given you in previous commentaries:  Joe Biden is legally obligated to spend money Congress has appropriated to continue building Trump’s wall, but Biden won’t do it.  The Biden administration just approved subsidized health insurance for illegal aliens in Colorado.  The administration is quietly removing Trump-appointed judges from immigration courts and replacing them with pro-alien appointees.  The administration is also dismissing immigration cases by the tens of thousands in what observers call “de facto amnesty”.   The administration is also allowing people who have worked with designated terrorist groups to enter the U.S. legally.

The threat to national security from Biden’s open borders policies is growing.  Experts say there are more people who get away from border agents than are apprehended and most ‘got-aways’ are military-age males.   There are now so many Muslims entering the U.S. illegally – including Muslims from terror-prone countries – a special shelter has been built for them just over the border in Tijuana.

Potential terrorism is not the only problem arising from Biden’s open borders policies.  Illegal alien criminals with felonies are supposed to be deported, but Joe Biden just said Driving Under the Influence charges would not count.  He must have forgotten the case of the nun who was killed by an illegal alien driving drunk in Virginia in 2010.  I haven’t.

Meanwhile, deadly fentanyl continues to pour across the border, so much even Congressional Democrats are complaining.   Another problem not getting nearly enough attention is widespread identity theft as illegal aliens seek U.S. credentials to work.  The 51 migrants cooked to death in a truck in San Antonio recently were, sadly, just a few of the hundreds who die attempting to enter the U.S. illegally – over 700 last year alone.  Finally, a government study confirms what we already knew – one-third of illegal aliens let go under the Biden administration’s catch-and-release program end up absconding.  Nobody knows where they are.

The White House just told us again “the border is closed.”  Surely they must know how stupid they look saying this when five Texas counties and anybody else with a lick of sense can see it’s an “invasion”.   If Republicans take back the House, they might impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for failing to faithfully execute the nation’s immigration laws.  I hope the Republicans don’t stop there. I hope they impeach Joe Biden for high crimes and misdemeanors.  His loyalty is not to you and me.  His open borders policies show his allegiance lies elsewhere. Joe Biden hates America and he’s trying to destroy it.  For that, he should be impeached and thrown out of office.

Visit The Daily Skirmish and Watch Eagle Headline News – 7:30am ET Weekdays

©Christopher Wright. All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: Here Are The Biden Admin‘s Proposed Charges Against Border Agents Accused Of ‘Whipping’ Migrants

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UPDATE: Holland’s Eco-War Against Farmers

“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever.” ― George Orwell, 1984


Since Monday the Fourth of July, there has been an uprising of Dutch farmers. Though the farmers break laws, their protests should be considered peaceful and within the spirit of democracy.

Their case is justified. The Dutch Government says it wants to protect Nature and the farmers pollute heath with too much Nitrogen from their cattle. However, Nitrogen is beneficial for Nature and changes barren heath into beautiful green forest. Do you know that 78% of the air you breathe consists of Nitrogen?

Dutch farmers belong to Holland, just as cowboys belong to the USA. Holland was made a great nation by farmers, preachers and merchants.

As I wrote you before, the real reason that the Dutch Government wants to expel farmers from their farmlands is, that they need the land to build homes for mass immigration from Africa and the Middle East. Holland will become a city state, full of ugly modern architecture, meant for foreigners.

The in a July 7th, 2022 Free West Media article titled “No longer a conspiracy theory: Dutch farmers must make way for asylum seekers” reports:

Flevo member of parliament Niek Beenen (JA21) has shared a document on Twitter from the province of Flevoland in the Netherlands about the purchase of “nitrogen space” in the Noordoostpolder.

“The province of Flevoland has bought nitrogen space in the Noordoostpolder. With the nitrogen space that has been freed up, the province can help a number of PAS claimants in the Noordoostpolder. This opportunity has arisen because the government has bought an agricultural business in the Noordoostpolder. The government wants to set up a registration centre for asylum seekers at the location of the farm,” reads the document.

In this country, farming families who produce food are being exchanged for asylum seekers,” tweeted Beenen. [Emphasis added]

Read more

Dutch police and even part of the Military have responded aggressively to the farmers’ protests. There has even been an occasion in which a police officer shot at a 16 year old boy, who was unarmed and drove away from the protest without being a threat to anyone.

This happened in Heerenveen and there is video of the incident on Twitter.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a fake conservative, doesn’t seem to be impressed by the protests. He has offered that a friend of his mediate between the Government and the farmers. But Rutte has said that the plan to expel farmers will not be negotiable, so negotiations are meaningless. The mediator is also a driving force behind the climate hysteria in Holland.

I see a bleak future for Dutch farmers. But also for Dutch fishermen. They are also under attack by the Government. They have to diminish their fleet, so that wind turbines can be erected in the North Sea.

And what we also see happening, is that slowly but steadily a police state is developing in Holland. The Dutch Constitution is merely an obstacle that can be overcome by declaring “emergency” situations.

Yes, Holland is in deep trouble. Only immediate elections could offer a way out. But then again, would the people vote wisely? They are so misinformed by state run media and by media supporting the state.

©Matthys van Raalten. All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLE: Dutch Farms Seized To Make Way For Migrants

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Los Angeles Public Schools Training Teachers That ‘Merit,’ ‘Individualism’ Rooted in ‘Whiteness’

Individual rights is the founding principle of this great nation. Meritocracy (not a predetermined outcome) is what made this country great.

The Marxist takeover of government schools is a declaration of civil war.

Would you turn your children over to a kidnapper? Pedophile? Rapist? Destroyer? Pull your kids out of government schools before they are irrevocably damaged.

Los Angeles public schools training teachers that ‘merit,’ ‘individualism’ rooted in ‘whiteness’

Los Angeles teachers told ‘the idea of meritocracy’ must be challenged in schools

By Jessica Chasmar | Fox News

FIRST ON FOX: The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is training teachers and staff that “merit” and “individualism” are concepts rooted in “whiteness” that must be challenged in schools.

LAUSD required all employees to undergo “implicit/unconscious bias training” guided by Tyrone Howard, a critical race theory (CRT) advocate and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, prior to the 2021-2022 school year.

The training materials, which were obtained by Fox News Digital through a California Public Records Act (PRA) request, instructed educators to work toward being “antiracist” by challenging whiteness at school, which Howard argued exists in the concepts of “merit” and “individualism.”

“This idea that white is the standard, white is the norm, white is our default has to be challenged,” Howard said in the training video.

Merit, or meritocracy, “assumes that each person operates and achieves based on his or her own personal capacity,” the training handout reads. “It incorporates the notion that the work put forth, the effort invested, explains why some groups and individuals do well and others do not. It does not consider historical factors or account for opportunities, advantages, and privileges to which some groups have access both historically and in the present.”

“The idea of meritocracy,” Howard said in the video, “I think we have to challenge that because we have to recognize that some groups have had much more opportunities, some groups have had far more advantages, and some groups have certain types of privileges that other groups have not had.”

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE LAUSD REQUIRED WHITENESS TRAINING FOR TEACHERS AND EMPLOYEES.

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) required all employees to undergo “implicit/unconscious bias training” prior to the 2021-2022 school year. (Screenshot / Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD))

Meanwhile, individualism, according to the training handout, “proposes that each person is responsible for his or her outcomes. It is very much tied to merit, wherein group responsibility and accountability are not goals. Personal success and achievement are the goals. This belief operates from a survival-of-the-fittest approach that stresses singular pursuit and accomplishment.”

Howard argued in the video that “the notion of individualism runs counter” to many LAUSD students’ “own cultural norms, which say ‘it’s not about me, it’s about we.’”

AUTHOR

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

You Know What Would Deter More Shootings Than Red Flag Laws? Executing Mass Killers Quickly

Instead, the Democrats release them, unleash them on innocent Americans……

You Know What Would Deter More Shootings Than Red Flag Laws? Executing Mass Killers Quickly

By: Kylee Griswold, The Federalist, July 07, 2022:

If politicians are serious that they’re sick of ‘living with this carnage,’ the Highland Park shooter should be executed immediately.

The usual suspects are at it again, and I’m not talking about isolated, mentally ill young men. I’m talking about the politically motivated talking heads who don’t even wait until bodies are cold after tragic mass shootings to spout off about the need for red flag laws, “assault weapons” bans, and “universal background checks” because — you’ve heard this one before — “Why are we willing to live with this carnage?”

After the mass shooting in a wealthy Chicago suburb over the holiday weekend that left seven dead and dozens more wounded in one of the most gun-controlled areas of one of the most gun-controlled states in the country, local State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart did exactly that. He touted the state’s “strong” red flag law and insisted on the need to “ban assault weapons in Illinois and beyond.” Vice President Kamala Harris likewise made an unscheduled visit to the community to call for more gun control, however incoherently. And the typical Twitter blue checks all had something to say.

Meanwhile, as the armchair class prattles on about how our first freedoms are an existential threat, the face and name of the 21-year-old alleged shooter are plastered all over every news channel as he sits remorseless in jail facing a slew of charges that will probably amount to life in prison at worst. The upper echelons of chattering politicos will accomplish nothing but celebritizing murderous cowards — but hey, anything to signal virtue, pick up a few progressive voters, and pad their pockets with a little extra donor cash.

You know how we know they aren’t accomplishing anything? Because the reforms Rinehart called for are both already on the books in Highland Park where the shooting occurred. Despite a local so-called assault weapons ban plus red flag laws and a state with some of the strictest gun-control laws in America, many people died. If the latest shooting taught us anything about guns, it’s that even tightly restricting them doesn’t deter killers.

It’s time for a new approach, and this case presents the perfect set of circumstances to justify it. The Highland Park shooter should be executed, and he should be executed quickly.

There would be nothing “just” about criminal justice if we dispensed with due process, but it’s not much more than a formality that we use the word “alleged” to describe this particular shooter. Not only have authorities confirmed that the male suspect dressed as a woman to conceal his identity, hide his face tattoos, and blend into the frantic crowd. Not only were these facts captured on video, with a witness apparently watching the suspect wrap his firearm in a red blanket before ditching it. Not only has he had multiple run-ins with local law enforcement that were ultimately relayed to state police in a report identifying him as a “clear and present danger,” plus an incident wherein police confiscated 16 knives, a dagger, and a sword from him after he threatened to “kill everyone” in his house.

But he also already told police he’s the shooter. And if his confession of guilt weren’t enough, he also admitted that he almost attacked another July Fourth celebration in Madison, Wisconsin, but decided against it because he just hadn’t had enough time to plan out a murderous scheme.

There’s a more effective deterrent to this carnage than catapulting mass murderers into the limelight by detailing every step of their grisly crimes or featuring their faces on the cover of Rolling Stone. There’s a better way than making impassioned speeches about gun violence, but then helping to bail out violent rioters and advocating for low bail that enables offenders to violently mow down women and children with a vehicle. It’s time to be honest about the fact that bans on AR-15s and red flag laws, in addition to stomping out due process and being ripe for political weaponization, simply don’t work to deter crime. Illinois tried that experiment. It failed.

There are a handful of things that become apparent about deterrence, but here’s a pretty basic idea: Swiftness and certainty are more important than severity. Of course, if punishment must be proportional for justice to truly be just, then execution is warranted in cases of mass murder, the perpetrators of which cannot die enough deaths to make up for the many they stole.

But it isn’t the mere execution of a known mass murderer that deters other disturbed individuals from shooting up jubilant innocents. The reality of taxpayer-funded eons on death row wouldn’t appear to have any concrete deterrent effect, much like lengthy incarceration. But what about a visual representation of this chilling message: You will be caught, and you will be put to death — soon. Certainty and swiftness accomplished.

Read the rest….

AUTHOR

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

54% Say Cheating Impacted 2020 Election, While 50% Say It Will Blight U.S. Mid Terms

It’s higher than that. Everybody knows.

EXC: 54% Say Cheating Impacted 2020 Election, While 50% Say It Will Blight U.S. Mid Terms.

By: Staff Writer, National Pulse,

A plurality of Americans believe the upcoming midterm elections will experience fraud, according to a new poll by Rasmussen Reports sponsored by The National Pulse. The poll also revealed the stunning evidence that a clear majority of Americans believe the result of the 2020 election was blighted by cheating.

Fifty percent of likely U.S. voters feel that there will be “widespread cheating that will affect the outcome of this fall’s congressional elections,” including 24 percent of people who believe the prospect is very likely. Just 22 percent of voters think cheating is not at all likely to affect the November midterms, the poll reveals.

Asked, “Which is more important – Making it easier for everybody to vote, or making sure there is no cheating in elections?” just 38 percent answered they prefer to make it easier for everyone to vote, with an overwhelming 59 percent saying they would prefer to focus on no cheating in elections.

The news comes as Democrats attempt to make universal, unverified voting a key part of their platform, while Republicans urge more safety measures. The 2020 election results continue to be hotly disputed after the injection of private, corporate cash and the introduction of unsecured and unmanned mail-in “drop boxes”.

Rasmussen data shows 52 percent of likely U.S. voters maintain that it is at least somewhat likely cheating influenced the 2020 presidential election, with 36 percent of people polled believing it is very likely. Much of the distrust in elections appears to stem from concerns surrounding the integrity of the aforementioned mail-in ballots, with 58 percent of voters believing it is at least somewhat likely that broadening the use of mail-in ballots will result in more cheating in elections. Thirty-nine percent of voters felt that this was very likely.

Just 16 percent – or fewer than one in five voters – believe that mail-in voting will not lead to more cheating.

The figures, which reveal a sizable distrust in America’s election systems, follow substantial evidence from the 2020 election that mail-in ballots and far-left activist groups were used to secure a victory for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

In addition to a host of mysterious, late-night ballot dumps, left-wing groups associated with individuals including George Soros and Mark Zuckerberg influenced election rules and officials to boost turnout in Democratic districts. Many of these groups have rebranded following intense scrutiny in the aftermath of the 2020 election but appear to be engaging in similar efforts.

Establishment media outlets, social media platforms, and Democratic politicians have set out to silence individuals discussing voter fraud, despite peddling similar claims about Russian election influence throughout 2016 and the entirety of Donald Trump’s presidency. Under President Biden, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has also targeted officials and activists fighting for election integrity by threatening criminal prosecution.

AUTHOR

RELATED ARTICLE: “Justice Gone Mad!”

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

Barrels of Oil Released by Biden From Reserve Were Sent to China

Dumping the country’s oil reserves was the only strategy to lower energy prices that Biden would accept. He continues blocking domestic drilling and taxes remain high. The practical impact of the reserve releases was negligible and, worse still, five million barrels of oil from the reserve were actually exported abroad.

More than 5 million barrels of oil that were part of a historic U.S. emergency reserves release to lower domestic fuel prices were exported to Europe and Asia last month, according to data and sources, even as U.S. gasoline and diesel prices hit record highs.

About 1 million barrels per day is being released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) through October. The flow is draining the SPR, which last month fell to the lowest since 1986.

Considering the scale of even the national use, 20 million a day, there was never going to be much of an impact here.

U.S. officials have said oil prices could be higher if the SPR had not been tapped.

Ah, the hypothetical.

Anyway the oil went all over.

The fourth-largest U.S. oil refiner, Phillips 66 PSX.N, shipped about 470,000 barrels of sour crude from the Big Hill SPR storage site in Texas to Trieste, Italy, according to U.S. Customs data. Trieste is home to a pipeline that sends oil to refineries in central Europe.

Atlantic Trading & Marketing (ATMI), an arm of French oil major TotalEnergies TTEF.PA, exported 2 cargoes of 560,000 barrels each, the data showed.

Cargoes of SPR crude were also headed to the Netherlands and to a Reliance RELI.NS refinery in India, an industry source said. A third cargo headed to China, another source said.

Yes, the story wouldn’t be complete without China. Much like the PPP disaster, the government efforts invariably only punish Americans and reward Communist China.

AUTHOR

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

NY Times Whitewashes Jankowicz Lies, Defends ‘Disinfo’ Board

Fox News reports that The New York Times published a report that was rather charitable to the now-defunct “Disinformation Governance Board” and its appointed director, the bizarre and totalitarian leftist Nina Jankowicz.

In April, the Biden administration tried rolling out an Orwellian new Department of Homeland Security division called the “Disinformation Governance Board,” with Jankowicz at its head. It was halted in May after drawing intense backlash. Jankowicz, notorious for her widely-panned “Mary Poppins” parody and her own history of peddling misinformation, resigned and left DHS.

However, The Times alleged Jankowicz was “targeted online by false or misleading information about her role” and refrained to delve into what her critics had actually said, including the misinformation she pushed.

“The board quickly became a new foil in an old Republican campaign narrative that overbearing Democrats want to intrude deeper and deeper into people’s personal beliefs — ‘canceling’ conservative values. Ms. Jankowicz’s prominence in the discussion of Russia’s actions made her a particular target for the Republicans,” The Times wrote.

“It’s borderline comical that The New York Times wants us to not only feel bad for Nina Jankowicz, but take her seriously as an authoritative voice on what’s factual,” NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck told Fox News. “The piece refers to ‘false or misleading’ attacks on Jankowicz, but it never cared to explain why they were false or even what the criticisms were.

“The name of the board itself was Orwellian and the fact that The Times wouldn’t critically acknowledge that shows the thickness of their egos.”


New York Times (NYT)

97 Known Connections

During the course of its history the Times has won 94 Pulitzer Prizes (including a record seven in 2002), far more than any other newspaper. These awards have sometimes been fraught with controversy, however. For example, Walter Duranty was a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times Moscow correspondent in the 1930s who concealed his knowledge of Joseph Stalin‘s mass murders and other atrocities in the Soviet Union. In 1933, at the height of the Russian famine during which millions starved to death, Duranty wrote that “village makets [were] flowing with eggs, fruit, poultry, vegetables, milk and butter. … A child can see this is not famine but abundance.” According to historians, reports such as these were crucial factors influencing President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s decision to grant the Soviet Union diplomatic recognition in 1933. Writes historian Ronald Radosh,  “Duranty was a propagandist for Stalin and everything he wrote was a lie.”

The Times was likewise dishonest in its reporting about the atrocities of the Nazi Holocaust…

To learn more about the New York Times, click here.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Discover the Networks column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Clinic Funded By Biden Administration Distributes Crack Pipes To Addicts Outside A ‘School’

A “harm reduction” clinic that received grant funding from President Joe Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is distributing crack pipes to addicts in New York City, the Daily Caller confirmed Wednesday.

New York Harm Reduction Educators (NYHRE), a part of OnPointNYC, was awarded nearly $400,000 in grant money from the Biden administration in May to further its services for drug addicts, government records show. Biden officials denied reports that the grant money could fund distribution of crack pipes, but a visit to NYHRE’s office revealed that the organization still offers the smoking paraphernalia to addicts.

OnPointNYC operates two drug use sites, one of which NYHRE runs in East Harlem. After spending about 10 minutes on paperwork with basic information Wednesday evening, staff at the facility provided a Daily Caller reporter a smoking kit containing a crack pipe, condoms and lubricant.

A second Caller reporter returned Thursday and yet again, within minutes, staff provided another crack pipe. A staffer directed the reporter to back rooms for addicts to use drugs under supervision, where the reporter witnessed individuals smoking and injecting various substances.

CLICK HERE FOR A PHOTO OF: A condom and crack pipe acquired from New York Harm Reduction Educators. (Daily Caller)

A second Caller reporter returned Thursday and yet again, within minutes, staff provided another crack pipe. A staffer directed the reporter to back rooms for addicts to use drugs under supervision, where the reporter witnessed individuals smoking and injecting various substances.

The reporter, citing claustrophobia, asked if she could step outside to smoke. A staffer denied the request because the facility is located next to a “school.”

The facility is directly across the street from the Association To Benefit Children, a childcare facility for underprivileged kids in the New York area.

Prior to those visits, the Caller reached out to NYHRE and OnPointNYC on multiple occasions to ask if the organization was still distributing crack pipes, receiving no response. A PBS segment aired December 2021 highlighted that the organization was distributing crack pipes at the time, before the latest Biden grant.

NYHRE provides other services aside from harm reduction, including HIV and hepatitis testing, safe sex education and counseling services. It has received various government grants dating back to 2001 for some of these other services, a review of HHS grant documents shows. This year’s grant is the first “harm reduction” grant the group has received as part of a new administration initiative under Biden’s American Rescue Plan to support “harm reduction” efforts. The so called “safe smoking kits” are a key plank in “harm reduction” efforts across the country.

In addition to the drug and sex paraphernalia, a staffer at NYHRE gave the Caller an ID card after registering personal information. According to that staffer, an individual caught with drugs by police in the city could show that card to avoid punishment.

The Biden administration denied in February that it was giving grants to fund distribution of crack pipes, following a Washington Free Beacon report that HHS had closed applications for funding to do so.

“No federal funding will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to put pipes in safe smoking kits,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement.

“The goal of harm reduction is to save lives. The Administration is focused on a comprehensive strategy to stop the spread of drugs and curb addiction, including prioritizing the use of proven harm reduction strategies like providing naloxone, fentanyl test strips, and clean syringes, as well as taking decisive actions to go after violent criminals who are trafficking illicit drugs like fentanyl across our borders and into our communities.”

An HHS spokesperson told the Daily Caller the funds from this grant are still prohibited from being used for any federally illegal activity or equipment, including drug paraphernalia like crack pipes. NYHRE has not yet tapped into the grant money they were awarded, and once they do so, the organization must provide specific details on how the money will be spent so HHS can approve it.

“No federal funding is used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to purchase pipes in safer smoking kits. Grants include explicit prohibitions of federal funds to be used to purchase drug paraphernalia,” the spokesman said. “As the United States confronts record overdose numbers, the Biden-Harris Administration is focused on a comprehensive drug control policy focused on stopping the illicit flow of drugs like fentanyl and evidence-based policies that reduce overdoses and save lives.”

The administration has embraced “harm reduction” — which can include supplying drug paraphernalia and in some cases drugs themselves — as a strategy for treating addiction. The effort facilitates drug use in a safer setting for addicts than they might otherwise use, and offers clean equipment for drug use to prevent the spread of disease.

In total, the SAMHSA grant awarded almost $10 million to 25 different organizations. The grant recipients are disproportionately located in New York and California, not areas within the rust belt hardest hit by the overdose epidemic. Six of the 25 grants went to harm reduction groups in New York state. The Daily Caller has not confirmed which of the other 24 organizations have provided, or still provide, safe smoking kits or crack pipes to addicts.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which awarded the grants, did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Daily Caller, including questions about whether the agency knew NYHRE distributed crack pipes when it awarded them the grant or how it is ensuring that taxpayer funds don’t go to the distribution of smoking equipment.

AUTHOR

DYLAN HOUSMAN

Healthcare reporter. Follow Dylan on Twitter

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

UN Journal Touts ‘The Benefits of World Hunger’ – ‘Hunger Has Great Positive Value’

The UN Chronicle, which bills itself as “The magazine of the United Nations, Since 1946” originally published this essay in 2008 

by Professor George Kent of the University of Hawaii:

“Hunger has great positive value to many people. Indeed, it is fundamental to the working of the world’s economy. Hungry people are the most productive people, especially where there is a need for manual labour. … How many of us would sell our services if it were not for the threat of hunger?” 

“More importantly, how many of us would sell our services so cheaply if it were not for the threat of hunger?” … 

“For those of us at the high end of the social ladder, ending hunger globally would be a disaster. If there were no hunger in the world, who would plow the fields? Who would harvest our vegetables? Who would work in the rendering plants? Who would clean our toilets? We would have to produce our own food and clean our own toilets. No wonder people at the high end are not rushing to solve the hunger problem. For many of us, hunger is not a problem, but an asset.”

[ … ]

Update: After outcry, the UN pulls the essay from its website on July 6, 2022, claiming it was satire! (UN essay archived here🙂

Climate Depot’s Morano comments: “This is a UN article and was published in 2008 in the UN Chronicle. It is now just getting media attention and the author of the article, Professor George Kent, told Climate Depot on July 6, 2022, that the UN article is most definitely not a ‘satire’ but intended to be ‘provocative.’ The UN is now trying to erase history by deleting the essay and falsey pretending that it was merely a “satire.” 

Given how the world has been transformed under the ‘new normal’ of COVID lockdowns, it seems this old UN Chronicle article presciently reveals how the World Economic Forum and the UN & the WHO, seek to rule humanity with an iron bureaucratic fist and wish to keep the ‘masses’ poor, tired, and hungry.” 

Meanwhile, a new July 2022 UN report finds: U.N. says 2.3 billion people severely or moderately hungry in 2021

By: Marc Morano – Climate Depot July 6, 2022 1:59 PM with 0 comments

Climate Depot Special Report 

https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/benefits-world-hunger

Update: UN pulls the essay from its website on July 6, 2022! (UN essay archived here

 

The UN Chronicle issued this statement via Twitter: “This article appeared in the UN Chronicle 14 years ago as an attempt at satire and was never meant to be taken literally. We have been made aware of its failures, even as satire, and have removed it from our site.”


The Benefits of World Hunger – By Professor George Kent  in 2008 – the University of Hawaii – Published in UN Chronicle in 2008 & 2009

Click to access BenefitsofWorldHunger.pdf

Full Text of UN article: 

We sometimes talk about hunger in the world as if it were a scourge that all of us want to see abolished, viewing it as comparable with the plague or aids. But that naïve view prevents us from coming to grips with what causes and sustains hunger. Hunger has great positive value to many people. Indeed, it is fundamental to the working of the world’s economy. Hungry people are the most productive people, especially where there is a need for manual labour.

We in developed countries sometimes see poor people by the roadside holding up signs saying “Will Work for Food”. Actually, most people work for food. It is mainly because people need food to survive that they work so hard either in producing food for themselves in subsistence-level production, or by selling their services to others in exchange for money. How many of us would sell our services if it were not for the threat of hunger?
More importantly, how many of us would sell our services so cheaply if it were not for the threat of hunger? When we sell our services cheaply, we enrich others, those who own the factories, the machines and the lands, and ultimately own the people who work for them. For those who depend on the availability of cheap labour, hunger is the foundation of their wealth.

The conventional thinking is that hunger is caused by low-paying jobs. For example, an article reports on “Brazil’s ethanol slaves: 200,000 migrant sugar cutters who prop up renewable energy boom”.1 While it is true that hunger is caused by low-paying jobs, we need to understand that hunger at the same time causes low-paying jobs to be created. Who would have established massive biofuel production operations in Brazil if they did not know there were thousands of hungry people desperate enough to take the awful jobs they would offer? Who would build any sort of factory if they did not know that many people would be available to take the jobs at low-pay rates?

Much of the hunger literature talks about how it is important to assure that people are well fed so that they can be more productive. That is nonsense. No one works harder than hungry people. Yes, people who are well nourished have greater capacity for productive physical activity, but well-nourished people are far less willing to do that work.

The non-governmental organization Free the Slaves defines slaves as people who are not allowed to walk away from their jobs. It estimates that there are about 27 million slaves in the world,2 including those who are literally locked into workrooms and held as bonded labourers in South Asia. However, they do not include people who might be described as slaves to hunger, that is, those who are free to walk away from their jobs but have nothing better to go to. Maybe most people who work are slaves to hunger?

For those of us at the high end of the social ladder, ending hunger globally would be a disaster. If there were no hunger in the world, who would plow the fields? Who would harvest our vegetables? Who would work in the rendering plants? Who would clean our toilets? We would have to produce our own food and clean our own toilets. No wonder people at the high end are not rushing to solve the hunger problem. For many of us, hunger is not a problem, but an asset.

Notes 1 Tom Phillipps, “Brazil’s ethanol slaves: 200,000 migrant sugar cutters who prop up renewable energy boom”. The Guardian. Online, 9 March 2007.
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/energy/story/0,,2030144,00.html
2 Free the Slaves. Online, 2007. http://www.freetheslaves.net/

UN Chronicle notes: George Kent is a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Hawaii. He works on human rights, international relations, peace, development and environmental issues, with a special focus on nutrition and children. He has written several books, the latest is Freedom from Want: The Human Right to Adequate Food.

END Full Text of UN Chronicle Essay


Climate Depot Comments: 

There has been some discussion online about whether the article was a satire. See: Article describing “The Benefits of World Hunger” published by the UN goes viral, netizens confused whether it is real or satire

The UN Chronicle is now claiming — after 14 years — that the essay is “satire.” But the author of the essay disputes the UN’s claims. Climate Depot has determined that the UN Chronicle article on “The Benefits of World Hunger” is not a satire, according to the author of the report. Climate Depot spoke with the author, Prof. George Kent, emeritus of the University of Hawaii on July 6, 2022.

Kent also emailed  the following comments to Climate Depot:first published in the UN Chronicle in 2008, and again in 2009 when the UN Chronicle changed its format

Prof. George Kent’s July 6, 2022 email to Climate Depot:

“The essay was first published in the UN Chronicle in 2008, and again in 2009 when the UN Chronicle changed its format.” … “Yes, I wrote that paper. No, it is not satire. I don’t see anything funny about it. It is not about advocacy of hunger. I have not encountered anyone else who thought it might be advocacy. I don’t think the UN would have published it if they thought it was satire or advocacy.

The purpose of the paper was to highlight the point that the only way to understand the persistence of hunger is to recognize is that some people with power benefit from it. This point lit up for me when I was at a conference in India about some sort of assistance program for poor people, when one person, apparently a farm owner, stood up and argued against that asistance. His explicit concern is that the assistance would reduce his supply of cheap labor.

Persistent hunger is due mainly to the shortage of caring.”

Kent, in a phone interview with Climate Depot, said that he now “regrets” not being clearer and said that while his article was trying to be “provocative,”  he was not “advocating” for preventing an end to global hunger.

Meanwhile, a new July 2022 UN report finds: U.N. says 2.3 billion people severely or moderately hungry in 2021 – UNITED NATIONS (AP) — World hunger rose in 2021, with around 2.3 billion people facing moderate or severe difficulty obtaining enough to eat — and that was before the Ukraine war, which has sparked increases in the cost of grain, fertilizer and energy, according to a U.N. report released Wednesday.

“The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World” paints a grim picture, based on 2021 data, saying the statistics “should dispel any lingering doubts that the world is moving backwards in its efforts to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms.”

“The most recent evidence available suggests that the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet around the world rose by 112 million to almost 3.1 billion, reflecting the impacts of rising consumer food prices during the (COVID-19) pandemic,” the heads of five U.N. agencies that published the report said in the forward.

Choose Your Weapons Carefully

Armies are known by the weapons they deploy, which are sometimes used exclusively by them and not by other armies.  For example, the Soviet/Russian army has used the AK 47 assault rifle since shortly after the day it was invented in 1947.  Armies are also known by their armored weapons, e.g., the American Sherman tank, the American Abrams tank, the German Panzer and Tiger tanks and the Russian T-26 tank, as well as others.

Militaries choose or create their weapons and deploy them, based on the weapons firepower, their lethality, their cost and their overall effectiveness in combat.  There were instances in WW2 when armored tanks, such as the German Tiger, created such fear in their enemies that they effected the outcome of battles for that reason alone.  A true military strategist and leader will deploy his troops and weapons based on his ‘intelligence’ as to their effectiveness in determining the outcome of a battle or war.

Most political wars have been won by superior physical force, based on the strategies and weapons used by the victor.

Weapons, Offensive or Defensive

What constitutes a ‘weapon’?  Merriam Webster Dictionary defines a weapon as “an object used to injure, defeat or destroy”.  This definition makes it sound as though all weapons are offensive, but the true nature of an object defined as a weapon is determined by the intent of the user, the nature of the person(s) instigating the action that leads to the use of weapons, as well as the actual use of them in a battle.

Politicians are well trained in weaponizing objects that would not normally be considered weapons; for example, money has been weaponized and used to batter political opponents and drive them from the political arena.

The First War (And Yes, It WAS Political)

This current war, between good and evil, is merely an extension of the first war which began long before the political action in the Garden Of Eden.  The instigator was Lucifer who wanted to ascend to the throne of God, to make himself LIKE God, to be preeminent over Almighty God (Isaiah 14:12-15 KJV).  Notice in the 13th verse he says, “I will exalt MY THRONE above the stars of God, indicating that he did indeed have a throne on this earth.  He thus declared war on God with the intention of taking over all of God’s creation.  In that action, Lucifer was defeated and cast down and his earthly throne and rulership were taken from him and the earth entered a long period of desolation and chaos which lasted until God intervened and re-created the earth in the Genesis account.

The only rulership Satan would ever have after that was whatever he could attain by lying, cheating, fraud and deception.  In other words, he would have to usurp that authority from its rightful owner.

War – The Deception Factor

Sun Tsu, Chinese general, military strategist, writer, and philosopher said, “All war is deception”.  Most people would contradict that and say that war is about having the best equipped and trained army showing its superiority in battle.  I would strenuously disagree with that statement.  Whether conducted by an army fielded by one or more of the world’s ‘superpowers’, or by a small group of militia led by a local warlord, *ALL war is POLITICAL in nature.  In order for that statement to make sense, one must understand the true definition of politics:

Politics Defined from www.Dictionary.com

noun

  • use of intrigue* or strategy** in obtaining any position of power^ or control^^, as in business, university, government etc.

*Intrigue Defined

noun

  • the use of underhanded machinations*** or deceitful stratagems.

 

**Strategy Defined

noun

  • a plan, method, or series of maneuvers or stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result: a strategy for getting ahead in the world.

***Machinations defined

    Noun

  • crafty schemes; plots; intrigues

^Power Defined

           noun

  • ability to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing something.

^^Control Defined

noun

  • the act or power of controlling; regulation; domination or command: Who’s in control here?

 

Based on these explanations/clarifications, politics should be defined as “The use of underhanded, crafty schemes, plots, intrigues and deceitful plans, methods, or series of maneuvers (machinations and intrigue) in obtaining any position enabling one to do or act (power), providing the capability of control, domination or command (control). This will now be my definition as long as I live.

 

The NOW War

Even though history says that we have had two ‘world wars’, this ‘Now War’ is the only truly global/world war ever to be fought; all people on earth will be, or will become, involved in this war and none will escape its outcome.

We are currently deep into the greatest war since time began, a war between good and evil, between God and Satan.  Skirmishes and battles are being fought almost constantly around the globe in this war, some of them being only in the spiritual realm and many in the physical realm.

I have recently heard many secular analysts who are admitting that we are now seeing a war between good and evil, so in effect they admit that evil exists, something that many have long denied.  Most of them proclaim ways to win this war, to stamp out the evil, much as a recent POTUS claimed he would ‘drain the swamp’.  However, if they believe they can do so while using the same tactics and weapons the ‘evil’ uses, they are sadly mistaken.  The problems caused by this long-running war are spiritual nature and there is NOT a political solution to a spiritual problem.  Only the ‘spiritual weapons’ provided for the good combatants will have any effect on evil.

Many wars have been waged throughout history and they have ALL been ‘political in nature’; unfortunately,  political wars will continue until the Prince of Peace returns to set up His ‘non-political kingdom’ and rule this world with a rod of iron.

In order to understand, at least from the physical perspective, the true nature of the ”now” war in which the the entire world is involved, one must remove all emotion from the political process, including considering the personalities of those you have voted for and realize that ALL politicians, supported by Satan, fight their ‘political battles’ using his Luciferian tactics and weapons.  The principal weapons he uses are deceit, lies, fear and intimidation, and they are spiritual in nature.  Unless you are also a politician, fighting in that arene, you cannot defeat a political enemy using the same weapons he uses.  You must seek out the more powerful and effective spiritual weapons if you want to win the war.

In this current war, from the human, political perspective, many politicians have gladly joined with Satan, using his weapons to further his governance over the kingdoms of this world in exchange for what he has to offer.

While his weapons have served Satan well in his battle against humanity, starting with his first encounter with man, and have allowed him to have almost unbridled control over the governments of the world, they have absolutely NO power in his direct confrontations with Almighty God and those who believe God’s word and allow it to direct their lives.

Satanic Attacks

When we are attacked by spiritual forces, we are not usually on a physical battlefield, using rifles, tanks and artillery; we may be merely going about our daily work or possibly just relaxing after a day of hard work.  Satan’s strategy is to attack when we are at our weakest.  This could be in a moment of extreme physical weakness/tiredness or in times of mental stress and pressure.  His attacks are designed to catch us off-guard and seemingly unprepared to fight them off.  If we know, and remain aware of, the nature of his strategies and tactics, we will be much better equipped to defeat him.

Our warfare with his forces occurs in the mental realm (2 Corinthians 10:4-6 KJV).  Our enemies, the minions of Satan, will introduce thoughts that are contrary to God’s word and will work to get our minds turned away from truth.  His strategy is to cause us to change our behavior in such a way that we rely on ‘so-called facts’ provided by the world rather than the truth of God’s word.

Facts are important, mostly in that they provide a comparison between them and truth, but they must never be allowed to take precedence over God’s word.  Even if they are correct, they are not to be considered as truth.  Do NOT believe the ‘so-called’ fact-checkers who will give you their own version of validity of the facts.  Often, these ‘checked’ facts do not come close to lining up with God’s word, and if you profess to be a believer, you MUST make God’s word the basis for every decision you will make.

Paul provided a perfect explanation of why it is so important to cast off the information  we may receive from ungodly sources and only trust in God and His word.  In Romans 121-3 KJV, we read:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith”.

Choosing Our Weapons

When a physical army engages an enemy, its leaders will try to calculate the amount of pressure, or  resistance, it may encounter and plan its strategy accordingly. That strategy will include the most effective use of its weapons, including the timing of attacks and counterattacks.  Its purpose is to cause the enemy to make mistakes.

Physical armies and their leaders spend untold millions of dollars on research and development in an effort to have the very best weapons they need in a war.  Should Christians avail themselves of research and development as we try to be ready for satanic attacks?  It sounds like a prudent move, right?  Well, how fortunate that we have a God who thinks of everything way in advance.  He knew exactly what strategies and weapons our enemy would use against us and freely provided that information in his word so that we can always be prepared for his attacks.

In Ephesians 6, we are told just what our weapons are, both defensive and offensive, and how we are to use them in our battles against evil.  God has provided the very best defensive weapons for our use, and they provide the ultimate protection for every part of our being, both physical and spiritual, listed here in Ephesians 6:10-18 KJV:

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

Notice that the full armor of God provides complete protection, and it works by faith to divert every evil arrow hurled at us.  But, add to all this the weapon that is absolutely far superior to anything Satan can use against us: our offensive weapon, the sword of the spirit, given to us in the form of the word of God.  Jesus used that same sword to shut the mouths of all his enemies during his earthly ministry and we must also use it in the same way while continuing that ministry here on earth.

Jesus was always aware of the battles He would face against Satan and was always prepared with His weapons ready.  His life provides the best example of what our weapons are and how to use them, which brings up an extremely important point: The best weapons available are only valuable when they are picked up and used properly.  This is why Paul told us to “put on the whole armour of God…”.  Any armor or weapon laying unused is totally worthless.

I know many Christians who still believe that contacting our ‘elected’ representatives about issues that concern us is the best we can do to change things here in the US.  Let me remind you that if politicians were capable of actually solving problems rather than creating new ones, the US would be in wonderful shape.  But one must remember that those ‘elected representatives’ we are admonished to call, are what they are by their shrewd use of the political system with its weapons. If there are any true believers in our Congress (very few, I believe), they are the only ones even remotely able to help, but then, only if they also are equipped with the proper weapons.  If they are trying to use the same luciferian weapons their colleagues use, nothing will ever be fixed.

To be quiet honest, I have many such contacts over the years and not once did I receive a response that was not ‘canned’ and written by a junior aide. I will never again waste my time on such futile efforts.  Even if ta Congressperson were to personally contact me, what assurance would I have that their response was honest enough to be believed?

That said, I would caution everyone who is a true believer to never put any trust in the words of a politician.  For the most part, his words are a part of his political weapon arsenal, chosen carefully to lead you into believing something that is untrue, which is the very essence of deception.  The only word you need is the one already recorded in heaven and printed on earth as God’s word.  His word is absolute truth (yes, it really does exist) and deception is not a part of it.

Resistance to Force and Pressure

Our adversary is a spirit being who uses spiritual weapons against us. His weapons are designed to put pressure on us and force us into a position of weakness.  Unless we are using the proper and superior spiritual weapons ourselves, we will be prone to making serious mistakes and may face defeat at the hand of a lesser opponent.

James, the half-brother of Jesus explained how we can be assured of victory in our battles with evil: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7 KJV).  The word ‘resist’ in that passage is the English translation of the Greek word, anthistemi (Strong’s 436, pronounced anth-is’-tay-mee), and it literally mean ‘to oppose, to stand, or to stand against’.  This dovetails perfectly with Paul’s instructions in Ephesians on how to use the spiritual armor God gave us.  He said putting on the whole armor enables us to stand against the wiles of the devil: “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore…. (Ephesians 6:13-14a KJV).  He used the word ‘stand’ three times in that passage so it must be important.  In my mind it means, resist, no matter what, Satan’s wiles and, once the dust clears, he will be the one flat on his back, or fleeing for his life, while you and I, after standing against him, will be the victorious warriors.

GOD’S WORD IS PERFECT AND IT WILL NOT FAIL WHEN USED ACCORDING TO HIS INSTRUCTIONS.

Now, choose your weapons, pick them up, put them on and get ready for battle!  Just make sure your weapons are the ones that God designed for victory over evil!  Your possession of these weapons, and your skill in using them, will decide which side of the war you end up on.

Blessings!

budaroo@twc.com

©Bud Hancock. All rights reserved.