Texas Border Operation Catches 348,000 Illegal Immigrants, 361 million Lethal Fentanyl Doses

In the absence of adequate federal enforcement a Texas border security initiative heavily criticized by Democrats and the media has apprehended hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants—including thousands of criminals—and seized millions of lethal doses of fentanyl. Known as Operation Lone Star, the project was launched by Governor Greg Abbott in March 2021 as the illegal immigration crisis gripped his border state. Essentially the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the Texas National Guard are picking up the slack for the federal government, which is charged with protecting the famously porous southern border.

Texas had to take charge to combat the smuggling of people and drugs, the governor’s office wrote in the 2021 press release announcing Operation Lone Star, which integrates DPS with the Texas National Guard and deploys air, ground, marine and tactical border security assets to high threat areas to prevent Mexican cartels and other criminal elements from smuggling drugs and humans into the state. “The crisis at our southern border continues to escalate because of Biden Administration policies that refuse to secure the border and invite illegal immigration,” Abbott said at the time. The governor’s office assures that the operation continues to fill the “dangerous gaps left by the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border.” Every arrested individual and every ounce of drugs seized by Operation Lone Star would have otherwise made their way into communities across the nation due to the president’s open border policies, Texas officials point out.

The most recent figures, released just days ago, show that Operation Lone Star is succeeding despite detractors on the left. Since the multi-agency effort was launched more than 348,000 illegal immigrants have been apprehended and over 24,000 criminals have been arrested. DPS has also seized a startling number of drugs, over 361 million lethal doses of fentanyl. “Texas has also bused more than 9,100 migrants to our nation’s capital since April, over 5,200 migrants to New York City since August 5, more than 1,500 migrants to Chicago since August 31, and more than 890 migrants to Philadelphia since November 15,” the state announcement reveals. The document offers specific Operation Lone Star cases that prevented the smuggling of drugs, weapons, and humans into Texas.

The crisis along the southwest border is unprecedented and has created a tremendous threat to national security. The latest government stats show a drop in monthly illegal immigrant crossings that carries little weight since it is a decrease from the record-highs that have prevailed during the Biden administration. The stats show that U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended 128,000 illegal immigrants in January 2023 and federal agents at crossing ports prevented an additional 28,000 migrants from entering the country. Considering illegal immigration records have been shattered under Biden, the latest monthly figure is not bad. In his first year as president, federal agents apprehended 1,659,206 illegal immigrants at the southwest border, breaking the previous high of 1,643,679 in 2000. To put things in perspective, during Donald Trump’s last year as president federal agents arrested 400,651 illegal aliens along the Mexican border.

But as the Biden presidency progresses, the crisis worsens. Fiscal year 2022 also started with a bang, a 137% increase in the first quarter over the final quarter of 2021. By the end of 2022, the Border Patrol arrested a record-breaking 2.4 million migrants, up from an already shocking high of 1.7 million in 2021. Among the apprehended were hundreds of gang members—mostly from the famously violent Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13)—and dozens of people on the national terrorist watchlist. Federal agents also confiscated thousands of pounds of drugs, mainly methamphetamine. The unprecedented numbers depict a chaotic Mexican border region rife with lawlessness that has inevitably seeped north into many parts of the United States. At least Texans have Operation Lone Star to help compensate for the federal government’s ongoing failures.

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

Diversity Narrative Fall Down and Go Boom

It was an embarrassing moment for the Left’s phony diversity narrative.  I’ve commented previously on the narrative’s many faults, one of which is the deliberate attempt to lower standards of performance throughout society.

Last month, Finland chose a transgender to represent the country at the opening ceremonies of the European Figure Skating Championships.  It was an amateur performance during which this person, a biological male dressed like a woman, fell on the ice and was helped up.

This person was not chosen for merit or competence.  This person was chosen to check the diversity, equity, and inclusion box.  I feel sorry he had to be humiliated in front of a worldwide audience.  He was exploited by virtue-signaling leftists who ride identity politics to their own personal wealth and power.

Too bad the consequences of lower standards don’t stay on the ice.  One commentator goes so far as to blame the recent rash of airline incidents to the aviation industry’s new racial and gender quotas for pilot training programs.  When you look at the dumbing down of medical school in the name of promoting equity and inclusion, you have to wonder whether a single-minded focus on diversity kills.  The question came up in connection with the recent death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of five black police officers in Memphis.  News accounts painted a picture of a short-handed police department desperate to fill slots and lowering hiring standards in order to get enough officers on the force.  They hired recruits with less work experience and even criminal records.  They also lowered physical fitness standards and dropped the running test entirely because too many people were failing.

But you don’t have to believe the diversity narrative kills to recognize standards are deteriorating in a number of areas, and the problems that’s causing.   A large county in Virginia has implemented “equitable grading” to eliminate racial disparities in grade outcomes – no penalties for late assignments, standing permission to retake tests, and everybody gets points even if they never turn in assignments.

Not exactly the best preparation for high school, where the work gets tougher.  But it doesn’t matter because a number of states have dropped graduation tests to graduate high school.  Instead of working to bring poor and minority students up to standard, places like Oregon and New Mexico have done away with a testing requirement to get a high school diploma.  Other states like New Jersey are considering the move.

Critics say lowering expectations in high school guarantees students will have trouble handling college courses.  But not to worry.  Colleges are now firing professors whose courses are too hard.  A professor in California found another solution – just give every student an ‘A’ to decolonize the classroom.  That’s right, high standards are just another bad idea imposed on you by your colonialist oppressors.

So is it any wonder med students at the University of Minnesota now pledge to fight “white supremacy” and study indigenous medicine?

Critics have warned lower standards are now infecting a number of professions, including scienceaccountingfirefighting, and the military.  How this will come back to bite people is a story yet to be written, but you can start to imagine the fallout.

But let me conclude by suggesting one other ramification of lowering standards:  Psychotherapist Nathaniel Branden wrote books arguing that competence – the ability to do things well – is the indispensable key to good mental health.  If all you know how to do is hold a participation trophy, not only are you being robbed of a full human experience, you are on the road to mental illness, no matter what identity group the Left wants to put you in.

©Christopher Wright. All rights reserved.

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

Congressman Says East Palestine Citizens Deserve Answers After Catastrophic Train Derailment

A Norfolk Southern train derailment that occurred two weeks ago in eastern Ohio still has not received the attention it should have from the federal government, said Representative Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) February 17 on “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.” Those impacted by the disaster need answers, he insisted.

The February 3 incident and “controlled explosion” of leaking rail tanker cars by authorities in East Palestine, Ohio escaped the national media’s attention for days. Yet as a result of the derailment, 38 rail cars derailed, including 11 carrying hazardous materials, according to a National Transportation Safety Board press release.

The decision to drain and ignite the contents of the tankers, which carried vinyl chloride, prompted an intense explosion that sent a plume of dark smoke and particulates high over the town of nearly 5,000 people, has sparked controversy over the federal government’s response.

Citing the health and environmental concerns of those who live in the area, Johnson said the community remains in an “emergency phase.”

The Ohio congressman, whose district includes East Palestine, told “Washington Watch” guest host Jody Hice February 17 on “Washington Watch”that he has stood at ground zero of the train derailment and “controlled explosion.” “We can’t dismiss the claims of the community about some of the ailments that they’re seeing and the fears that they have for their children to go outside,” he said.

“My number one concern today is getting the people of this community the answers that they need,” Johnson emphasized. Johnson serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Budget Committee. He complimented the work of the state and federal Environmental Protection Agencies in responding to the incident. “While there is still a long way to go,” Johnson continued, “they are making progress.”

Yet Johnson said what has happened in East Palestine should not happen in any community in the U.S. “The people here are frightened. They’re scared. They’re not getting answers to their questions …” the congressman continued.

“They’re concerned about the air in their homes and the water that they drink. And there’s been a lot of confusion,” Johnson said.

Residents of the eastern Ohio town are extremely frustrated and have “more questions than answers,” Hice agreed, noting U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has indicated he has no plans to visit East Palestine and that the Biden administration determined the region fails to qualify for federal disaster aid.

Johnson said he was surprised that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) denied the request for disaster funding. “If this doesn’t qualify as a disaster, I don’t know what does,” he said, noting he has reached out for an explanation. The congressman said as well that he was shocked that Secretary Buttigieg has not visited the site. Johnson noted the National Transportation Safety Board is moving forward with their own investigation of the matter.

He called Secretary Buttigieg’s February 13 statement on the East Palestine tragedy an “outrageous comment.”

Buttigieg told Yahoo! Finance Live that “… while this horrible situation has gotten a particularly high amount of attention, there are roughly 1,000 cases a year of a train derailing.”

“The secretary has been AWOL, absent without leave,” Johnson argued. “He just has not been tuned into this at all.” The congressman said Buttigieg’s comment suggests he is being “very lighthearted” about the incident.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) announced late Friday evening FEMA has reportedly reversed course and will respond to the emergency situation in East Palestine with federal resources.

AUTHOR

K.D. Hastings

K.D. Hastings and his family live in the beautiful hills of Middle Tennessee. He has been engaged in the evangelical world as a communicator since 1994.

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The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Bad Train Optics: EPA Chief Regan Abruptly Cancels Africa ‘Climate Change’ Trip with Hollywood Celebrities

Climate agenda hijacks real environmental issues.


Bad Optics: EPA Chief Michael Regan abruptly cancels Africa ‘climate change’ trip with Hollywood celebrities – As EPA Remains silent on who ordered controlled burn of toxic Ohio train

Actor and humanitarian Idris Elba and his wife Sabrina Elba will accompany Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan on Saturday to sub-Saharan Africa, the Grio exclusively reports.  The NAACP and Golden Globe award-winning star, Mrs. Elba and Regan will travel to Ghana and Sierra Leone to focus on the issue of climate change and ways to combat its devastating ripple effects around the globe.

Update Trip CancelledEditor’s note: “Since the publication of this report, EPA Administrator Micheal Regan has postponed his trip to Africa due to his department’s emergency response to the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which has caused environmental concerns for its residents.”

[ … ]

Climate Depot’s Morano: “This aborted Africa trip is more evidence that the climate change issue has hijacked real environmental concerns! The entirety of the environmental movement has been obsessed with ‘climate change’ to the detriment of real green issues like pollution, clean air, and water. The Biden Admin and Sec. Pete has devoted themselves to wokeness and ‘climate change,’ and they are letting their real environmental duties, like addressing the toxic train derailment, fall to the wayside. It took Buttigieg 10 days to even talk about the derailment as he instead chose to talk about too many white construction workers. When your goal is climate change and renaming racist roads, real environmental protection gets ignored.”

How is that working out for you Pete? Watch: Transportation Sec Pete Buttigieg: ‘EVERY Transportation Decision in the 21st Century Is A Climate Decision’

By:  – Climate Depot

February 20, 2023 11:39 AM

EPA Administrator Michael Regan Flying to Africa Today with Actors to Address Climate Change, Silent on Who Ordered East Palestine, Ohio Controlled Burn

April Ryan of the Grio reported on Thursday that EPA administrator Michael Regan is flying to Africa Saturday, February 18 on a climate change mission, accompanied by a well known “actor and humanitarian.” Regan has yet to respond to inquiries from The Ohio Star about EPA’s role in the decision to execute a controlled burn of vinyl chloride on February 6 at the East Palestine, Ohio Norfolk Southern train derailment.

A source familiar with EPA Administrator’s travel schedule has confirmed the agency has spent more than $6,000 for Regan’s air travel to Africa on this trip,

Update Trip Cancelled: https://thegrio.com/2023/02/16/exclusive-idris-sabrina-elba-epa-regan-africa-climate/amp/

By April D. Ryan

Editor’s note: Since the publication of this report, EPA Administrator Micheal Regan has postponed his trip to Africa due to his department’s emergency response to the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which has caused environmental concerns for its residents.

Actor and humanitarian Idris Elba and his wife Sabrina Elba will accompany Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan on Saturday to sub-Saharan Africa, the Grio exclusively reports. The NAACP and Golden Globe award-winning star, Mrs. Elba and Regan will travel to Ghana and Sierra Leone to focus on the issue of climate change and ways to combat its devastating ripple effects around the globe.

©Copyright © 2023 Climate Depot. All rights reserved.

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‘Lucrative Business’: The Child Sex Change Industry Is Exploding In The US

  • The child sex change industry is massive and growing, and children undergoing cross-sex treatments can bring a massive cash influx to hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and others in the medical industry. 
  • From 2017-2019 at least 56 genital surgeries and 776 mastectomies were performed on minors as part of the gender transition process in the U.S., but even this figure is outdated and vastly underestimates the scope of the child sex change industry by excluding certain patients. 
  • “There is no question that financial rewards play a role in the adoption of gender affirming care. Hospitals and physicians generate substantial payments from insurers or self pay patients when children enter into the transition protocols,” Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, board chair of Do No Harm and former Associate Dean for Curriculum at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Child sex changes procedures, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries, have become a rapidly-growing, multi-million-dollar industry, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation.

While there is no comprehensive data set tracking the number of children undergoing cross-sex procedures, and the cost of these procedures varies widely, existing data and experts in the field have shed light on a highly profitable and quickly growing market offering largely irreversible procedures to minors. Mastectomies and breast augmentations cost about $10,000, cross-sex genital surgeries cost about $25,000, plus several thousand dollars for anesthesia and a hospital stay, and facial and other cross-sex surgeries range from $2,000 to $15,000, according to the Philadelphia Transgender Surgery Center’s (PTSC) 2019 price list; those prices have gone up in recent years, an employee told the DCNF, but the clinic has not released an updated list and wouldn’t disclose its new prices without a patient consultation.

“There is no question that financial rewards play a role in the adoption of gender affirming care,” Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, board chair of Do No Harm and former Associate Dean for Curriculum at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, told the DCNF. “Hospitals and physicians generate substantial payments from insurers or self-pay patients when children enter into the transition protocols.”

“No matter what other motives come into play, there is no way that the surgical and medical activities would be embraced by various gender clinics and hospitals if they were financially harmed by these clinical activities,” Goldfarb added. (RELATED: ‘Groomed And Preyed Upon’: Young Woman Was Pressured Into Mastectomy, Testosterone As A Child — Now She Regrets It)

About 300,000 children in the U.S. identify as transgender, according to the University of California Los Angeles Williams Institute, though not everyone who adopts a transgender identity seeks a medical transition. While many of these children undergo surgical procedures, particularly mastectomies, a larger portion receive puberty blockers and/or hormones, which provides a continuous stream of revenue to pharmaceutical companies and medical providers.

There are more than 100 gender clinics in the U.S. that treat children, according to Reuters, and each of these clinics would need to see at least 100 patients annually to be successful but are likely seeing as many as 300 a year, Goldfarb told the DCNF. By that estimate, there are likely at least 10,000 to 30,000 children undergoing some form of gender transition in the U.S. each year.

The overall cross-sex surgery market was valued at $1.9 billion in 2019 and is projected to rise to $5 billion by 2023, according to Grand View Research, which attributed rising market value to the increased prevalence of transgender identification and improved insurance coverage for the procedures. The rise in transgender identification has been heavily concentrated among the youth population.

The medical industry is acting on these financial incentives: Johns Hopkins Medicine has been lobbying the Maryland legislature to expand Medicaid coverage of transgender procedures to include a host of interventions typically considered cosmetic, such as Adam’s apple reduction, facial contouring and laser hair removal, according to a DCNF investigation. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons, a professional association, has been fighting against state legislation restricting child sex change procedures and advocating for expanded coverage of trans procedures since at least 2017.

A woman identified as Dr. Shayne Taylor of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) reportedly touted the profitability of gender surgeries during a lecture in 2018, the same year VUMC opened its gender clinic, according to the Daily Wire. VUMC offered hormones and double-mastectomies to minors who identified as transgender to help them present as the opposite sex until it paused the procedures in late 2022 following pressure from the state legislature.

“This is only including top surgery, this isn’t including any bottom surgery, and it’s a lot of money. These surgeries make a lot of money,” Taylor said. “So a female to male chest reconstruction can bring in $40,000. A patient who just got routine hormones treatment who I’m only seeing a few times a year can bring in several thousand dollars without requiring a lot of visits and labs. It actually makes money for the hospital.”

From 2017-2019 at least 56 genital surgeries and 776 mastectomies were performed on minors in the U.S., though this data only includes minors who had formal gender dysphoria diagnoses and had their surgeries covered by insurance, according to insurance data analyzed by health technology company Komodo Health Inc and originally reported by Reuters. The data set doesn’t account for the likely much higher numbers of children undergoing such surgeries in more recent years amid skyrocketing rates of youth transgender identification.

“There’s money to be made, but not from the single cost of a procedure,” Mary Hasson, director of the Person and Identity Project at the Ethics and Public Policy Institute, told the DCNF. “The gender docs are creating a steady money stream by converting adolescents with healthy bodies into ‘consumers’ of drastic medical procedures that turn them into lifelong medical patients, dependent on additional drugs, surgery, and psychological help to live a stable life.”

“Unfortunately, as we know from the suicide studies, the promised long-term happy result is illusory,” Hasson said.

Based on PTSC’s estimates, the 259 minors annually undergoing top surgery prior to 2020 likely brought in about $2.6 million — and this only includes minors whose surgeries were covered by insurance and who had formal gender dysphoria diagnoses. Genital surgeries are rare for children, but if about 19 minors had those procedures annually prior to 2020, as Komodo’s data suggests, that would bring in $570,000 per year for child genital surgeries.

A sex change patient who begins treatments during puberty incurs massive costs immediately; the puberty blocker Lupron-Depot-PED costs about $2,000 a month, according to Drugs.com, so a youth patient who takes the drug from age 14 to 16 would spend $48,000 over two years of treatment. Cross-sex hormones, the next step of medical transition, are far less expensive than blockers. They’re typically offered at age 16, according to England’s National Health Service, and though some may eventually stop taking them, patients must continue treatments for the duration of their lives to continue seeing its full effects, according to Duke Health.

Hormones cost about $10 per month, according to Lurie Children’s Hospital; a patient who starts hormones at 16 and continues until age 80, would spend about $7,600 on the drugs over the course of a lifetime. The cost of routine medical visits to monitor a hormone patient would presumably be much higher; Taylor estimated hospitals rake in “thousands” each year from one patient taking hormones.

Advocates for child gender transitions argue that the procedures are medically necessary to address the mental health and suicide risks among transgender people and to allow them to live as their authentic selves. Several DCNF investigations and reviews have disputed claims that medical gender transitions reduce mental health problems and suicide risks.

“While transgender activists have tried to pass off their cause as a civil rights movement, it is more accurate to describe it as a profit-making machine,” Terry Schilling, president of American Principles Project, a group that opposes child gender transitions, told the DCNF. “‘Gender transitions’ are a lucrative business, enriching Big Pharma as well as numerous hospitals and clinics. And as the number of people claiming a transgender identity has exploded, so has the industry catering to their desires.”

AUTHOR

LAUREL DUGGAN

Social issues and culture reporter.

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.

‘Serious Threat’: The National Science Foundation Has Spent Millions On Projects Combating ‘Misinformation’

  • The National Science Foundation (NSF) has launched initiatives to fund projects that develop tools and research in the area of combating ‘disinformation.’
  • Nearly $40 million has been granted to “misinformation” related projects since the start of the Biden administration, according to the Foundation For Freedom Online.
  • One $324,000 grant funds a two-month summer program at Old Dominion University that teaches undergraduates about the field of “disinformation detection and analytics,” preparing them for “disinformation-related jobs.”

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is pouring millions into research and the development of tools to combat online mis- and disinformation, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of agency grants.

Since the start of the Biden administration, the total NSF dollars spent on “misinformation” related projects have reached $38.8 million, according to a November report by the Foundation for Freedom Online (FFO). However, NSF has awarded even more grants to combat mis- and disinformation since the release of FFO’s report, the DCNF found. Most grants reviewed by the DCNF, which are ongoing and have past disbursement dates ranging from July 2019 to Dec. 2022, fall under the “Convergence Accelerator Track F: Trust & Authenticity in Communication Systems” or “Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC).”

The disinformation industry is growing and increasingly used to inform social media platforms content moderation policies, which seem to disproportionately target conservative speech. Last week, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported that the U.S. State Department helped fund the “disinformation” monitor Global Disinformation Index (GDI), which the Washington Examiner earlier found maintains a blacklist of conservative media groups and websites rated based on disinformation risk that ad companies in turn utilize to defund.

Aaron Terr, Director of Public Advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), told the Daily Caller News Foundation it is “not a far-fetched scenario” to imagine the government using the technology it is funding through NSF to regulate speech.

“The government doesn’t violate the First Amendment simply by funding research, but it’s troubling when tax dollars are used to develop censorship technology,” said Terr. “If the government ultimately used this technology to regulate allegedly false online speech, or coerced digital platforms to use it for that purpose, that would violate the First Amendment. Given government officials’ persistent pressure on social media platforms to regulate misinformation, that’s not a far-fetched scenario.”

One of the most recent NSF awards, a $50,000 grant given to the University of Houston on Dec. 20, 2022, seeks to create a “social media misinformation interactive dashboard” that would “forecast trends and analysis to help address the misinformation endemic in America,” according to the grant abstract.

“Misinformation online may result in people questioning evidence-based medical guidance or refusing safe treatments,” the grant says. “Understanding current misinformation content and trends supports both corporate entities and social media users.”

In August 2020, a $149,858 project was launched at the University of Illinois to examine “the ways that misinformation regarding COVID-19 disseminates through social media and news outlets,” the grant abstract says.

“The ultimate goal is to use machine learning and network analysis tools to provide insight into the locations where misinformation originates and understanding of the mechanisms through which this misinformation spreads,” the abstract says. In order to locate “potentially dubious” information, the researchers test information against “insights from the Centers for Disease Control.”

The estimated end date is July 31, 2023, and the long-term results could be “useful for fighting future pandemics as well as other topics that are vital to the health of the Nation,” according to the grant.

On July 26, 2019, Syracuse University was awarded a $495,478 grant to study the “online dynamics of misinformation,” focusing on how “misinformation becomes woven into narratives online, how technology influences this process, and how design might be used to alter it.”

“Online misinformation can influence public health attitudes, potentially costing billions of dollars and numerous lives,” the abstract states. “This project will span a series of crowd-based experiments to investigate how people in online networks work together to combine misinformation to create and defend public health narratives.”

A late January report from FFFO highlights censorship tools created at various universities who received $750,000 grants through the NSF’s Convergence Accelerator Track F.

One project funded through a grant awarded on Sept. 20, 2021 to the University of Michigan, WiseDex, uses keywords to automatically flag posts with a “misleading claim” for social media company reviewers to compare against company Terms of Services.

WATCH:

Another project out of the University of Wisconsin system, “Course Correct,” aims to “help journalists” find and correct misinformation, along with tracking “the actual networks where the misinformation is doing the most damage.” The grant was awarded on Sept. 15, 2022.

Six projects have qualified for an additional $5 million grant as part of Phase 2ARTTExpert Voices TogetherDART, Course Correct, Co-Insights, and Co-Designing for Trust.

An NSF spokesperson told the DCNF that the goal of the program is to “support increased citizen trust in information.”

“The overarching goal of Track F is to help develop tools, techniques, educational materials and programs to support increased citizen trust in information by more effectively preventing, mitigating, and adapting to critical threats in our communications systems,” the spokesperson said. “These threats include, but are not limited to, fake social media accounts, online disinformation campaigns, online harassment, and other emerging misinformation narratives that stoke social conflict and distrust.”

The NSF is also funding projects through its Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program, which began inviting proposals in February 2022.

“Although information manipulated for political, ideological, or commercial gain is not new, the dissemination of inaccurate information at unprecedented speed and scale in the modern digital landscape is a new phenomenon with potential for vast harm,” the invitation letter stated. “There are many terms in use to characterize manipulated information, including misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation. By any of these names, wide-spread distortions of the truth serve to undermine public trust in critical democratic institutions and the validity of scientific evidence, and authentic communication.”

A collaborative SaTC research project between the University of Utah, New York University, and the Georgia Tech Research Corporation aims to develop “early warning and detection technique” that reduce the time “between misinformation generation and fact-check dissemination.” The institutions were awarded grants of $441,200$396,000, and $428,000, respectively.

In one instance, the National Science Foundation granted $324,000 for an undergraduate summer program at Old Dominion university in “disinformation” research. The two-month program, which will take place during the summer of 2023, offers students a $6,000 stipend, a $600 travel subsidy, housing, and meals as they learn about the “the rapidly growing research area of disinformation detection and analytics,” according to its website.

“Disinformation that spreads on the Web and social media isn’t just a nuisance, it causes real harm,” the flyer says. “Participants will develop essential STEM skills for studying disinformation.” 

An NSF spokesperson said the project’s goal is to “enable people to identify fake online identities,” sharing a blog from one of the main researchers on identifying fake Twitter accounts.

“The purpose of this Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site project is to give students experience working with technology to protect Internet security, which is why NSF’s Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) supported this award,” he stated.

The program was first hosted last year, when eight students were invited to conduct research for the summer on various topics, ranging from testing models that detect “COVID-related fake scientific news” to identifying fabricated tweets, according to an Old Dominion University news release.

One sample project listed on the website, “Spot bogus science stories and read news like a scientist,” instructs students that “public digital media can often mix factual information with fake scientific news.”

“In this project, students will investigate computational methods to automatically find evidence of scientific disinformation from a large collection of scientific publications,” the description reads. “The goal is to find an effective model to recommend the most relevant scientific articles that helps readers to better assess the credibility of scientific news, and locate the most relevant claims.”

The grant description adds that the knowledge students learn will prepare them for future “disinformation-related jobs.”

“Government attempts to suppress ‘misinformation’ are a serious threat to free speech,” Terr told the DCNF. “The government isn’t omniscient. It’s made up of people who, like everyone else, lack perfect access to the truth. Reality is messy, and human knowledge is constantly evolving. But that evolution can’t happen if we let the government have final say on what’s true or false. Nor should we trust the government to arbitrate truth in a fair and unbiased way. It will inevitably abuse that power to suppress criticism and dissent.”

AUTHOR

KATELYNN RICHARDSON

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.

Here Are The Sexually Explicit Books Florida Is Working To Remove From Public Schools

  • Florida public school districts have removed over 100 books for containing content that is pornographic, violent or not age-appropriate, the Daily Caller News Foundation learned.
  • The books included “This Book is Gay,” “Gender Queer,” “Let’s Talk About It” and “It’s Perfectly Normal,” all of which include graphic references to sex.
  • Florida law requires librarians and media specialists to undergo training before selecting material that is age-appropriate, and it has a law prohibiting the distribution of pornographic material to minors.

Florida schools have removed more than 100 books that contain pornographic material during the 2022-2023 academic year in order to comply with state law, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

A survey of local school districts found that 153 of 175 books were removed the the district for including pornographic, violent or age-inappropriate content, according to a document obtained by the DCNF. The removed books included “This Book is Gay,” “Gender Queer,” “Let’s Talk About It” and “It’s Perfectly Normal,” all of which contain sexually explicit depictions according to snippets shared by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration.

“This Book Is Gay” is described as an informational book about growing up in the LGBTQ+ community and includes a section about the “ins and outs of gay sex,” according to Sourcebooks. Taryn Feske, DeSantis’ communication director, shared a page from the book that defines sex terminology including “rimming,” “scat,” “scissor sisters” and “strap-on.”

Feske also shared pages from “Gender Queer,” an autobiography from author Maia Kobabe who uses e/em/eir pronouns, that depict two characters attempting oral sex by using a strap-on. The book also depicts the characters sexting, masturbating and tasting themselves.

“Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears,” the book description reads.

Let’s Talk About It” includes an image of two people engaging in anal sex and a diagram of an anus, according to pages of the book shared to Twitter.

“When it comes to reproducing, the penis and the vagina can fit together to form the ultimate baby-making machine. Let’s take a peek right now and see how —” the book reads.

It also explains that “your genitals exist to let you feel pleasure with yourself or others (no matter which genitals they may have)” and promotes hookup culture.

“Sexual intimacy is a powerful way to feel good and bond with another person, whether it’s for a night or a lifetime,” the book reportedly reads.

It’s Perfectly Normal,” advertised for children ages 10 and older, includes sections on masturbation, heterosexual and gay sex and all gender restrooms.

Only 23 districts out of 56 reported to remove books from the schools and a majority of books were removed from the schools’ media center and not classrooms. The number of books removed for having inappropriate content may be higher because 13% of reports did not include a specific reason for removal.

DeSantis signed legislation in March 2022 that requires school districts to be “transparent” about the material being taught in public schools. House Bill 1467 required those involved in selecting school library books to undergo training prepared by the state Department of Education beginning in January 2023 before selecting age-appropriate materials.

Florida law also prohibits distributing pornographic materials to minors under section 847.012, which reads that a person cannot distribute on school property “any picture, photograph, drawing, sculpture, motion picture film, videocassette, or similar visual representation or image of a person or portion of the human body which depicts nudity or sexual conduct” to minors.

Videos circulating on social media appeared to show empty book shelves at a Duval County public school, according to First Coast News. DeSantis challenged this video on Tuesday and said it was a “fake narrative.”

“That was not true,” DeSantis reportedly said, according to First Coast News. “This is trying to create some narrative as if that they hadn’t even put the books out yet to begin with. So there’s no need for all of that stuff. What they’re trying to do is they’re trying to act like somehow, you know, we don’t want books.”

Eighty-four percent of books removed from Duval County schools contained pornographic, violent or inappropriate content, according to data provided to the DCNF.

Tracy Pierce, Duval County Public Schools chief of marketing and public relations, confirmed to the DCNF the video was fake.

“Yes, this video is an outstanding example of deceptive and false narrative,” Pierce said. “The videographer took great care only to show a portion of the media center where books were removed. At that time, an extensive array of non-fiction books, biographies and reference materials remained in stock and accessible. In fact, well over half of the books in the library were still available to students.”

AUTHOR

ALEXA SCHWERHA

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.

New Biden EO Mandates ‘Equal Outcomes’ to Fight Against The Enemy—Straight White Males

“I am an American; free born and free bred, where I acknowledge no man as my superior, except for his own worth, or as my inferior, except for his own demerit.” ― Theodore Roosevelt


Joseph Robinett Biden, Jr. issued an Executive Order (EO) on February 16th, 2023 that you may not have heard about. It’s titled Executive Order on Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government and is on the White House website.

Equity Demands Equality of Outcomes

Quora provides these simple yet understandable definitions of equality of opportunity and equality of outcome,

equality of opportunity:

everyone is allowed to play at the lottery and has same chance to win the jackpot. you may buy more tickets to increase your chances.

This is what 1st wave feminism was about.

equality of outcome:

everyone is allowed to play at the lottery and also everyone is winning the jackpot. win chance = 100%

needless to say how the later will not work out in reality.

If you want equality of outcome, the Jackpot of the lottery would have to be split up amongst all participants. So basically if you win you loose money, because you win the exact amount of money you have paid for the ticket but also you have to take away the tax and fee’s for the lottery company.

Get it? Got it? Good!

Biden’s Definition of Equity

This EO defines equity thusly,

The term “equity” means the consistent and systematic treatment of all individuals in a fair, just, and impartial manner, including individuals who belong to communities that often have been denied such treatment, such as Black, Latino, Indigenous and Native American, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander persons and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; women and girls; LGBTQI+ persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; persons who live in United States Territories; persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality; and individuals who belong to multiple such communities.

 Notice who is missing? Straight white males.

This EO states,

My Administration’s commitment to equity has produced better decision-making and more equitable outcomes.

Equitable outcomes are the antithesis of equal opportunity under the law and equality of opportunity.

Government Has Gone Too Far

Jordan Peterson wrote in his blog article Equity: When the Left Goes Too Far,

It seems to me that the identifying factors of the radical left types that dominate the humanities and social sciences (and, increasingly, the HR departments of corporations) most particularly constitute the mantra of Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity (DIE). Of these three, equity is the most egregious, self-righteous, historically-ignorant and dangerous. Equity means “equality,” in some manner, and is a term designed to appeal to the natural human tendency toward fairness, but it does not mean the classic equality of the West, which is (1) equality before the law and (2) equality of opportunity.

Biden’s EO in Section 2.  Establishing Equity-Focused Leadership Across the Federal Government states,

(a)  Establishment of Agency Equity Teams.  The Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Secretary of Transportation, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Administrator of the Small Business Administration, the Commissioner of Social Security, the Administrator of General Services, the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Director of the National Science Foundation, and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (agency heads) shall, within 30 days of the date of this order, ensure that they have in place an Agency Equity Team within their respective agencies to coordinate the implementation of equity initiatives and ensure that their respective agencies are delivering equitable outcomes for the American people. 

Biden’s EO also requires every federal agency to report,

In September 2023, and on an annual basis thereafter, concurrent with the agencies’ submission to OMB for the President’s Budget, agency heads shall submit an Equity Action Plan to the Steering Committee.  The Equity Action Plan shall include actions to advance equity, including under Executive Order 13985, Executive Order 13988 of January 20, 2021 (Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation), Executive Order 14008, and Executive Order 14020.  

The Bottom Line

With equality of outcome, everyone looses.

This massive and overarching EO essentially creates an new Jim Crow law targeting straight white men. White is now officially the color of the enemy if our own federal government at every level in every department.

Jordan Peterson warned,

We know the left can go too far. The Soviets taught us that. The Maoists and the Khmer Rouge taught us that. The North Koreans, and the Cubans, and the Venezuelans continue to teach us in the same manner. We don’t know exactly when and where the “going too far” begins. But I’m willing to stake my claim on the equity doctrine. In a word, it’s inexcusable, both morally and practically, and should be regarded, in my estimation, as an ideological position that should be roundly rejected by anyone who wishes to be taken seriously in any reasonable political discussion. And we should well remember that “reasonable political discussion” is the only alternative we have to outright strife and the kind of conflict that tends to degenerate rapidly and dangerously.

Gird your loins. As this EO is implemented everything will change for the worse if you are a straight white male, mark our words.

©Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

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Greta Thunberg’s Solution For Climate Change — End Modern Life As We Know It

In a book published Feb. 14 titled “The Climate Book,” climate alarm movement poster child Greta Thunberg says that the only way to avoid catastrophic global climate change is to end modern life as we know it.

In an excerpt published by Time Magazine on Feb. 10, Thunberg begins by saying, “The solution to this crisis is not exactly rocket science. What we have to do is to halt the emission of greenhouse gasses”. What that means to anyone who understands how the world works is a halting of economic growth, a halting of transportation, a halting of moving about and making things and feeding the world’s masses.

Literally every activity in which humans engage creates emissions of one form or another. For example, the ammonia that forms the essential ingredient to fertilizers that have enabled crop yields to rise to levels necessary to feed the world’s masses is produced from petroleum. If we shut down drilling for oil and gas, pipelines, refineries and chemical plants, as Thunberg wants to do, that means an end to adequate global food production.

Just ask the people of Sri Lanka about this. Their government tried to eliminate all ammonia-based fertilizers in 2021, and the result was an almost immediate, massive economic and societal collapse. It was so severe that rioters stormed the country’s capital and forced a change in government.

In the Time excerpt, Thunberg obsesses about atmospheric carbon dioxide, the basis of the climate alarm movement, noting that it has risen substantially in recent decades, and ultimately arriving at this truth: “ there is no silver bullet or magic technological solution in sight.” This is absolutely correct.

Electric vehicles, pushed as the “magic technological solution” to do away with internal combustion engines, can never really accomplish that mission due mainly to their gargantuan appetite for an array of critical energy minerals. It will be near-impossible for global production of minerals like lithium, copper, cobalt, nickel and others to rise to projected levels that would be necessary to enable such a magical transition to EVs.

Thunberg’s solution? We all need to give up our cars, of course.

The same is true in the electricity generation space, where the climate alarm movement pushes wind and solar as the “magic technological solution” to doing away with fossil fuels. Never mind the intermittency of wind and solar, they have consistently assured us that that shortcoming will be solved as soon as we’ve developed a “magic technological solution” in the form of viable, scalable backup battery storage.

The problem there is that those batteries for electricity storage are every bit as reliant on those same critical energy minerals as are the batteries that power all the EVs.

Thunberg’s solution? We all need to give up all our electric devices, adjust our thermostats and deal with only enjoying electric service for a few hours each day. After all, they’re already doing this in places like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and other developing nations, and we see how that’s working out. To Greta, there is no reason why those in the developed world should be any different.

In fact, she contends, it’s all the fault of the developed world to begin with. “Beyond the very basics,” she contends in the Time excerpt, “our top priority must be to distribute our remaining carbon budgets in a fair and holistic way across the world, as well as to repay our enormous historical debts. That means those who are most responsible for this crisis must immediately and drastically reduce their emissions,” i.e., dramatically scale back the standards of living typically enjoyed in modern, western society.

“People keep asking us climate activists what we should do to save the climate,” Greta continues. “But maybe the question itself is wrong. Maybe, instead, we should start asking what we should stop doing.”

What she wants everyone in the developed world to stop doing is driving, taking vacations, being connected electronically, eating beef and other animal proteins, enjoying year-round fruits and vegetables imported from other parts of the world, watching TikTok videos and consuming news on iPhones, cooking with gas stoves and living a modern, 21st century existence.

Thunberg insists that making these sacrifices would, if done the “right” way, result in a society in which “we can make time and space for community, solidarity, and love — the true tenets of a good life.”

A far more likely outcome, though, would be the creation of populations preferred by authoritarian governments throughout history, ones that are immobile, isolated, under-nourished, uncomfortable, ignorant and scared. Not exactly how most people in any part of the world, developed or not, wish to live.

There simply must be a better way. If Greta wins, everyone else loses.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

AUTHOR

DAVID BLACKMON

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialize in public policy and communications.

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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.

Democrat to Biden: Ignore Court Ruling against Abortion Pills. It’s What Abraham Lincoln Would Do.

A prominent Democratic senator has urged the Biden administration to “ignore” a potential federal court ruling that could impose a nationwide ban on abortion pills, comparing the “right” to abortion with Abraham Lincoln’s efforts to free the slaves.

“In a few days, a lawless Trump-appointed judge in Texas is expected to ban access to the abortion medication Mifepristone nationwide,” tweeted Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on Thursday. Mifepristone, with misoprostol, forms the two-drug regimen that causes a chemical abortion. “Today, I’m calling on the FDA to ignore the ruling and keep this life-saving drug on the market.”

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk is expected to rule in a case filed last November by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) that argues the FDA approval of the drug in 2000 was illegal and invalid. Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, formerly served as deputy general counsel at the pro-life First Liberty Institute.

Wyden’s tweet encapsulated a 22-minute Senate speech claiming a pro-life ruling against the abortion-inducing drug would be “frightening,” “illegitimate,” and “clearly part of an effort to backtrack on a century of progress for American women and deprive them of fundamental rights.”

“The power of the judiciary begins and ends with its legitimacy in the eyes of the public,” Wyden said. In fact, courts derive their authority from Article III of the U.S. Constitution. “I have raised my hand and taken an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. I do not intend to dishonor that oath,” Wyden claimed during the speech.

Wyden went on to invoke Abraham Lincoln’s defiance of the Dred Scott case and likened abortion expansion to the abolitionist cause, since both allegedly deal with “the advancement of rights versus the deprivation of rights.”

“Not only have abortion activists placed abortion ideology ahead of sound healthcare, but now they are even calling on the government to ignore federal laws. Senator Wyden directly calling on the FDA to ignore federal court rulings hasn’t been seen since segregationist senators called on politicians to ignore Brown v. Board of Education in 1954,” Connor Semelsberger, director of Federal Affairs at the Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand. Exhortations for Southern leaders to engage in “massive resistance” against federal desegregation orders motivated segregationists from Lester Maddox to Bull Connor. In his “I Have a Dream” speech, Martin Luther King Jr. criticized Alabama Governor George Wallace for having “lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification.”

Wyden’s conservative colleague, Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.), replied that Biden and “his team do not need encouragement to break the law to promote DIY abortions — they’re already doing it.”

ADF has asked Judge Kacsmaryk to vacate the FDA’s approval in 2000 and all successive rule changes, which could take mifepristone off all national pharmacy shelves as early as the end of this month. “The FDA never studied the safety of the drugs under the labeled conditions of use, ignored the potential impacts of the hormone-blocking regimen on the developing bodies of adolescent girls, disregarded the substantial evidence that chemical abortion drugs cause more complications than surgical abortions, and eliminated necessary safeguards for pregnant girls and women who undergo this dangerous drug regimen,” said ADF. (Family Research Council, the parent organization of The Washington Stand, submitted one of 15 friend-of-the-court briefs in the case.)

Wyden protested that a statute of limitations on FDA review expired decades ago and that Congress signed off of all FDA drug approvals in subsequent legislation.

The Biden administration’s FDA dismissed the lawsuit’s allegedly “speculative allegations of harm” from the pill. “The public interest would be dramatically harmed by effectively withdrawing from the marketplace a safe and effective drug,” the Biden administration argued.

The Biden administration also stated that holding the FDA accountable if it failed to observe proper drug approval protocol would undermine “the pharmaceutical-drug infrastructure.”

But pro-life physicians say the documented harms of chemical abortion are all too real. “I’ve performed at least a dozen surgeries on women who experienced complications when the abortion pill regimen failed, including one emergency surgery just last month,” said Dr. Ingrid Skop, director of medical affairs at the Charlotte Lozier Institute.

“The safety of chemical abortion is greatly exaggerated. The largest and best available U.S. data shows that abortion pill-related emergency room visits have skyrocketed more than 500%,” noted Dr. James Studnicki, who also works at CLI. “Many of those abortion pill-related complications are being miscoded as natural miscarriage, which masks the true impact of the abortion pill and also makes those women twice as likely to be admitted for surgery for retained” aborted fetal tissue.

A life-affirming legal decision would protect 40 million women from the potential side effects of chemical abortions, according to numbers published in an analysis from NARAL Pro-Choice America. “Without medication abortion using mifepristone, the share of U.S. counties with an abortion provider could drop from 10% to as low as 8% and access to abortion would be compromised — or possibly disappear altogether — in about one in five US counties that currently have an abortion provider,” according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute.

The president reportedly fears the political fallout and his inability to impose his will independent of checks and balances. “White House officials are privately worried about the far-reaching implications if the FDA’s mifepristone approval is struck down and what they see as the limited options they have for responding,” reported Politico. The Biden administration plans to appeal any ruling that harms the abortion industry’s interests immediately and has considered declaring a national health emergency, although officials “don’t believe that declaring a public health emergency would provide meaningful new resources in this fight,” said Jennifer Klein, co-chair of Biden’s Gender Policy Council.

Absent any effective alternative, the Biden administration plans to launch “a messaging response” that “Republicans are determined to ban abortion everywhere,” Politico added.

“The insistent push from pro-abortion politicians for nationwide, no-appointment access to dangerous chemical abortion pills demonstrates just how little these politicians care about protecting women’s health,” Semelsberger concluded.

Judge Kacsmaryk has extended the case’s deadline until next Friday, February 24.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Gender Madness: NY Times Says a Male Rapist Can Be a ‘She’

The New York Times’ editors supported a convicted, double-rapist man assuming a “transgender” female identity, despite their vocal support for the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment.

The February 15 concession to the genetically intact male rapist was buried in an article about the resignation of Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon. She resigned, in part, because many Scots deeply opposed her strenuous support for a “Self-ID” law that would allow men to appropriate female identity by merely declaring it.

The Times’ announcement of Sturgeon’s sudden resignation read:

For Ms. Sturgeon, the transgender legislation is part of her declared commitment to protect minority groups… The debate was inflamed by the case of Isla Bryson, who was convicted of raping two women before her gender transition. She was initially placed in a women’s prison, prompting an outcry over the safety of other female inmates. Ms. Sturgeon later announced that Ms. Bryson had been moved to a men’s prison.

The rapist was named Adam Graham when he was arrested. During the trial, he changed his name to “Isla Bryson” and declared himself female, which caused the civil servants to let him serve his sentence in a women’s prison alongside women. Bryson’s declaration also caused most of the U.K. media to describe him as a “her.”

The New York Times also accepted Bryson’s claim, because the newspaper’s editors have bought into transgender ideology, which asserts that the government must treat people’s self-declared “gender” as more legally and morally important that the nature of their female or male body.

In the United Kingdom, Bryson’s transfer into a women’s prison justifiably generated much protest.

“It is almost impossible to believe that in a civilised society a man convicted of raping two women can be remanded in a women’s prison,” said a conservative Member of Parliament, Miriam Cates.

“We now have the utterly perverse situation where a Scottish court refers to someone who says he identifies as female [as] using ‘her penis’ to rape two vulnerable women,” said Russell Findlay, a member of the Scottish parliament.

“Rapists should not be in women’s prisons,” wrote columnist Gina Davidson on January 26.

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

FOX News Legal Filing: DOMINION Voting Systems Executives Including Eric Coomer Knew Its Voting Systems Had Major Security Issues, Was Hacked, and Was ‘Riddled with Bugs’

It hardly needs pointing out that these glitches and bugs always vote Democrat.

Editor note: This analysis is opinion. Dominion sues to silence. That, too, is opinion.

HUGE: FOX News Filing Shows DOMINION Voting Systems Executives Including Eric Coomer Knew Its Voting Systems Had Major Security Issues, Was Hacked, and Was “Riddled with Bugs”

By: Joe Hoft, TPG, February 17, 2023:

Dominion Voting Systems is in big trouble after the filing by FOX News in its case with Dominion yesterday. FOX News uncovered through its discovery in the case that Dominion’s own employees expressed serious concerns about the security of its machines.

Dominion Voting Systems sued FOX News for $1.6 billion in a defamation lawsuit in March 2021. The AP reported on the suit in a very nasty and biased report.

The AP shared:

Dominion Voting Systems filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News on Friday, arguing the cable news giant falsely claimed in an effort to boost faltering ratings that the voting company had rigged the 2020 election.

The lawsuit is part of a growing body of legal action filed by the voting company and other targets of misleading, false and bizarre claims spread by President Donald Trump and his allies in the aftermath of Trump’s election loss to Joe Biden. Those claims helped spur on rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in a violent siege that left five people dead, including a police officer. The siege led to Trump’s historic second impeachment.

The AP included numerous falsities and biases in its report, so much so that it looked like it was written by Dominion.

Since the 2020 Election, there has been a concerted effort by the Mainstream media to protect the results of the election and label anyone or any entity who challenges the uncertifiable results of the 2020 results as an election denier.

On Thursday, FOX News filed a brief in this case with Dominion Voting Systems.  FOX News uncovered some material issues with Dominion and its voting systems.  These items were so serious that Dominion employees expressed concerns about these issues.

Discovery in this case revealed that Dominion’s own employees expressed serious concerns about the security of its machines. 

Mark Beckstrand, a Dominion Sales Manager, confirmed that other parties “have gotten ahold of [Dominion’s] equipment illicitly” in the past.  Beckstrand identified specific instances in Georgia and North Carolina and testified that a Dominion machine was “hacked” in Michigan.  Beckstrand confirmed that these security failures were “reported about in the news.”

On Thursday, FOX News filed a brief in this case with Dominion Voting Systems. FOX News uncovered some material issues with Dominion and its voting systems. These items were so serious that Dominion employees expressed concerns about these issues.

Discovery in this case revealed that Dominion’s own employees expressed serious concerns about the security of its machines.

And just weeks before the 2020 presidential election, Dominion’s Director of Product Strategy and Security, Eric Coomer, acknowledged in private that “our shit is just riddled with bugs.”  Indeed, Coomer had been castigating Dominion’s failures for years. In 2019, Coomer noted that “our products suck.”  He lamented that “[a]lmost all” of Dominion’s technological failings were “due to our complete f— up in installation.”

In another instance, he identified a “*critical* bug leading to INCORRECT results.” Ex.H4, Coomer Email (Jan. 5, 2018). He went on to note: “It does not get much worse than that.” And while many companies might have resolved their errors, Coomer lamented that “we don’t address our weaknesses effectively!”

Click here to view Fox Lawsuit excerpt.

Other internal documents noted that a glitch identified by a security expert in Antrim County should be detected in the software. Coomer shared that the expert isn’t entirely wrong.

In addition, after the 2020 Election, Dominion received complaints from Georgia noting irregularities with machine counts that required employees to reprogram the machines.

Keep reading.

AUTHOR

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

‘Diversity’ In German Schools Imperils Education

Diversity is not a strength in Germany’s troubled school system, but a source of great stress, according to a new report here: “‘The psychological stress is enormous’ – Diversity not a strength in Germany’s troubled school system,” by John Cody, Remix News, February 16, 2023:

One school principal says one of her schools features 23 different nationalities, many who do not speak German. The resulting chaos this produces is now being seen throughout the German school system.

It is not possible to teach students if they lack the most basic knowledge of the language of instruction. Teaching staff must now include those who can provide elementary language instruction. And since 23 different languages are spoken, teachers who speak each of those languages will be needed to provide that instruction, if they are all to benefit. A student from Libya or Syria will need a teacher who is bilingual in Arabic and German; a student from Pakistan, on the other hand, will need a teacher who can communicate with him in Urdu and German, and so on. One can weIll imagine the cost of all that extra personnel, teachers of German who can also interpret 23 different languages. And these migrant students need to learn not just the rudiments of German; they need to be brought as near as possible up to the level of their German schoolmates.

Germany has accepted millions of migrants over the last few years, and in turn, the country’s school system has been transformed into a diversified, multicultural student body. However, instead of diversity being a “strength,” the data, as well as numerous accounts from teachers and school administrators, points to the perils of increasing numbers of foreign students.

In a new interview with one of Germany’s top newspapers, principal Norma Grube, who runs two schools in Chemnitz, describes increasingly chaotic conditions where many children have difficulty speaking German, assaults are commonplace, and parent-teacher meetings routinely require interpreters. In fact, there is little Grube tells Die Welt that backs the claims by pro-migration advocates that increasing diversity will bring a brighter future to Germany.

When students from a dozen countries, speaking 23 languages, all share a single classroom, this is likely to lead to conflict between different ethnic linguistic, and and religious groups. Imagine a Houthi Shi’a from Yemen in the same classroom with Sunnis from the same country, or Syrian Alawites (a branch of Shi’a Islam) sitting beside Syrian Sunnis, or Azeris with Armenians, or Turks with Kurds, or Iraqi Shi’a with Iraqi Sunnis, or Iranians with Azeris, Kurds, or Baluchis. They do not leave their conflicts at the door, but bring them with them into the schools of Germany. Nor are these migrants, almost all of them Muslims allowed in since 2015, the year that former Chancellor Angela Merkel, embracing the “diversity-is-our-strength” mantra, allowed one million migrants into Germany, ready to forget their deep-dyed hostility to non-Muslims. While that figure of one million migrants has decreased somewhat, a few, hundred thousand economic migrants, posing as asylum seekers fleeing persecution, still enter Germany every year from Muslim lands. They come not to avoid an entirely factitious persecution at home, but to live on those many benefits the German government provides.

Twenty-three different nations meet in the schoolyard, some of whom cannot understand each other at all and who sometimes come from hostile regions, such as Russia and Ukraine. We need a lot of parent-teacher talks, which mostly take place with interpreters. And that brings us to one of the reasons why the teaching profession has become less and less attractive: The psychological stress is enormous and it has increased significantly,” said Grube.

The stress on teachers, trying both to teach their subjects, and to keep the peace among students who come mainly from non-Western societies where violence is much more common, is becoming unbearable. Teachers did not sign up to also serving as peacekeepers – a role which may involve physical danger to them, and takes away from the time that can be devoted to what should be the teacher’s only task – instruction.

On top of that, there is a level of “brutalization” and disrespect directed at teachers that is impossible for many of them to deal with, which leads to high teacher turnover rates.

Respect for teachers is not a given in primitive countries, where discipline is mostly maintained through corporal punishment rather than through voluntary adherence to a code of conduct.

The Muslim students know that their German teachers are Infidels, the “most vile of created beings,” while they, the Muslims, are the “best of creatures.” They do not, as a consequence, respect their teachers, and are perfectly ready to ignore their commands. There is a general coarsening of classroom behavior that can affect even non-Muslim students, who observe how the Muslim students treat their teachers with ill-concealed contempt, but say nothing, out of physical fear of the Muslims, or still worse, may even start to emulate them.

Grube’s story is far from unusual as Germany undergoes a massive demographic transformation, with critics of what is happening referring to the Great Replacement, the phenomenon of Europeans being replaced by non-Europeans across the West. In Berlin, 40 percent of students do not speak German as their native language, and in cities like Hamburg, the majority of students have a migrant background. Overall, an astounding 38 percent of all children in elementary schools in Germany have migrant backgrounds.

If roughly 40% of students in elementary schools in Germany are from migrant (and, let me repeat, overwhelmingly Muslim) backgrounds, in 20 years, 40% of 20-year-olds in Germany will be Muslims. At the same time , unless the very high Muslim fertility rate decreases and the very low fertility rate of the indigenous Germans — now well below replacement level – increases, today’s 40% of children with migrant backgrounds will rise above the tipping point of 50% by 2035. It’s simple mathematics. That dismal possibility need not, however, be set in stone. The German government can call a halt to all Muslim migration. If workers are needed to staff German factories, the German government can import those workers from Latin America, the Philippines, Ukraine, even southern Italy – all places where Christianity remains strong. Germany can also tie the receipt of welfare benefits — including housing, medical care and family allowances – to the would-be recipient’s employment history. This will mainly affect Muslim families, because while the women do not work but are breeders, the men prefer to remain unemployed, rather than work at menial jobs, which are the only ones for which they qualify. A pro-natalist advertising campaign, paid for by the government, and targeting audiences of native Germans, should be unembarrassedly undertaken. There is nothing wrong with those who would otherwise be among the first to be replaced in the Great Replacement, doing whatever it takes to avoid that fate.

The German Left, still unchastened by Germany’s experience with mass immigration, wants to continue to admit half a million immigrants each year:

Despite a push from the left, including Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens, for up to 500,000 immigrants per year, what is happening within Germany’s school system due to mass immigration raises serious questions about the benefits of diversity. In some cases, schools that were once “diverse” are now becoming homogenous, but that is due to an absence of ethnic Germans and the dominance of, for example, Middle Eastern groups. In some of these schools, antisemitism is commonplace, with Muslim students partaking in small pranks like taping “Jew” to one student’s back all the way to outright assault in other cases, according to Die Welt.

If the Left wants half a million immigrants every year from now on in Germany, the Right should not oppose them, but it must insist that those immigrants be carefully chosen, and must no longer be taken in from Muslim lands. Germany, and the rest of Europe, have now had extensive experience with Muslim economic migrants, who claimed to be asylum seekers fleeing persecution; the results of that migration have been alarming. Such immigrants turn out to be masters of soaking the generous welfare states of Western Europe for all they have — that is, for all the benefits they have on offer, including free or greatly subsidized housing, free medical care, free education, family allowances, and unemployment benefits even without any record of employment. The Muslim immigrants stand out for their very high rates of both unemployment and criminality. Muslims are incarcerated at anywhere from three to ten times the rate of non-Muslims, and are especially overrepresented in the commission of violent crimes, such as rape and murder. Unlike other migrants, Muslim migrants mostly reject integration with their host countries, for they see no reason why they, the “best of peoples,” should want to become part of a society run by Infidels, “the most vile of created beings.” They are in Europe, but not of Europe; their hope is that eventually, by inexorable demographic change, they will become dominant in the countries that so foolishly let them in.

The demographic transformation in Germany may be a “big picture” issue. However, Grube provides a view of what the situation is increasingly like on the ground for school administrators and teaching staff:

“Since the beginning of the month, I have been running two schools that are 35 kilometers apart for one simple reason: My predecessor at the Untere Luisenschule in Chemnitz has retired, and there was simply no colleague around who applied to succeed her. In addition to the shortage of teachers, there is also an increasing shortage of school principals.

My new school is not easy. There is a good social structure in the Ore Mountains, and many teachers have taught their students’ parents. There is good social control and many stable parental homes. In Chemnitz, the student body is significantly more heterogeneous. Around half of the children are not of German origin, which does something to a school.

She says that many new teachers are either reluctant to impose necessary penalties against troublesome students, or in some cases, they are even fearful to do so. In general, there is a tendency to avoid conflict among younger staff, which leads to them losing control of increasingly difficult classroom environments.

Frau Grube knows that Muslim students can be violent, and their parents and other relatives will back them in any confrontation with teachers or principals. The parents will even come to school to threaten teachers for having disciplined their children. Why would a teacher take a chance on being hurt herself, in an attempt to impose order in classrooms full of students who are so refractory that it is impossible to get them to behave? It’s simply not worth it. And the situation is just as bad for the principals, to whom those teachers complain of the situation. No wonder that teaching is no longer an attractive profession in Germany. The schools, the put-upon teachers and principles, and their indigenous German students, are all the immediate victims of this invasion by Muslims. But no officials dare to admit that Muslim behavior in classrooms has become a serious and increasing problem, lest they be accused of being “racists” and “Islamophobes.”

In general, in the eyes of young people, adults have suffered an enormous loss of authority, teachers in particular. I recently issued a disciplinary measure against a student who called a colleague an ‘asshole.’ Such insults are also part of everyday school life. It’s stressful, it’s stressful. My very first duty is to keep the school safe, so I suspended this student for a week,” she said.

While lack of respect for authority among the young may be a universal phenomenon, Muslim students are especially unwilling to be respectful of their Infidel teachers and principals. When all their lives they have been taught to despise Infidels as “the most vile of created beings,” it is only natural that they should bristle at any attempt by Infidel teachers to discipline them.

Parents are not much of a help either and often fight school staff when it comes to making changes at home or imposing discipline. In many cases, students represent a tremendous problem, but there is little that the schools can do, as there is nowhere else to send them. Teachers cannot even remove extremely violent students from the schools, according to the principal:

At the beginning of the school year, one student beat another so badly that he had to be hospitalized for two days. I would have gladly expelled him from the school, following the wishes of the staff, but that was not possible because there was no other school place for him in the area. Now, my students and colleagues have to live with him. Their great fear is always that they will not be able to protect the other children at the decisive moment….

I assume the violent boy in question is a migrant, since the effect of migrants in German schools is what Frau Grube has been discussing, and almost certainly a Muslim, because the vast majority of these new migrants in Germany are Muslim. Despite beating up another student, this Muslim boy could not be expelled from the school because, quite understandably, all the other schools in the area refused to accept him. So he remains at the school in Chemnitz, a constant worry for his fellow students, who at any moment might find themselves the object of his violence, and for the teachers who will be compelled to protect other students from him. And no one has apparently suggested that after such violent behavior, if he cannot be jailed as a juvenile, he could be expelled, along with his family, back to his country of origin. That idea is apparently too outlandish even to discuss.

The government of Germany should right now be combing the globe for potential migrants, ideally Christians who, unlike Muslims, can integrate into the larger society. Ukraine, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, Southern Italy, Portugal, Greece are some obvious sources of workers who can be invited to move to Germany where, after they have learned sufficient German, can be  provided with vocational training that matches the needs of their future German employers who will have sponsored that training. The will be prepared to work in such expanding fields as electric automobiles, computer technology, and solar energy. While receiving that training, they could receive government benefits, but those benefits would end as soon as they are hired. As for the Muslims still in Germany, great efforts should be made to persuade them to return to their countries of origin. Both carrots — a one-time “resettlement payment” — and sticks, by which is meant that any government benefits that they may still be receiving will be brought to an immediate end, making their continued presence in Germany very difficult indeed.

AUTHOR

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

McConnell’s Ukraine Obsession Further Illustrates His Disregard For The Plights Of Everyday Americans

I agree with this article below! We should stop shoveling $$$ to Ukraine unless and until it is proven to the American taxpayer that U.S. national interests are at jeopardy. We also should be assured there is absolute accountability for the over $100 Billion already sent to Ukraine in cash. Furthermore, it should be explained how the $Bs worth of modern US warfighting equipment sent to Ukraine which will require replacement taking 5 or more years has impacted our own Defense capabilities.

I don’t buy the lame argument that if we don’t stop Russia in Ukraine, it will embolden the Chinese to invade Taiwan. The Obama3/Beijing Joe Biden administration has already emboldened Communist China towards their goal of world domination and outpacing the US as the leading super power. Following are a few examples of how they no longer fear the U.S. as they did under the Trump administration:

  1. The Biden family has been enriched with $ millions in gifts from the CCP.
  2. The PENN-BIDEN Center was funded by $54 M in Chinese donations and recent TS documents discovered in a closet there shows their influence.
  3. The Biden DOD has shown they are totally incompetent in dealing with Chinese incursions over US airspace and installations with the recent Spy Balloon incident.
  4. The CCP has infiltrated our institutions, research facilities, corporations and even the federal govt in many areas
  5. The CCP is unchecked in buying up American farmland, ports and other assets
  6. China still enjoys most favorable nation status and surplus trade agreements which Trump was curbing.

Furthermore, the corrupt Ukrainian President, Zelenskyy along with socialist Democrats and warmongering neocon, globalist Republicans like McConnell, Graham and Romney don’t want peace and have rejected efforts towards a cease fire which Israel and others have attempted to negotiate.

Why is all this more important than securing our own Southern Border which has put our country’s sovereignty and safety in dire jeopardy as millions of illegal aliens stream across our border including terrorists, drug dealers, human traffickers, and other criminals?

McConnell’s Ukraine Obsession Further Illustrates His Disregard For The Plights Of Everyday Americans

With a faltering economy, a wide open southern border, imminent national security threats from the Chinese government, and radical leftists trying to co-opt unsuspecting kids into their social movements, the United States under the “leadership” of President Joe Biden is in a tailspin. So naturally, out-of-touch swamp creatures such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell felt it was appropriate to remind us plebs about what’s really important: Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

While donning his infamous Ukrainian flag-colored tie during his Thursday appearance on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom,” the Kentucky Republican arrogantly regurgitated the most tone-deaf statement imaginable by claiming that “defeating the Russians in Ukraine is the single most important event going on in the world right now.”

“It will save us an enormous amount of money down the road if the Ukrainians can succeed,” McConnell baselessly opined.

It’s no secret in Washington that McConnell is obsessed with shipping endless amounts of taxpayer money to Ukraine — the second most corrupt country in Europe — with virtually no oversight. So much so that his blue and yellow tie has become the GOP equivalent of Hillary Clinton’s pantsuits.

But maybe I’m being too hard on McConnell. I mean, it’s not like America’s own borders are being overrun by millions of illegal aliens or the U.S. economy is in free fall — with skyrocketing inflation making it harder for Americans to afford basic necessities, such as food and gas.

Read more.

©Royal A. Brown III. All rights reserved.

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‘A Nest of Radical D.C. Activists Masquerading as Educators’: Bill to Abolish Woke Department of Education

We rank among the lowest in industrialized nations while they are destroying our children.

We won’t get such legislation passed until every Americans gets involved and the election system is overhauled. Only then can we take back the country and purge all weaponized, thoroughly corrupted US government agencies.

“A Nest of Radical D.C. Activists Masquerading as Educators” – Rep. Barry Moore Introduces Bill to Abolish Woke Department of Education

By Jim Hoft, TPG, February 11, 2023:

Representative Barry Moore (R-AL 2nd) has introduced legislation that would abolish the Department of Education and give States control over public school spending for elementary and secondary education.

The U.S. Department of Education is one of the newest Cabinet-level agencies in the United States, having been established in 1979.

“The Department of Education is a nest of radical D.C. activists masquerading as educators pushing indoctrination schemes of radical anti-American ideas. For our children’s protection, it must be abolished,” Moore said in the release.

“Across our country, we have seen taxpayer dollars used to expose children to radical gender and race ideologies without the consent of their parents. The education of our children should not belong to the federal government – it is time to return those rights to parents,” he added.

The bill is cosponsored by Reps. Ralph Norman (SC-05), Matt Gaetz (FL-01), Byron Donalds (FL-19), Marjorie Taylor Green (GA-14), and Eli Crane (AZ-02).

Moore provided some examples of the radical left indoctrination being pushed through our schools by the Department of Education:

Keep reading.

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