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Due Process or Transgender Protection on Campus? | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on May 2, 2023

People who oppose due process are opposing common decency in the legal treatment of others. With bitter irony, they do so in the name of protecting the vulnerable—in this case, the gender identified. Anyone who needs protection against common decency and truth is not pursuing justice. They want privilege and power. If the voice of reason can still be heard, people need to hear it now.

https://mises.org/wire/due-process-or-transgender-protection-campus

Wendy McElroy

College campuses have long been battlegrounds between due process for those accused of sexual misconduct (innocent until proven guilty) and legal privileges for alleged victims who many automatically believe (guilty until proven innocent).

The front line is Title IX, the 1972 federal law designed to curb sex discrimination in schools. President Joe Biden’s Department of Education (DOE) wants to add gender identity to the mix. The players in this renewed conflict are Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, who has introduced a bill to champion due process rights on campus, and Biden’s DOE, who is expanding the definition of discrimination.

The specific issue addressed by the DOE is athletic eligibility. The issue is a political flash point that revolves around the question, “Should transgendered male-to-females compete in women’s sports or is their strength advantage unfair to biological females?” This article examines the competing and overlapping provisions of the draft Title IX regulation, the 2023 draft sports regulation, and Kennedy’s bill.

The Biden executive order 14021 (March 8, 2021) that sparked the current conflict is entitled “Guaranteeing an Educational Environment Free from Discrimination on the Basis of Sex, including Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity.” It is a statement of intent. On April 6, 2023, the DOE rolled out an implementation mechanism for the executive order “Proposed Change to its Title IX Regulations on Students’ Eligibility for Athletic Teams.”

The language in the 116-page document is confusing and vague, but the core of it redefines terms such as “discrimination” and favorably includes gender identity into the framework for athletic eligibility. The opening summary states that the DOE will “set out a standard that would govern a recipient’s adoption or application of sex-related criteria” that might “limit or deny a student’s eligibility to participate on a male or female athletic team consistent with their gender identity.” This regulation presumes transgendered athletes are able participate in their chosen categories unless the school identifies safety reasons to not allow this.

Backlash from progressives has been swift. The “Proposed Change” is insufficiently protrans, they claim. “These regulations specify methods schools may employ to determine a student’s sex, including invasive physical examinations,” complains the transgender journalist Erin Reed.

Moreover, the DOE document would give school districts the final say on whether injecting gender identity into athletics is problematic. Progressives react with horror. Actually, this is no issue at all. As with past DOE recommendations, schools are likely to over comply not only due to the extreme liberal bias on most campuses but also to avoid a catastrophic loss of federal funds. The “Proposed Change” makes this threat explicitly.

See the rest here

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The Single Dumbest Thing The Empire Asks Us To Believe

Posted by M. C. on May 2, 2023

Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

❖

The single dumbest thing the US-centralized empire asks us to believe is that the military encirclement of its top two geopolitical rivals is a defensive action, rather than an act of extreme aggression.

We’re asked to believe many extremely stupid narratives by the manipulators who rule over us, but I really think this one might take the cake. The idea that the US militarily encircling Russia and China is an act of defense rather than aggression is so in-your-face transparently idiotic that anyone who thinks critically enough about it will immediately dismiss it for the foam-brained nonsense that it is, yet it’s the mainstream narrative in the western world, and millions of people accept it as true. Because that’s the power of US propaganda.

It gets more and more absurd the more you think about it. Their argument is basically, “No no you don’t understand, the US has been hurriedly surrounding its primary geopolitical competitors with war machinery because it wants to prevent them from doing something aggressive.” They’re like, “We can’t just have nations exerting military aggression willy nilly, that’s why we needed to move all this war machinery to the other side of the planet onto the borders of our primary strategic rivals.”

Can you think of anything more insane than that? Than all of the most powerful and influential figures in politics, government and media simultaneously claiming that a nation amassing heavily-armed proxy forces on the borders of their enemies is something that should be regarded as an action designed to prevent aggression, rather than an incendiary act of extreme aggression in and of itself?

I recently had someone tell me that the US has every right to expand its immense military presence near China, and to illustrate their point they said that if China set up a base in Mexico the US would have no business telling them not to. But that argument actually illustrates my point, not theirs: only the most propaganda-addled of minds would believe that the US would allow China to set up a military base in Mexico for even one second. There’d be kinetic warfare long before the foundations were even poured.

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The Terrible Truth about U.S. Foreign Policy

Posted by M. C. on May 2, 2023

Does China police the world?

The Terrible Truth about U.S. Foreign Policy

by Laurence M. Vance

Many conservatives just don’t get it when it comes to U.S. foreign policy.U.S. foreign policy is arrogant, aggressive, reckless, immoral, belligerent, interventionist, and meddling.
[Click to Tweet]

After Lu Shaye, China’s outspoken ambassador to France, stated during a televised interview last month that the former Soviet republics “have no effective status in international law because there is no international agreement to recognize their status as sovereign countries,” American Enterprise Institute (AEI) “senior fellow” Dalibor Rohac used the occasion to rail against China’s foreign policy.

At the AEI— a right-leaning, inside-the-Beltway think tank — Rohac “studies European political and economic trends, specifically Central and Eastern Europe, the European Union (EU) and the eurozone, US-EU relations, and the post-Communist transitions and backsliding of countries in the former Soviet bloc.” He is also “a research associate at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies in Brussels and a fellow at Anglo-American University in Prague.”

In a recent article in the Spectator magazine, “A Chinese Diplomat Has Let Slip the Truth about Beijing’s Foreign Policy,” Rohac characterized the Chinese ambassador’s remarks as “a telling admission of Beijing’s real thinking about international relations, which is far cruder and Hobbesian than most Europeans are willing to admit.”

We should take Lu Shaye at his word, Rohac writes, because he is “a veteran of both Chinese communist politics and foreign service” who “epitomises China’s aggressive approach to diplomacy, exemplified by his warning, in the context of a visit by former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s to Taiwan, that the Taiwanese would have to be ‘re-educated,’ bringing back eerie echoes of Maoist and Stalinist terror.”

The Chinese embassy in Paris issued a statement in response to another of Lu Shaye’s gaffes that Rohac should have paid attention to: “China respects the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all nations and supports the objectives and principles of the UN Charter. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, China was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with the countries concerned.”

I am not making an apology for the Chinese government. There is no question that China is ruled by a lying, oppressive, totalitarian, authoritarian regime that forbids its citizens from enjoying political and religious liberty and seeks to control every facet of their lives. But what is the truth about Beijing’s foreign policy that Rohac takes issue with?

Does China have tens of thousands of troops stationed in over a hundred countries?

Does China go abroad seeking monsters to destroy?

Does China have hundreds of military bases on foreign soil?

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Barack Obama, Progenitor of the Modern African Slave Trade

Posted by M. C. on May 1, 2023

Rather than ushering in liberal democracy and prosperity, the ouster of Gaddafi left the country fractured, with two rival governments and various militias vying for power. Obama’s regime change marked the start of an ongoing era of chaos, with some of the greatest resulting evils inflicted on black Africans.

There is something to be said for leaving countries alone.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/barack-obama-progenitor-of-the-modern-african-slave-trade/

by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey

Barack Obama was elected president some 143 years after the abolition of slavery in the United States. As teary-eyed African-Americans watched Obama’s 2008 election night speech in Chicago’s Grant Park, none could have imagined that America’s first black president would leave his own legacy of slavery—in Africa.

However, that’s exactly what he did, thanks to a combination of imperial hubris, disregard for constitutional restraints on executive war powers, and the use of false pretenses.

In 2011, egged on by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a handful of other advisors, Obama ordered a months-long series of air strikes that facilitated a NATO-backed regime change campaign that toppled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Rather than ushering in liberal democracy and prosperity, the ouster of Gaddafi left the country fractured, with two rival governments and various militias vying for power. Obama’s regime change marked the start of an ongoing era of chaos, with some of the greatest resulting evils inflicted on black Africans.

Those evils began during the war, as racism and Gaddafi’s use of sub-Saharan black mercenaries combined to spark widespread atrocities perpetrated against blacks who were seen as fair game for various atrocities including beatings, rapes and lynchings.

“We had 70-80 people from Chad working for our company,” a Turkish construction worker told BBC. “They were cut dead with pruning shears and axes, attackers saying: ‘You are providing troops for Gaddafi.’ The Sudanese were also massacred. We saw it for ourselves.”

One rebel group was glorified in roadside graffiti as “the brigade for purging slaves, black skin”—that being a reference to Libya’s black descendants of slaves, such as those who populated the town of Tawergha. Once home to 30,000 people, Tawergha was ransacked and its occupants assaulted to the point of turning it into an ethnically-cleansed ghost town.

In 2017—six years after Gaddafi’s death—CNN captured a new and unthinkable dimension of misery being imposed on black people as a result of Obama’s regime change pursuits: The network aired video of two open-air slave auctions hosted in Libya. “Big strong boys for farm work,” said an auctioneer. One trio of blacks was purchased for $400 each.

Continue reading this article at Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey

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Pro-Sanctuary City Mayor Lori Lightfoot Begs Texas One Last Time To Stop Sending Illegal Aliens

Posted by M. C. on May 1, 2023

She will no doubt be re-elected.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-sanctuary-city-mayor-lori-lightfoot-begs-texas-one-last-time-to-stop-sending-illegal-aliens

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) is begging Texas Governor Greg Abbott to not send any more illegal aliens to the Windy City — despite the fact that just two years ago she signed measures “strengthening” Chicago’s status as a sanctuary city.

On Sunday, the outgoing mayor sent Abbott a letter, imploring him to make Texas carry the burden of the thousands upon thousands of illegal aliens flooding the border. According to the mayor, the Texas governor is going to begin re-sending illegal immigrants via bus starting Monday to Chicago.

“Since we began responding to the arrival of migrants sent by your delegation in August 2022, we have shouldered the responsibility of caring for more than 8,000 men, women, and children with no resources of their own,” she said in the letter. “That number continues to grow.”

In reality, Lightfoot shouldn’t be surprised Texas sent them her way. She practically asked for these individuals to come to Chicago on multiple occasions. For example, in 2019, she tweeted, “Yes, Chicago must be a sanctuary city.

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How Big Is BRICS?

Posted by M. C. on May 1, 2023

Thought impossible only a few years ago, BRICS has now passed the US led G7 as the biggest gross domestic product bloc in the world.

antiwar.com

by Ted Snider

While the US labors to maintain the unipolar world it leads, a multipolar world is springing up all around it. Africa and Brazil cry for it. China and India support it. Germany has whispered it, and France has called for it. Iran and Saudi Arabia are joining the multipolar Shanghai Cooperation Organization. But the most stunning sign of the reality of the new multipolar world may be the explosive growth of BRICS.

BRICS is an international organization whose primary purpose is to balance US hegemony in a new multipolar world. Its roots go back to 1996 and the emergence of the core group of Russia, India and China (RIC). In 2009, along with Brazil, BRIC held its first summit. In 2010, South Africa joined, and BRICS was formed, making it, perhaps, the only major international body in which representatives of Africa and Latin America have an equal voice.

The group is neither an alliance nor a bloc, and it is not against the United States. But it does seek to end the American led unipolar world and replace it with a world with many poles and many nations with equal voices. With members from almost every continent, the BRICS nations represent 3.2 billion people, or almost 41% of the planet’s population.

And that counterbalance is growing. At the recent BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal and Thailand were all welcomed as guests. Turkey, a NATO member, is seeking membership. At their annual summit in South Africa in June, the five BRICS members will discuss enlargement and the nineteen countries that have expressed interest in joining. Thirteen countries have formally requested membership in the multipolar organization, and six have made informal requests. Iran and Saudi Arabia have formally requested membership. Argentina, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Egypt, Bahrain and Indonesia are all known to have declared their interest. That list represents another 600 million people and would push BRICS’ share of the global population well past 41%. The list also reportedly includes Mexico and at least three other African nations. Russia has previously said that Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Sudan and Venezuela are also on the list.

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Bipartisan Bill Aims To Prevent AI From Launching Nuclear Weapons

Posted by M. C. on May 1, 2023

What organization is most likely to ignore their own law and screw things up in the process?

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/bipartisan-bill-aims-prevent-ai-launching-nuclear-weapons

Tyler Durden's Photo

BY TYLER DURDEN

Authored by Brett Wilkins via Common Dreams, 

In the name of “protecting future generations from potentially devastating consequences,” a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday introduced legislation meant to prevent artificial intelligence from launching nuclear weapons without meaningful human control.

The Block Nuclear Launch by Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Act—introduced by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Don Beyer (D-Va.), and Ken Buck (R-Colo.)—asserts that “any decision to launch a nuclear weapon should not be made” by AI.

The proposed legislation acknowledges that the Pentagon’s 2022 Nuclear Posture Review states that current U.S. policy is to “maintain a human ‘in the loop’ for all actions critical to informing and executing decisions by the president to initiate and terminate nuclear weapon employment.”

The bill would codify that policy so that no federal funds could be used “to launch a nuclear weapon [or] select or engage targets for the purposes of launching” nukes.

“As we live in an increasingly digital age, we need to ensure that humans hold the power alone to command, control, and launch nuclear weapons—not robots,” Markey asserted in a statement. “We need to keep humans in the loop on making life-or-death decisions to use deadly force, especially for our most dangerous weapons.”

Buck argued that “while U.S. military use of AI can be appropriate for enhancing national security purposes, use of AI for deploying nuclear weapons without a human chain of command and control is reckless, dangerous, and should be prohibited.”

According to the 2023 AI Index Report—an annual assessment published earlier this month by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence—36% of surveyed AI experts worry about the possibility that automated systems “could cause nuclear-level catastrophe.”

The report followed a February assessment by the Arms Control Association, an advocacy group, that AI and other emerging technologies including lethal autonomous weapons systems and hypersonic missiles pose a potentially existential threat that underscores the need for measures to slow the pace of weaponization.

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Why Tucker Carlson Had To Be Purged

Posted by M. C. on May 1, 2023

The answer is simple. He raised issues you aren’t allowed to mention. He went after the CIA, saying he had information from an inside source the agency was involved in the Kennedy assassination. He was a vaccine skeptic and spoke about the interests of Big Pharma in killing us.  The deep state couldn’t allow this. Therefore he had to go, and, we predict, he will be lucky if he isn’t arrested on some fraudulent charge.

Why Tucker Carlson Had To Be Purged

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AOC: ‘The Government Must Shut Down Unapproved News Agencies To Defeat Fascism’

Posted by M. C. on April 30, 2023

https://babylonbee.com/news/aoc-the-government-must-shut-down-unapproved-news-agencies-to-defeat-fascism

Article Image

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In order to defeat fascism, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has called for the military to shut down news agencies that say anything unapproved by the government.

“It’s like, defeating fascism 101,” said Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. “The government takes control of the nation’s media, then silences all the bad people. Fascism solved!”

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has demanded the government start with banning Tucker Carlson, followed by several other conservative journalists. “We are in literal danger of falling into fascism until the government locks away all the bad journalists,” explained Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. “Look at China – they are like, so safe from fascism. Do you see anything like January 6th happening in China? I don’t think so. Anyone in China who says anything the government thinks could incite violence, is like, disappeared or something. It’s all worth it if we stop just one Januray 6th.”

According to Democratic leadership, the government’s efforts to beat back fascism will require immediately making a handy “blacklist” to be overseen by the “House Un-American Activities Committee”. “The committee will monitor the news for un-American activities such as saying the government narrative may be wrong,” said Representative Hakeem Jeffries. “As the government steadily crushes dissenting speech by labeling it as an ‘incitement to violence’, fascism will be destroyed once and for all.”

At publishing time, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez had asked Jen Psaki if the contact lenses she was wearing made her look smart.

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How The FBI Helps Ukrainian Intelligence Hunt ‘Disinformation’ On Social Media

Posted by M. C. on April 29, 2023

The FIB spending your tax dollars to give free stuff to one of the most corrupt entities on the planet.

https://open.substack.com/pub/leefang/p/how-the-fbi-helps-ukrainian-intelligence?utm_source=direct&r=iw8dv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

LEE FANG

The Federal Bureau of Investigation pressures Facebook to take down alleged Russian “disinformation” at the behest of Ukrainian intelligence, according to a senior Ukrainian official who corresponds regularly with the FBI. The same official said that Ukrainian authorities define “disinformation” broadly, flagging many social media accounts and posts that he suggested may simply contradict the Ukrainian government’s narrative.

“Once we have a trace or evidence of disinformation campaigns via Facebook or other resources that are from the U.S., we pass this information to the FBI, along with writing directly to Facebook,” said llia Vitiuk, head of the Department of Cyber Information Security in the Security Service of Ukraine.

“We asked FBI for support to help us with Meta, to help us with others, and sometimes we get good results with that,” noted Vitiuk. “We say, ‘Okay, this was the person who was probably Russia’s influence.'”

Vitiuk, in an interview, said that he is a proponent of free speech and understands concerns around social media censorship. But he also admitted that he and his colleagues take a deliberately expansive view of what counts as “Russian disinformation.”

“When people ask me, ‘How do you differentiate whether it is fake or true?’ Indeed it is very difficult in such an informational flow,” said Vitiuk. “I say, ‘Everything that is against our country, consider it a fake, even if it’s not.’ Right now, for our victory, it is important to have that kind of understanding, not to be fooled.”

In recent weeks, Vitiuk said, Russian forces have used various forms of disinformation to manufacture fake tension between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the four-star general who serves as commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s military.

Indeed, recent reports have focused on the relationship between the two Ukrainian leaders. The German newspaper Bild reported that Zelenskyy and Zaluzhnyi had argued regarding tactics deployed in the battle over Bakhmut. Vitiuk said that any notion of conflict between Zelenskyy and his military chief, however, is false.

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