Links - 25th May 2018 (2)

Barack Obama's Trumpesque policies - "Extreme vetting of Muslims began in 2008 under a programme dubbed the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Policy, also known as CARRP. Shrouded in secrecy and barely publicised by the media, CARRP authorises special vetting by the FBI of persons thought to pose a terrorism threat. As a practical matter, all of the immigrants subjected to CARRP are Muslim or perceived to be Muslim."

Sex in men's prisons: 'The US system cultivates rape. If you treat people like animals, they behave like it' - ""Early on, the other prisoners told me, 'After so many years you'll start to turn', and I was like, 'No, no, no, I've got a girlfriend'. But, gradually, all my belief systems and conditioning started falling away. Being in prison made me question my own sexuality."... perhaps more striking and surprising than all of the above is the tender, loving relationships he documents. Mostly, couples keep their relationship private, as having anything valuable on display leaves one open to sabotage. But not all."

Shutting Down Conversations About Rape at Harvard Law - "near the time that CNN broadcast the documentary “The Hunting Ground,” which focusses on four women who say their schools neglected their claims of sexual assault, I joined eighteen other Harvard Law School professors in signing a statement that criticized the film’s “unfair and misleading” portrayal of one case from several years ago... the filmmakers did more than understandably disagree with criticism of the film, which has been short-listed for the Academy Award for best documentary. They wrote, in a statement to the Harvard Crimson, that “the very public bias these professors have shown in favor of an assailant contributes to a hostile climate at Harvard Law.” The words “hostile climate” contain a serious claim. At Harvard, sexual harassment is “unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature,” including verbal conduct that is “sufficiently persistent, pervasive, or severe” so as to create a “hostile environment.” If, as the filmmakers suggest, the professors’ statement about the film has created a hostile environment at the school, then, under Title IX, the professors should be investigated and potentially disciplined.... The dynamics of racially disproportionate impact affect minority men in the pattern of campus sexual-misconduct accusations, which schools, conveniently, do not track, despite all the campus-climate surveys. Administrators and faculty who routinely work on sexual-misconduct cases, including my colleague Janet Halley, tell me that most of the complaints they see are against minorities, and that is consistent with what I have seen at Harvard. The “always believe” credo will aggravate and hide this context, aided by campus confidentiality norms that make any racial pattern difficult to study and expose"

The truth about false rape accusations - "it’s exceedingly rare for a false rape allegation to end in prison time... adult false accusers who persist in pursuing charges have a previous history of bizarre fabrications or criminal fraud... while false accusers often have similar histories, they have various motives. These can be divided into roughly four categories: personal gain, mental illness, revenge, and the need for an alibi."

False rape allegations. - "With the cooperation of the police agency of a small metropolitan community, 45 consecutive, disposed, false rape allegations covering a 9 year period were studied. These false rape allegations constitute 41% the total forcible rape cases (n = 109) reported during this period. These false allegations appear to serve three major functions for the complainants: providing an alibi, seeking revenge, and obtaining sympathy and attention. False rape allegations are not the consequence of a gender-linked aberration, as frequently claimed, but reflect impulsive and desperate efforts to cope with personal and social stress situations."

German judge removes cross during trial of Afghan migrant, faces backlash - "Klaus-Juergen Schmid, a judge in the Bavarian town of Miesbach, has ordered a crucifix to be removed from the courtroom during the trial of a 21-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker accused of making death threats to another Afghan who converted to Christianity."

National Union of Students LGBT+ campaign accuses Student Pride of being run by 'cis white gay men' as the groups cut ties - "The National Union of Students (NUS) LGBT+ campaign has cut ties with the biggest gay student group, after accusing it of being run by “cis white gay men” and not being inclusive enough."
The left eats itself

Not just about sex: throughout our bodies, thousands of genes act differently in men and women - "beyond just genes on X and Y, a full third of our genome is behaving very differently in men and women... some sex biased genes were involved in brain function, reopening the debate about differences in male and female behaviour. These new findings could explain why men and women are often differently susceptible to diseases, and suggests treatments need to be based on studies of both sexes."

ArtAsiaPacific: Palestinian Museum Opens Despite Management Disputes - "The long-awaited Palestinian Museum, located in the university town of Birzeit just north of Ramallah, opened on May 18 to coincide with the 68th anniversary of Nakba (May 15), the massive exodus of roughly 700,000 Palestinians during the 1948 Palestine War. Unlike most, if not all, museum launches, however, the Palestinian Museum debuted without any exhibitions—the result of disagreements between former director Jack Persekian and members of the museum’s board, which led to the resignation of Persekian in December 2015. The idea for the museum was first conceived in 1997 by the Ramallah-based nonprofit Taawon-Welfare Association, which supports Palestinians locally and abroad, as well as conserves the region’s cultural heritage. The May 18 opening celebrated the completion of the institution’s first phase: a 3,500-square-meter building, designed by Dublin-based architectural firm Heneghan Peng for a grand total of USD 24 million, which includes exhibition spaces, an open-air amphitheater, classrooms and a library"
At least this beats funding terrorism

REPORT: Hillary Clinton Shielded Top Staffer from Accusations of Sexual Misconduct During 2008 Campaign - "on at least two occasions Hillary refused to fire senior advisor Burns Strider in 2008 after he was accused of sexually harassing a female campaign staffer... Clinton tried to capitalize on the “women’s issue” of sexual harassment by denouncing Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, despite her long history of being closely associated with him over the last twenty years... Why it took a decade for this latest Hillary news to come to light is a vexing question for the media, especially coming on the heels of a story revealing a photo of Barack Obama meeting with notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, which was reportedly hidden for 13 years to protect Obama’s political ambitions."

Conservative Blogger's Visit to Google HQ Triggered Security Panic - "Software engineer and political blogger Curtis Yarvin was escorted from Google headquarters by security personnel after his presence triggered an alert... Yarvin was visiting a Google employee for lunch, but his presence at the company’s headquarters triggered a “silent alarm”... Yarvin’s presence on campus triggered an alert because he is on a “blacklist” of conservative figures. Other individuals on the list include Theodore Beale, better known by his pen name “Vox Day,” and InfoWars founder Alex Jones."

Entire class punished for 'microaggressive' comments - "A Columbia University professor recently described how an entire class was punished after some students used “microaggressive” language in an online chat. Matthea Marquart, who teaches online classes for graduate students studying social work, noticed that some students used unspecified “racially microaggressive” language during the live chat of a recent online class... The response, as Marquart indicated, consisted of punishing the entire class with extra work."

Anti-White Transgender Model Munroe Bergdorf Verified on Twitter - "A transgender model who was fired from her job at L’Oreal following a racist rant against white people has been verified on Twitter, despite the platform’s announcement that it would no longer verify people who engage in racism... Bergdorf was fired from L’Oreal last year after she published a Facebook rant calling white people “the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth.”... Bergdorf appeared on the BBC to defend her comments, where she further added that “all white people benefit from racism.” In November, several popular conservative accounts were stripped of their Twitter verification, including anti-Islam activist and author Tommy Robinson and commentator Laura Loomer. Twitter also stripped prominent alt-right accounts of their account verification, including Richard Spencer and James Allsup, and declared that accounts could now lose their verification for “promoting hate,” or “directly attacking” people “on the basis of race.” Days later, the platform announced its intentions to start sanctioning users for their offline behavior too. Though Twitter maintains its claims that account verification is a way to let “people know that an account of public interest is authentic,” prominent individuals such as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange remain unverified on the platform."

Confronting Habits of Whiteness: A critical forum for addressing anti-blackness in non-black communities of color | Berkeley Law - "Non-black communities of color benefit from white supremacy through both deliberate and unconscious efforts to approximate whiteness, thereby perpetuating anti-blackness. Join Berkeley Law affinity groups and community organizers for an important conversation about recognizing and dismantling anti-blackness in our communities. Dinner will be provided!"
This confirms that whiteness just means success

Teacher Trainer Lays Out Plan To Fill Schools - " Heather Hackman operates Hackman Consulting Group and was formerly a professor of multicultural education at Minnesota’s St. Cloud State University, where she taught future teachers. On Friday, Hackman was given a platform at WPC to deliver a workshop with the lengthy title “No Freedom Unless We Call Out the Wizard Behind The Curtain: Critically Addressing the Corrosive Effects of Whiteness in Teacher Education and Professional Development.” The long title masked a simple thesis on Hackman’s part: Modern education is hopelessly tainted by white supremacy and the “white imperial gaze,” and the solution is to train prospective teachers in college to be activists as well as pedagogues. In fact, Hackman argued teachers shouldn’t even bother teaching if they aren’t committed to promoting social justice in school... “The racial narrative of White tends to be like this: Rugged individual, honest, hard-working, disciplined, rigorous, successful,” she said. “And so then, the narrative of U.S. public education: Individual assessments, competition, outcome over process (I care more about your grades than how you’re doing), ‘discipline’ where we care more about your attendance and making sure you’re not tardy than we care about your relationships … proper English must be spoken (which is just assimilation into standard U.S. dialect), hierarchical power structure, and heavy goal orientation.” While the traits listed may simply be regarded as positive traits for success in the modern world, Hackman described them as specific cultural traits chosen and emphasized to favor whites to the detriment of non-white groups, who are forced to assimilate white traits such as good discipline and goal orientation or else be left behind. Hackman’s natural solution, then, is to train teachers to move away from all these aspects of white privilege in education. She routinely touted the benefits of collective assessments (measuring student learning at the class level instead of determining whether each student knows the material), as well as eliminating all school grades entirely. Hackman said when she was a professor, she freely employed these methods with her own students. She once let a student complete an essay assignment as a graphic novel, and allowed students to write in non-standard English or even foreign languages she herself couldn’t read... Hackman acknowledged in the current white supremacist system, there is some expectation that teachers will know conventional English and possess other basic knowledge. As a result, she admitted modern activist teachers should try to learn those things sufficiently to get a job, but only for the purpose of infiltrating schools to change them from within... She predicted her approach will triumph, and the sinister force she dubbed “Super-Whitey” (and compared to the Eye of Sauron) will eventually be swept aside."

Twitch forces black streamer to submit DNA analysis over african cooking show - "Streaming giant Twitch has caused outrage after banning an African-American girl for her Africa-themed cooking show and seeming to accuse her of being a white cultural appropriator. The girl — youtuber Brittany Venti — was then forced into the humiliating position of having to submit an actual DNA analysis to prove her descent"
It looks like most of the outrage is because she is black - not that you need to have black DNA to do a black cooking show'

Haiti: Mud cakes become staple diet as cost of food soars beyond a family's reach - "Brittle and gritty - and as revolting as they sound - these are "mud cakes". For years they have been consumed by impoverished pregnant women seeking calcium, a risky and medically unproven supplement, but now the cakes have become a staple for entire families. It is not for the taste and nutrition - smidgins of salt and margarine do not disguise what is essentially dirt, and the Guardian can testify that the aftertaste lingers - but because they are the cheapest and increasingly only way to fill bellies."

Pakistani humanist denied UK asylum after failing to identify Plato - "The Home Office said Hamza bin Walayat’s failure to identify Plato and Aristotle as humanist philosophers indicated his knowledge of humanism was “rudimentary at best”."

450,000 Fled Deep Blue States In 2017 - "Three Democratic-leaning states hemorrhaged hundreds of thousands of people in 2016 and 2017 as crime, high taxes and, in some cases, crummy weather had residents seeking greener pastures elsewhere... New York’s domestic out-migration during that time period was about the same as it was in the same time 2015 and 2016. Since 2010, the state’s outflow of just over 1 million residents has exceeded that of every other state, both in absolute terms and as a share of population"

WATCH: Ginuwine Accused Of Transphobia For Refusing To Kiss Trans Woman On Live TV - "Tolerance is no longer about tolerating; now it is about engaging in the issue at hand. For example, you're now considered an intolerant transphobe for refusing to make out with a transgender person. Ginuwine found this out first hand. The R&B singer, appearing on the U.K. reality show "Big Brother," is being slammed as a transphobe for refusing to kiss his male-to-female transgender co-star India Willoughby on live TV... You know how the saying goes, "No means no — unless a transgender person is making the advances, then you better comply or you'll be labeled a transphobic bigot."... Last week, male-to-female transgender folks accused cis-men of being insecure and weak for refusing to date them."

Injured UC San Diego Student SUES SCHOOL For Failing To Stop Her From Protesting Trump - "A University of California, San Diego student, Maria Ana Carrola Flores, is suing the school for failing to stop her from protesting President Donald Trump, a decision she says led to her being hit by a car on California's I-5 freeway."

Soros to Google and Facebook: 'Your days are numbered' - "Billionaire investor George Soros launched a scathing attack on tech giants at the Davos summit on Thursday (Jan 25), calling them monopolies that could be manipulated by authoritarians to subvert democracy... the investor's traditional Davos predictions do not always pan out. Last year in Switzerland he warned that the stock market rally would end after Trump's election and that China's growth rate was unsustainable. China's growth has continued while US stocks are regularly hitting record highs."
Maybe he prefers to do it himself