When you can't live without bananas

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Sunday, December 31, 2023

Links - 31st December 2023 (2 Capitol Riot)

Brandon Straka on X - "This is Capitol Police Officer Michael Fortune.   Officer Fortune sued me under the KKK Act alleging that I violated his civil rights and that I conspired with white supremacists to commit assault and battery against him on January 6th.   In discovery, we were able to compel Officer Fortune to answer exactly where he was when I allegedly caused his assault and battery and violated his civil rights.   His response? "I was in Annapolis, Maryland". (see excerpt from his interrogatory responses below)  When asked what the nature of his injuries were that he was suing me for, he responded, "Exposure to pepper spray, bear spray, fire extinguishers, and other pollutants", "heightened stress and anxiety", and "exhaustion and soreness". (see below) *In addition to having never seen or met Officer Fortune in my entire life, I also had no chemical pollutants with me on January 6th, and didn't spray any.   Officer Fortune's attorneys at the Soros-funded law firm "Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law" approached me and my attorney for a financial settlement.   Initially, they told us that they could not calculate the value of Officer Fortune's injuries without first having access to my bank statements to assess my net worth.   Obviously, I told them to get ****ed.   Then they returned to us and told us that for $120,000 they would drop the lawsuit against me by Officer Fortune and the other 7 black and brown Capitol Police officers (I had no contact with any of these officers on J6 and have never met any of them. I also had no contact with ANY officers on January 6th, and was never accused of or charged with any violent crimes or acts of violence.)  Once again, I told them to get ****ed.   And now, the remaining counts against me of assault and battery were dismissed, and the case is now over.   This case against me has clearly demonstrated how the left will use their lies about racism and white supremacy (and their lies about J6) to game the system, knowing these false allegations carry weight and power, and that they can be used to drag people through the legal system to try to extort money out of people through settlement or judgement.   Any police officer who participated in this scam should be forced to retire in disgrace."

🇺🇸ProudArmyBrat on X - "Senator Schumer threatening 2 Supreme Court Justices with the consequence of a violent attack from an angry mob! “You will pay the price! You won’t know what hit you!” THIS was inciting a dangerous insurrection!"

Lawyers react to Trump 14th Amendment loss, Gorsuch mention - "The Colorado Supreme Court’s Tuesday 4-3 decision disqualifying former President Donald Trump from being president again, under the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment, sparked wide-ranging reactions from legal experts who see the U.S. Supreme Court’s involvement as inevitable. For that reason, the state high court’s noticeable namechecking of Neil Gorsuch and the justice’s 2012 decision from when he was a U.S. Circuit judge on the Tenth Circuit also grabbed attention."
Of course, all the Democrats who cheered the BLM riots will not be removed from office
The allegations of hypocrisy are stupid, since the immigrant case was a very clear disqualification
Since this is going to go to the US Supreme Court, we might get an answer on whether Trump really participated in an insurrection. Not that this will convince his haters, naturally

'Made-up procedure' dooms Colorado court's decision to toss Trump from ballot: CNN expert - "A CNN legal expert on Wednesday blew apart Colorado Supreme Court’s historic decision that threw Donald Trump off the state’s ballot — and effectively accusing the justices of making up the rules as it went along... Honig said there was no chance the decision would stand because the 14th Amendment clearly says rules governing it had to be set by Congress — and that had not been done."

Jason Willick on X - "What predicts Colorado Supreme Court justices' vote on Trump disqualification? Not party—all are Democratic appointees—but law school. All Ivy League grads voted to disqualify. All Denver Law grads voted not to disqualify."

Joe Biden: Republicans In A 'Tit-For-Tat' Drafting Bills To Remove Biden From Ballot After Colorado Ruling: Report

Daniel Baldwin on X - "Alan Dershowitz: “There is no power in a state court to enforce the 14th Amendment.”  Section 5 reads: “The Congress shall have the power to enforce…the provisions of this article.”  The Colorado Supreme Court’s disqualification of Trump spits in the face of the rule of law."

How Democrats Are Preparing for Postelection Chaos - The Atlantic (aka "Democrats Won’t Cede the Streets This Time")
From September 2020. Ironic, given how much they condemn and obsess about the Capitol Riot

Tou Thao Sentence: Double Standard of Justice - "as many as 548 of the individuals arrested and charged with crimes following the 2021 Capitol riot — 1,033 total arrestees minus 485 final sentences so far — still simply remain in jail. Few on the right sympathize with rioters and public brawlers of any stripe, but it is hard not to contrast this treatment with that of the hundreds of black-clad Antifa fighters picked up during the 2020–21 Black Lives Matter riots — which did $2 billion or so in total damage — many of whom had their cases quickly tossed out of court by “blue”-city DAs’ offices.  Speaking as a political scientist, I can attest that a lack of institutional trustworthiness as blatant as what we currently seem to be seeing generally has significant consequences for a nation. To give one example: An under-discussed reality is that “J6” itself was in large part the result of nearly a decade of public and law-enforcement toleration of rioting, dating back at least to the Michael Brown riots in 2014 Ferguson. Between 2012–13 and 2020 in the United States, the African-American murder rate nearly doubled, murders overall rose above 20,000 per year, and public disorder was almost never harshly punished. Famously and absurdly, Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake once described at least part of her riot-control strategy as giving youth mobs “space to destroy.”  For that matter — while on the subject of trust, and without endorsing the man’s zany theories about “Krakens” and other sea life — one thing that potentially fueled Donald Trump’s assertions that the 2020 election was stolen from him was the reality of extensive bipartisan gamesmanship with the election rules throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Thirty states, including California, Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, greatly expanded opportunities for fully healthy citizens to vote by mail in 2020.  Most also allowed more of the third-party vote-collection practices collectively known as “ballot-harvesting,” often on legally dubious grounds. Partly as a result, remarkable videos trended throughout the 2020 campaigning season — such as the famous viral clip of a self-proclaimed campaign operative from Ilhan Omar’s Minnesota congressional district driving around in a car visibly packed chock-full with ballots. “I have 300 ballots in my car right now,” he unsubtly proclaimed. “Numbers don’t lie. You can see my car is full. All these here are absentee ballots.”"

Apple draws outrage after sending iPhone users news push alert suggesting 9/11 led to Capitol riot - "The company's iPhone users received an alert saying: 'How the 9/11 attacks ushered in an era of fear and mistrust in the U.S. - and set the stage for the January 6 insurrection'... The push notification linked readers to a podcast interview with documentary filmmaker Michael Kirk, who has a new film being released by PBS' Frontline called America After 9/11.   In the documentary, at least one commentator - former national security adviser for President Obama Ben Rhodes - suggests that the Capitol insurrection was the 'logical endpoint' of the '9/11 era.'"

John LeFevre on X - "Officer Aquilino Gonell (under oath): “I was bleeding from both hands, [had] a maimed foot, hit on the head, sprayed with pepper and bear spray, beaten, punched, pushed, pulled, and assaulted." The video:"

Brandon Straka on X - "🚨Newly released footage of Matthew Perna (seen in red sweatshirt) shows Matthew walking calmly in the Capitol shooting video.   Matthew pled guilty to initial charges, believing he may face 6-12 months in prison.    Only after pleading guilty did the DOJ inform Matthew that they would seek a TERRORISM enhancement to his sentencing, which would raise his sentence to a potential 9 years in federal prison.   4 days after receiving news that the DOJ would push for this sentencing enhancement, Matthew went into his garage, put a rope around his neck, and hung himself.  @GeriPerna  @mattgaetz  @mtgreenee  @MTGrepp  @RepTroyNehls  @julie_kelly2  @Evans4WV  @bennyjohnson  @DineshDSouza  @SebGorka  @dbongino  @TuckerCarlson  @gregkellyusa  @DonaldJTrumpJr"

End Wokeness on X - "BREAKING: Rep. Jamaal Bowman has been charged with one misdemeanor count of falsely pulling a fire alarm.  This is a JOKE. The crime was obstruction of congressional proceedings. That is a felony under federal law 18 U.S.C. § 1505. Up to 5 years in prison.  Bowman could have also been charged on obstruction of justice. Class A felony that carries a punishment of up to 30 years in prison.  If he was a J/6 protestor, he would be in solitary confinement and facing years in prison"

Matt Wallace on X - "🚨THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WHERE OUR GRANDFATHERS GREW UP IS OFFICIALLY DEAD🚨  Owen Shroyer is being forced to go to prison for 60 days. He did not hurt anyone or steal anything… of course those things are often met with a much smaller punishment!  No… he did something much worse according to the elites. He challenged their rule by peacefully protesting on January 6th. He did not enter the Capitol or even instruct anyone else to. He will have to sleep in a cell this holiday season and have a permanent criminal record because he said words they don’t like after investigating something they don't want anyone questioning.   ACCORDING TO THIS RULING, IT IS NOW ILLEGAL TO PROTEST UNLESS YOU ARE SUPPORTING AN ESTABLISHMENT-APPROVED CAUSE ⚠️  Is it time to stand up to the elites and remove them from power once and for all?"

Meme - Jake Shields @jakeshieldsajj: "He was out on bond for a separate murder when he killed this 11 year old and his stepfather They held January 6th protesters with out bail while letting out brutal murders"
Ryan Dawson @RyLiberty: "They Hate you
'He was just barely 11': Gang member free on bond for capital murder when he executed boy, stepfather who tried to shield him from bullets, gets life
Desmond Hawkins got a life sentence for the"

January 6 Committee Hearing So Boring NBC Cut to Golf Instead

Meme - "Whoever thinks the government can be overthrown with a militia, doesn't know how tanks and jet fighters work."
"But you claim the Government was almost overthrown on Jan 6, by unarmed people merely walking into a building"
Both sides are retarded

Meme - Chuck Schumer @SenSchumer: "Speaker McCarthy has held the gavel for less than three months. But by sharing the January security footage with Fox News, he has already done more than any party leader in Congress to enable the spread of Donald Trump's Big Lie."
Elon Musk @elonmusk: "Do you want us to remove this video? *peaceful moving through the Capitol*
tokenblackguyusa: "Elon is the greatest troll of all times!"

Ladies and Gentlemen, I Give You the Face of the Ky. Capitol Insurrection...'The BlueAnon Shaman' - "While watching what the left would consider an insurrection, an invasion of the Kentucky State Capitol building on Wednesday by trans activists, I saw this gentleman and wondered where I'd seen someone like him before. Then, it dawned on me.  I have the perfect name to give the face of the Kentucky State Capitol Insurrection...You ready for this?  "The BlueAnon Shaman!" Behold the greatness that is a man dressed as clown Satan protesting against children not being able mutilate their genitals."
Weird. I thought attacking democracy was bad

Gun control activists storm Tennessee State Capitol as fears of a left-wing uprising loom - "Gun control activists were seen storming Tennessee's State Capitol Thursday amid rising fears of a left-wing uprising at a rumored protest in Washington, DC.  Footage of the insurrection shows progressive protesters battling with cops as they attempted to gain access to the legislature in Nashville. Hundreds of people were seen inside the lobby and yelling from the gallery at concerned lawmakers.  The protest against guns comes after transgender shooter Audrey Hale on Monday gunned down six people, including three nine-year-old kids, at a Christian school in Nashville. In a separate demonstration, trans activists yesterday invaded Kentucky's State Capitol in Frankfort to protest a Republican-backed bill to ban transgender procedures for children. Among the mob was a self-described 'genderqueer clown nun', who immediately drew comparisons to the QAnon Shaman of the January 6 riot... While most condemned the attack - which left three nine-year-olds and as many school staffers dead - several unrelated fringe, extremist groups have surfaced claiming the shooting was a consequence of ongoing oppression of trans people in Southern, more conservative states.   One such group, the Trans Radical Activist Network (TRAN), seemingly took notice of this chaos, and used the opportunity to rebrand a planned three-day procession previously called the Trans Day of Visibility as 'a day of vengeance.'... Most remained peaceful, while others were seen battling with officers tasked with keeping a clamp on the unrest... In the case of Kentucky, several protesters were also seen shouting at Republican reps, as well as speaker of the house David Osborne, before being physically removed by state police.  The 19 arrested - angered by the prospective passing of a law that would limit medical treatments for transgender people under 18 - were charged with third-degree criminal trespassing... Websites such as Etsy are still being used to sell pro-gun and trans merchandise, with stickers that say 'defend equality' with assault rifles"

AOC uses anonymously sourced Rolling Stone article to justify calling for GOP reps to be 'expelled' - "These sources allegedly said that they were offered a "blanket pardon" by the Oval Office for illegal activity, but the story they then detail is a quote from Rep. Paul Gosar that would have to be deciphered with decoder ring from a Cracker Jack box in order to be understood as the offering of a presidential pardon... One person was killed during the riot, Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter and Veteran, was shot by Capitol Police Officer Lt. Michael Byrd. Byrd faced no charges, though internal police documents reveal that there was "no good reason for shooting" Babbitt... Despite her calls for the expelling of duly elected representatives, the article admits that no one was talking about marching on the Capitol. That wasn't at all part of the planning... Rolling Stone has a history of spreading hoaxes, such as a recent hoax about the drug Ivermectin, which was spread further by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. Rolling Stone also fabricated a story about a rape on a college campus, for which they eventually were found guilty of defamation."

Pennsylvania teacher suspended for attending January 6 Trump protest. Not riot, protest.
Peaceful protests liberals disapprove of are wrong. Violent protests liberals approve of are justified

Feds Spend Millions Building Massive Database on January 6 Riot, None on Antifa - "$6.1 million is just for starts. That figure could explode to $25.9 million, according to the database listing... The only person killed in the Capitol melee was an unarmed veteran, Ashli Babbitt, who was shot, reportedly, by Capitol Police Lt. Michael L. Byrd. Babbitt was reportedly shot without being issued a verbal warning.   No fewer than 535 people have been arrested thus far, and the FBI is seeking the public’s assistance to identify another 300. No one has actually been charged with sedition or trying to overthrow the government."

Capitol Police Lieutenant Who Shot Ashli Babbitt Says He Saved 'Countless Lives' At Capitol Riot - "USCP Lieutenant Michael Byrd, a 28-year veteran of the police force charged with protecting the U.S. Capitol complex and the nation’s lawmakers, appeared on NBC News on Thursday night to tell his story of what happened on Jan. 6."
Police are only not allowed to shoot thugs attacking them

Congress Passes Law Making Every Day January 6 So They Can Think About It All The Time | The Babylon Bee

Only In Your Imagination Was That An Attempted “Coup” - "We are being told that a “coup attempt” no longer needs to be understood as constituting an “attempt” to seize control of the government — as had generally been the common understanding of the term before the events of yesterday, which have caused the entire political and media establishment to go completely haywire... the idea that this was a real attempt at a “coup” — meaning an attempt to seize by force the reins of the most powerful state in world history — is so preposterous that you really have to be a special kind of deluded in order to believe it. Or if not deluded, you have to believe that using such terminology serves some other political purpose. Such as, perhaps, imposing even more stringent censorship on social media, where the “coup” is reported to have been organized. Or inflicting punishment on the man who is accused of “inciting” the coup, which you’ve spent four years desperately craving to do anyway. He’s already been effectively banned from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter — a rubicon-crossing event in the suppression of political speech which, of course, is being cheered by all the usual suspects who otherwise claim to be stalwart defenders of enlightened liberal values.  At no point yesterday was the American government at risk of being “overthrown,” as members of Congress have laughably suggested. Per usual, our guardians of consensus can’t bring themselves to describe what unfolded with any degree of dispassion or calm. Instead we’re told by the incoming Senate Majority Leader, for example, that January 6, 2021 will now “live in infamy” right alongside December 7, 1941. Elected officials issued emotional notices that they were “okay,” like they had just narrowly avoided being crushed in an earthquake, or escaped the World Trade Center on 9/11. This is made all the more odd because the only person upon whom lethal force was committed appears to have been a Trump-supporting woman who was shot point-blank in the throat by a Capitol Hill police officer. She’s now dead. Congress was temporarily inconvenienced. Journalists and pundits, glorying in their natural state — which is to peddle as much free-flowing hysteria as possible — eagerly invoke all the same rhetoric that they’d abhor in other circumstances on civil libertarian grounds. “Domestic terrorism,” “insurrection,” and other such terms now being promoted by the corporate media will nicely advance the upcoming project of “making sure something like this never happens again.” Use your imagination as to what kind of remedial measures that will entail... the notion that Trump has “incited” a violent insurrection is laughable. His speech Monday afternoon that preceded the march to the Capitol was another standard-fare Trump grievance fest, except without the humor that used to make them kind of entertaining. Trump didn’t command that his followers physically breach the Capitol Building. In fact, after previously saying he would join the march, he seems to just have gone home to tweet and watch TV. So, basically his normal routine on a typical day, minus a trip to the golf course. Trump has never had the concentration, organizational acumen, or ideological coherence to mount a bonafide “coup,” and a mob intrusion which was swiftly dispersed by armed agents of the state doesn’t change that. Shortly after the breach, he released a video instructing his followers not to take Senators hostage or imprison Mike Pence, but to “go home.” No factions of the federal government joined the mob on Trump’s orders, because he didn’t bother issuing any. The whole episode never stood a the remotest chance of preventing the certification of Joe Biden, much less overthrowing the government. It was just another goofball charade, and in that sense a fitting end to the Trump presidency. Still, there are many people who in positions of power who would like you to believe that a real-life “insurrection” is genuinely underway, and to develop a kind of exaggerated mythical understanding of what occurred at the Capitol. Because it will enable them to seize additional powers — not through a “coup,” but through the vast inflation of an alleged threat, which is always how they do it."

Report: Milley Told Military Officials Not to Take Orders After Capitol Riot - "Milley had two back-channel phone calls with China’s top general to reassure him that the U.S. would not attack, even promising to give him a heads up if it did."
Conspiring with foreign powers used to be considered treason

No one elected Mark Milley - The Spectator World - "There is no evidence President Trump was planning any kind of strike against China, or Iran, or Florida. No battle plans were being drawn. Miller supposedly took these actions after Trump signed an executive order removing US forces from Afghanistan. Woodward and Robert Costa write that Milley was concerned that Trump would ‘go rogue’ post election loss. Milley held meeting and phone calls without Trump’s knowledge and directed staff, ‘No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I’m part of that procedure.’ Milley then went around the room to each general and demanded what the book is calling ‘an oath’. The trouble is, Milley wasn’t legally granted any of these extraordinary powers. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff essentially usurped the chain of command and attempted to take civilian control of the United States military away from a duly elected president, simply because of his own gut feelings tinged with a bit of paranoia. The larger problem at hand is that no one elected Gen. Milley to anything. It is not the job of the military state, or the intelligence state (James Comey) to override the governing authority granted to the president of the United States... Unelected bureaucrats and generals holding secret meetings with hostile foreign nations are the things that lead to actual banana republics and military juntas, not mean tweets and yelling at journalists.  Even Trump antagonist and MSNBC regular Alexander Vindman admits as much and is calling for Milley’s immediate resignation. Vindman tweeted, ‘If this is true GEN Milley must resign. He usurped civilian authority, broke Chain of Command, and violated the sacrosanct principle of civilian control over the military. It’s an extremely dangerous precedent. You can’t simply walk away from that.’...   You have to wonder: if Milley was willing to overstep his authority in January, what’s stopping him from believing that an 80-year-old Joe Biden might be incapacitated to the point of not being able to make clear headed decisions regarding actions in, say, Afghanistan? Media pundits and Milley defenders aren’t looking at the long game. But they should. Milley does not become a patriot by suddenly aligning with the wild fantasies of #Resistance Twitter. If he’s willing to overstep his authority with imagined scenarios in the Trump era, how far would he be willing to go in the real world? How much authority was Milley granted on President Biden’s catastrophic Afghanistan withdrawal? How much say did Milley have in a drone strike that reportedly targeted and killed a US-aligned aide worker and seven children in Kabul?"

Senator Marco Rubio Calls on Gen. Mark Milley to Resign

Opinion | What if January 6 Wasn’t a Coup Attempt, General Milley? - The New York Times - "General Milley had no direct evidence of a coup plot. But in the days after Mr. Trump’s electoral defeat, as the president filled top military and intelligence posts with people the general considered loyal mediocrities, General Milley got nervous. “They may try,” but they would not succeed with any kind of plot, he told his aides, according to the book. “You can’t do this without the military,” he went on. “You can’t do this without the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. We’re the guys with the guns.” While some might greet such comments with relief, General Milley’s musings should give us pause. Americans have not usually looked to the military for help in regulating their civilian politics. And there is something grandiose about General Milley’s conception of his place in government. He told aides that a “retired military buddy” had called him on election night to say, “You represent the stability of this republic.” If there was not a coup underway, then General Milley’s comments may be cause more for worry than for relief... Jan. 6 was something familiar: a political protest that got out of control. Contesting the fairness of an election, rightly or wrongly, is not absurd grounds for a public assembly. For a newly defeated president to call an election a “steal” is certainly irresponsible. But for a group of citizens to use the term was merely hyperbolic, perhaps no more so than calling suboptimal employment and health laws a “war on women.” Nor did the eventual violence necessarily discredit the demonstrators’ cause, any more than the July 2016 killing of five police officers at a rally in Dallas against police violence, for instance, invalidated the concerns of those marchers.  The stability of the republic never truly seemed at risk. As Michael Wolff writes of Mr. Trump in his new book, “Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency,” “Beyond his immediate desires and pronouncements, there was no ability — or structure, or chain of command, or procedures, or expertise, or actual person to call — to make anything happen.” Mr. Trump ended his presidency as unfamiliar with its powers as with its responsibilities. That is, in a way, reassuring... Republicans had — and still have — legitimate grievances about how the last election was run. Pandemic conditions produced an electoral system more favorable to Democrats. Without the Covid-era advantage of expanded mail-in voting, Democrats might well have lost more elections at every level, including the presidential. Mr. Wolff writes that, as Republicans saw it, Democrats “were saved by this lucky emphasis; that was all they were saved by.”  Nor was it just luck; it was an advantage that, in certain places, Democrats manipulated the system to obtain. The majority-Democratic Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled in favor of a Democratic Party lawsuit to extend the date for accepting mail-in ballots beyond Election Day... The result was not a coup. It was, instead, mayhem on behalf of what had started as a legitimate political position. Such mixtures of the defensible and indefensible occur in democracies more often than we care to admit. The question is whom we trust to untangle such ambiguities when they arise."

Allowed on Facebook: "you absolute *clown*"


"you literally referenced chromosomes you absolute *clown emoji*"

Mentioning someone and calling him a clown (via an emoji) is acceptable

Addendum: Odd. Facebook claims that you shouldn't "shame private individuals".

Links - 31st December 2023 (1 - Trans Mania)

'Fact-Checker' Ignores Scary Truth Of California Mental Health Bill - "Karena Phan of the Associated Press wrote an article attempting to debunk “social media distortion” of Assembly Bill 665, which was introduced as, “Minors: consent to mental health services.” This bill, authored by Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo and state Sen. Scott Wiener, is making its way through the California Legislature.  Phan contends that hysterics on social media claim the bill “would allow school mental health professionals to remove minors [12 and older] from the custody of their parents or guardians who don’t consent to the child receiving gender-affirming surgeries,” and says this claim is false. However, Phan seems to have completely missed the horrifying loophole created by AB665, which would make it possible for children to leave their current family — with essentially zero notice to their parents, and zero allegations of abuse, neglect, incest, harm, or danger, as is currently required by California law... A plain reading of the Family and Health and Safety Code sections shows that the only time a minor between 12 and 17 years of age can “self-consent” into a residential shelter is when that minor is found by a professional person to be (1) mature enough and (2) in a dangerous situation. In the current text of AB665, however, these guardrails are physically crossed out. Phan also contends that a child who wishes to seek “gender-affirming” surgery, but whose parents will not permit self-mutilations, will not be removed from his parents’ custody under the language of the bill. First, the language of the bill does not guarantee this. Second, a minor need only tell a “professional person” that he or she feels “unsafe” at home in order to self-consent into residential care. Since gender-confused children are constantly fed the trope that parents who do not accept their so-called gender identity will abandon them (or worse — harm them), some truly do feel in danger and may want to remove themselves from their parents’ home, custody, and care.  Since many of these children believe they only have two options — transition or suicide — children seeking surgeries without parental or guardian consent may ask to leave home and, once they do, (1) open up CPS investigations that place them in foster care or emancipation proceedings and/or (2) are designated as “runaways.” Both can result in the termination of parental rights... Phan contends AB665 does not allow for puberty blockers, wrong-sex hormones, or any invasive medical or surgical treatment without parental consent. However, she is, again, partially correct. While minors typically need parental consent for medical procedures now, parental consent is not required for minors who are placed in foster care or are deemed runaways, both of which are probable consequences under this bill... Democrats have long been on a crusade to normalize the accessibility of “affirming families.” This includes “chosen families” — a euphemistic term used for LGBT families — and “glitter parents” — people wanting and willing to replace legal guardians who accept their children’s natural-sexed bodies and reject the myriad expansive gender identities... With another Weiner-sponsored bill moving toward passage — AB957, which redefines “health, safety, and welfare” to include sterilizing surgeries and the affirmation of children’s gender dysphoria — parents across California who have never been proven to be abusive will likely face expensive, time-consuming legal battles to get their child home. All the while, their child remains trapped in an underfunded, unsafe facility, getting pumped with “mental health services,” or worse.  What’s more, AB665 extends beyond trans-identified or gender-curious children. The bill applies to any child in the state, 12 years and up. It could include the child fighting with his mom to stay out past curfew, the girl fighting with her dad about her clothing or boyfriend, and all kids fighting with their parents about social media use, grades, or drinking. Under AB665, any child who is worried about facing another heated debate at home could consult with a “professional person” and opt into a residential shelter without notice to his or her parents, and without any accusation of abuse, neglect, or danger.   Giving young, already-struggling children the opportunity to leave their legal guardians even when real harm is not present makes them vulnerable. It separates them from the protection of home. A bill similar to AB665 was already passed in Oregon"

Meme - "my christmas was shit. not only was i misgendered by literally everyone in the fucking family, my cousin who i havent seen for years started laughing her ass off when she noticed i am now a woman. i got pretty ok gifts, but my dad got me a fucking clown wig. he said "if you want to look like clown, might as well just wear this instead of whatever you're doing now". I FUCKING HATE MY FAMILY"

Students walk out to support staff who let trans athlete compete on girls' team - "Hundreds of students walked out of class to support a principal and staff who were reassigned for allowing a transgender athlete to play on a girls’ volleyball team. Monarch High School principal James Cecil, his assistant Kenneth May, athletic director Dione Hester, volleyball coach Jessica Norton and an information management technician were removed from their roles at the Coconut Creek campus on Monday... They allegedly violated Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ law that went into effect in 2021 prohibiting transgender females from playing on girls and women’s public school teams if their assigned gender at birth was male... Since 2020, at least 23 states have enacted legislation barring trans athletes from participating on sports teams that correspond with their identity. A lawsuit challenging DeSantis’ law was dismissed by a federal judge earlier this month."
Weird. Liberals used to claim that if you don't do your job, you should be fired (like the clerk who refused to approve gay marriages)

South Korea is testing out an AI-based gender detector, and its pilot program will be held in the women's bathroom of a metro station - "a Seoul Metro employee fatally stabbed a 28-year-old female coworker in her 20s in the women's restroom at Sindang Station... the Seoul Metro has been implementing various safety measures, including self-defense training for its workers and separating men's and women's restrooms in renovated public buildings"
Of course left wingers were unhappy

California Mom Speaks Out Against Bill: 'My Daughter Was Murdered by Gender Ideology' - "[My] name is Abigail Martinez. It has been three years and 164 days since I lost my daughter Yaeli. I miss her every single day. Let me tell you how she died.  My daughter was murdered by a gender ideology. CPS took my daughter when she was 16 years old. It was helped by her public school counselor and LGBTQ group [inaudible] and another trans-identified girl.  My daughter was taken from her loving home because the state of California claim I was abusive for not affirming her trans identity. I lost my daughter over a name and pronouns. Even after I promised to call her a male name, it wasn’t enough.  My daughter was not a boy trapped in a girl’s body. She had mental health issues. Against my consent, my daughter was given testosterone instead of therapy. The LGBTQ group used her to raise money for them. “Look at the poor reject trans boy,” they said.  Why are there so many transgender in foster care? Because this state take them from their families, tell them to run, then steal them. Parents are given one option to treat their distressed child, affirm drug and remove their healthy body part, or else lose your child.   The abuse claim against me was finally dropped, but it was too late. The damage was done. By then my daughter was in horrible mental and physical pain. My daughter knelt down in front of a train."
Clearly it was her for fault for being transphobic, that made her son kill herself. To "save" "trans" kids, we need to take them from their parents earlier Weird. Liberals keep telling us it's a myth that your kids will be taken from you if you don't unconditionally endorse their being trans

California mom claims her 19-year-old daughter was 'murdered by gender ideology' - "Martinez said her daughter's depression got worse throughout treatment and she begged doctors to explain the damage being done to her child's body but was told nothing negative was happening.   Taking testosterone treatments can cause sleep apnea, weight gain, vaginal atrophy, diabetes, and hair thinning, among others, according to the Cleveland Clinic.   Now, the mother is pushing for others to stop advocating for gender transitioning among children.    'I beg you, stop pushing gender ideology,' Martinez told the California committee. 'I don't want any parent to feel what I feel every day. Affirmation is not good for the health, safety, and welfare of any child.'"

California mom claims LA school encouraged daughter to transition and is to blame for her suicide - "Andrew Martinez, born Yaeli, stepped in front of a train on September 4, 2019... Martinez, 53, a mother of four, claimed school staff told Yaeli not to speak to her mother about transgender issues, but secretly had her join an LGBTQ group that persuaded the girl that the only way to be happy was to transition.  The El Salvador-born mother said an older trans student 'coached' Yaeli on what to tell social workers to put her into foster care, so that the state would pay for her gender reassignment... LA County agreed that they 'aggressively pursued the implementation of inclusive, gender-affirming laws, policies and supportive services for LGBTQ+ youth,' but partially laid the blame for Andrew's death on 'higher rates of suicide' among queer young people... Martinez said among her three daughters, Yaeli was 'the girly girl in the house', dressing as a princess and talking about the boys she liked at pre-school.  She was bullied for her looks in middle school, and by eighth grade began showing signs of depression, her mother said. She began questioning her sexuality in high school at around age 15 or 16... 'The school told her these groups were the place to go, and I didn't need to know about it.  'I asked her what was going on, and she tried to deny it, because she was told that if she talked about it at home, I would not support it.'... Yaeli had already tried to overdose on pills in eighth grade in 2014, and tried to jump off a bridge near the freeway in her hometown of Arcadia in her freshman year, shortly after she cut her hair short, attracting the attention of social workers... Martinez said one trans friend and their parents 'coached' Yaeli, persuading her to run away from home in July 2016 and tell the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) that her mother had slapped her in the face... 'On the visit days, when she came to my house, I was told not to talk about God,' Martinez said. 'They told me if you do that, you'll never see your daughter... When Andrew turned 19 in 2019 he was sent to an 'independent house', but was struggling to get by and was hospitalized after another overdose attempt, Martinez said.  'She called me and said, 'Mom, I don't have any food, my last meal I'm giving it to a friend because she's pregnant,' Martinez said.  'I told her I'm going to Costco and dropping off food. She sent me a message, she said, 'Mom, I wanted to cry because no matter what you're always there for me.'  '[Social workers] asked me not to call her by her first name. I just say 'My child, I love you.' It was very hard.'... A former civil rights director for the federal Department of Health and Human Services who helped Martinez with her case claimed that the Arcadia school district and LA County put politics before Andrew's wellbeing. Roger Severino told DailyMail.com that he believes district officials were afraid of losing funding and desperate to show their pro-trans credentials after being sued by the Obama administration in 2013 for discriminating against a trans boy, and inappropriately pushed gender reassignment on children as a result.  A July 2013 settlement between the Department of Justice and the district obligated schools to 'promptly inform' any gender-transitioning student of 'their right to request a support team of appropriate individuals to ensure that the student has equal access to and equal opportunity to participate in the District's programs and activities.'"
Keywords: Groomed

Liberal media refuses to tell full truth about transgender kids - "The other night, I was at dinner with friends: brilliant, talented people who love to converse about a wide range of topics. But every time I brought up gender issues, the table got quiet. They looked at their plates, or at each other. At one point, I mentioned that puberty blockers followed by cross-sex hormones in adolescents—the pathway of “gender-affirming care”—are likely to cause sterility. My friend said: “I don’t want to know.”   And perhaps that’s how we on the Left got here... My personal awakening began in 2018, when I was researching my book “Tomboy”, and I asked several clinicians how they could tell a trans boy from a girl who simply looks and acts more like a stereotypical boy.  Surprisingly, the experts couldn’t give me a straight answer. They replied vaguely about understanding the whole child, and how much distress they were in... According to 11 studies, the vast majority of children with gender dysphoria will overcome their angst by the end of puberty — if they don’t socially transition to adopt a different gender identity. A majority, in fact, will turn out to be gay... “People communicating with my son were saying basically, ‘This is the promised land,’” she told me.  Sometimes these misdiagnosed kids are told — by clinicians — that they’ll kill themselves if they don’t transition, despite the flimsy evidence for such claims. One adolescent was on a feeding tube because of anorexia when the attending psychologist told him this... Other parents spoke of being pressured to affirm and psychologically or medically transition their children by doctors, therapists, and school personnel. “This has caused so much strife and tension in my family and in my life,” a parent told me this spring. “I walk a tightrope every day. I feel like I’m being asked to live in a lie.”  An adolescent girl with a history of eating disorders and depression seized on the idea of being transgender when she got to college and felt disconnected from the other girls. Within months, she’d gone on testosterone and had her breasts removed in 2016. “I never even made eye contact with my surgeon,” she told me last month. It took her six years to realize she’d made a mistake, her singing voice ruined, her body forever altered.   She’s joined the growing ranks of detransitioners, many of whom belong to a new cohort of teen girls with complex mental health problems, often influenced by social media. Such kids were not studied in the original research suggesting adolescent sex changes can be psychologically beneficial. It’s a cohort the Left-leaning media denies exists, just as they downplay detransition and overstate the surety of benefits of gender-affirming care. Though there were two important stories on detranstioners, in 2017 and 2018, along with my own op-ed in The New York Times in 2017 about confusing gender nonconformity with transgender identity, the media seemed to retreat from proper exploration of this complex following the backlash to those pieces.   For the past year-and-a-half, I’ve pitched stories to The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, USA Today, Time and many others about detransitioners and how the science of gender-affirming care actually doesn’t support claims that it’s life-saving — despite assertions by major medical associations. I’ve pointed out that around the world, in countries with better healthcare systems and no profit motive, medical interventions for trans children are being slowed down or doled out only under strict circumstances, because of concern about going too far, too fast.  I managed to publish a few dissenting pieces in mainstream media, but most people in the media plugged their ears. They, too, didn’t want to know. As a result, the media have helped make gender affirming care a political issue instead of a healthcare issue. They have failed and misinformed their readers. They’ve actually done them an injustice. Finally, last month, The New York Times admitted the story was more complicated than they’d let on, publishing a piece about the potentially damaging effects of puberty blockers, admitting that this field is full of unknowns, instead of the certainty it previously espoused. Reuters, too, has begun to report more honestly, and Politico followed suit in one piece. These are baby steps, but I’m grateful for them.   Even so, there’s so much more territory to cover. As a journalist, this has been the most dispiriting vocational experience I’ve ever had... I think those on the Left who already know something is wrong will eventually feel safer dissenting and questioning, despite their own media misinforming them. For those of you still saying, “I don’t want to know” — even if you can’t listen to me, please take your blinders off and unplug your ears. There is so much to see and hear."
Trans mania is the true conversion therapy

When the Transgender Movement Kills - "The story of Yaeli Martinez forms the heart of “Gender Transformations: The Untold Realities,” an original production of The Epoch Times. Though technically classified as a “docudrama,” the term does not do justice to the reality that plays out on the screen: The majority of the film consists of real people sharing heartbreaking true stories, without an interviewer’s prompting. Through their eyes, the 85-minute Epoch Original production traces the transgender contagion from its funding sources in Big Pharma, to ideologically extremist teachers who radicalize children behind their parents’ backs, to trans activists who brainwash and kidnap minors, to the irreversible damage the industry causes teens and young adults. Abigail Martinez sheds real tears for her daughter’s suicide — and real footage shows trans activists mocking her grief... “She told me, ‘Mom, I realized that no matter what I do I’m never going to be like my brother. I’m in pain. I can’t sleep. I can’t concentrate,’” Martinez recalls. “’It’s not working the way that I thought.’”... All that remained of her child’s legacy was the undying hatred of the radical LGBTQ movement. The movie includes real footage of Martinez sharing her story, as trans activists yell, “Cry more!” and “What a sob story!”  After removing a child from a loving home and transitioning her, the Los Angeles government refused to acknowledge any responsibility for Yaeli’s death... The origin story of transgenderism’s social contagion begins by tracing the money back to the Big Pharma companies that manufacture these drugs. “If you’re going to look for anything in this country, you’re going to follow the money, because it will always tell you the truth. Who’s funding these LGB organizations?” asked writer and investigator Jennifer Bilek. “What I found was a whole lot of very, very powerful moneyed people in the highest echelons of finance, Pharma, and technology.” Dr. Katherine Welch, a concerned physician, agrees that pharmaceutical companies “fund the activists and the NGOs to stir up a lot of passion.” Then the companies ask for emergency use authorization, based on “a mental health crisis among our youth.” Thanks to their combination marketing-and-lobbying efforts, there is now “a $1.5 billion industry for surgery alone,” said lawyer Erin Friday. “And I think that’s an underestimate.” The trail extends to dishonest researchers, such as John Money, and subject criteria set by organizations such as the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). The academic cohort produces the shoddy research trumpeted by the media, entertainment industry, and school officials. When Erin Friday learned her daughter had secretly begun identifying as a boy at school, administrators told her, “We need to be a safe space” for her child. “By extension, I’m unsafe,” said Friday.  The message promptly filters down to young people. A few confess to being amazed at the virtually godlike power they hold over their own bodies. “When I went into the Planned Parenthood building to [talk about] the surgery … I could pick from 25 sets of breasts,” said detransitioner David Bacon. “I could build myself.” But most seek to rebuild themselves from a trauma, or they naïvely believe the transgender industry’s claims that the silver bullet for their depression lies at the end of a needle. Continually hearing the (scientifically inaccurate) mantra that children who identify as transgender will commit suicide if not immediately “affirmed” caused at least one woman to become profoundly depressed. “It made me feel even more hopeless, because I thought there was no way to accept myself. I had to get these painful surgeries and take hormones,” said detransitioner Catt Catinson. Her psychological evaluation “affirmed me immediately” and “just sort of overlooked my eating disorder” and childhood sexual abuse. Abel Garcia received the same treatment, even after telling them, “I might be autistic” and that he felt unsure whether he identified as transgender. “The worst part, honestly, is that I was allowed to do all this, and that nobody was willing to stop me and have a second opinion,” says Garcia. “Instead, I was affirmed, I was love-bombed. I was allowed to destroy my body.”"

Mother of trans teenager: Los Angeles County killed my daughter - "Sari was the typical stereotype: bullied at school, friendless, and in therapy. She learned about the transgender movement on the gaming site Discord and contact through a family friend.  Sharon shut down all the apps on Sari’s phone, locked her out of social media on the home computer, and forbid her from seeing the friend. Then, she enrolled Sari in a different school and told the counselors and teachers that they were not allowed to call her daughter by anything other than her birth name.  Unlike some states, Utah law defers to parental rights with children.  “The law here is that you have to do what the parents tell you to do,” Sharon said. “If I didn’t say anything, the school would do what the child wants.”  Sharon did a crash course on what Sari had been learning and was horrified. The computer history revealed YouTube videos on how to deceive your parents and ways to get mastectomies and testosterone shots.  “I figured out the algorithms to this and was getting more and more sick to my stomach,” she said. “I tried to direct her into something else, but it seemed like every group I found, she would come in contact with transgenders.”  Sharon now seems to have won the battle with her daughter. The family refused to use the name Alan, although Sari was allowed to dress as she pleases. Her biggest moment of success is when Sari started wearing skinny girl jeans.  But other families have not been as successful. Jeannette Cooper of Chicago lost a custody battle with her ex-husband because her daughter didn’t think she would be supportive of her new transgender lifestyle. But other families have not been as successful. Jeannette Cooper of Chicago lost a custody battle with her ex-husband because her daughter didn’t think she would be supportive of her new transgender lifestyle.  The girl, who was in the eighth grade, told her stepmother, “I’m trans, and if I tell my mom, she will kill me.”  So her ex went to court and fought for full custody, which was approved, despite the fact that Cooper would have supported her daughter if given the chance, but it was never discussed.  “We’ve never talked about gender,” Cooper said. “My ex said our child wanted this to be a secret, and I learned they had been plotting this for months.”  The girl decided to transition because she was bullied at school without intervention from teachers. Once she declared herself transgender, she was awarded protection.  Then, the court decided that “there was a trans kid, and she was going to save the trans kid from the mom, and that’s what she did. Even though there are no facts to back this up that I wasn’t supportive.”  Cooper was only allowed to communicate with her daughter through postal mail and did not see her for two years until the pair recently had lunch...   Yaeli died a year later, still battling her demons and making a mockery of the county’s stance that children commit suicide when denied transgender medical care. Neither the county, the school, nor the LGBT group have reached out to Martinez since."

This Mom Says Transgender Movement Took Her Daughter's Life - "The logic of the Department of Children and Family Services was that “if we keep [Yaeli] out of your home, she [will] have more chance to survive,” Martinez recalled. “She’s not going to try to commit suicide.”...   “She was taking the [cross-sex] hormones; she was not happy. She changed her name, [but] was not happy,” Martinez said. “She adopted a dog because that was going to make her happy. None of it, everything that they’ve done, didn’t work.”... She says she questioned Children and Family Services after her daughter’s death, saying, “Where is my daughter? You took her away from me, my family. Now she’s gone. You told me that she was going to be better off.”   Martinez said the agency had no adequate response...   When Children and Family Services took her daughter from her, Martinez said, she was painted as “the bad guy.”  “Even though I talked to them about the depression, they didn’t care about [it], it didn’t matter,” Yaeli’s mother said."

Meme - "If genitals don't define gender, how does removing them "affirm" it?"

Meme - Hazel Appleyard @HazelAppleyard_: "*triggered*"
"r/trans
Something I saw in a public restroom that really irked me :\
XY [men's toilet] / XX [women's toilet]
It's very unnecessary, and just... Why tho"

Why is breast augmentation covered for trans women but not cis? : Manitoba - "Manitoba will cover breast augmentation for trans women after a complaint that “breast augmentation is a vital and final means of aligning my body with my identity." Of course this is on a case basis and usually only for those who have been on hormones for quite some time and have little to no breast growth.  But cis women have little to flat chests, suffer from underdeveloped breasts/tubular breasts but getting surgery is deemed as unnecessary and only cosmetic, so if a cis women doesn’t need boobs to be considered a woman, it’s up to her to pay out of pocket, why do trans women get to have surgery done to look more “feminine”.  Of course this stems from some jealousy, I am not comfortable with my breasts and feel less feminine due to it but I can’t get assistance with that, but more so due to feeling like having small boobs really does make me less of a woman? Or it wouldn’t be a covered treatment to have done for those wanting to express themselves as women. People are always like “small boobs are great” but why would those transitioning need bigger boobs when many cis women have flat chests to feel more themselves. Do you not see flat chested cis girls as feminine?"

Meme - "THE PATRIARCHY ALWAYS WINS!
*Caitlyn Jenner, Veronica Ivy aka Rachel McKinnon, Laurel Hubbard, Rachel Levine, Kataluna Enriquez,  Brían Nguyen, Lia Thomas, Fallon Fox, CeCe Telfer*

Meme - "Toys have no gender. A boy can play with with "girly" toys and still be a boy"
"Yeah, okay. That makes sense."
"If a boy plays with girly toys, he's probably a transgender and needs puberty blockers"

Meme - "Multiple victims reported in Nashville school shooting. 6 dead + shooter"
"Better protect those kids from drag queens and trans people!"
"This comment hasn't aged well, unfortunately."
"They were trans..."

Republicans tear into Kansas' Democratic Governor for taxpayer-funded 'all ages' drag show - "Kansas Republicans are tearing into Democrat Governor Laura Kelly and her administration over revelations that taxpayer dollars helped fund an all-ages drag event... Images obtained by DailyMail.com show scantily-clad drag performers dancing at the Wichita event in front of both adults and young children.  Called the ‘DADA Ball,’ it was advertised as ‘a free, all-ages evening of music, fashion, drag & dancing!’ Among the backers of the event host is the Kansas Creative Arts & Industries Commission, which is a part of the state Department of Commerce. The department is led by Kelly’s lieutenant governor, David Toland."

Saturday, December 30, 2023

Links - 30th December 2023 (2 - Justin Trudeau)

Leave it to Justin Trudeau to further degrade Canada-India relations - "If Canada-India bilateral relations were in the deep freeze after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s gaffe-ridden visit to India in 2018, following last weekend’s G20 summit in New Delhi, they are now officially in the Arctic tundra. The G20 was a perfect opportunity for Trudeau and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reset the relationship. But it was not to be. The first early warning sign was the perplexing news that Canada had put a “pause” on the on-again-off-again trade negotiations with India just days before the summit, which we first learned about from the Indian high commissioner to Canada, not the Canadian government. Warning bells rang again when, at a press conference in Singapore ahead of the G20, Trudeau said that he was going to raise foreign-interference allegations with Modi, setting a hostile tone even before stepping foot in New Delhi... At the summit itself, Canadians saw images of an uncomfortable handshake, in which Trudeau pulled away from Modi. Trudeau also opted to skip the official leaders dinner, a serious faux pas that was widely — and correctly — seen as a snub to his host. Trudeau struck no major deals and was all but peripheral to the main business of the summit — and largely invisible, except for a few photo opportunities with other western leaders... Unfortunately, rather than taking a strategic, realpolitik view of India, the Trudeau government appears to see India principally through the lens of domestic diaspora politics. Sikh-Canadians have been loyal Liberal voters over the years, and their concentration in key ridings in the Toronto and Vancouver areas makes them far more consequential than their small percentage of the population would suggest.  Ignoring the bigger picture, Trudeau has consistently played to the diaspora gallery when it comes to India. In 2018, Jaspal Atwal, a British Columbia man convicted and jailed for attempting to murder a visiting Indian state minister, ended up on the official invitation list for a private reception hosted by Trudeau on his India trip.  Recall, too, when speaking to a group of Sikh-Canadians in November 2020, Trudeau said that he supported the farmer protests in India, which had jammed up the highways in and around New Delhi for months. The protesters were largely Punjabi Sikhs and, pointedly, Trudeau made his remarks on a day celebrating the founder of the Sikh religion. Indian officials took umbrage, seeing this as attempted interference in their domestic political affairs.  His poor showing at the G20 is yet another sorry chapter in Trudeau’s mishandling of what could, and should, have been an important bilateral relationship, apparently prioritizing partisan electoral calculations over Canada’s global strategic interests."

Philippines receives climate finance commitment from Canada - "The UNDP said the Philippines is included as part of a total international climate finance commitment by Canada of $5.3 billion."
Clearly taxes need to go up to fund more social spending, and only heartless conservatives disagree

Federal minister accuses some premiers of holding Canada back - "Boissonnault pointed specifically to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs. All three have said in recent weeks they will defy, or have considered defying, federal environmental regulations. But Boissionnault's concerns went beyond his government's environmental policies. He also attacked new rules in Saskatchewan and New Brunswick that require parental consent for a student under 16 to have their name or pronoun changed in school."
Clearly, if you disagree with the liberal agenda and federal overreach, you are backward

Half of private Canadian journalism could now be government supported - "the Trudeau government announced that it had reached an agreement with Google that would see the tech giant pay $100 million annually to Canadian news outlets under the Online News Act... “We’re pretty close, by my estimation, to a 50 percent wage subsidy on journalist salaries up to $85,000 per year,” says Rudyard Griffiths, executive director of The Hub... “What does it mean long term when as much as half of the newsroom costs of private media organizations, not the CBC, will be paid for by government support?” asked Griffiths. “This likely is not going to be positive for the ongoing challenges that mainstream media is facing in terms of declining public trust in the very news and information that they produce.”   Trust in Canadian news media has noticeably declined in recent years. According to one survey, the share of Canadians who reported that they trusted the news most of the time fell from 55 percent in 2015 to 40 percent in 2023. Griffiths says this declining trust is unlikely to be reversed when half of newsroom costs are being subsidized by the federal government and large technology firms like Google.   “They’re paying half of the bills of the very newsrooms that are extensively there to investigate them, challenge them, and report on their policies and prescriptions for society,” says Griffiths.   Appearing before the committee as a witness, Michael Geist, the Canada Research Chair in Internet and e-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, stated that any funds raised for media outlets through the Online News Act would mainly benefit legacy media organizations. “The parliamentary budget officer tells us 75 percent of the money goes to the broadcasters, radio, and television largely based on the way it was structured,” said Geist, noting that media in Canada is dominated by a handful of large organizations. “Personally, I think it was a mistake to think that, at a minimum, if the goal was to support the core and what we would think of as newspapers or digital publishers. And that’s where the focus of the legislation ought to have been.”"

‘No actual legal, logical, or moral case’: Five Tweets reacting to Ottawa’s agreement with Google - "Macdonald-Laurier Institute senior fellow and regular Hub contributor Peter Menzies described the agreement as a “surrender” on the part of the government that avoided a “catastrophic Google shutdown.” That Google’s annual payment is about $72 million less than the government had set out in its draft regulations in September may be viewed by some as evidence of Ottawa’s ultimate compromise."

Andrew Coyne 🇺🇦🇮🇱 on X - "There is no actual legal, logical or moral case for forcing Google to underwrite the Canadian media. It’s strictly opportunistic: 1. Google has a lot of money. 2. We want some. 3. Make them give it to us."

As news is still shared on Facebook, Instagram, Meta may yet be regulated: St-Onge - "Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge has signaled that she would like to see Meta regulated under the Online News Act, as social-media users find loopholes to share news on its platforms... Users have also found other ways to share news stories on Facebook and Instagram, by direct messaging news links, sharing screenshots of articles and shortening news links so they can appear on stories, which are photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours...   Meta said it doesn't believe the law applies to private messaging services, so it said users can still send news links through direct messages."
When you didn't understand how internet links work, and are now doubling down with an even more epic misunderstanding of how the internet works. Maybe now Facebook will just withdraw from Canada instead

Opinion | News Publishers Are Fighting Big Tech Over Peanuts. They Could Be Owed Billions. - The New York Times - "The Canada-Google deal sets an important precedent: It prevents Google from influencing which media businesses survive and fail." Apparently the government influencing which media businesses survive and fail is good

The government guts the Online News Act in an attempt to fix a mess of its own making - "The government this morning released the final Online News Act regulations, effectively gutting the law in order to convince Google to refrain from blocking news links in Canada and to fix some of the legislative mistakes that have been apparent from the start. While proponents of the law will point to the $100 million contribution from Google as evidence of success, privately most in the industry and government acknowledge the obvious: Bill C-18 was deeply flawed and a massive miscalculation that has created far more harm than good.  Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge seemingly agrees as she was willing to make changes that were derided by the government throughout the legislative process. Indeed, by the time St-Onge took over the file that was a challenging salvage job, Meta’s $20 million in news deals were lost and blocked news links on Facebook and Instagram were a reality. The prospect of the same happening with Google was too much for the industry and the government since the lost deals would have been at least double that amount (many believe in the $40-50 million range) and lost news links in search would have been catastrophic... The $100 million from Google is likely to yield relatively little new money after subtracting $20 million lost from Meta, an estimated $50 million from existing Google spending is folded into the new funding model, and $5-6 million to cover administrative costs of the new system. In other words, the entire Canadian news industry picks up roughly $25 million in new money, set against lost links on Facebook and Instagram and lost investment in the sector due to regulatory uncertainty. That is disastrous and helps explain why the deal also comes with the government’s increased bailout for newspapers with the expanded labour journalism tax credit and the expectation that the CRTC will use Bill C-11 to funnel more money to broadcasters to cover news costs.   The relatively small amount of new money also helps explain why the government has directly engaged in determining how it will be allocated. While its Bill C-18 pitch changed over time—from payments for links to levelling the bargaining playing field—it ends with a simple shakedown. Google has money and this tax-like approach forces them to pay up to make the contentious policy battle go away. The government had claimed that it would not become directly involved in either negotiating payments or determining how the money would be allocated. It was—in the words of Rodriguez—merely setting the table for the two private sector sides to reach a deal with mandated arbitration lurking in the background. Today’s final regulation discards both claims and overhauls the law, adding a Google-specific regulation that specifically grants it an exemption from arbitration in return for the $100 million payment and a specific reference that the payment is not about payments for links. The Google-specific provision is exhibit A for the absurdity of the legislation as it literally creates a singular exception for one company... The combined effect of this regulation should be obvious: excluding some smaller and ethnic outlets altogether while reserving most of the remaining money for larger entities such as Torstar or Postmedia who employ more journalist-adjacent personnel. I suspect many of the smaller players could see this coming, but they’ve been tossed under the bus in the effort to send more money to bigger outlets who stood to lose the most from Bill C-18 (and who incidentally lobbied the most for the legislation). While not in the regulations, added to the mix is a battle to become the new fund manager."

It's the end of an era for news—the industry can either adapt or die - "Since the turn of the century, there have only been two alternatives for legacy news organizations: adapt or die. While there has been some evidence of success in terms of the former, public policy support has ignored new ideas in favour of propping up the ones everyone knows won’t make it. The results have ranged from inconsequential to catastrophic... it’s just as unlikely journalism can find salvation in the arms of Canada’s heavily regulated broadcasting industry. For it, with exceptions acknowledged, the provision of news has always been primarily a regulatory obligation and not a core business proposition. Broadcasters are in the business of entertaining people with music, drama, chat, and related programming and have long acknowledged there is little or no money in them for news. All too often, it’s just regulatory rent... there is increasing evidence to suggest that the more the public becomes aware of direct government funding to journalism organizations, the less likely it is to trust those organizations and label reporters as toadies... It is one thing to have a public broadcaster. But today’s CBC is not that. It has evolved into a publicly funded commercial broadcaster and online content provider. Even its radio content, while broadcast free of advertising over the air, is repurposed to build online audiences and revenue in direct competition with news startups and legacy media attempting to transition into vibrant digital platforms. No industry can survive, let alone prosper, when the government subsidizes one commercial entity—in this case with $1.2 billion annually—to the detriment of all others."

How the CRTC could kill Netflix in Canada—All in the name of 'modernizing' broadcasting - "the CRTC’s idea of “modernizing” broadcasting appears heavily weighted in favour of applying its 1990s way of doing things to the online world of 2023. If that’s the case, the Commission is entirely unprepared to deal with the harsh truth that offshore companies don’t have to play by its rules. For decades, primary CRTC hearing participants have been dependent on the regulator. In the case of broadcasters like CTV and cable companies such as Rogers, their existence is at stake. Without a license, they are done. Which means they have to do what the Commission wants. But if the regulatory burden the CRTC places upon the offshore streamers doesn’t make business sense to them, they are free to say, “Sorry Canada, the juice just isn’t worth the squeeze. We’re outta here.” This is most likely to occur among the smaller, niche services at the lower end of the subscription scale. The CRTC has to date exempted only companies with Canadian revenues of less than $10 million. Any company just over that line would almost certainly not bother to do business in Canada —a relatively small and increasingly confusing market—if the regulatory ask is anything close to the 20 percent commitment being suggested... Too much burden without benefits would make it far cheaper for many to leave and sell their most popular shows to a domestic streamer or television network. The Online Streaming Act (Bill C-11), which led to this tussle, was originally pitched as making sure web giants “contribute” their “fair share.”"

The CRTC said it would leave podcasts alone. Turns out that was a myth - "what the CRTC denounced as “myth” in the spring has become a “fact” in the fall. It has kicked open the door to the regulation of online content, if not directly then by proxy through the platforms that deliver the work of podcasters to their audiences.  It is a bureaucratic master stroke."

Canada has a serious fiscal challenge looming as the federal debt explodes - "Federal finances are under increasing strain from slowing economic growth, expanded affordability measures, new social programs (such as dental care), massive subsidies for battery plants, and, perhaps most important of all, rapidly rising interest rates.   In fact, the monthly interest costs of the federal government are now at an all-time high. The latest available data for August shows federal interest costs exceeded $4.3 billion, surpassing the previous record of $4.03 billion set in December 1995. It’s more than double the pre-COVID amounts, as I illustrate below. And it’s the fastest acceleration in interest costs in recorded history...  Excluding the COVID-19 years, which are obviously an exception, it would be an over $20 billion increase over last year. That’d be the largest increase since the financial crisis. And controlling for the health of the economy (using what’s called the “cyclically adjusted budget balance”), it would be the largest deficit, as a share of the economy, since 1995... the situation abroad is even worse. Based on the latest data compiled by The Economist, the U.S. federal deficit is set to reach 5.7 percent of GDP this year, equivalent to roughly $165 billion in Canada. Borrowing in the Euro area is 3.4 percent. The U.K. is 3.9 percent. Indeed, of all the countries it tracks—developed and developing alike—only three expect a surplus: Australia, Denmark, and Norway... The federal government’s 2023 budget was based on a 10-year interest rate of approximately three percent. That may now have to increase by half a point, which could increase borrowing costs by several billion per year for the foreseeable future.  And if rates stay higher for longer, as many (including the Bank of Canada) now expect, the government’s debt levels may not be sustainable... Federal debt that grows faster than the economy is not sustainable... What can Canada do? As I’ve noted before, sticking with the government’s own previous plans would be a good start. Ratcheting up spending plans with every single budget is an important reason why we’re in this situation"
Don Martin reacts to Canada's fiscal update - "And lest we forget, as debt servicing charges and health-care costs achieve an ugly budgetary equilibrium, this red-ink burden is not one to be borne by the current crop of parents and grandparents.  The borrowing of today will be paid with high interest by the kids who become the taxpayers of tomorrow.  For squandering their hard-earned income tax on the questionable expenses we have incurred, they are owed a proactive apology."
Damn conservatives and austerity! We need to spend more on social welfare!

Canada is not broken but Ottawa is definitely broke - "In her economic update Tuesday, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland just couldn’t help taking a swipe at Leader of the Opposition Pierre Poilievre when she declared: “Canada is not and has never been broken.” In the early 1990s, Canada did come close to needing IMF assistance, but Liberal finance minister Paul Martin’s 1995 budget pulled us back from the abyss by cutting program spending 20 per cent and putting the country back on a path towards balanced budgets. We did receive short-term finance from the IMF during the currency crisis of 1962, but we have never reneged on public debt, unlike hapless Argentina, which has defaulted nine times since its independence in 1816. Canada may not be broken but the federal government is all but broke and is clearly running out of steam... the finance minister predicts, debt as a share of GDP will fall ever so gently to 39 per cent over the following four years. I am quite skeptical about five-year forecasts, especially from a government that over eight years has failed to keep any deficit and debt promises. The 2015 election commitment to cap the deficit at $10 billion is long gone. So is the promise to keep the debt/GDP ratio from rising.  Even before the pandemic, federal debt was creeping back up to over 30 per cent of GDP. After eye-popping spending during COVID, any plan to return to pre-pandemic levels has been ditched. Instead, we just accept debt at 40 per cent of GDP and move on. And if a recession hits, you can bet your bottom dollar — which may be the only dollar you have left — that federal debt/GDP will reach a new plateau, also never to be reversed...  Economic updates used to be just that, reports on how things are going, but increasingly they are mini-budgets that introduce new measures. With the Liberals sinking in the polls, housing affordability is the focus. But with higher interest rates and more stringent climate and other regulations adding to construction costs, it is unclear how much more housing supply will grow even with the new measures... The housing plan wasn’t the only focus in the economic statement. To address affordability and climate change, the current government takes pride in its pyramid of budget-busting subsidies for clean energy and regulations dictating private-sector behaviour regarding such things as “junk fees” and grocery prices. There’s also GST relief for psychotherapists and more generous subsidies for journalists and news organizations. (I suppose I should bend a knee to the minister and doff my cap.) What’s missing in the statement? It barely mentions the country’s poor productivity performance. And you will word-search in vain for “tax reform,” “general tax relief” or “deregulation” aimed at spurring private sector investment. No mention is made that accelerated tax depreciation for capital investment, introduced in 2018, is being phased out beginning January 1st, which will discourage private investment, including in housing construction. Instead, the Liberal economic plan is all about more government, not less, to grow the economy. Without the private sector, that’s not going to work."
Of course, the left just keeps calling for more social support and spending, and they think it can all be financed by money printing and debt. If the country defaults on debt, that will be proof that "capitalism has failed"

Justin Trudeau on X - "We need more women in politics and at decision-making tables. Because throughout our country’s history, progress has been made when women’s voices have been heard. To everyone at @EqualVoiceCA who is committed to making that happen: Thank you. Let’s keep working on that together."
Alex Pierson on X - "You fire every strong woman at your table who stands up to your decisions. 🤷‍♀️"

LILLEY: Trudeau votes against more guns for Ukraine; is he pro-Putin? - "If we used Trudeau’s standard, every single one of these MPs, including Trudeau himself, would be considered to have taken the side of Russia. That’s a ridiculous assertion but so too is Trudeau’s claim that the Conservative Party has abandoned Ukraine and sided with Russia. This is simply Trudeau trying to play ethnic politics to try and increase his support amid plummeting poll numbers. That he would stoop this low shows how truly desperate the Trudeau Liberals have become."

Rahim Mohamed: Liberals doing their best to make sovereignty act look like a masterstroke - "It will indeed be an uphill battle (if not a total suicide mission) for the Liberals to sell Canadians on a $54-billion push to fully decarbonize the nation’s electricity grid in little more than a decade — particularly with a double-digit increase in demand for electricity expected over the same time period. Albertans, who currently rely on carbon-based sources for 90 per cent of their electricity, should be feeling especially skittish about this accelerated timeline. (The Alberta government has shrewdly rolled out a series of TV ads depicting power outages taking place during Christmas dinners, hockey games, and other inopportune times.)... Smith herself has conceded that her use of the act here is more symbolic than substantive but the gesture could galvanize other provinces or, at the very least, keep the pressure on courts to uphold the letter of the Constitution."

YOU SAID IT: Fear policy - "When it appeared Stephen Harper would win the election, the Liberals put out ads warning Canadians that he would put soldiers in their streets. Now, with Trudeau tumbling in polls, they are claiming the Poilievre Conservatives support Vladimir Putin! Like the little boy crying wolf, Liberals cannot use the policy of fear to save them with Canadians struggling because of Trudeau’s radical ideologically driven policies."

Poll suggests widespread dissatisfaction with Trudeau government

Opinion: Canadians face 40 years of stagnant incomes – government’s economic strategy is failing - The Globe and Mail - "In the five years to 2019, Canada’s real GDP per capita growth was an anemic 0.5 per cent per annum. Since 2019, it has been the fifth-weakest of 38 OECD countries – and per capita GDP growth has even turned negative over the past year... in per capita terms the Canadian economy is shrinking by 2 per cent year-over-year.  Canada is one of the few advanced countries where real incomes are lower than before the pandemic... Several of the government’s core policy beliefs are misguided. The first is that freewheeling government spending, untethered by the defined limits of a credible fiscal anchor, is not “consumption” but rather “investment” that raises real incomes. The data say otherwise.  A related belief is that government programs are what entice companies to become more innovative and productive, rather than signals from well-functioning, competitive product markets and discerning customers. The government has relied on households and business taxpayers to fund subsidies for preferred recipients and has massively expanded the bureaucracy without much to show for it other than shrinking the relative size of the private sector. That is a recipe for a low-productivity, low-wage economy. A third belief is that “ever-increasing” immigration is an economic panacea. The academic literature overwhelmingly finds that the level of immigration has a negligible or neutral overall impact on indicators that determine a country’s living standards: labour productivity, real wages, the employment rate, the population’s age structure and, crucially, GDP per capita.  Ramping up immigration to fill low-wage jobs instantly increases demand for things that take years to build, such as housing (especially rentals), roads, schools and hospitals. We have no idea how provinces and municipalities can be expected to quickly address the needs of 800,000 extra temporary residents arriving in the past two years – people they did not know were coming – along with 920,000 additional permanent residents. Our concern is compounded by the revelation that Statistics Canada has undercounted – by one million – the number of temporary residents already here. The federal government’s immigration strategy is like believing Christmas dinner will be made easier if you invite more people because they can help with the washing up. “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so,” wrote Mark Twain. Demonstrably, federal policies are yielding “prosperity-free” economic growth. We believe Canada needs an economic policy agenda focused on raising average living standards. The country would benefit from modest (and co-ordinated) fiscal and monetary policy restraint to dampen inflation, alongside a productivity-focused agenda to expand the economy’s supply-side capacity, expedite business investment and innovation, scale domestic firms and ensure Canada can supply the world with responsibly produced natural resources and manufactured goods.  This will require overdue reforms to our inefficient tax and regulatory systems. Such a policy agenda would aim to cool demand and enhance supply, bringing them into balance. Critically, this would lift rather than reduce or stagnate average real incomes, as is happening under the federal government’s current approach."

Eli Steele: Jodi Shaw and the Racial Mask of Whiteness

Eli Steele: Jodi Shaw and the Racial Mask of Whiteness

"I grew up hearing stories of how the racial mask of black inferiority was imposed upon blacks by the racial order of white supremacy. Refusing to conform to this mask meant the loss of a job or being met with violence, beat-downs to lynchings. I also learned how whites embraced the racial mask of superiority as a means to power — a poor white could lack education and wealth and still believe he was superior to the most accomplished of blacks because of the illusion of superiority that his racial mask offered him. Any white that questioned that mask faced being ostracized as a race traitor. And that was how the racial order of white supremacy thrived, by keeping the humanity of these individuals hidden behind racial masks. 

There were courageous blacks and whites who rejected these racial masks. They risked everything as they marched in the civil rights movement to destroy white supremacy. But, today I wonder: Have we somehow betrayed the decades-long sacrifices of these marchers by creating a new racial order out of the corpse of white supremacy, a racial order that nearly derailed the life of Jodi Shaw?...

She landed a temporary job at Smith College as a librarian. Throughout her first year, she heard phrases like "white privilege," "systemic racism," and "white supremacy." She confessed to me that even though this racially charged culture didn’t sit right with her, she said nothing; a betrayal – in her words - of the lessons she learned about humanity on the subway platforms. She also confided that she had doubted herself because who was she to question the esteemed minds running the college?...

She was told that her presentation must be "wild and crazy" because the library orientation was on the last day of a weeklong orientation and the students would be exhausted by then. Jodi smiled, "Well, I’ll do a rap!"

Then an incident occurred on July 31, 2018, that changed the campus forever. 

A rising sophomore named Oumou Kanoute was eating lunch in the dorm lounge located inside Tyler House when a custodian called the campus police on her. An unarmed officer, Bob Young, approached and asked Kanoute what she was doing there. When she replied that she was working as a teaching assistant, he allowed her to stay. The encounter, recorded by Kanoute on her phone, was civil.

However, Kanoute later posted to Facebook that the encounter left her near "meltdown" since "all I did was be Black." She also wrote: "It’s outrageous that some people question my being at Smith College, and my existence overall as a woman of color."

This incident occurred at a time when it seemed that everyday there was a new video of a "Karen," usually a white woman, questioning the rights of blacks to be where they areThe Smith College incident fit into that narrative and media outlets from Boston Globe, Washington Post to CNN ran with Kanoute’s story. 

Jodi, too, was appalled by the incident and thought it "terrible." She nodded along when Smith College President Kathleen McCartney placed the custodian on leave, apologized profusely to Kanoute, and said: "This painful incident reminds us of the ongoing legacy of racism and bias, in which people of color are targeted while simply going about the business of their ordinary lives." The president also stated that "every Smith staff member will be required to participate in mandatory anti-bias training." 

All of this happened before the wheels of due process could begin to turn.

Then Kanoute made another move three weeks after the incident on July 31. Raised in New York by a family from Mali, Kanoute searched the college’s staff directory for those who she believed called campus police on her. She posted to Facebook the photo of Jackie Blair, the dining room assistant who had asked if she was assigned to eat in that particular house. She also posted the photo of Mark Patenaude and claimed he was the offending custodian. She branded both Jackie and Mark as racists and the post went viral. 

If Jodi thought she could escape the toxic cloud of racial strife she soon found out that she was wrong. A week before she was to perform the rap for the incoming freshmen, her supervisor informed her that due to the fallout from the incident on July 31, she could no longer do the rap. She protested that she put in countless hours of work, called in favors from many people, and she demanded to know why. Her supervisor replied: "Because you are white."

The words stung. Jodie felt impotent. The racial mask of whiteness was now imposed upon her...

One of the forgotten lessons of the civil rights movement was that my grandparents and so many others marched to destroy the use of race in public affairs. They knew that classifying people by race was poison; the negro box had been marked inferior, the white box superior, and both were lies that had to be destroyed...

Iif classifying people by race was poison, how could the racial order of identity politics use poison to cure centuries of poison?

That was the vicious contradiction that Jodi found herself trapped in. All she saw was increasing racial divisions. 

In October of 2018, President McCartney announced that the investigation into what happened on July 31 found no evidence of racism. During the summer months, the Tyler House serves as a dining facility for a summer dance camp attended by young minors. Staffers had to pass background checks and only staffers assigned to Tyler House were permitted to enter.

That is why Kanoute was out of place when she chose to eat at Tyler House instead of walking across campus to eat at the dorm she had been assigned to. The custodian who reported her was following administrative orders when he let the campus police handle the interaction.

The investigators also found that Jackie Blair — the dining room staffer smeared by Kanoute as a racist - was innocent. And Mark Patenaude? The falsely accused custodian was at his house eating lunch when the incident took place. 

These findings provided no reprieve for Jackie and Mark who still remained guilty in the eyes of many. When Jackie tried to return to work she was repeatedly called a racist by Smith College students. Mark’s anxiety became unmanageable and he was forced to take an early retirement, upending the retirement plans he had been working toward for the last two decades. 

It was at this moment that President McCartney had the chance to make things right. She could have stood by her staff, an act that would have repaired their reputations considerably. She could have reprimanded Kanoute for racially profiling two innocent staffers and destroying their lives in the process. Instead, the president doubled down and evoked systemic racism as the root cause of what happened on July 31: "It is impossible to rule out the potential role of implicit racial bias."

President McCartney learned her lesson in 2014. After several blacks were killed by police officers across America, including Michael Brown, the president announced to the college, "All lives matter." She was lambasted and quickly learned that if she wanted to keep her $600,000 a year job and the campus mansion that she renovated for $3 million, she’d have to wear the white mask and serve the racial order of identity politics. 

Jodi found herself being required to attend endless racial sensitivity trainings along with other staffers. She soon learned from her superiors that the qualifications for the permanent librarian position that she was up for had been changed to attract more minority candidates. Jodi saw the writing on the wall and withdrew her application for the position. 

She then told me that she thought if she left the academic side of Smith College and took a lower-paying job in the residence life division, she would escape the racial strife. After all, what role can race play in issuing students' ID cards, handling room changes, and the other tasks that come with running dormitories. What she didn’t know was that most of her new superiors had graduated with master degrees in education where they learned how to see color in every aspect of life. They informed Jodi that they expected the same of her. "But what does it mean to see color?" Jodi wondered.

She found out shortly when a student complained that a fellow student’s service dog was making too much noise in a nearby dorm room. Jodi reviewed the complaint and learned that the student with the service dog had documented multiple efforts to resolve the issue with the complaining student. The complaining student did not provide anything. At that point, Jodi decided the sensible thing was to offer the complaining student a room change since the student with the service dog had legal disability status.

Then Jodi and her superiors learned that the student with the disability was white and that the complaining student was black and none other than Oumou Kanoute. Jodi was ordered to base her decision on the color of the students and that meant moving the student with the disability into a new room, despite her being a senior and a month away from graduating. 

Jodi revealed to me that she felt sick to her stomach and ashamed for not standing up for what was right during that ordeal. She also feared that her superior’s orders to engage in blatant racial discrimination put her at legal risk. 

Jodi began to feel true loneliness. She reflected on how much the campus had changed since the incident of July 31. Officer Bob Young, affectionately known on campus as "Officer Bob," had been questionably terminated despite a spotless record for 35 years. A newly hired police chief was also terminated after students posted the chief’s twitter feed around campus and tarred him as a racist. Then Jodi found a list of demands posted to her door and the students warned that if she did not meet them, they would "make (her) feel our pain."

She chuckled at the absurdity of what she was telling me. She felt like she was going crazy. 

To keep her sanity she began to document every incident of racial discrimination that she witnessed on campus and that led to her filing an 80 page internal complaint. Only days after she filed that complaint, George Floyd was killed and the college went into overdrive with its antiracism trainings. Jodi then received a three page response from the college, dismissing her complaints as without merit. (By contrast, the college responded to Kanoute’s Facebook post with a 70 plus page investigative report.)

It was at that moment that Jodi had to make an existential decision: how did she want to live her life from here on? As a conformist to the racial order? Or as a free individual?

Jodi confided to me that the psyche pain of living as a coward who betrayed her morals would be too much for her to bear. After sending out several Hail Mary emails in hopes that her superiors would come to their senses, Jodi summoned the only thing that could save her: courage. Somehow, she instinctively knew that the only antidote to racial orders was courage. And that it was only courage that would lead her out of the racial quagmire and back to her true self. 

In October of 2020, Jodi made her first youtube video and blasted Smith College for reducing her to a white mask. When President McCartney released a statement that summarily dismissed Jodi’s first video, the president had no idea that she was dealing with a woman that was no longer bound by fear. Jodi saw the president for the opportunist paper tiger that she was and continued to make video after video. Her loneliness began to fade as she found a powerful online community of Americans cheering her on. This community also gave her the gift of reassuring her that she was indeed not crazy and that only gave her more courage. 

In February of 2021, Jodi finally resigned from Smith College and filed her lawsuit alleging racial discrimination. The suit is still pending.

Today, the beautiful campus of Smith College feels like a shell of the elite institution it once was. Bedsheets with "Black Lives Matter" painted onto them hang from buildings as if to warn students and outsiders that dissent from the racial order would not be tolerated. Staffers tiptoe around students, afraid of saying the wrong thing or being in the wrong place at the wrong time. None of the faculty possessed the courage to stand alongside Jodi unequivocally."

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