Links - 27th July 2024 (2 - Trump Assassination Attempt)

Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 on X - "Criminal. Cheatle admits USSS does not have radio comms recordings from July 13. Unbelievable"
Sean Davis on X - "I didn’t believe until right now that a specific stand down order was given by the Secret Service to leave the assassin alone. But now that we know Cheatle refused to record or archive the comms (or potentially even deleted them), I don’t think there’s any other conclusion to draw."

Collin Rugg on X - "JUST IN: Bodycam footage released by Senator Chuck Grassley from the Trump Pennsylvania rally on July 13th. The video was obtained from the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit. In the footage, the men were discussing how they had noticed Thomas Crooks earlier before the incident unfolded.  "Beaver County sn*pers saw him and sent the pictures out. This is him.""

Secret Service director steps down after assassination attempt against ex-President Trump at rally - "Cheatle’s resignation comes a day after appeared before a congressional committee and was berated by hours by both Democrats and Republicans for the security failures. She called the attempt on Trump’s life the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades and said she took full responsibility for the security lapses, but she angered lawmakers by failing to answer specific questions about the investigation... The 20-year-old shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to get within 135 meters (157 yards) of the stage where the former president was speaking when he opened fire. That’s despite a threat on Trump’s life from Iran leading to additional security for the former president in the days before the July 13 rally. Cheatle acknowledged Monday that the Secret Service was told about a suspicious person two to five times before the shooting at the rally. She also revealed that the roof from which Crooks opened fire had been identified as a potential vulnerability days before the rally. But she failed to answer many questions about what happened, including why there no agents stationed on the roof... “The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on July 13th is the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades,” Cheatle told members of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee... Details continue to unfold about signs of trouble that day and what role both the Secret Service and local authorities played in security. The agency routinely relies on local law enforcement to secure the perimeter of events where people it is protecting appear. Former top Secret Service agents said the gunman should never have been allowed to gain access to the roof. Two days after the shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he supported Cheatle “100%.”... In an interview with ABC News two days after the shooting, Cheatle said she wasn’t resigning."

Lulu Cheng Meservey on X - "Imagine the kind of instincts it takes to pause amid the chaos, tell the Secret Service agents "wait, wait," and raise a fist to the crowd Whatever your politics, this is a once-in-a-generation political talent"

Meme - "Trump has more presence of mind after being shot in the head *Trump triumphant*
than Biden at his best. *Biden gesturing to empty stage*"

Meme - *Anime version of Trump triumphant after assassination attempt*

Meme - "TRUMP VS BULLET *fist in air, triumphant*
BIDEN VS STAIRS *stumbles*"

Meme - CNN: "JFK falls really, really hard at rally in Dallas" *John F Kennedy getting shot*

Melissa Chen | Facebook - "At this iconic moment that is memorialized on film, Trump is not at all aware of the actual status of the threat. He has no idea if the threat has actually been neutralized. He doesn’t even know where the shooter is. They are in an open-air venue surrounded by a morass of people. As far as he knows, the shooter is still out there and yet he did not scramble off stage. After laying low on the ground to regroup, he did not remain there, letting Secret Service officers give him cover. He insisted on standing up tall and pumping his fist in the air, exposing his head (the target) high above, defiant in the face of danger. I’m almost sure that in the jawbones of death, despite the fact that Secret Service had declared “shooter down,” you don’t actually know that you’re fully out of danger yet.  Your eyes are watching intensely and taking in everything. Time slows down, but your ears process a lot less.  And even if you did hear it, every fiber of your being is instructing you to believe the threat isn’t over. This is a basic survival program.  Because it’s better to make a Type II error (false positive) than make a Type 1 error (false negative) and so you are predisposed to activate the fight or flight system far longer than the duration of the actual threat. In near-death experiences, you are on pure autopilot. There’s really no thinking involved. That’s instinct.  To say that this photo is evidence of Trump as a Machiavellian showman scheming to strike a pose for optics is to reveal you have no clue about human psychology and human nature.  His instinct to override the fear of death - and not just the appearance of the fear - is astounding and cannot be denied. This is a reflex, his System 1 was activated, not System 2 (in the Dan Kahneman sense).  One can make a lot of inferences based on this about his natural abilities as a leader and decision-maker (even if you don’t like his politics) from this act alone.  The symbolism of this is red meat for Americans for whom strength and courage are valorized above all the other virtues. Its juxtaposition with the images of an ailing opponent just made that contrast infinitely sharper. The aesthetics of this moment sums it up: we are getting four more years."

Meme - *Shinzo Abe keychain with hole in heart*
*John F Kennedy keychain with hole in head*
*Trump keychain with hole in ear*

Aishah Hasnie on X - "Source familiar with Secret Service briefing w/Senators tells me a timeline shared with them reveals SS was aware of a threat about 10 minutes before TRUMP walked on stage and still let him on stage."

Alberta premier calls on ‘progressive’ politicians to ‘dial down’ rhetoric after attack on Trump : r/alberta
Naturally, the left wingers were upset. One tack was whataboutism, as if "Fuck Trudeau" was a call for his assassination
Comment (elsewhere): "If you've spent the last 3 years in moral outrage over Jan 6th and the first words out of your mouth tonight are "too bad he wasn't a better shot" you really need to take a long, hard look in the mirror."
It's only a threat to democracy if it hurts the left wing agenda

Top Democratic strategist pushed reporters to consider 'staged' shooting - "The top political adviser to Democratic mega-donor Reid Hoffman suggested that the attack on Donald Trump could have been “staged,” even as Hoffman was criticized for joking before Saturday’s attack about Trump becoming a “martyr.”  The adviser, Dmitri Mehlhorn, apologized for his remarks after Semafor published this story, and said his email laying out his claims was “drafted without consultation from team members or allies.” Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, whose net worth is reportedly $2.5 billion, joked at last week’s billionaire confab in Sun Valley that he wished he had made Trump “an actual martyr.”...
Mehlhorn isn’t alone. “Staged” was trending last night on X, indicating the baseless conspiracy is becoming widespread... We’re used to conspiracy theories festering in the bowels of the internet behind animated profile pictures, and to hearing crazy theories in random conversations. But these views also spread widely in elite circles, like the big money Silicon Valley wing of the Democratic Party that Mehlhorn represents. Educated Democrats like to sneer at the “disinformation” spread on the American right, but the same patterns of thinking seem to affect all parts of American politics."
Comment (elsewhere): "The most common refrain among leftists that I am reading is that the assassination attempt was clearly "staged" because of Trump's triumphant fist pump as they pulled him away. Yes, he paid a guy to shoot a bullet from a high calibre rifle centimeters from his skull from 350 meters away because he knew the photo would look super cool lol, and the "proof" is in his reaction.  So there ya have it, folks. The contemporary left literally can not wrap their heads around the concept of bravery. It is so alien an idea to them, that they are legitimately baffled when they see it. Ballsiness is incomprehensible"

ErikDPrince on X - "Hopefully after the tragedy yesterday in Butler PA we can all recognize that unaccountable bloated bureaucracies continue to fail us as Americans.   Donald J Trump is alive today solely due to a bad wind estimate by an evil would be assasin.  As the graphics show the full value wind of just 5mph was enough to displace the unconfirmed but likely light 55 grain bullet two inches from DJT's intended forehead to his ear.  DJT was not saved by USSS brilliance. The fact that USSS allowed a rifle armed shooter within 150yds to a preplanned event is either malice or massive incompetence. Clearly there was adequate uncontrolled dead space for a shooter to move into position and take multiple aimed shots. Watching the newsreel one can hear how proximate the shooter is by the very short time lapse between the crack of arriving bullet (supersonic) to the boom of muzzle blast (sonic).    The law enforcement sniper (unclear if USSS) in newsreels was clearly overwhelmed as his face  came off his rifle instead of doing his job to kill the shooter. Clearly they were watching the shooter but apparently have a no "first shot" policy.  The only positive action was an apparent 488yd shot by one USSS sniper which despatched the assasin but after the assassin launched at least 5 rounds, wounding DJT and killing and severely others in the crowd.   In my old business of providing Diplomatic Security in two active war zones we were expected to execute the basics or we would be fired. Clearly USSS failed at the basics of a secure perimeter and once shots were fired their extraction was clumsy and left DJT highly exposed to follow on attacks. It looked like they had never drilled together because those responses should be effectively autonomic. Will there be accountability?  That's not the Washington way.   Unserious and unworthy people in positions of authority got us to this near disaster. Merit and execution must be the only deciding factors in hiring and leadership, not the social engineering priority of the day.  Sadly nothing in Washington reflects that any longer. DJT is right to question the competence of those protecting him because yesterday they failed in almost every way. Nature abhors a vacuum and there are always other options.  Most importantly, as Americans let's come together and run a proper valid election so we can get back to what matters a merit based society that judges on character and skill. Nothing else.   (Images from a SEAL sniper instructor at Red Sky LLC)"
He is a white man so his opinion is invalid. We need a black transwoman to tell us how more DEI would make the Secret Service even more effective

The FBI Agent Who Wants Donald Trump Dead - "Joe Biden spoke today about unity, which is a joke in of itself. He said we should “let the FBI do their jobs” since the FBI is there “for you.” People posted numerous examples online as to why the FBI isn’t there for the people. It’s politicized.  The best example is probably this one about FBI agent Jenna Howell. She wanted to see Donald Trump dead and doesn’t like gun owners... The runners-up might be these three gals on the presidential detail who looked like Mo, Larry, and Curly or the Three Amigos, clueless about what to do. Anything is acceptable to get the girl Secret Service in place."
Meme - Kyle Seraphin @KyleSeraphin: "Jenna Howell, an @FBI  employee who works in the NICS firearms background check unit, posted her disappointment @realDonaldTrump  survived an assassination attempt. Jenna has a Top Secret clearance.  This is a typical #FBI support employee. And she hates gun owners.  The National Instant Criminal Background Check System is a background check system in the United States created by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993. The act was named for James Brady - who was wounded in an assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan. Ironic? Jenna is a typical “pro-Palestine,” rabid “LGBTQIA+ ally,” and hater of conservatives across the board. She is confrontational and insulting to veterans with total impunity. The @FBI  culture encourages and empowers these low level Leftists."

Michael Yon: Callsign BIG HONEY 6 on X - "Secret Service Humiliated Note and video from intel guy: Absolute humiliation for this gaggle of female Secret Service Agents. Look at the disorder:
- Can’t holster weapons
- Gear falling to the ground
- Erratic, fearful movements
- No show of force, composure
DEI Secret Service make Presidents LESS Safe"

i/o on X - "A 2009 study found that the average adult male is physically stronger than 99.9% of adult females."
Costs and benefits of fat-free muscle mass in men: relationship to mating success, dietary requirements, and native immunity
0.1% of adult females are stronger than the average adult male. Therefore it is a generalisation and wrong to say that men are stronger than women

Meme - i/o @eyeslasho: "Female trainees in the Secret Service are held to lower physical standards than male trainees.   All applicants to the Secret Service must pass a physical test that includes four elements: Pushups, sit-ups, chin-ups, and a 1.5 mile run. (The chart below refer to pushups. Males are on the left, and females are on the right.) Trainees receive points for their performance on each of those elements.   Shockingly, a total of only 6 points is required to pass the four-element test. And even if you don't score 6 points, you can still be admitted upon "further review and recommendation."  I'm a good deal older than 20-29 years of age, and don't consider myself to be in excellent physical condition, but even I can do more than 55 pushups (which is considered "excellent" for males in their 20s). Overall, I'm not impressed by what is physically required of those who enter the Secret Service."
Matt Walsh @MattWalshBlog: "If there's a woman doing a job like this, it 100 percent means that a more qualified male was passed over."

Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ on X - "The Secret Service has affirmative action programs for "Womens," "LGBT," "Indigenous Nations," and "Persons with Disabilities." Is the president safer when he is protected by a strong, nonbinary Latinx womxn?"

Joe Biden's campaign pulls adverts describing Donald Trump as a dictator following shooting at rally - "staff said they were “pausing all outbound communications”."

I'm flying to America to support Trump in this desperate hour - "It’s only a comment. It’s only a joke. It’s only a milkshake. So the Left squawk each time someone drenches me with a drink, or a so-called comedian suggests people should throw battery acid at me on the BBC. It’s just a joke. If you’re a politician, it’s part of the job description, right?  Well, that is not true. The words deployed by the Left are, I believe, encouraging people. Rocks were thrown at me during the election campaign, and last night Donald Trump was shot...   The “be-kind” brigade must now realise that their language has an impact. It has become commonplace among the media elite to view Trump as an authoritarian fascist – it is now so normal to hear that those of us on the Right, who care about our countries, are somehow authoritarian dictators. Take the last week – Biden has declared that Trump should be “in a bullseye” and that he is a “dictator”.  It’s not just in the US. David Aaronovitch, the former Times columnist, once tweeted – then deleted – that if he were Biden he’d “have Trump murdered”. He has since claimed that it was “clearly satirical but deliberately misinterpreted”. Yet the rot that it is somehow acceptable to demonise and marginalise elected figures, even in jest, in such inflammatory terms has become our normal – these aren’t words spoken by lonely men in their mother’s basement but by people in serious jobs, working in national institutions. We don’t know the motives of the 20-year-old shooter. But we do know that as our political discourse becomes more febrile; and as the Left become more desperate to attack those of us who stand up for what we believe, the more violent it becomes. It shouldn’t be normal to throw cement, rocks or drinks at me. And yet, for many on the Left, the language of violence has become their last resort. And we’re now seeing the consequences"

Trump has now become an unstoppable force - "Today a grace period descends over politics in which even people who’ve labelled him Hitler and called for him to be removed must grit their teeth and say, “I-guess-he’s-kind-of-admirable.” Try awesome. Like Moby Dick or the Terminator, Trump is an unstoppable force. Think of all this man has gone through in eight years. He’s been been impeached (twice), accused of rape, arrested, condemned in court, labelled a traitor, survived Covid and now shot in the ear. Who can doubt he will win in November?! In the United States, every assassination attempt is a tragedy but every near-miss is a triumph – because Americans are schooled in what could’ve been. Lincoln. Kennedy. King... American patriotism is not defined by easy success but victory over adversity, the survival of the pioneer wagon against mighty odds. Remember: Rocky lost in the first movie, he didn’t win till the second. And in the fourth he single-handedly brought down the Soviet Union... Another time he said he’d like to take him behind the gym and, by implication, beat him up. Nancy Pelosi labelled the Trump machine “domestic enemies”; Hillary Clinton called them “deplorables.” Madonna imagined blowing up the White House. Kathy Griffin, a comedian of minimal talent, was photographed holding a mock-up of Trump’s severed head. And all this hate for what? Trump stands out as one of the better presidents of our lifetime, a man who created jobs and kept the peace, who let a significant number of unjustly imprisoned people free and got Israel and the Arabs talking again.  After two terms of Trump and Biden, this is not a bad time to be an American – there’s no recession or war – yet the country seems determined to hate itself, to take offence, pick fights. It’s been said that the bullet that nicked Trump’s ear came within an inch of starting a civil war. Now Trump has it within his power to avert one, by telling his people to stand down, to use his convention to lower the temperature and reach across the aisle. This also has precedent. Ronald Reagan responded to his assassination attempt with reassuring humour. Harry Truman commuted the death sentence of the man who attacked him. George C Wallace, paralysed by Arthur Bremer’s gun in 1972, repented of his own racism, found God and wrote to Bremer asking if they might be friends. “I love you,” he said. “I hope we can get to know each other better.” It would be nice – highly unlikely but nice – if the weekend’s violence leads to its repudiation. Sadly, the historical record tilts the other way. Political violence follows like the ancient Furies, tit or tat, making unimaginable horrors feel inevitable. Words have consequences. I’ve long wondered, if people  say Trump is that much of a threat to their way of life, if they really think he’s evil, why don’t they try to kill him? My first thought on Saturday night was: “so they finally did it.” They, to be clear, are on Left and Right (yes, the far-right does hate him) and are not some clandestine conspiracy of lizards or communists who meet every Thursday in the public library."
Weird. Why would the far right try to kill the person who will usher in fascism?

Trump shooting: UBC professor celebrates, then deletes social media - "A UBC professor is in hot water after posting a tweet that appeared to celebrate the assassination attempt of former U.S. president Donald Trump, and another which lamented its failure. “Damn, so close. Too bad,” wrote Karen Pinder, a professor at UBC’s medical school on X. “What a glorious day this could have been!”  The tweet was published early Saturday. Pinder almost immediately deleted her account, but not before another user named @IR_AMauntie replied, “I reeeeeally wish the person had better aim.”... “This is why so much hate and violence occurs in British Columbia,” wrote Conservative party candidate Chris Sankey in reference to Pinder’s tweet."
Damn violation of academic freedom and chilling effect on freedom of speech!
Clearly she deleted her account because of harassment from the violent far right. Time to put conservatives in jail for causing violence

Meme - ""We need DEI in the Secret Service" *tall male agents protecting President, who is protected*
DEI in the Secret Service *mostly tall agents protecting President, with one shorter woman who leaves President exposed*"

Meme - Female Secret Service Agent 1: "I think there's a man on the roof. Let's wave to him."
Female Secret Service Agent 2: "Did you just assume his gender?"
Ken: "Barbie, are these agents qualified?"
Barbie: "They're better than qualified, they're diverse"
*Crying Ken on stretcher with gunshot wound to face*

Meme - "The "fuck your feelings" crowd sure is having a lot of feelings."
Someone shared this in the wake of the assassination attempt, again showing the left's poor comprehension skills. For one, it's “facts don’t care about your feelings”. Also, you don't make public policy based on feelings - it's not that you're not allowed to have feelings

Mehdi Hasan on X - "Someone just said on CNN that "both sides" need to tone down the rhetoric. Absurd. There is no Democratic/liberal equivalent to the nonstop incitement of violence from Trump, MTG, Gaetz, Gosar, Kari Lake, and others. The next few days of 'both sides' BS is going to kill me."
He's a terrorism supporter, so this kind of bad take is to be expected

Forbes pulls op-ed that said Trump may use shooting to gain Black voters - The Washington Post - "Forbes removed an opinion article Sunday that in its headline asked whether former president Donald Trump would consider using “surviving gunfire” to appeal to Black voters after an apparent assassination attempt.  The piece by University of Southern California professor and self-described diversity, equity and inclusion expert Shaun Harper, who is Black, drew swift backlash online and a rebuke from the Forbes editorial union"
Will Surviving Gunfire Be Donald Trump’s Next Appeal To Black Voters?

Trump shooter flew drone over venue hours before attempted assassination, source says : r/technology - "More organized than the secret service lol. Crazy"
"Gent had a range finder at the gate to begin with, this triggered a security warning against him. But they couldn’t find him as he disappeared into the crowd."
"“Where’s the guy with the range finder?”
“I dunno, he’s gone, hey look the guy on the roof over there is flying a drone, these Trump fans eh?”"
"He was spotted again looking through the rangefinder at a counter-sniper team member, who was also looking right back at him with his rangefinder. They were looking right at each other through their rangefinders wtf"

End Wokeness on X - "SS Director Kimberly Cheatle wants 30% of agents to be female. Meanwhile, this is her security detail: *almost all white men*"

Benny Johnson on X - "LISTEN: Rep. Fallon recreated the scene from the Butler, PA rally showcasing how easy the Secret Service made it for the assassin:
"Do you know what the result was? "15 out of 16 kills shots and the one I missed would have hit the President's ear that's a 94% success rate!.. It's a miracle President Trump wasn't killed!"
"I believe your horrifying ineptitude and your lack of skilled leadership was a disgrace.. You should be fired immediately and go back to guarding Dorito's""

Secret Service Director Suggests Roof Used by Shooter Was Too Dangerous for Agents to Stand On

Poilievre doubles down in face of criticism over deceased Trump shooter statement : r/Canada_sub - "I’m happy he is dead too. r/canada will ban you for saying that."
"r/askto will ban you too.  They banned me this morning for saying criminals are not punished strictly, and the catch and release system should be changed."
"So will the Ontario sub"
"These subs are definitely not run by adults. They get offended by the silliest of things. He gave me the reason that my comment was dehumanizing criminals.  Calling criminals, the criminals, is dehumanizing for them. I got a permanent ban directly, lol  It is hilariously sad."
"I once got a suspension for saying homeless instead of houseless.  It's utterly fucking bizarre.  Note; I've been fucking homeless. This softening of words does nothing to help anybody but the terminally online feel better with their useless activism."
"I got a warning for excessive abuse, hate and harassment because I called someone a "plank" lol. As in, a plank of wood. This person had been accusing me of a zillion different things (all made up) and called me homophobic. I said; 'I'm gay, you ___."  HARASSMENT AND HATE.  And if the subreddit Mods don't get you, Admin will. They follow divergent gays around because they cannot let the heretics know there are a lot of gays and lesbians who aren't following their dogma."
"Go to r/Law if you want to see a complete shit show. The whole sub is anti Trump and zero about law"

Poilievre doubles down in face of criticism over deceased Trump shooter statement : r/Canada_sub - "CBCs version of the event seems to be, "Trump and his supporters brought this on themselves". And worse is some people are upset that Trump wasn't murdered..  So, 100% Pierre Poilievre should stand his ground, that coward deserved what he got, and the world should not forget that violence such as this has no place in a western democracy."
"Well in their own terminology, that's victim blaming.  But shouldn't CBC also come out as pro gun ownership now based on their support of this incident?"

Her New Teddy / Why Service Is Slow / Coins

"What does it mean if she says you're just friends but sends you this pic of her new teddy *Lingerie and Teddy Bear*"

"MEANWHILE WHEN YOU'RE WAITING FOR YOUR WAITRESS TO COME TO THE TABLE *waitress's sexy selfie*"

The Prophet 🧎🏿 @theprophetdub: "Pierced nipples taste like coins & I'm about that money baby ChaChing! 🤑"

Links - 27th July 2024 (1 - Hamas Attack Oct 2023)

Saw a post asking about why there are yellow ribbons around trees, this is an answer for that post, found in a jewish restaurant in hove with wearable yellow ribbons next to it. : r/brighton - "Let us assume that 100% of Israeli hostages are civilians and innocent and only a third or you know what? A FOURTH of Palestinian hostages are innocent.  That would mean:  There are 120 Israeli hostages all innocent.  And 9,500/4 = 2375 Palestinian "innocent" hostages.  And this is me being very liberal with numbers. It doesn't matter how you spin it, there are at least as many innocent Palestinians in Israeli prisons as innocent Israelis in Hamas prisons.  At the end of the day all I am saying is ALL hostages should be released. If this is triggering for you then I pity you and your (lack of) humanity.  Done arguing with you. Good bye."
"I mean you're just making up numbers to be honest, right? Unless you have a source?  We know for sure that the Israeli prisoners were just kidnapped, so we can at least assume their innocence, since they weren't arrested for any discernible crimes by the Palestinians.  Your argument is basically that all prisoners should be freed because some of them may be innocent, in order to free the people we know are 100% innocent?  Does this logic extend to other prisons? Should say the UK, or France, or Germany, or America release all prisoners in case some of them are innocent?"
Once again, Israel always gets unique standards that no one else in the world is expected to follow

Saw a post asking about why there are yellow ribbons around trees, this is an answer for that post, found in a jewish restaurant in hove with wearable yellow ribbons next to it. : r/brighton - "It's not a lack of humanity.  It's reality from having visited Israel/Palestine many times.  I've seen terror attacks, such as bus bombings and stabbings. And the perpetrators arrested. And by your logic they are "hostages".  Saying convicted terrorists are hostages is vile false equivalence."
"I completely agree with you. While I'd assume that there must be some Palestinians who are innocent, falsely accused, tried and convicted - that's really not the same as just grabbing up people sleeping in their homes or kids at musical festivals. That AND there is an appeals process in Israel.  And it's not like people can't campaign for a release of convicted prisoners in Israeli prisons, wear Palestinian flags or watermelons if they so choose..."

Saw a post asking about why there are yellow ribbons around trees, this is an answer for that post, found in a jewish restaurant in hove with wearable yellow ribbons next to it. : r/brighton - "Please wear a yellow ribbon to support stealing Palestinian land"
Whataboutism is good when it supports the left wing agenda

Pride Toronto's statement on Gaza a betrayal of the Jewish community - "Ironically, the text espouses people to advocate for “solidarity with innocent civilians” in the region, but fails to acknowledge the 1,200 plus innocent civilians slaughtered by Hamas on Oct. 7. The biased nature of the statement is self-evident to the reader... Nowhere does Pride Toronto so much as acknowledge Hamas’s responsibility for initiating the conflict by choosing to launch its barbaric assault on Oct. 7, and only a cursory reference was made to the one hundred plus hostages that remain trapped in Gaza... Pride Toronto has often refrained from weighing in on complex geopolitical issues. After all, its entire purpose is to create as welcoming, open, and non-judgemental a place as possible for LGBTQ individuals and allies from all backgrounds and all walks of life. Perhaps for this reason, Pride Toronto did not release a statement in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Nor did they comment on the increasing oppression of LGBTQ individuals in the Russian Federation. They were also silent following the recent decision by Uganda’s constitutional court to uphold a bill that re-criminalized homosexuality and instituted the death penalty for anyone caught engaging in certain homosexual acts. In this context, it is worth questioning Pride Toronto’s motives for weighing in on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in such a controversial and contentious manner. The statement was a stinging betrayal of one of Pride’s longest-standing allies. For decades, Jewish activists and organizations have played a vital role in advancing LGBT rights in Canada. In 2022, Pride Toronto thanked B’nai Brith Canada after it exposed the nefarious intentions of a contingent of Black Hebrew Israelite extremists from the United States, who planned to travel to Canada and disrupt that year’s Pride festival. B’nai Brith, after unravelling the homophobic plot, passed the information on to law enforcement and Pride Toronto, allowing them to act before the hatemongers could create a disturbance."

Gaza destruction likely helped push Hamas to soften cease-fire demands, several officials say - "Several officials in the Middle East and the U.S. believe the level of devastation in the Gaza Strip caused by a nine-month Israeli offensive likely has helped push Hamas to soften its demands for a cease-fire agreement. Hamas over the weekend appeared to drop its longstanding demand that Israel promise to end the war as part of any cease-fire deal. The sudden shift has raised new hopes for progress in internationally brokered negotiations."

Anne Frank monument defaced with ‘Gaza’ graffiti in Amsterdam
Peter Savodnik on X - "We defaced a monument to a Jewish girl murdered for being Jewish three years before the Jewish state was founded but we're not antisemites."
Clearly, this is just anti-Zionism and if you criticise this you oppose freedom of speech, are racist against Palestinians and are just a Nazi. But of course this is a Zionist false flag to defame Palestinians

Iranian government actors seeking to 'take advantage' of pro-Palestinian protests in US: DNI - "Iranian government actors are seeking to "take advantage" of pro-Palestinian protests in the United States, according to the director of National Intelligence, including providing financial support to some protesters.  "In recent weeks, Iranian government actors have sought to opportunistically take advantage of ongoing protests regarding the war in Gaza, using a playbook we’ve seen other actors use over the years," DNI Avril Haines said in a statement. "We have observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters."  This is all part of Iran's efforts to influence "our democratic process" according to Haines... "Iran is becoming increasingly aggressive in their foreign influence efforts, seeking to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions, as we have seen them do in the past, including in prior election cycles," she said. "They continue to adapt their cyber and influence activities, using social media platforms and issuing threats. It is likely they will continue to rely on their intelligence services in these efforts, as well as Iran-based online influencers, to promote their narratives."  In the 2020 election cycle Iranian actors sent spoof text messages around purporting to be the Proud Boys."
Foreign interference is only disqualifying when it hurts the left wing agenda

Visegrád 24 on X - "BREAKING: Swedish police confirms that 3 participants of the Malmö Gay Pride Parade in Sweden were beaten up for wearing Stars of David. The migrant men who attacked them said:
- “Do you support killing children?”
- “You f*cking f*ggots”
- “You think I won’t hit a f*g?”
🇸🇪🇮🇱"
Obviously, Israel is to blame

Trendy appointments: Australia’s special anti-Semitism envoy - "Was there any need for this?... “To promote social cohesion, we have appointed Jillian Segal AO as special envoy to combat anti-Semitism.”...   In what is becoming a force of habit, Albanese’s announcement had a scouring effect on the very cohesion he was praising. While also announcing that a special envoy for Islamophobia was in the works, with details to “be announced shortly”, the impression was unmistakable: the concerns and fears of one group had been chronologically privileged and elevated in the pantheon of policy.   The response from the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) articulated that very sentiment. The move of appointing “a taxpayer-funded special envoy on anti-Semitism” was: “Particularly concerning as it singles out anti-Semitism for special government investment and attention, while failing to address the increasingly frequent and severe forms of racism experienced by Palestinians, Muslims, First Nations people and other marginalised communities.”   APAN President Nasser Mashni expanded on the theme: “This seems to be yet another example of the Australian Government pandering to pro-Israel groups, and pitting parts of the Jewish community against the Palestinian Muslim communities – and against each other – rather than working to realise equal right and justice for all.” Not too socially cohesive, then."   The organisation also worried that the creation of a dedicated office to combat one form of religious and ethnic prejudice was at odds with current work to combat “existing systemic approaches to anti-racism” being undertaken by the Australian Human Rights Commission’s recently appointed race discrimination commissioner"
Not all minorities are created equal. Imagine protesting combatting any other sort of hate, let alone such a big variety (Jews were much bigger victims of hate crimes than Muslims, for example - being victims more often despite being 1/8 the latter's population)
Presumably these people will also protest the envoy for Islamophobia

Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇦🇹🇼 on X - "The leader of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network Nasser Mashni has today condemned the announcement of a special government envoy for combating anti-Semitism because he is himself an anti-Semite"

Bolt: Pro-Palestine activists are a danger to Australia - "No, this isn’t really about stopping deaths in Gaza. It looks instead like an attack on Australia.  The damage being done is stunning. Most obviously, protesters are importing a Jew-hatred unparalleled in our history.  They started on October 9 – just two days after Hamas terrorists slaughtered 1200 Israelis, raped women, beheaded men, shot children in front of their parents and kidnapped 253 people – by disrupting a planned memorial at the Sydney Opera House to the victims.  “F … the Jews,” some chanted. “Where’s the Jews?”  At that rally were Sydney University academics, including senior lecturer Nick Riemer, so pitiless that he refused to condemn the slaughter and rape of the Jews, saying: “Resistance is justified.”  This shocking indifference has spread now to students occupying parts of some of our top universities.  An organiser of the Australian National University occupation told ABC radio: “Hamas deserves our unconditional support.”  An Adelaide University protest organiser, Habibah Jahoori, said the same: ”Unconditional solidarity to the resistance.”  These protesters are also brutalising Australia by normalising the rhetoric of political violence.  Many dress as Hamas terrorists with keffiyehs masking their faces, while pushing people around and chanting the Hamas-endorsed slogan to wipe out Israel: “From the river to the sea …”  Students at both Sydney University and Melbourne University have chanted “Intifada, intifada” – the word for terrorist wars against Israeli Jews – and Macquarie University academic Randa Abdel-Fattah posted how she was “inspired” by a Palestinian female terrorist who helped to slaughter 13 Jewish children in a raid on Tel Aviv.  These protesters are also preaching an unhinged hatred of Australia, and – worse – linking a war started by Hamas terrorists to Aboriginal activists “resisting” our supposedly white “occupation”.  Palestinian flags dominated many protests against Australia Day this year, and GetUp, our biggest Left-wing activist group, posted a call to arms from board member Sara Saleh claiming Israelis “have also been invested in killing us (Palestinians), in restricting our freedoms, all of that should sound familiar to anyone living in Australia” because “we are all in this same shared anti-colonial struggle”.  What’s actually linked is this hatred of Australia with the crudely racist identity politics of some anti-Israel protest leaders. Take Nasser Mashni, head of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, who last week ranted: “Israel and Australia share two things in common, aside from being a s--thole, racist, settler colony … They also have the highest incidence of skin cancer.”  Untrue. Israel is 23rd on that list, but Mashni used his fake statistic to delegitimise white Australians here and supposedly white Jews in Israel: “Their skin is designed for northern Europe … but our skin is designed for this land, it’s designed for the Middle East.”"

Victorian premier 'disgusted' after pro-Palestinian protesters storm Labor state conference - "Pro-Palestinian protesters have been lashed as bullies and anti-Semites by Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan after storming a Labor state conference in Melbourne amid heightened tensions over the Hamas-Israel war.  Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters breached security and entered Moonee Valley Racecourse on Saturday as Victorian Labor MPs, members and unionists gathered for the two-day event... After making their way upstairs, the group chanted "Labor Party you can't hide, you're supporting genocide" in a credential area.  They then started banging on the conference room doors, before police moved them downstairs... A Victoria Police spokeswoman told AAP the protesters left without incident and no arrests were made."
Victorian premier accuses pro-Palestine protesters of bringing ‘violence, homophobia and antisemitism’ to Labor conference - "Footage shows Fraser MP Daniel Mulino being shoved by members of the crowd before security guards stepped in and began escorting Labor members. One guard fell on to a moving escalator as protesters pushed past.  Guardian Australia understands at least one state minister was taunted with homophobic slurs as they arrived."
Storming government buildings, intimidating politicians and homophobia are good when you're pushing the left wing agenda

Israel-Hamas war: Former Australian PM’s condemn ‘hatred’ spread by Hamas - "Six former prime ministers have made an unprecedented intervention in the Israel-Hamas conflict, issuing a joint letter declaring “there is no more tenaciously evil race hatred than antisemitism” and warning that terrorist organisation Hamas wants to fuel ancient hatreds throughout the world.  In a public letter drafted by John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison, all six said that “no complaint or concern about international affairs justifies hate speech against any Australian, or any Australian community."... Victorian Labor MP Maria Vamvakinou, a long-time supporter of Palestine, said... “Unless Palestinians are given self-determination and statehood this cycle of violence will never end.”"
Maria Vamvakinou has a very poor understanding of history, since they already got self-determination and statehood but continued their terrorism

“Israel is bombing, Valerie is supplying the weapons!” : The mayor of Montreal evacuated during a borough council - "Valérie Plante had to be evacuated during a district council on Tuesday evening when pro-Palestinian demonstrators disrupted the session."

UK anti-Israel activists vandalize packaging supplies company - "Anti-Israel activists vandalized a British packaging supply company in Sittingbourne on Monday, Palestine Action and Kite Packaging said in statements. "Drop Elbit" was painted in red on the facade of the company's facility, and windows were completely smashed. Vehicles were also vandalized, resulting in tens of thousands of pounds in damages... Palestine Action took responsibility for the vandalism, saying on Instagram that they had targeted Kite because they ostensibly provided packaging for Elbit products. The group had allegedly found packaging materials related to Kite during a June 17 raid on a Kent Elbit facility. Kite said in its statement that it doesn't have a customer called Elbit, "which makes this situation even more perplexing.""

Update from the Policy Forum on our approach to ‘Zionist’ as a proxy for hate speech - "The word “Zionist” has layers of meaning based on its origins and usage today, and may also be highly dependent on context. This term often refers to supporters of a political movement, which is not itself a protected characteristic under our policies, but in some cases may be used as a proxy to refer to Jewish or Israeli people, which are protected characteristics under our Hate Speech policy... we have consulted with 145 stakeholders representing civil society and academia across the Middle East and Africa, Israel, North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia. Stakeholders have included political scientists, historians, legal scholars, digital and civil rights groups, freedom of expression advocates, and human rights experts... we will now remove content that targets "Zionists" with dehumanizing comparisons, calls for harm, or denials of existence on the basis that “Zionist” in those instances often appears to be a proxy for Jewish or Israeli people... Our longstanding approach to the word “Zionist” under our Hate Speech policy has been to treat the word as a proxy for Jewish or Israeli people in two narrow circumstances: (1) where Zionists are compared to rats, reflecting known antisemitic imagery, and (2) where context makes clear that “Zionist” means “Jew” or “Israeli” (e.g., “Today the Jews celebrate Passover. I hate those Zionists.”). This approach will remain in place. However, we have determined that the existing policy guidance does not sufficiently address the ways people are using the term “Zionist” online and offline. Going forward, we will remove content attacking “Zionists” when it is not explicitly about the political movement, but instead uses antisemitic stereotypes, or threatens other types of harm through intimidation, or violence directed against Jews or Israelis under the guise of attacking Zionists, including:
Claims about running the world or controlling the media;
Dehumanizing comparisons, such as comparisons to pigs, filth, or vermin;
Calls for physical harm;
Denials of existence;
Mocking for having a disease."
Terrorism supporters are very upset that their dog whistle is recognised

Brianna Wu on X - "Haha. The commies over at DSA just disowned their only real successful politician, AOC, because they didn’t like the nuance in her approach to Palestine. I’m telling y’all, abandon progressives. They canibalize everyone eventually. Respectful disagreement does not compute."

University student who yelled 'Free Palestine' reportedly deported as UAE weighs Israel-Hamas war - "At the graduation ceremony of New York University Abu Dhabi this May, a student wearing the traditional Palestinian black-and-white keffiyeh scarf shouted “Free Palestine!” as he crossed the stage to receive his diploma, witnesses say. Days later, he reportedly was deported from the United Arab Emirates... Before the graduation ceremony, students had been told that “displaying the Palestinian flag anywhere on campus is not permitted and this was strictly executed, even in residential buildings,” said another student, who similarly spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.  In total, five students speaking on condition of anonymity described similar circumstances leading up to the graduation affecting those who earlier sought to bulk-buy keffiyehs as a fundraiser and organize vigils for the dead in Gaza... It also claimed that staff and students from non-Western countries had been “detained, intimidated, and deported based on surveillance.”"
Damn Zionists!

Thread by @jnewsgabe on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Just got off the phone with a young professional in the Bay Area who broke down sobbing about the amount of vitriolic antisemitism coming from his colleagues. It was striking to hear a grown man cry, but my main takeaway was that the worst part is the gaslighting-- the insistence that no, this isn't racism, this is antiracism. This is speaking truth to power. It's subversive in an essential way--such that any pushback only reinforces the righteousness of the cause. Second is the abject dehuminization of anyone cursed enough to bear the title of "Zionist," a term now worse, in popular discourse, than "racist," or "capitalist," or most any other terms one can think of. To support the existence of a Jewish state in some portion of the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. It's a belief  shared by most American Jews and their parents, grandparents, uncles, nieces, nephews, and children. It's simply a feeling that it is, well, a good thing for Israel to exist. Even passive support for the existence of a Jewish state Has become grounds for the most heinous accusations, that you are literally a Nazi, that you not only support genocide but are complicit in it. So yeah, one can understand why this could make someone cry."

Andrew Fox on X - "I swear to God there are two wars happening. There’s everything that’s actually happening in Gaza. Then there’s this insane online version where countries map their own weird social issues onto it and just invent stuff and start shrieking about genocide and sharing TikToks."

Candidates faced 'alarming rise' in abuse during election campaign, says Home Secretary - "It comes after some Labour candidates and MPs spoke of being targeted by bullying and intimidating behaviour throughout the campaign, particularly over the party’s handling of the conflict in Gaza.  Jess Phillips, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, was booed and jeered by pro-Palestine supporters during her acceptance speech on July 4.  Jonathan Ashworth, who lost his Leicester South seat to a pro-Gaza independent, said he was forced to hide in a vicarage from protesters and was the subject of anonymous leaflets calling him “Genocide Jon”... Lord Walney, the Government adviser on political violence, told The Guardian on Sunday that the UK had seen an increase in “US-style politics of aggressive confrontation and intimidation”, raising the risk of another assassination attempt on a British politician.  The political violence tsar added that he believed intimidation was more regularly being used as an “electoral strategy” and that there was a particular pattern of abuse “created by aggressive pro-Palestine activists”."
More censorship of pro-Palestinian speech! Time to ban Reform and jail the far right to keep people safe

Hen Mazzig on X - "BREAKING: The Paris memorial for the 1972 Olympic massacre is going to be held in secret due to concerns that it will be a target for violence.  It was originally supposed to take place at the Paris City Hall but was canceled because of safety concerns and moved to a secret location.  This memorial commemorates the 11 Israelis who were killed by the Black September terrorist group when they infiltrated the Olympic village and took the Israeli team hostage, before killing them.  Jews are being forced to commemorate their dead in secret to avoid being targeted by attacks.  This is how Jews will remember 2024. This is the state of antisemitism in France, and all over the world."

Facebook - "YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS UP: Masked anti-Israel protesters issued demands at the Islington police station in the UK and claim that police touched a Muslim, disabled, trans person of color, to show their show their support for the violent genocidal Zionists, who directed them to violently arrest members of the encampment. Last night we were attacked by 2 Zionists at our encampment, who then called police and directed them to violently arrest members of the encampment. Police showing their support for the violent genocidal Zionists proceeded to arrest 7 of our comrades. Police officers touched a Muslim, disabled, Trans person of color without consent and refused to give them medical treatment for over an hour and the. For over an hour obstructed the ambulance from leaving with the injured comrade.... all whilst mocking and laughing at them and purposefully misgendering them."
Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 on X - "“Police officers touched a Muslim disabled Trans person of colour without consent.” Yes, this is a real video."

Antisemitic TikTok terrorist jailed for encouraging terrorism and sharing material - "Hamza Alam, 22, \disguised himself before posting videos on TikTok.  A number of his posts included hostile references to Jewish people alongside a video that encouraged viewers to attack and kill Jews following the Gaza and Israel conflict. Another post celebrated the 9/11 attacks...   Alam also created a shareable folder which included Islamic State propaganda and videos containing images of public floggings.   Today at Woolwich Crown Court he was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment and a further year on licence thereafter. He was previously found guilty of three counts of disseminating a terrorist publication and one count of encouraging terrorism following a trial at the same court which concluded in April."
More censorship of pro-Palestinian speech! This will have a chilling effect on free speech

Far-right groups that block aid to Gaza receive tax-deductible donations from US and Israel - "The three groups examined by AP and Shomrim have slowed the delivery of aid by blocking trucks on their way to Gaza, either by snarling traffic or simply standing in front of the main Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza."
Of course, all the far left "pro-Palestinian" groups which get tax benefits for inciting chaos and violence are a good thing
Weird. I thought peaceful protest was a basic democratic right

Meme - "Gaza is a special place where you can be in an "open air prison" but have a zoo and water parks and gain 50 Ibs while "there's a famine" and "You've officially ran out of food""
Hind Khoudary @Hind_...: "We officially ran out of food."
Nov 2023: *thin*
TODAY: *fat*

Meme - @Idgafwarvet: "We need a Disney princess who joins hamas"

Links - 26th July 2024 (2)

Europe gives China a taste of its own trade medicine - "Over the past years, EU trade policy has traditionally focused on building protective fortress walls, and last week's decision to impose punitive tariffs on Chinese electric cars initially looked like another example of the classic defensive playbook in Brussels.  In a remarkable turn of events, however, the EU is now considering a next step that invites China's electric vehicle (EV) makers inside the walls. The big idea is to use the tariff threat to force Chinese carmakers to come to Europe to form joint ventures and share technology with their EU counterparts... For years, the EU has been at the vanguard of western investors howling in protest at Beijing's demands that foreign investors in China should form joint ventures and share know-how: It’s what the EU used to slam as forced technology transfer.  The world has now changed. The fear is no longer that the Chinese will steal European EV technology in a game of catch-up, but rather that Europe is falling behind. Realizing that its industry needs fresh investment and expertise to compete, the EU is now turning its eyes toward a negotiated solution with Beijing...   According to the German Chamber of Commerce in China, 69 percent of German automotive companies reckon their Chinese competitors already lead them in innovation or will do so within the next five years."

Meme - "顺肉 Wood shall be meat
莶肉 Toothpicks meat
烤肉 Fried meat
菜肉 Celery meat
爆肉 Onion Explosion meat
肉丝 Fish-flavored shredded pork
肉丝 Pure speculation meat
鸡丁 Kungpo-Chicken
鸡丁 Cashew Chicken
肉丝 Pure Belly Clearance
马鱼块 The fish mother
羊肉 Iron lamb"

(3) Making 400 Year Old Buttered Beere - YouTube - "Most people know Butterbeer from the Harry Potter books, but did you know it's based off an actual drink from Elizabethan England?   In this episode, I show you how to make your own alcoholic (and non-alcoholic) Buttered Beere and we explore the importance of beer and ale in Medieval and Renaissance England."

DeepDive: What a pro-growth tax reform might look like - "The above analysis presented several broad-based, pro-growth reforms that could improve the country’s economic climate, while also introducing more fairness and simplicity into the tax system, including:
   Increasing fairness and reducing disincentives to work by lowering marginal tax rates on working families
   Reducing top marginal tax rates and/or thresholds to help Canada attract and retain high-skilled workers
   Use broad-based reforms to the corporate income tax system to incentivize new investments
   Increasing taxes on consumption to fund even more dramatic reductions in economically costly taxes on income—not necessarily by increasing the GST, but by further incentivising savings that can be used as investment in Canada’s economy
   Simplify the tax system to reduce compliance costs"
Too bad left wing economic policy is about making the "rich" suffer, not about increasing the size of the pie for everyone

David Mulroney: The next PM must remind Canada’s public servants who really runs the show - "When I served as foreign policy advisor to the prime minister (a public service appointment within the Privy Council Office) I struggled for months to obtain a list of initiatives Canada was supporting at the U.N. under the heading of “Maternal Health.” I came to believe I was being stonewalled because officials were reluctant to reveal the extent to which Canada was promoting abortion in the developing world... as ambassador for Canada in China, I refused to sign off on a CIDA project that had as its objective improving the business skills of Tibetan women dubiously identified as “sex workers.” I suggested that we instead offer training in skills that would free women in Tibet from having to sell themselves to Chinese truckers to feed their families. CIDA ignored me and quietly secured project sign-off back at headquarters."

David Attenborough’s anti-human miserabilism - "Our planet is wonderful, but it sure isn’t A Perfect Planet, as the title of David Attenborough’s latest BBC spectacular declares. To claim so is a statement of blind faith, not an observation grounded in reality. And the fact this is the central rhetorical claim of Attenborough’s latest programme is startlingly revealing, as well as misleading...  to call the state of the natural world ‘perfect’ at any one point in time is not only nonsensical but anti-scientific.  After all, was the Earth perfect when a meteor smashed into it, killing 99 per cent of life? Was it perfect when toxic volcanic gases spread across entire continents and blocked out the Sun for years? Was it perfect when the bubonic plague killed millions, triggering the only major fall in the human population in history? Would humanity not mobilise all of its technology and resources to fight such terrifying natural events should they happen again? Or would we declare them part of our ‘perfect planet’ and meekly succumb to fate?  Attenborough’s well-known support for reducing human-population size is perhaps one reason why he seems perfectly happy to accept huge population-reducing events as part of his ‘perfect’ planet. Others less Malthusian than Sir David might not be quite so callously accepting of nature’s ‘perfection’.   Hence we don’t accept the global coronavirus pandemic as merely another wondrous aspect of our perfect planet. Rather we recognise it as a problem nature has thrown up that we must overcome – using science and technology. And in doing so, we ourselves seek to change, perhaps even ‘perfect’ nature... In the final episode, Niall McCann, a biologist, conservationist and explorer, says ‘this perfect planet of ours has been thrown into a state of flux’ thanks to the human species, which has become ‘so populous and so destructive that it has become the single most influential creature on Earth’. He even tells us that a catastrophe like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs will happen again. Writer Jeremy Rifkin gives the message an economic spin, announcing that ‘our mission is not growth, growth, growth’. Unchallenged, he tells viewers what infrastructure and power sources we should build and how we should reorganise our economy to preserve this perfect planet.   The entire final episode, in fact, is not natural history at all. Instead, it features a series of activists delivering ultimatums, while Attenborough argues for an expansive array of global policy proposals. Many, such as spreading seeds in barren areas of the Amazon, seem eminently reasonable and hard to fault. But some, such as ‘financially incentivising’ foreign government involvement in developing nations, are deeply political and highly contested. And the message itself – millenarian, apocalyptic and coercive – is not without its critics, even within the environmentalist movement.  Such a biased perspective should not be presented as fact, according to the BBC’s and Ofcom’s own guidelines. But because both institutions have now declared climate change an exceptional issue, there is no room for comeback. Indeed, since 2017 Ofcom has insisted that only one message on climate change is acceptable, ruling against the BBC for giving space to opposing views. The BBC has certainly got the message. It said that it had conceived of A Perfect Planet as an explicitly campaigning project to ‘raise awareness’ and deliver a ‘serious message’. Towards the very end of the series, several well-spoken teens tell us the ‘planet may not be able to sustain life’ by the time they are adults, as they stare down the camera at their potential killers. ‘Do you want to be the generation who signs the death warrant of humanity?’, Rifkin asks in the closing shots... If children grow up believing man is nothing but a plague upon a ‘perfect planet’ – that we are a virus, if you will – they will have no faith in humanity itself. And that would be no good for us, or the planet."
We are still told that environmentalism isn't misanthropic

I can see you typing: the most awkward part of online chat - "One of writing’s traditional advantages over speech is the time it affords you to collect your thoughts. This time empowers you to calculate your words’ effects on their reader. Rather than blurting out “YOU’RE SO HOT,” you pen a pleasing phrase: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”  Text and instant messages, however, are eroding this advantage. We don’t correspond over text and instant messages, like we do in letters; we chat in quick informal exchanges, like we do face-to-face. And one of the underpinnings of spoken conversation is what’s known in linguistics as turn-taking. “We need some way of determining when someone else’s turn is over and ours can begin,” says Deborah Tannen, a professor of linguistics at Georgetown and author of You Just Don’t Understand. “In speaking, we sense whether others are done – their voices trail off, their intonation goes down, they seem to have finished making a point, they leave a pause to let us know they’re finished.”   It’s not as simple as it sounds. Tannen’s research has shown that conversational turn-taking actually creates a lot of social friction."
From 2014

Actual Fact Bot: Revived | Facebook - "There have been 8 Christian Prime Ministers in Japan even though the Christians make less than 1% of Japan's population."

Meme - Busty Woman: "Your son is not focused in class"
Man: "sorry, what did u say?"

MaxHelp on X - "We mistakenly sent out an empty test email to a portion of our HBO Max mailing list this evening. We apologize for the inconvenience, and as the jokes pile in, yes, it was the intern. No, really. And we’re helping them through it. ❤️"
aerin on X - "Dear Intern, when I was 25 I made a PDF assigning each employee to the Muppet they reminded me of the most. I meant to send it to my work friend, but I accidentally sent it to the entire company. My supervisor (Beaker) wanted to fire me, but the owners (Bert & Ernie) intervened."
HyperX on X - "Long ago a member of the team accidentally added an extra 0 to an ad campaign spending 10x more than what we had budgeted. We all make mistakes. 💜"
Mekka 💉x7 @mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io on X - "To the intern: Hi! 🙋🏿‍♂️ I'm an Engineering Director on Google Play. Our team's systems send the emails for the Play Store.
|1. You'll be fine! As replies show, everyone breaks production!
|2. Congratulations on helping your team find missing guardrail features and capabilities!👍🏿"
Daenney on X - "Dear intern, I once globally took down Spotify. It almost happened twice. My team was awesome about it and I'm still here. You managed to find something broken in the way integration tests are done. It's a good thing and will help improve things. Good luck <3."
Microsoft Outlook on X- "Dear Intern, we've all hit the send button before we should've. It happens to the best of us 💙"
James Harper on X - "Dear Intern, I once auto-populated a mass vet email from @morris_animal to list the constituents as their “dogs name” instead of their first name and it got the best email response ever. A mistake turned into a new marketing process when we sent mass emails."
Caissie on X -  "Dear Intern, I was using my desktop calendar to make a monthly note of when I started my menstrual period, but after several months I realized I was making that note on a calendar I shared with all of my colleagues company wide. I was 37 years old."

Ontario Liberal MP's map of Canada forgets P.E.I., Yukon - "Yasir Naqvi's map of Canada map depicts a country Canadians are not familiar with — it has eight provinces and two territories... The map also included several inconsistencies with provincial and territorial borders.  The Quebec border takes over New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, lumping them into one province.  And the border between Yukon and Northwest Territories has disappeared, merging the territories into one.  The map has been making the rounds online, with many questioning how it was approved despite the inaccuracies."

What type of mattress should be chosen to avoid back pain and improve sleep quality? Review of the literature - "Energy spent during daily activities is recuperated by humans through sleep, ensuring optimal performance on the following day. Sleep disturbances are common: a meta-analysis on sleep quality showed that 15–30% of adults report sleep disorders, such as sleep onset latency (SOL), insufficient duration of sleep and frequently waking up at night. Low back pain (LBP) has been identified as one of the main causes of poor sleep quality. Literature findings are discordant on the type of mattress that might prevent onset of back pain, resulting in an improved quality of sleep. We conducted a systematic literature review of articles published until 2019, investigating the association of different mattresses with sleep quality and low back pain. Based on examined studies, mattresses were classified according to the European Committee for Standardization (2000) as: soft, medium-firm, extra-firm or mattresses customized for patients affected by supine decubitus. A total of 39 qualified articles have been included in the current systematic review. Results of this systematic review show that a medium-firm mattress promotes comfort, sleep quality and rachis alignment."

Dutch volleyball player who raped 12-year-old British girl qualifies for Paris Olympics - "Steven van de Velde was sentenced in March 2016 to four years in prison after admitting three counts of rape against a child he had met on Facebook. He had flown from the Netherlands to the UK in August 2014, when he was 19, to meet his victim.   Judge Francis Sheridan told him: “Prior to coming to this country you were training as a potential Olympian. Your hopes of representing your country now lie as a shattered dream.”  Except Van de Velde, who was released after serving just 12 months at a Dutch prison, has since been allowed to rehabilitate his Olympic career, this month sealing his spot in the national pair at the Paris Games alongside Matthew Immers... Van de Velde’s comeback presents a major moral conundrum for the International Olympic Committee. Every Paris Olympian is required to sign an Athletes’ Rights and Responsibilities Declaration, with point seven demanding: “Act as a role model.” Having travelled from Amsterdam to Milton Keynes to have sex with a girl he knew was just 12, Van de Velde was condemned in the strongest terms in 2016 by the judge. The court heard that he had gone to the home of the victim, with whom he had communicated on social networks before arranging to visit, while her mother was out and had taken her virginity."

Frozen embryo conceived the year after her mother was born - "  Emma Wren Gibson, delivered November 25 by Dr. Jeffrey Keenan, medical director of the National Embryo Donation Center, is the result of an embryo originally frozen on October 14, 1992.  Emma’s parents, Tina and Benjamin Gibson of eastern Tennessee, admit feeling surprised when they were told the exact age of the embryo thawed March 13 by Carol Sommerfelt, embryology lab director at the National Embryo Donation Center.  “Do you realize I’m only 25? This embryo and I could have been best friends,” Tina Gibson said.  Today, Tina, now 26, explained to CNN, “I just wanted a baby. I don’t care if it’s a world record or not.”... Emma’s story begins long before the Gibsons “adopted” her (and four sibling embryos from the same egg donor). Created for in vitro fertilization by another, anonymous couple, the embryos had been left in storage so they could be used by someone unable or unwilling to conceive a child naturally."
From 2017

Nvidia appears to have a major problem with wealthy middle managers who do barely any work - and new starters aren't happy - "Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang reportedly addressed worker complacency in a recent all-hands meeting following complaints that some employees are simply coasting along while enjoying bumper paycheques... some middle managers have entered a “semi-retirement” stage whereby they’re not putting in the work that’s worthy of their high salary. Several reasons for this complacency were cited, indicating that the inherently poor work ethic relates to workers resting and vesting. According to the report, the company’s CEO has been reluctant to fire workers, with the last large-scale round of redundancies taking place in 2008 at the time of the economic crash. During the 2022-2023 layoff season, Intel reportedly cut hundreds of jobs, while Nvidia kept all its workers onboard, offering reduced salaries and higher stock awards instead. The problem is that Nvidia’s stock is up by around 1,400% over the past five years, and around 240% this year to date, thanks to a huge surge in orders of chips powering new AI tools. Nvidia has arguably benefited more from artificial intelligence than rival chipmakers like AMD and Intel, and long-standing workers see this as an opportunity to stockpile shares and watch them grow, leaving them with little motivation to put in the work. The company is also slated for having a pretty hands-off management style, making it difficult for execs to identify and address problems like complacency."

Liberals spending on social-media influencers: why? - "Health Canada, Public Health Agency of Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada are all tapping influencers, or people on social-media who have built large audiences and sometimes have a reputation for expertise on certain topics."
Government influence operations are only bad when the left disapprove

Opinion | Alex Karp, Nicholas Zamiska: U.S. tech companies should help build AI weaponry - The Washington Post - "The great-powers calculus that has helped prevent another world war might also change quickly. But the supremacy of U.S. military power has undoubtedly helped guard the peace, fragile as it might be. A commitment to maintaining such supremacy, however, has become increasingly unfashionable in the West. And deterrence, as a doctrine, is at risk of losing its moral appeal... for a nation that holds itself to a higher moral standard than its adversaries when it comes to the use of force, technical parity with an enemy is insufficient. A weapons system in the hand of an ethical society, and one rightly wary of its use, will only act as an effective deterrent if it is far more powerful than the capability of an opponent that would not hesitate to kill the innocent.  The trouble is that the young Americans who are most capable of building AI systems are often also most ambivalent about working for the military. In Silicon Valley, engineers have turned their backs, unwilling to engage with the mess and moral complexity of geopolitics. While pockets of support for defense work have emerged, most funding and talent continue to stream toward the consumer. The engineering elite of our country rush to raise capital for video-sharing apps and social media platforms, advertising algorithms and shopping websites. They don’t hesitate to track and monetize people’s every movement online, burrowing their way into our lives. But many balk when it comes to working with the military. The rush is simply to build. Too few ask what ought to be built and why... Yet the peace that those in Silicon Valley who are opposed to working with the military enjoy is made possible by that same military’s credible threat of force... What’s most concerning is that a generation’s disenchantment with and disinterest in our country’s collective defense has led to a massive redirection of resources — intellectual and financial — toward sating the needs of consumer culture. The diminishing demands we place on the technology sector to produce products of enduring and collective value are ceding too much power to the whims of the market. As David Graeber, who taught anthropology at Yale and the London School of Economics, observed in a 2012 essay in the Baffler, “The Internet is a remarkable innovation, but all we are talking about is a super-fast and globally accessible combination of library, post office, and mail-order catalogue.” The technology world’s drift toward the concerns of the consumer has helped reinforce a certain escapism — Silicon Valley’s instinct to ignore the important issues we face as a society in favor of the trivial and ephemeral. Challenges ranging from national defense and violent crime to education reform and medical research have appeared to many people in the technology industry to be too intractable, thorny and politically fraught to be worth addressing...  outrage from the crowd has trained leaders and investors across the technology industry to avoid any hint of controversy or disapproval. But their reticence comes with significant costs. Many investors in Silicon Valley and legions of extraordinarily talented engineers simply set the hard problems aside. A generation of ascendant founders say they actively seek out risk, but when it comes to deeper investments in societal challenges, caution often prevails. Why wade into geopolitics when you can build another app? And build apps they have done. A proliferation of social media empires systematically monetizes and channels the human desire for status and recognition.  For its part, the foreign policy establishment has repeatedly miscalculated when dealing with China, Russia and others, believing that economic integration can be sufficient to undercut their leaders’ domestic support and diminish their interest in military escalation abroad. The failure of the Davos consensus was to abandon the stick in favor of the carrot alone. Meanwhile, Xi Jinping of China and other authoritarian leaders have wielded power in a way that political leaders in the West might never understand... Pacifism satisfies our instinctive empathy for the powerless. It also relieves us of the need to navigate among the difficult trade-offs that the world presents... It would be a mistake, and indeed a form of moral condescension, to systematically equate powerlessness with piousness. The subjugated and subjugators are equally capable of grievous sin.  We do not advocate a thin and shallow patriotism — a substitute for thought and genuine reflection about the merits of our nation as well as its flaws. We only want America’s technology industry to keep in mind an important question — which is not whether a new generation of autonomous weapons incorporating AI will be built. It is who will build them and for what purpose."

Foghorn Leghorn Lecture / The Emperor Triumphant / Fantasy vs Reality

Foghorn Leghorn to dead shooter with police and military looking over him: "I say, BOY, I say, ya call yourself a HITMAN? You couldn't HIT the broad side of a barn, BOY! YA MISSED HIM! I tell ya, the kid two cents short of a nickel. YOU HAD ONE JOB, BOY, AND LOOK AT YA! Dead as a doornail. COVERED IN MORE RED THAN A MAGA HAT, BOY."

*Recreation of Trump Triumphant with Stormtroopers, Darth Vader and Royal Guards, with Imperial Flag*

Fantasy: *Trump shaking hands with Hitler*
Reality: *Trump with Kippah/Yarmulke at the Western Wall*

Links - 26th July 2024 (1 - General Wokeness)

Column: Canada's immigration crisis : r/canada - "Because our human rights code gives all kids the right to a public education. Due to “full inclusion” models and the complete elimination of special education funding/classes, almost all kids are mainstreamed in the same room. When they are all placed together essentially the special education or esl child’s rights to an education trump all of the other children’s right to a safe school environment because one kid can derail a room. One non verbal autistic kid throwing a stapler in a grade 7 class calls for a class evacuation. This can happen every day. The entire class waits in the hall for the student to finish trashing the class. Then they go back in and clean up. On repeat. Every day.  Also An ESL kid takes a ton of the teachers time and often is disruptive because they aren’t used to school, or are bored because they don’t understand. When the teacher is instructing the new student on basic English and behavioural cultural norms what they aren’t doing is instructing the rest of the class.  No one fails. Everyone gets pushed to the next grade and no one is learning. I am not blaming the students here. This is not their fault.  Quite frankly due to the human rights code schools cannot legally refuse kids in the majority of cases, and there is no funding for ESL or Spec Ed programs. Kids are seldom suspended for the same reason. Parents rely on school as childcare. Parents send their kids to school and there isn’t much the principal can do. Kids know it and no longer respect authority  (There are rare cases where the principal can exclude a kid but that is in very extreme cases and so seldom. The school then often needs to suit up for human rights tribunal to battle the parents on the exclusion as it violates rights)
Edit: this is why parents are choosing Catholic school when they can. The majority of immigrants come from non catholic counties and so they aren’t allowed in under grade 8"
Clearly, the problem is not enough money

Amy Hamm: Pride tears itself apart over Israel, existence of gay conservatives - "Around 30 protesters set up a blockade in the centre of the procession route, and shouted at attendees and parade participants alike, with slogans such as, “Free Palestine” and “Pride partners with genocide!” Rather than acquiescing to a list of protester demands on the spot — as was done when Black Lives Matter demonstrators pulled a similar stunt in 2016 — Pride Toronto executive director Kojo Modeste called the whole thing off. Go home, everyone. Pride is over. Wipe those rainbows off your faces. This wasn’t the only fractious moment at Pride Toronto — where outrage over men displaying full-frontal nudity in front of children had been the story of the day, until the Coalition Against Pinkwashing showed up — and it certainly was far from the only example of internal divisions that are shearing the Pride community apart. It’s ironic: every year, the progress Pride flag seems to pick up another stripe, colour or symbol — each signalling some increasingly niche and mysterious aspect of queerdom that I suspect even old-school LGBT members are befuddled over. And yet, rather than achieving a motley utopia, Pride is falling to pieces. Under the guise of “inclusion” — and alongside the infinitely expanding acronym and flag — Pride has become politicized to the extent that it now excludes those who fall outside a narrow set of ideological beliefs. And while the country’s largest Pride organizations are flush with the cash from dozens of corporate sponsors, and even embrace straight people cosplaying as queer, actual members of the community are unceremoniously pushed aside and told they’re no longer welcome. Straight people with rainbows? In. Conservative gay or transgender people? Out. People who support the police or Israel? Also out. The litmus test for inclusion in the alphabet community’s annual festivities now seems to be one’s political views or — failing that — the ability to provide corporate sponsorship (unless you’ve got any investments in Jewish companies, that is). As Toronto’s abruptly ended parade showed, the ideological battles can’t even happen as a side conversation — internal squabbles over political purity can and will derail the entire celebration. That is not something to be proud of. A viral video from this year’s NYC Pride shows a woman, who looks like the victim of a rainbow flag factory explosion, confidently explaining to a YouTube personality — clearly a “gotcha” moment that she failed to see coming — how Pride month “means a big fu–ing deal to us.” “When did you realize that you were gay or queer,” asks the interviewer. “I’m straight,” she responds. Now, compare that straight woman’s inclusion in the annual festivities to the naked hostility shown to famous transwoman Blaire White at a Texas Pride festival this year: White, who is a political conservative, was followed by hostile attendees and security, filmed and sworn at for supporting Donald Trump. On social media, White wrote that this was her first ever experience being “trans-bashed” — at Pride, no less. “This is how a cult operates, not a group of people that represent love and inclusion,” wrote White. She’s right. How is it that a straight woman in rainbow gear has become more welcome at Pride celebrations than a transgender woman?... The Vancouver Pride Society... previously banned the Vancouver Public Library and the Vancouver Lesbian Collective from participating in official events. Why? Because the library rents public spaces to people who express political views that the Vancouver Pride Society disagrees with, and because the Vancouver Lesbian Collective insists that — brace yourself — lesbians are attracted to females (as in, the ones who don’t have penises). The only community members I know of who are still interested in attending Pride festivities do so out of morbid fascination with the fringe elements, or, in the style of Blaire White, to be subversive: a thought criminal amongst one’s would-be persecutors. Pride’s “inclusion” only extends to those who pass a political purity test, which — as the Coalition Against Pinkwashing demonstrated — becomes more rigorous and exacting every year."
"Inclusion" leads to more division
It's not about the Queer community, but the left wing agenda

Adam Zivo: Militant LGBTQ activists ill-equipped to handle backlash - "New polling data shows that support for LGBTQ rights is dropping precipitously in Canada — and while many queer activists will inevitably blame the far right for this development, the fact is that they themselves helped sabotage their own public support. Their abrasiveness and militancy has alienated the public, and though a strategic shift is needed, I fear that community leaders will fail to understand this until it is too late. According to this year’s edition of the Ipsos LGBTQ+ Pride Report, which polled adults in 26 countries, support for queer rights has decreased across the globe since 2021. Several metrics suggest that the starkest changes occurred in Canada. This year, only 49 per cent of Canadian respondents believed that people should be open about their orientation or gender identity (down 12 points from 2021), while support for LGBTQ people publicly kissing or holding hands fell to 40 per cent (down 8 points). Fewer Canadians want to see openly gay or bisexual athletes (50 per cent, down 11 points) or more LGBTQ characters on screens (34 per cent, down 10 points). Canadians have been souring not just on visibility, but legal rights, too. Only 54 per cent of respondents supported LGBTQ-inclusive anti-discrimination laws that guarantee equal employment, housing and educational opportunities. That number was 63 per cent just three years ago. And while same sex marriage and child adoption remains popular — at 75 and 70 per cent, respectively — these rights also saw concerning drops in support (down 7 and 11 points)... Broadly speaking, you can conceptualize activism in two ways: war or public relations. Both approaches can be productive, depending on the context. Radical activism, which tends to be warlike, was useful at the advent of the modern LGBTQ movement. The 1969 Stonewall riots helped queer people burst into the public sphere, for example. Yet the long march towards equality was primarily driven by activists who operated more like publicists or diplomats, and who cleverly built empathy for their cause. Though riots are often romanticized, you cannot build enduring social support by throwing bricks... It helped, too, that this style of activism operated on liberal notions of social justice, wherein individual liberty, neutral civil rights and equality under the law were heavily promoted. Such a framework made it easier for skeptics to accept the LGBTQ community, because it implied that no one was getting special treatment and that mutual non-interference between competing social groups was an end goal. But then same sex marriage was finally legalized across the entire United States in 2015. Having won their ultimate symbol of legitimacy, the more conventional members of the LGBTQ community, including a large part of the professional class, drifted away from activism. The voices left behind were marginalized, militant and resentful of their abandonment. As their influence within the LGBTQ community rapidly grew, they radicalized institutions and supplanted the rhetoric of “love is love” with the more antagonistic “Queer as in f–k you.” Concurrently, western social justice advocacy was, at the macro level, being poisoned by a new moral-political framework, popularly referred to as “woke culture,” which prioritized sanctimony over persuasion. The progressive victories of the 2010s seemingly convinced many activists that their enemies were on the cusp of being permanently vanquished, for they assumed that history irreversibly marches forward. This intoxicated them. Overconfident and arrogant, they decided that there was no need to persuade others — in fact, non-believers should be grateful for the opportunity to join the coming revolution. “It’s not my job to educate you,” was a common refrain of the late 2010s, muttered by activists who harshly policed allies through strict rules and hierarchies, and demanded compensation for the “emotional labour” of advancing their own rights. Why these people felt clever for raising new barriers against the dissemination of LGBTQ-inclusive ideas will forever remain a mystery to me — though I suspect many of them saw their own morality as a kind of social capital which they could hoard. To make a religious comparison, they stopped behaving like humble evangelists preaching in the town square, and instead became high priests who jealously guarded access to the scripture. While their bullying behaviour suppressed public criticism of progressive causes, it did nothing to address people’s underlying beliefs. Denied outlets to ask questions or discuss concerns, public discontent grew more pressurized, like a cyst filling with pus. Even moderate progressives, queer or not, silently bottled themselves... younger Americans grew far less comfortable with the LGBTQ community toward the late 2010s. The 2019 Accelerating Acceptance report found a considerable drop in respondents between the ages of 18 and 35 who could be considered “allies” (meaning that these people expressed very high levels of comfort with LGBTQ interactions). Between 2016 and 2018, the rate of “allies” in this population dropped from 63 to 45 per cent — the collapse was catastrophic among young men, whose “allyship” rate almost halved. But GLAAD never published age breakdowns after that report, making further generational analysis impractical. However, the aforementioned Ipsos polling data showed that male Gen Z respondents were less supportive than their Millennial counterparts with respect to many LGBTQ issues, suggesting that the trends of the late 2010s have only continued. By 2020, the anti-LGBTQ backlash was finally noticed by the mainstream. Faced with a complex problem, progressive voices simplistically blamed the “far right” — an amorphous enemy which they failed to define, and which provided a convenient explanation for seemingly all of society’s ills. The Southern Poverty Law Center, for example, emphasized the toxicity of the Trump administration — even though the backlash was seemingly more pronounced among younger generations, where Trump was least popular... instead, queer activists only urge more militancy. Their revolutionary theatre is too emotionally satisfying. Their echo chambers, unassailable. Their grandiose pretensions conceal a certain fecklessness — for they claim that they want to secure their rights by any means necessary, but consider conversations with outsiders too exhausting. They take credit for the LGBTQ community’s victories, but accept no blame for its losses... hile there is growing dissent within the LGBTQ community, critics of radical activism are locked out of queer institutions and largely ignored by the mainstream media."
Clearly, this has nothing to do with left wing overreach

Adam Zivo: LGBTQ activists need to tone down the anger - "I was eager to spotlight Ashton-Cirillo because of her capacity to challenge stereotypes about trans people. Articles built around “trans person to do X” are a tired trope, but that’s because they often spotlight individuals who exist in trans-friendly industries and therefore aren’t actually that transgressive or interesting. I yawn at articles about trans fashion models, for example, because it’s unsurprising that that industry is LGBTQ-friendly. But Ashton-Cirillo’s story was something different and wild — she was putting her life on the line to work in Ukraine, a country where trans people aren’t really a thing. My editor at the Washington Examiner, Tom Rogan, said yes to the story without hesitation. Ashton-Cirillo spent months reporting from the front lines, staying in Kharkiv when everyone else fled. She delivered food to starving villages that few were brave enough to visit —  all while being inundated with online death threats. Grizzled military men in the city smiled while reminiscing about her earnestness, modesty and commitment —  none cared about her being trans. It helps that Ashton-Cirillo tries not to let being trans define her, and frames her work as the affirmation of American values, such as individual freedom and democracy. She’s a conservative-friendly example for trans rights — patriotic, brave and non-identitarian. Though a Democrat, she engages with people of all backgrounds — hence why she was happy to be featured in the Examiner even if she considers some of its content to be hateful. Together, we tried to show that human decency can transcend the culture wars. This shocked some LGBTQ activists — but it’s a lesson in how the culture wars can be cooled down when approached with open-mindedness."
Stereotypes are only bad when they threaten the left wing agenda

Universities Should Promote Rigorous Discourse, Not Stifle It - "The New England Journal of Medicine recently published an advocacy article that attacks academic freedom and urges stifling contentious campus debates. Specifically, Evan Mullen, Eric J. Topol, and Abraham Verghese urge universities to “speak out publicly” and issue official institutional opinions about public controversies involving its professors “when it concludes that a faculty member’s opinion could cause public harm.”   The NEJM authors write in the context of Stanford University refusing to institutionally condemn the arguments made by one of its scholars, Dr. Scott Atlas, when he advised the Trump administration on COVID policies in the early days of the pandemic. The authors, one of whom is a physician trainee (Mullen) and another the former vice chair of education (Verghese) at Stanford, are university colleagues of Atlas, as is one of the authors of this essay (Bhattacharya). They claim that Atlas’ publicly expressed skepticism of masking as an effective prophylactic against infection and his belief that lockdowns and school closures would cause more harm than good were so potentially harmful that Stanford itself – as an institution – should have condemned Atlas’ opinions.  Why? It wasn’t as if some of his colleagues didn’t criticize Atlas. Indeed, more than a hundred Stanford professors and physicians wrote publicly opposing his advice. The letter’s signatories also pushed a vote through the Stanford Faculty Senate in November 2020 condemning Dr. Atlas, using quasi-religious language to declare his positions “anathema.” But that wasn’t enough, apparently, because “institutional silence may be interpreted as tacit approval.”   Controversy between professors is the norm at the frontiers of science. It is utterly unsurprising that there would be discord over the proper policy to follow in the wake of a pandemic featuring a new virus, with great uncertainty about its epidemiological and biological aspects. In the intervening years, Dr. Atlas’ positions in 2020 on school closures and mask mandates have been proven legitimate, demonstrating the wisdom of Stanford not taking a position as an institution.             Meanwhile, in another attack on academic freedom, Harvard’s Dean of Social Science issued a call in the Daily Crimson to punish professors who criticize the university, “A faculty member’s right to free speech does not amount to a blank check to engage in behaviors that plainly incite external actors,” wrote Lawrence D. Bobo, “be it the media, alumni, donors, federal agencies, or the government to intervene in Harvard’s affairs.” In other words, what happens at Harvard should stay at Harvard...   First, there is the problem of how the institutional “official” opinions would be determined. The NEJM authors suggest establishing a large committee made up of members with a wide array of expertise and the ability to obtain outside opinions as circumstances warrant.  But such committees would quickly turn into ideologically stacked decks, particularly given the overwhelming progressive political dominance among professors and administrators in most major universities. After all, who would decide those selected to be committee members – and perhaps even more importantly, decide who should excluded? Why, the same administrators and faculty department chairs who have crafted the kind of sclerotic homogeneity that typifies contemporary university faculties.  The proposal calls to mind an earlier incident in scientific history. In response to Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity, in 1931, a hundred German professors wrote a book attacking his idea. Einstein’s famous response? If his theory was wrong, it would not take the word of 100 scientists but rather just one fact. Scientific disputes and academic disagreements are properly handled in this way, not by institutional authority but by reason, data, and experimentation. The freedom to speak and disagree is essential to science.   Second, if universities took “official positions” on matters of public controversy and on-campus debate, it would stifle the expression of unpopular or heterodox opinions by faculty that disagreed with officially sanctioned opinions and materially chill the free and open exchange of ideas required for academic freedom to thrive. Even tenured faculty with job security would be reluctant to disagree with the university’s institutional position openly. After all, a university can punish a professor in many ways besides losing a position. These include restricting lab time, making professors teach undesired classes, social shunning, and other means to create a hostile work environment. And what chance would there be for untenured faculty or adjunct professors with little job security to contest the university’s institutional opinion? Slim and none... why should university leadership be able to punish their on-campus critics? The only thing accomplished would be to isolate them from institutional and public accountability. That officials at both Stanford and Harvard have publicly advocated unwarranted restrictions in academic discourse points to the distressing possibility that the leadership of our elite universities desires to operate under an opaque shield of unaccountability."
"Harm" is anything that threatens the left wing agenda. Academic freedom is only for the left

i/o on X - "There are rarely simple explanations for complex social and cultural phenomena. The Great Awokening mostly organically formed and then spread from a constellation of ideas, social forces, group interests, and events, including:
— civil rights law
— feminization of institutions
— critical theories
— the rise in social media
— the logical extension of the liberal impulse
— left's dominance of all major opinion-shaping institutions
— reaction to Trump
— social status signaling (especially among the highly-educated)
— demographic change
— late-wave feminism
— 2010s Tumblr
— some strains of PoMo
— emerging forms of modern global capitalism
— the replacement of the class wars with identity wars on the progressive-left as the prog-left became mostly a movement led and populated by the more affluent and educated
— the rise in mental health issues (especially among white females)
— the normalization of therapy culture
— the contradictions in late-stage Christianity and the overall decline of religion and the need to fill the "god hole"
— the culturally-enforced and pathological persistence of white guilt
— the radicalization of curriculum in education degree programs
— spread of administrative DEI
— the psychological effects of "shocks to the system" (e.g., 9/11, 2007 economic collapse) on the young
— the equalitarian ethos of American life (e.g., there can be no innate differences between groups)
— the failure of the intellectual right to produce compelling countervailing ideas
— the rise of social and professional cancellation as a weapon to control dissenting views"

Meme - Rusty @LieutenantRusty: "Now, I'm not gonna tell anyone how to run their RPG, but I will say that of all the disabled folks I've gamed with, not a goddamn one of them fantasized about being disabled.  They lived that shit. Every day.   If your version of escapism is fantasizing about being handicapped, you're a fetishist, and that's just weird."
"Accepting the existence of magic in a fantasy setting should not be easier than accepting the existence of disabled people in a fantasy setting."

Chase Lees 🇨🇦 on X - "Personally, in every single "fantasy" I have or rpg I play, I don't give my player the disability I have. I (and 99.99% of disabled people) do not want to go through the pain and hassle of disability in a media meant for escapism."
Rusty on X - "Myself, I have a rich inner fantasy life where I have all my bits and pieces back. Why the hell would I escape to a place where I'm *still* fucking broken?"

Meme - "The D&D Differently-Abled Adventurer
Had to wait until 2021 for rules
Suffers no penalties for rules for being disabled, might as well be able-bodied
HP system doesn't even allow for crippling injury
Ridiculous modern-style combat wheelchair
Gets wheelchair accessible dungeons, despite flying wheelchair
Could easily get magical healing
Chooses to be disabled because that's all he has to make him interesting
The GURPS Cripple
Has lots of disabled friends, due to crippling injuries
Rules support since 1986
Crude prosthetics
Supreme grappler due to ground-fighting perk
Harsh penalties for fighting while seated - learns techniques to offset them
Spends points from disabilites on increased Arm ST
Wheelchairs not invented until Tech-Level 5, uses realistic wheeled platform"

Meme - Daddy Warpig @DaddyWarpig: "Bard, Cleric, Druid, Paladin, AND Ranger.  🤦‍♂️"
"LESSER RESTORATION
2nd level abjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Target: A creature
Components: V S
Duration: Instantaneous
Classes: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Ranger
You touch a creature and can end either one disease or one condition afflicting it. The condition can be blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned.
paralyzed"
Misa on Wheels @MisaonWheels: "Accepting the existence of magic in a fantasy setting should not be easier than accepting the existence of disabled people in a fantasy setting."

Meme - "Dungeons & Dragons kicks off 2021 with its first wheelchair-accessible dungeon
Candlekeep Adventures includes 17 adventures from 19 different designers"
"Pray tell, why in the ever loving fuck would a labyrinth of traps and monsters wish to be MORE accessible?"
"they dont want to be an ableist trump supporter"
"gotta let the peasants have their shot, adventurers make up 1% of the population yet have 80% of the wealth. it's time to defund the adventurer's guild, how many stories of murderhobos killing peasants do you need before realizing adventurers aren't on your side, bootlicker"
"Dungeons now are haunted house rides instead of, well, dungeons"
"The dungeon is either a trap or an ancient loading dock. Possibly a submerged skatepark."

Incoming human rights chief said 'terror is not an irrational strategy' - "“The attempts to have Mr. Dattani — the first Muslim and racialized person appointed to this position — vacate his seat without due process is deeply concerning,” the group said in an open letter sent to Justice Minister Arif Virani... “While the allegations against Mr. Dattani are concerning, this campaign against him highlights the heightened level of scrutiny he, like many Canadians, faces because of his faith and ethnic background"... Dattani spoke again on a similar theme when he delivered a presentation on “Terrorism and the Targeting of Civilians under International Law” to the Muslim Research Forum. “Contrary to conventional wisdom (which is far more convention than it is wisdom), terror is not an irrational strategy pursued solely by fundamentalists with politically and psychologically warped visions of a new political, religious or ideological order,” Dattani wrote in a description of his talk posted to the forum’s website. “It is a rational and well-calculated strategy that is pursued with surprisingly high success rates.” In August 2014, Dattani also signed an open letter that was drafted by Richard Falk, the former United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories. The letter condemned Israel’s military operation against Hamas in 2014 that was sparked after the terror group kidnapped and burned alive three hitchhiking teenagers... Shortly after his public letter, Falk told Democracy Now! that Hamas embodies the “spirit of resistance” and said the group’s “politics have been directed toward long-term peaceful coexistence with Israel.” Dattani told National Post last week that he is the “target of unfounded allegations” and stands “resolutely behind my record.”... a Canadian who attended the University of Calgary at the same time as Dattani, said the incoming CHRC head regularly advocated for the boycott of Israel. “Birju used to be, back in the day, just kind of caustic, a provocateur. Instigating. That’s kind of what he did. I was amazed to discover that he ended up having a career in human rights the way that he has,” said the alumnus, who spoke on the condition of anonymity."
The power of intersectionality!
Of course, they need to pretend a white Christian would not be fired already

Eli Steele on X - ".@ChicagoMayor: "Y'all look, white supremacy is real- I'm going to say that one more time." Brandon Johnson launches a hardcore identity politics rant, blaming The Man for his city's miseries. What else to expect from a man who always seeks to exploit race for power."

Meme - "THE CHRISTIANS ARE GONNA TAKE OVER THE GOVERNMENT AND IMPOSE THEIR RELIGION ON EVERYONE *Public building with rainbow colours for Pride and Black Lives Matter flag*"

Meme - frogwave @____ribbit: "People avoid listening to racist ideas like some religious person will avoid looking at naked women. They fear that they will be tempted to commit sin. Liberalism has unofficially replaced Christianity in the West"

Meme - Wesley Yang @wesyang: "Everyone knows this is moronic.   Nobody can stop its propagation through every institution that incubates the American professional class."
Nicki Neily @nickineily: "When doctors who graduated from Duke Medical School show up late to your scheduled surgeries — just know that they’re doing their part to dismantle the white supremacy culture behind “timeliness.”"
"Duke Medical School claims 'timeliness, 'individualism is part of 'White supremacy culture'. 'Race and racism is a regular component of American society; Duke Medical School's strategic plan said"

Meme - Deep Squats, Shallow Thoughts @wolfstrength: "“Why don’t people trust scientists and experts anymore? Do they really think they can ‘do their own research,’ and get it right compared to my medical degree?  The scientists and experts:"
"Expecting people to be on time is part of 'white supremacy culture,' Duke Medical School claims"
"Before mocking people for turning to non mainstream sources of info and bemoaning anti-intellectualism, maybe do some reflection on why the scientists, experts, and intellectuals have inserted blatant political activism into their ostensible fields of expertise, and the expected effect that has had on people trusting them to tell the truth.
'Over 1,000 health professionals sign a letter saying, Don't shut down protests using coronavirus concerns as an excuse'"
If you notice that the left has compromised and corrupted key institutions which are now no longer reliable, you're a dangerous far right conspiracy theorist and spreader of misinformation for noticing