In an attempt to maintain complete transparency, all research and statistical fact-checking for articles published in 2022 can be found below
A Complete Breakdown Of The Kid Rock Song “Don’t Tell Me How To Live”
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A study published in 2011 in the “Current Biology Journal” by neuroscientists Ryota Kanai, Gertaint Reese, and co-written with Colin Firth and Tom Feilden showed that when hooked up to an MRI machine and given certain visual stimuli to see which parts of their brain lit up, and then cross-referenced that with the subjects’ political affiliation, Republicans scored higher in emotional recognition. Basically, more Republicans process information and make decisions based on their emotional core more so than Democrats.
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(11)00289-2
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis To Spend Taxpayer Funds To Send Illegal Immigrants To Sanctuary Cities
in 2021, The US Justice Department repealed a policy put in place during Donald Trump's presidency that cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to sanctuary cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The Office of Justice Programs Maureen Henneberg said that prior grant recipients, including cities, counties and states that were recipients of the department's popular $250 million annual grant program for local law enforcement, will no longer be required to cooperate with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a condition of their funding.
A study written by David K. Hausman of the Stanford Department of Political Science made the evidence quite clear: sanctuary policies reduce deportations without increasing crime. Hausman combined Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation data and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) crime data with data on the implementation dates of sanctuary policies between 2010 and 2015. His efforts found that sanctuary policies reduced deportations of people who were fingerprinted by states or counties by about one-third. Those policies also changed the composition of deportations, reducing deportations of people with no criminal convictions by half—without affecting deportations of people with violent convictions. Sanctuary policies also had no detectable effect on crime rates.
https://www.pnas.org/content/117/44/27262
In December of 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis put forth his “Freedom First Budget.” In it, he asked for $8 million in federal funding to contract with private transportation companies to transfer migrants out of the state. DeSantis' request comes as part of proposed series of legislative reforms that he wants enacted to resist President Joe Biden’s immigration policies and to fight back "against the Biden border crisis," he said. "The governor's proposals for protecting Floridians from the Biden Border Crisis are intended to implement the directives of the Executive Order he signed in September," the governor's spokesperson said. His plan? To round up illegal immigrants, put them on various planes and send them to "Delaware or Martha's Vineyard or some of these places.” DeSantis claims that if the immigrants were sent to such places, then “[the] border would be secure the next day." Given that DeSantis mentioned Martha’s Vineyard (which is in Massachusetts), and that state has six different sanctuary cities, it’s worth noting that this policy will end up sending illegal immigrants to places which will be much more open to their assimilation to our country. It’s perplexing given this is the exact opposite effect the GOP is looking for.
It does mean that the sanctuary city has limited the extent to which it will volunteer resources in support of federal immigration enforcement agents’ responsibility to enforce federal immigration law. These limits can take many forms: saying no to federal requests (known as “detainers”) to conduct joint patrols, refusing to jail an individual who has posted bond and a judge has said can be released, or refusing to gather more information—such as immigration status—than is needed to determine if an individual is eligible to receive services.
Federal law does not require compliance with federal requests to prolong detention. It does not impose an affirmative duty to gather information about place of birth or immigration status. It does not require localities to give local resources to assist federal immigration agents in carrying out their federal immigration enforcement responsibilities. So long as a local sanctuary policy does not limit communication or maintenance of information on a person’s immigration or citizenship status, it will not run afoul of federal law, and I know of no policies that restrict the sharing of such information.
https://www.learningforjustice.org/classroom-resources/texts/what-is-a-sanctuary-city-anyway
The grant program at issue provides around $250 million a year to help fund investigative task forces, improve 911 call systems and crime laboratories, and reduce gang violence in prisons.
“[We will] block funding for sanctuary cities … no more funding. We will end the sanctuary cities that have resulted in so many needless deaths,” Trump said in Phoenix. “Cities that refuse to cooperate with federal authorities will not receive taxpayer dollars, and we will work with Congress to pass legislation to protect those jurisdictions that do assist federal authorities.”
https://www.cnn.com/2016/09/01/politics/sanctuary-cities-donald-trump/index.html
Because of the level of penetration into the conservative mind this inaccurate information has had, Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana introduced S.875 to the senate in March, 2021 that would “make any city of country that has in effect any law or ordinance that is in violation of Federal immigration law ineligible for any federal grant, and for other purposes. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/875/text
During the Summer of 2021, Republican Missouri Governor Mike Parsons and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt put out a statement against the Biden administration’s handling of the immigration problem that illustrates this misdirection clearly. "President Biden and the Department of Justice have decided to reward states and cities that refuse to cooperate with enforcing constitutional immigration laws that protect our citizens against foreign threats.” At almost every level of the GOP, you can find this sentiment mirrored.
Records Set In 2021-For Book Banning. With Texas Leading The Charge, The Revival Is Off & Runnin'
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“A library may get one or two [book challenges] in two years, or some librarians have never had challenges,” Wendy Woodland, the Texas Library Association’s director of advocacy and communication, said. “So, this is very rare and very unusual and different from the way challenges have been brought forth in the past.” ... The book, which follows a gay teenager who starts a teen sex advice column, was said by Stropfer that “it tells you that you can have a loving relationship with a person of your same gender,” he said during an October 14, 2021 meeting. “Everybody’s not going to like everything. It’s not something that I enjoyed reading, but I understood what the purpose of it was, and what the outcome was supposed to be.”
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/12/20/texas-library-books/
local public libraries are not regulated by the state. Instead, they are usually part of a county or city budget funded by local taxpayers. Therefore, rules for public libraries, including complaints about content, are determined at the local level.
From calls in Virginia to burn “sexually explicit” books in a school library to a wave of challenges to titles by authors ranging from Toni Morrison to Alison Bechdel, the American Library Association (ALA) is charting an unprecedented rise in attempts to ban books in libraries. “It’s a volume of challenges I’ve never seen in my time at the ALA–the last 20 years. We’ve never had a time when we’ve gotten four or five reports a day for days on end, sometimes as many as eight in a day,” says ALA director Deborah Caldwell-Stone. “Social media is amplifying local challenges and they’re going viral, but we’ve also been observing a number of organizations activating local members to go to school board meetings and challenge books. We’re seeing what appears to be a campaign to remove books, particularly books dealing with LGBTQIA themes and books dealing with racism.”
On October 25th, 2021 Republican State Rep. Matt Krause, asked school districts to report if they had any of 850 books that "might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex." Not surprisingly, Krause’s wide-ranging list included well-regarded nonfiction and fiction works focused on LGBTQ identity, race and history. The Amnesty International tome “We Are All Born Free: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Pictures” is one notable example.
In The 2022 Edition Of The Battle Of Man Versus Covid—Covid Wins. Thanks, SCOTUS!
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When you start digging into OSHA and look at what it can and cannot do as it pertains to employee health, the government approved mandates are spelled out pretty succinctly. Per OSHA’s “Indicators of Occupational Health Surveillance” (which has been around since 2007), the case it presents clearly outlines the need of medical testing and keeping tabs of employee health. “[Millions of] U.S. workers are injured on the job or become ill from exposure to hazards at work. ... By using a national database, it allows for the CDC to track the potential spread of diseases or other illnesses that may be targeting certain groups of workers.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5601a1.htm
"Although Congress has indisputably given OSHA the power to regulate occupational dangers, it has not given that agency the power to regulate public health more broadly. Requiring the vaccination of 84 million Americans, selected simply because they work for employers with more than 100 employees, certainly falls in the latter category," the unsigned opinion in the businesses case says.
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The court allowed to take effect the vaccine policy rolled out in November by the US Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which sought to require the Covid-19 vaccine for certain health care workers at hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities that participate in Medicare and Medicaid programs. According to government estimates, the mandate regulates more than 10.3 million health care workers in the United States. Covered staff were originally required to get the first dose by December 6, 2021 and the mandate allows for some religious and medical exemptions.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/13/politics/supreme-court-vaccine-mandate-covid-19/index.html
It’s also important to know that tracking occupational injuries, illnesses, and hazards has been an integral part of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) since its creation by the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970.
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2001-118/
"This is a simple, basic proposition: If you’re vaccinated, you’re not going to be hospitalized, you’re not going to be in an ICU unit, and you’re not going to die."—President Joe Biden, July 2021. And with that quote, he armed the Republican party who has disavowed the need for a vaccine mandate to the teeth.
Millions of people across the country have been vaccinated. As of July 12, 2021, more than 159 million people had been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. With 48 states and territories reporting, there were 5,492 confirmed breakthrough cases of COVID-19 among them. Those cases included 5,189 hospitalizations and 1,063 deaths. That data shows that among vaccinated people, approximately 0.0033% were hospitalized and 0.00067% died.
Examining Courses Offered At Prager University Lesson 7—“Are The Police Racist?”
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PragerU Video “Are The Police Racist?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQCQFH5wOJo
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… last comprehensive look at the racial makeup of justifiable and non-justifiable shootings—a 2001 study that used more than two decades of U.S. Bureau of Justice data—showed black suspects as being shot at more frequently than white suspects. “At the moment, there are no comprehensive statistics on whether the police do inappropriately shoot at black males more than they do at white males,” said James. “Although isolated incidents of black males being shot by the police are devastating and well documented, at the aggregate level we need to understand whether the police are shooting black unarmed males more than they are white unarmed males. And at the moment, nobody knows that.”
He's stated, "In 2015, after watching Walter Scott get gunned down, on video, by a North Charleston, S.C., police officer, I set out on a mission to quantify racial differences in police use of force. To my dismay, this work has been widely misrepresented and misused by people on both sides of the ideological aisle. It has been wrongly cited as evidence ... " He continued, "There are large racial differences in police use of nonlethal force. My research team analyzed nearly five million police encounters from New York City. We found that when police reported the incidents, they were 53% more likely to use physical force on a black civilian than a white one. In a separate, nationally representative dataset asking civilians about their experiences with police, we found the use of physical force on blacks to be 350% as likely. This is true of every level of nonlethal force, from officers putting their hands on civilians to striking them with batons. We controlled for every variable available in myriad ways. That reduced the racial disparities by 66%, but blacks were still significantly more likely to endure police force."
https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-the-data-say-about-police-11592845959
Also, it has to be noted that while sheriff Aaron Appelhans is more than qualified for the job, many constituents feel that he was hired as a cover up. This stems from a deputy's fatal shooting of an unarmed, mentally ill man named Robbie Ramirez during a traffic stop in 2019. This stoked fierce backlash that carried over into 2020's protests over racial injustice and police brutality.
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/feb/16/wyoming-gets-1st-black-sheriff-after-turmoil/
The realities, when looking at nationwide statistics, shows that race is a huge contributing factor to police shootings. Not only that, but a 2021 study by The Lancet (a weekly peer-reviewed medical journal that is among the world's oldest and best-known general medical journals) found that 30,800 people died from police violence in the U.S. between 1980 and 2018—and 17,100 of them (more than 55%) were misclassified or unreported in official vital statistics reports. Researchers also found that Black Americans were 3.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white Americans. Nearly 60% of these deaths were not attributed to police violence in government data. That’s the highest level of underreporting for any group.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01609-3/fulltext
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A 2020 study by professor of health and sciences and Epidemiology Matthew Miller featured in a piece published by Northeastern University examined the racial disparities and numbers of deaths and found some (un)surprising results. His research was done in response to a statement made by ex-President Trump who claimed that though black people are dying at the hands of law enforcement, there are more white people falling victim to law enforcement. The 2020 study by Miller found that Black people are shot and killed by police at twice the rate that white people are. Overall, close to 1,000 people are shot to death by police officers in the U.S. every year, according to a database maintained by The Washington Post. It is true that a majority of those victims are white people. Miller stated, “That’s only because there are so many more white people than there are Black people in our country." He continued, “Although Black people represented 12% of the population in the states we studied, they made up 25% of the deaths in police shootings." By comparison, Miller says, white people represented 62% of the population—and made up 54% of the deaths in encounters with police.
https://news.northeastern.edu/2020/07/16/the-research-is-clear-white-people-are-not-more-likely-than-black-people-to-be-killed-by-police/
In a 2020 study published by Brookings Institute, they looked at the law and the numbers, but also added the needed context to show that this crime bill was not all roses. "Did the 1994 crime bill help decrease the rate of violent crime? Probably, although the rate had begun to decline before the bill went into effect. Did the bill contribute to the expansion of incarceration? Again, probably so, although the bulk of the growth occurred in the fifteen years before the bill was enacted and has fallen significantly for nearly fifteen years."
The study continues showing that though polls hold that over 80% of black people want more police presence, not less, oftentimes surveys don’t ask the right type of questions about policing—questions that would get at complexity and nuance.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/08/28/did-the-1994-crime-bill-cause-mass-incarceration/
All the data from the Department of Justice that MacDonald is claiming proves that black people are a larger cause (percentagewise) of robberies, murders, and assaults was also the basis for the Washington State University study done by Lois James running the simulations in the first place.
https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/ph98.pdf
Between 1980-2008, the U.S. Department of Justice found that 84% of white victims were killed by white offenders and 93% of Black victims were killed by Black offenders. In 2018, the FBI reported that 81% of white victims were killed by white offenders, and 89% of Black victims were killed by Black offenders. In 2017, the FBI reported almost identical figures — 80% of white victims were killed by white offenders, and 88% of Black victims were killed by Black offenders. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/09/29/fact-check-meme-shows-incorrect-homicide-stats-race/5739522002/
Pelosi To Ensure When It Comes To The Stock Market, The Rich (& Her Friends) Will Get Richer
54 members of Congress and 182 senior-level congressional staffers have violated a federal conflicts-of-interest law.
That lawmakers and top congressional staffers face minimal and inconsistently applied penalties for violating the STOCK Act, and that it's nearly impossible to comprehensively obtain "public records" about senior-level staffers' personal finances.
Nearly 75 federal lawmakers who held stocks in COVID-19 vaccine makers Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, or Pfizer in 2020, with many of them buying or selling these stocks in the early weeks of the pandemic.
That 15 lawmakers tasked with shaping US defense policy that actively invest in military contractors.
That more than a dozen environmentally minded Democrats who invested in fossil fuel companies or other corporations with concerning environmental track records.
https://www.businessinsider.com/conflicted-congress-key-findings-stock-act-finances-investing-2021-12
Documents showed that Texas Republican Michael Burgess, a 10-term lawmaker who is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's subcommittee on health (which has jurisdiction over health insurance), sold 100 shares of stock in the health insurer Cigna Corp. on November 19, when it closed at $210.51 a share. The stock's price plummeted during the following several days before rebounding in December. Burgess certified that he became aware of the trade on November 23, and by federal law, he had until December 23 to publicly disclose the trade—but didn't do so until December 31.
https://www.businessinsider.com/stock-act-congress-violations-pelosi-mccarthy-fallon-burgess-evans-2022-1
In December of 2021, Pelosi made her stance crystal clear: lawmakers should not be barred from trading stock. “We are a free market economy. They should be able to participate in that,” Pelosi, whose husband holds tens of millions of dollars worth of stocks and options, told reporters.
https://apnews.com/article/business-nancy-pelosi-congress-8685e82eb6d6e5b42413417f3d5d6775
Scofflaws are supposed to pay a late fee of $200 the first time they file a report about their stock trades late, and increasingly higher fines are supposed to follow if they continue to be late—potentially costing tens of thousands of dollars in extreme cases. But that rarely happens.
https://www.businessinsider.com/nancy-pelosi-congress-should-consider-bigger-fines-for-stock-act-violators-2022-1
A Federal Reserve analysis from 2016 shows that a relatively small share of American families (14%) are directly invested in individual stocks. It also shows that a majority (52%) have some market investment—mostly from owning retirement accounts such as 401(k)s. New York University professor Edward Wolff, whose job it is to track wealth in America, found that even though almost half of all households owned shares either directly or indirectly, the richest 10% of households controlled 84% of the total value of these stocks.
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I think the best quote on how America should look at how to combat stock manipulation—legal or otherwise—comes from Adena Friedman, CEO of NASDAQ. “As we look at these new technologies that are available to anyone, including investors, I think it’s also important for regulators to understand that manipulation is manipulation, whether it’s happening through a new technology medium or it’s happening through traditional mail.”
https://news.yahoo.com/nasdaq-head-calls-regulators-manage-182306902.html?guccounter=1
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A 2022 poll conducted by Data for Progress showed that when it comes to banning members of Congress from trading stocks, 67% of voters support a ban.
When asked about these poll results, along with the results found in the Conflicted Congress report, Pelosi made her feelings clear. Though she did affirm that members of Congress should report in a timely manner by saying “We have a responsibility to report. But If people aren’t reporting [stock trades], they should be.” Yet, when asked about a full ban, she was completely dismissive. “No,” she said. Continuing, "We are a free-market economy. They should be able to participate in that."
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Two days after her statements, Paul Pelosi bought stock in Alphabet worth between $500,001 and $1 million. He also bought shares in Disney worth between $100,001 and $250,000 during the same time. In fact, over the course of five days, Paul Pelosi purchased stock worth anywhere between $1,750,007 and $3,600,000.
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Kyrsten Sinema Is DNC Policy Cancer, And She Doesn’t Care
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Given that during his career, while ex-President Trump was in office, Manchin voted in-line with Trump’s position on any given position 50.4% of the time according to Project FiveThirtyEight.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-trump-score/joe-manchin-iii/
… she’s done almost everything she can to distance herself from the DNC since early on in her career. When she was a member of the House of Representatives, she skipped the Democrats’ 2016 convention where the party formally nominated Hillary Clinton as its presidential nominee.
A group of big-dollar donors who have spent millions electing Kyrsten Sinema and other Democratic senators threatened to sever all funding to her due to her opposition to changing Senate rules in order to pass voting rights legislation. In a letter to the Arizona lawmaker, 70 Democratic donors—some of whom gave Sinema’s 2018 campaign the maximum contribution allowed by law—said they would support a primary challenge to Sinema and demanded that she refund their contributions to her 2018 campaign if she didn’t change her position. Sinema nevertheless voted against weakening the filibuster to pass elections and voting reform.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/19/donors-threaten-cut-funding-sinema-527413
This was followed by part of the statement made by a Sinema spokesperson to highlight the Senator's dedication to bipartisanship in Congress in an attempt to divert from the issue at hand. "During three terms in the US House, and now in the Senate, Kyrsten has always promised Arizonans she would be an independent voice for the state—not for either political party," the spokesperson said. "She’s delivered for Arizonans and has always been honest about where she stands."
Censure is a formal disapproval that can be adopted by one, or both chambers of Congress. Unlike impeachment, censure is not a power provided by the Constitution, said Gregory Magarian, a professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. The House and Senate have adopted internal rules that allow them to draft and approve a censure resolution, which provides a public record disapproving of an official’s actions. Such a resolution is a rebuke but does not carry any material punishment like removal from office.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-does-it-mean-to-censure-a-politician
A Complete Breakdown Of The Kid Rock Song “We The People”
… keep in mind that Trump made it clear that both he, and the GOP at large, are the trolls when he told a packed crowd during a 2020 rally in North Carolina, “We like to troll.” This was later personified when local celebrities Diamond and Silk told the crowd that due to Trump helping African Americans so mightily that “Donald Trump is the first black president!”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/02/donald-trump-super-tuesday-rally-north-carolina
During the beginnings of Covid, 45 nations imposed travel restrictions on China before the US did. The earliest of those restrictions went into effect on January 24th, 2020—nine days before the US travel ban went into effect on February 2nd.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/01/debate-early-travel-bans-china/
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Per the Department of Labor, between 1999 and 2021, minimum wage has only been raised three times from $5.85 per hour to $7.25 per hour, only an increase of 23.93%, with the last raise being in 2009.
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/history/chart
a 2017 study by Per Research found that when compared to the rest of the world, the US is ranked 38th when it comes to math scores and 24th when it comes to science.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students-internationally-math-science/
Christian Homeschooling Program ATI Is A Nationally Accepted Form Of Mentally Abusing Children
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The Republican-led board voted along party lines to keep Moses in the curriculum, ... "In the United States, the most common book in any household in this time period was in fact the Bible, and people who didn't necessarily believe in religion as such ... still had a great knowledge of the Bible. In referencing Moses in the time period, they would have known who Moses was and that Moses was the law-giver," said board member Republican Pat Hardy of Fort Worth.
https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/flash-briefing/2018/11/14/board-retains-moses-in-texas-social-studies-curriculum/8373048007/
Forty-one law professors and legal historians were brought together by Steven K. Green, former legal director at Americans United and now law professor at Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon in 2003. This group wrote a friend-of-the-court brief thoroughly debunking the notion that the US Constitution was directly influenced (or were indeed codified through) the Ten Commandments. "Indeed, the legal and historical record does not include significant and meaningful references to the Ten Commandments, the Pentateuch or to biblical law generally." The brief also notes that the US Constitution lacks even "a perfunctory or formalistic reference to God" and says during the debate over ratification of that document, delegates discussed Roman law, British law and the laws of other European nations but "as can best be determined, no delegate ever mentioned the Ten Commandments or the Bible."
https://www.au.org/church-state/june-2003-church-state/people-events/us-law-not-based-on-ten-commandments-law-profs
ATI is a “Biblically based” homeschooling program that lets Christian families integrate their kids’ daily, hours-long moral learnings with just a dash of secularism. Its various pillars include doing exactly what’s expected “instantly and cheerfully,” not asking questions, strict adherence to patriarchal standards, and, of course, shielding yourselves from any influence or human that might lead you off the beaten path.
The lessons themselves consist of bizarre, forced attempts at inserting some type of traditional education into biblical passages. Which is where you get questions such as: “How did the ‘Socratic method’ of reasoning come from a sodomite manner of living?” “How can graphs help to visualize the consequences of lust?” And “How do prime numbers illustrate the principle of ‘one flesh’ in marriage?”
https://www.gawker.com/the-creepy-fundamentalist-homeschool-cult-that-trained-1706969994
Right off the bat, the booklet starts by teaching an oversimplified lesson. It wants us to “train our minds to see things others overlook." You would think that given its self-proclaimed ties to science, the lesson was on how eye muscles work to give vision; it turns out that’s incorrect.
On the following page is an illustration of the different structural portions of the eye and how each can impact focus. After explaining what Myopia (nearsightedness) and Hyperopia (farsightedness) are, it takes a complete left turn by throwing a spiritual question at the bottom that is somewhat related. In this case, "Can you apply each of these disorders to errors in spiritual perception?" In fact, each page has a similar theme: scientifically-based information followed by religious examination.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/nolongerquivering/2016/07/examining-ati-wisdom-booklets-booklet-1-science-portion-how-eyes-work/
Debunking Courses Offered At Prager University Lesson 9—“Why Study History?”
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A 1939 Gallup Poll conducted September 1st-6th asked Americans to what degree they supported assisting England, France and Poland. Americans supported providing material assistance to these three countries but were overwhelmingly opposed to sending military forces to fight Germany. In a separate question in the same 1939 poll, Americans were specifically asked if the U.S. should declare war on Germany in support of England, France and Poland and should deploy forces to assist those countries. Americans were strongly opposed, with 90% rejecting the idea and 8% in favor.
https://news.gallup.com/vault/265865/gallup-vault-opinion-start-world-war.aspx
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Analyzing The Joe Rogan/Spotify Covid Misinformation Controversy; Maybe We're The Problem
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“There are many things that Joe Rogan says that I strongly disagree with and find very offensive,” but “if you want even a shot at achieving our bold ambitions, it will mean having content on Spotify that many of us may not be proud to be associated with.” He continued, “Not anything goes, but there will be opinions, ideas, and beliefs that we disagree with strongly, and even makes us angry or sad.”
Canadian American musician Neil Young demanded his music be removed from the streaming service Spotify in an open letter that made the rounds on the internet. In it, Young says Spotify "can have Rogan or Young. Not both."
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/joe-rogan-spotify-protest-covid-misinformation-neil-young-rcna14158
"And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside …”
https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/apr/24/context-what-donald-trump-said-about-disinfectant-/
Meanwhile, calls to New York City’s Poison Control Center for exposure to specific household cleaners and disinfectants increased more than twofold after the President’s comments. Data from the New York Poison Center center revealed that in the 18 hours after Trump’s comments, the Poison Center received 30 exposure calls about disinfectants. Ten involved bleach, 9 were about Lysol, and 11 others regarding other household cleaners. Compared to the same time window last year, there were a total of 13 exposure calls, with 2 involving bleach, but none involving Lysol-type products.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertglatter/2020/04/25/calls-to-poison-centers-spike--after-the-presidents-comments-about-using-disinfectants-to-treat-coronavirus/?sh=16b6650a1157
In a 2018 survey done by the Barna Group, 42% of all Americans surveyed have seen a counselor at some point in their life. Of those who have not seen one, 36% said they were open to the idea and would seek help if needed.
https://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/survey#:~:text=Indeed%2C%2048%20percent%20of%20those,member%20were%20experiencing%20a%20problem.
65 Michigan poison center calls about exposure to household cleaning substances, including 16 calls about bleach and nine calls about disinfectants, according to data from the center. That was up about 86% from the prior weekend and 55% over the same span last year.
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Truckers, Covid & Inflation; How North America’s Backbone Is Harming The Economy For Everyone
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The $791.7 billion American trucking industry hauls 72.5% of all freight transported in the United States and employs about 6% of all full-time workers.
The ongoing truck driver shortage is now estimated at 80,000, up from 61,000 just three years ago. A new study by Bob Costello, chief economist for the American Trucking Associations (ATA) estimates that the industry will have to recruit 1 million new drivers within the next nine years to replace retiring drivers.
… the ATA met with Biden in October of 2021 and warned him of the potential outcome if truckers were faced with the mandates. They estimated that about 37% of drivers could leave or retire owing to the mandate.
https://fortune.com/2021/10/28/truck-driver-shortage-supply-chain-80000/
Doug Betts, president of the global automotive division at J.D. Power, a data and analytics company focused on the auto industry said the border restriction will make the automotive supply chain issue worse. He noted that auto parts come from all over the world and one obstruction in the chain can significantly slow or stop production. “By the time you map out the supply chain, it’s just a spider web going everywhere,” he said.
Bill Hanvey, President of the Auto Care Association, also made a statement bolstering this supply chain problem. “Due to the current supply chain issues and chip shortages that the American automotive manufacturers are facing … we believe any additional strains placed on the supply chain have the potential to exacerbate this situation and could cause the demands on both the automotive manufacturers and the aftermarket to rise even further.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/us-vaccine-mandate-freight-drivers-coming-canada-may-exacerbate-auto-s-rcna12649
Bruce Heyman, who was the ambassador to Canada under Barack Obama, said groups in the United States should stop getting involved in "disruptive activities in Canada." "Under no circumstances should any group in the USA fund disruptive activities in Canada. Period. Full stop," he wrote on Twitter. This statement came as GoFundMe closed a fundraising page set up by groups in the US to help support the truckers' protests in Canada around the same time.
https://news.sky.com/story/canada-truckers-us-groups-need-to-stop-interfering-in-covid-protests-former-ambassador-bruce-heyman-says-12534536
Also, conservative juggernaut Fox News host Tucker Carlson got involved by claiming that the convoy of Canadian truckers leading a massive anti-vaccine protest in Ottawa, the nation's capital, are being treated like a "terror group." "These are Canadian citizens who drive trucks for a living, but they're being treated like a terror group," the host said.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/tucker-carlson-canadian-truckers-protesting-vaccine-mandate-being-treated-like-terror-group/ar-AATCsf6
… truckers in Ottawa have been ordered to stop honking their horns in an ongoing protest that has snarled up the city by Judge Hugh McLean for 10 days. Their constant honking was a nuisance to both local residents and businesses. McLean’s statement on the ruling I think sums up his reasoning perfectly, "Tooting a horn is not an expression of any great thought I'm aware of."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60293407
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South Dakota Showing The Horrific Realities Of What America Will Look Like Without Roe v. Wade
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Global estimates from 2010–2014 demonstrate that 45% of all induced abortions are unsafe. In this report, the term “unsafe” is defined as an abortion performed by untrained persons using dangerous and invasive methods. Of all unsafe abortions, one third were performed under the least safe conditions, i.e., by untrained persons using dangerous and invasive methods. When looking at this from a world perspective, there are two other numbers that stick out immediately in the report. Developing countries bear the burden of 97% of all unsafe abortions, and as a side-effect, each year 4.7–13.2% of maternal deaths can be attributed to unsafe abortions.
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/abortion
According to a data analysis by News Watch, abortions performed in South Dakota fell from about 400 in 2019 to 125 in 2020. But during the same year, more than 450 South Dakota women traveled to a different state to obtain an abortion, far more than in a typical year, according to statistics from health departments in neighboring states.
South Dakota Right to Life Director Dale Bartscher said the pause on the procedures in the state in 2020 “saved more lives,” was “wonderful” for the efforts to eliminate abortion in the state and is one of a number of factors contributing to the anti-abortion movement “winning this war.” Finishing with, “It is our goal to see that abortion is illegal and unthinkable.”
An article written by Michael W. Austin, Ph.D., published by Psychology Today in 2019, examined the morality behind the pro-life viewpoint from the specific argument of “Personhood.” He used the definition of “personhood” as referring to the moral status of an entity. If an entity is a person, in this particular sense, it has full moral status. A person, then, has rights, and we have obligations to that person. This includes the right to life. He found that the biggest component that needs focusing on is the differences between latent capacities and actualized capacities. “Right now, I have the actualized capacity to communicate in English about the ethics of abortion. I'm demonstrating that capacity right now. I do not, however, have the actualized capacity to communicate in Spanish on this issue. I do, however, have the latent capacity to do so. If I studied Spanish, practiced it with others, or even lived in a Spanish-speaking nation for a while, I would likely be able to do so. The latent capacity I have now to communicate in Spanish would become actualized.”
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ethics-everyone/201906/ethics-and-abortion
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South Dakota law requires patients seeking an abortion to undergo an initial in-person consultation and then wait for 72 hours before they can return for the procedure—this doesn’t include weekends or holidays in that time period. In fact, South Dakota is the ONLY state in the nation that doesn’t recognize these days in their waiting period. Due to the restrictions in the law, the state’s only recognized abortion clinic—a Planned Parenthood in Sioux Falls—have five physicians. Each works on a rotating schedule―each doctor takes one week a month, flying in twice that week to accommodate the state’s 72-hour waiting period for patients.
She followed this by introducing a slew of bills at the end of January, 2021, adopting similar legislation to Texas’ Heartbeat Act preventing abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected at six weeks of pregnancy. When it comes to the statutory damages, the “intent to engage” verbiage, and almost every other criminal penalty for violating the law, it has been deemed a “copy-cat” to that of the one enjoyed by the Lone Star State.
… during the summer of 2021, Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem signed an executive order blocking the Food and Drug Administration's decision in April to temporarily lift in-person restrictions on access to abortion medications. Her order made it illegal to deliver abortion pills (mifepristone and misoprostol) via courier, telemedicine or mail service, and prohibits abortion-inducing drugs from being dispensed or provided in schools or on state grounds.
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Election Fraud & 2022 Midterms; What We Can Expect, Guaranteed
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While announcing his bid for Wisconsin’s governorship in early February, Republican Representative Timothy Ramthun vowed to conduct a "full forensic audit" of the 2022 race—regardless of who wins. "I'm going to do a full forensic physical cyber audit of the 2022 gubernatorial election, no matter the outcome of this year's elections. I want everything to be revisited and reviewed," Ramthun said.
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-backed-governor-candidate-vows-full-election-audit-no-matter-who-wins-1678738?amp=1
"I think that there's a big question mark there," Cobb County Republican Party Chairwoman Salleigh Grubbs said about the 2020 results. Keep in mind, ballots were counted three times, each time showing Biden won the state. Grubbs continued, "There were many things that were not done properly, whether it was with a with a mal intent or whether it was through error."
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/27/politics/georgia-republicans-trump-2022/index.html
An Associated Press review of every potential case of voter fraud in the six battleground states disputed by Trump has found fewer than 475 — a number that would have made no difference in the 2020 presidential election. Biden won Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and their 79 Electoral College votes by a combined 311,257 votes out of 25.5 million ballots cast for president. The disputed ballots represent just 0.15% of his victory margin in those states.
https://fortune.com/2021/12/14/trump-voter-fraud-investigation-biden-battleground-states-only-475-potential-voter-fraud-cases/
"There's no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day," McConnell said. "The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president and having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth," he continued.
https://www.npr.org/sections/trump-impeachment-trial-live-updates/2021/02/13/967701180/after-vote-mcconnell-torched-trump-as-practically-and-morally-responsible-for-ri
On election night in 2012, when President Barack Obama was reelected, Trump said that the election was a “total sham” and a “travesty,” while also making the claim that the United States is "not a democracy" after Obama secured his victory. Trump even wrote on Twitter, "We can't let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!"
Using Food As A Coping Mechanism, Tess Holiday Doesn’t Need An RD, She Needs An Addiction Specialist
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Stating, "I didn't know that's what [anorexia] was until last year—but for over 10 years, I have restricted food. That means I don't eat—or when I do eat, it's very little. Or sometimes it's one large meal a day." She continued, "My dietician, Anna Sweeney, first brought it to my attention. She told me, 'I'm not licensed to diagnose you, but if I could, I would diagnose you with anorexia nervosa.'”
"Everyone in my life has always said, 'Are you sure you want to eat that?' [or] 'Don't eat that'— it's just constant. From the moment that I was plus-size which was [when I was] 11.”
… according to Chelsea Kronengold, Associate Director of Communications at the National Eating Disorders Association, agreed with Sweeney’s assessment. “Anorexia can affect all sizes.” And that, "anorexia doesn't have one look."
"I feel grateful that I'm tough enough to talk about this, but I've since taken a lot of steps backwards in my recovery," she wrote for Today. "I've regressed. I haven't eaten today. It's 11 o'clock and I've had two sips of coffee, and I feel sick. This has been extremely hard on my mental and physical health."
Shortly after Sweeny’s diagnosis, Holliday’s dietitian has her following a three meal a day regimen along with a Pilates routine.
https://www.prevention.com/health/health-conditions/a36355753/tess-holliday-anorexia-diagnosis/
… there was a two-part Tik Tok video starring both Holliday and her plus-sized model/influencer Alyssa Marie consuming a multitude of Taco Bell food items; the most memorable being a number of bags of cinnamon twists, and literal armfuls of chalupas.
Debunking Courses Offered At PragerU Lesson 10—“No Past, No Future”
PragerU Video—“No Past, No Future”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cBayEcXsxc
Also, it draws attention away from the fact that though the level of media attention towards the removal of confederate statues has been at a peak, there were only 270 removed (still leaving 1,600 confederate statues/symbols that remain according to a 2020 study by the Southern Poverty Law Center). Conversely, when adding all of the defaced/removed statues of Churchill, Lincoln and Columbus, it’s less than 20; this provides for an incredibly skewed ratio.
Given that the concept of “empathy” has been around since first introduced as a concept in Germany under the name Einfühlung (meaning in-feeling” or “feeling into”) since 1873, I doubt that it was a concept that had been utterly avoided in educational settings until the last few decades.
How The Russo-Ukraine War Will Impact America's Election in 2024
The European Union, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan all hit Moscow with new injunctions.
… the United States and United Kingdom also unveiled more measures against Russia as both nations' leaders condemned the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In addition, these actions have already had a negative economic impact on the "motherland." On Thursday, Russia's main MOEX index closed down 33%, while the ruble sank to a record low, down 7% against the US dollar.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/25/business/list-global-sanctions-russia-ukraine-war-intl-hnk/index.html
The conflict has been on the international radar since the end of 2021 when Russia began massing thousands of troops near the Ukraine border. Afterward …
Since then it has been an international game of "will he/won't he?" Putin began …
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/why-putin-invaded-ukraine-russia-war-explained-rcna16028
Hours after the Russian attack began, Fox News published an op-ed written by one of our favorite Governors, Republican Kristi Noem of South Dakota (link). In it, she points to Biden’s decision last May to remove sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline as a factor in Russia’s eventual military build-up and invasion into Ukraine.
Trump said that Putin is “very savvy” and made a “genius” move by declaring two regions of eastern Ukraine as independent states and moving Russian armed forces to them.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/23/trump-putin-genius-russia-ukraine-crisis
Trisha Paytas Is Proving That America Needs A Competency Test For Pregnancy
"The amount of 'I'm faking this [pregnancy],' OK. First off, beyond hating on an unborn child, saying someone's pregnancy is fake EW! It's like, what's people's problems? Why are you so affected by my womb?"
"We are filming the birth, and yeah, I think baby vlogs for sure. Again, are we going to be a full-blown family channel? Probably not, but we're going to do it ourselves and everything's hands-on so that's going to be my life for, baby life, for a while before I'll just have the baby attached to me."
How Can The GOP So Openly Despise Our American Heroes?
“Nineteen years ago tomorrow, thousands of our fellow Americans were murdered by terrorists. National landmarks were burning. Brave first responders in New York City, Arlington, and Pennsylvania rushed into mortal danger, putting their lives on the line to save strangers.” And, “So as we reflect on this anniversary tomorrow, we’ll remember the thousands of innocent Americans who died that day... and the brave servicemen and women who went on to pay the ultimate sacrifice to do justice and to prevent more attacks.” But it’s the last sentence which holds the key to the hypocrisy of it all. “May we never fail to honor them. And may we never tire of the toughness, vigilance, and persistence it has taken—and will continue to take—to make our pledge, “Never Again,” a reality.”
In 2015 a bill called the James L. Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act would have reauthorized an expiring health care program for 9/11 first responders permanently, while at the same time reauthorizing a victims compensation fund for five years.
“It’s absolutely disgusting that we have to keep on coming back down here and to keep on begging, it’s like we’re beggars,” Anthony Flammia, a retired New York City Police Officer and 9/11 responder said outside McConnell’s office. Flammia and a group of over two dozen 9/11 first responders met with a top staffer for Senator McConnell today to ask why the bill was left out of the highway legislation
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/9-11-first-responders-sen-mcconnell-stop-blocking-bill-n473071
“Well, many things in Congress happen at the last minute. We never failed to address this issue and we will address it again,” McConnell told Fox News. “I don’t know why he is all bent out of shape. We will take care of the 9/11 compensation fund.”
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/25/politics/mitch-mcconnell-first-responders-meeting/index.html
The final vote in the House was 256-174, with the bill receiving support from only 34 Republicans. Those conservatives who voted against the bill claimed the cost as the primary concern.
The bill would increase direct benefit payments by $208 billion over a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. A provision of new health care benefits, financed through the annual appropriations process, and VA administrative costs could require another $114 billion.
Right now both sides are hammering it out, so I’m going to wait until the ink is drying on the final legislation before I go too in-depth as to whether this is an overall good thing, or another money-waster due to allocations or other minutia in the final bill itself.
“The left is pissed because I called out Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan that left 13 of America’s finest in a flag-draped coffin. They are mad because a speech was ‘interrupted’. Ask the the families who lost their loved ones how interrupted their lives are now,” the Colorado Republican tweeted.
https://nypost.com/2022/03/02/lawmakers-slam-reps-boebert-greene-over-sotu-heckling/
Debunking Courses Offered At PragerU Lesson 11—“You Can’t Be Free Without This”
“You Can’t Be Free Without This”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ7CCdzCCI0&list=PLIBtb_NuIJ1zs1gI2nYdZk6wL606nGOQ9&index=24
A 2016 research report done by the University of Utah School of Medicine found that religious and spiritual experiences activate the brain reward circuits in much the same way as love, sex, gambling, drugs, and music. This report was later published in the November 29th edition of the journal “Social Neuroscience.” So in reality, when men DEFEND their religious beliefs, it’s done out of emotion and not fact.
https://healthcare.utah.edu/publicaffairs/news/2016/11/religious-brain.php
This case really needs context. Kennedy was hired in 2008 and did the silent prayers. Eventually the school district officials became aware and they reminded him of a policy that prohibited school staff from indirectly encouraging students to engage in religious activity or discouraging them from doing so, because it would be perceived as endorsing or opposing religious activity. So, he briefly stopped doing them. He knew it was against school policy, he knew he could get in trouble for it, but did it anyway. The Supreme Court of the United States has said it will listen to arguments after lower-court rulings had voted in favor of the school.
As far at the “peace cross” is concerned, it has nothing to do with killing Christianity or the like. In December 2016, a Maryland federal court heard an appeal in a suit brought by the American Humanist Association in 2014 arguing that a cross on public land violated the Establishment Cause. The plaintiffs maintained that the memorial was unconstitutional, not offensive, and called for a replacement monument, not a total eradication of the WWI memorial.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/liberals-demand-offensive-wwi-memorial-torn/
Hypocrisy: How The GOP Is Using Pro-Transgender Arguments To Combat Vaccines
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Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a letter to Texas state health agencies announcing that delivering gender-affirming medical treatments to transgender youths “constitutes child abuse” under state law. It stipulated that doctors, nurses and teachers are legally now required to report parents who aid their child in receiving such care to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS).
the ACLU has sued Texas to prevent implementation, and a Texas judge has partially blocked enforcement. Further, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a statement indicating that denying trans youths health care is discriminatory and illegal under federal law.
The AMA has clearly stated that political figures should never infringe on private care decisions designed to “nurture the child’s short and long-term development, and balance the need to preserve the child’s opportunity to make important life choices autonomously in the future.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/10/texas-trans-kids-abortion-lgbtq-gender-ideology/
Jules Gill-Peterson, a professor of gender, sexuality and women’s studies at the University of Pittsburgh, has found extensive evidence of trans youth in the US living as themselves and fighting to transition in decades-old archival documents. … some of these findings included handwritten letters from trans kids to a famous endocrinologist, Harry Benjamin, who was known for providing trans healthcare in the 60s and 70s. Another example Gill-Peterson found was from a woman named Val, a trans woman who in the 1950s was trying to get surgery in Wisconsin.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/01/trans-children-history-jules-gill-peterson-interview
according to a 2017 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 35% of transgender adolescents reported having attempted suicide.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2780517?casa_token=FYLa_eMvtK8AAAAA:RRGS_SXNClU_HckE4MZ3_yCWoYnZO3Qs7B8J3bUM6vIN4KVw3Rtp5v3-WDqNv4AjG01NVHzlsI
Also in early 2022, during an appearance with radio host and conspiracy guru Alex Jones, Marjorie Taylor Greene called for vigilante violence against trans people in public, claiming that it is necessary to stop the “grooming” of children and blaming mothers for turning their kids trans. Greene said that if her daughter had a trans summer camp counselor, her husband would “beat” them “into the ground” and they would “be in jail. … this is exactly how we need to stand up against this stuff.”
https://www.mediamatters.org/alex-jones/conspiracy-theorist-alex-jones-show-rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-calls-violent-physical
in early 2022 on her Instagram feed, Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene implied that she’s taking ivermectin herself, writing, “In foreign countries, you can walk in a pharmacy and buy Ivermectin over the counter without a prescription like I did, and it has saved many lives.” She also added, “[T]he government can’t mandate a vaccine if there are treatments for covid, and early treatment of Ivermectin and monoclonal antibodies is a CURE in most cases. Withholding these treatments is murder, and I believe the government is responsible.”
https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgmg4b/now-marjorie-taylor-greene-is-shilling-ivermectin-on-instagram
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another CDC report from 2021 which found that the rate of suicide for those ages 10 to 24 increased nearly 60% between 2007 and 2018 and was the second leading cause of death among people ages 10-34 in 2018.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr69/NVSR-69-11-508.pdf
“Please, do your own research. Please take into account your unique medical history, your current medical condition. Please consult with your doctor or doctors or medical professionals that you trust and then based on that information, that only you really know about and your doctor really know about, then you have then you should make an intelligent decision for yourself and your family and loved ones.”
https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/hannity-on-breakthrough-covid-cases-foreign-policy-dealings
Student Loan Debt: Headlines VS Realities
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When looking through history, student loans aren’t a new concept by any means. Dating back to 1840, when Harvard University first began offering student loans to attending students, the idea of financial assistance in the name of higher education is nothing new. In fact, the beginnings of what we now consider the modern-day concept of how student loan debt is accrued is nothing new either, having been around for 30 years via the Higher Education Amendments of 1992. This created the FAFSA, the Direct Lending program, and unsubsidized Stafford loans, which meant that now students had to cover interest costs while in school rather than the federal government. Up until this point, the federal government was subsidizing student loans.
https://lendedu.com/blog/history-of-student-loans
Some 44 million Americans collectively hold over $1.6 trillion in student debt. And these numbers are growing.
… since 2008, the cost of a four-year college degree has increased by 25% and student debt increased by 107%.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/12/how-student-debt-became-a-1point6-trillion-crisis.html
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when it comes to the ratio of going to college versus completing university studies and the financial payouts, the numbers don’t lie. Per a 2018 article by Ellen Ruppel Shell, a professor in the department of journalism at Boston University, found that people who have dropped out of college—about 40% of all who attend — earn only a bit more than do people with only a high school education: $38,376 a year versus $35,256. For many, that advantage is barely enough to cover their student loan debt. Shell also found that we appear to be approaching a time when, even for middle-class students, the economic benefit of a college degree will begin to dim. Since 2000, the growth in the wage gap between high school and college graduates has slowed to a halt; 25% of college graduates now earn no more than does the average high school graduate.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/opinion/college-useful-cost-jobs.html
Per Forbes, in the first year of the Biden administration (2021), he eliminated $15 billion in student debt. This is being followed up by a cancellation of another $6.2 billion in student debt for the year of 2022. These headlines do capture the attention of the average reader who has been fed nothing but taglines of those being crushed by the weight of student debt, since these gigantic numbers are the complete opposite of the pre-conceived notions of the majority.
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It is worth noting that the $15 billion in debt cancellations done by Biden was more than any other president, and more than 675,000 student loan borrowers have benefitted. OK, so far so good. The fact that Biden has extended student loan relief three times since becoming president isn’t bad either.
Looking ahead towards the proposed relief of 2022 has its positives as well. With this plan, the Education Department says that 550,000 student loan borrowers will get student loan forgiveness sooner due to these changes. And in aggregate, these student loan borrowers will get $6.2 billion in student loan cancellation.
Again, this all seems on the up-and-up. So where does the problem lie? The bigger picture. As of January 2022, the Forbes report also estimated there are 45 million student loan borrowers who collectively owe $1.7 trillion of student loans. And in reality, the $15 billion debt cancellation has benefitted only 1.5% of student loan borrowers and less than 1% of outstanding student loan debt.
The $15 billion of student loan cancellation doesn’t even include billions of dollars more of student loan forgiveness that Biden, President Donald Trump and Congress provided through student loan relief. Congress passed the Cares Act, the $2.2 trillion stimulus package, in March 2020.
He made it clear that he was willing to do what was necessary to forgive student loans up to $10,000 for every borrower. He often would just talk about complete forgiveness during speeches but made the verbiage vague enough to where he was technically only on the hook for the $10,000.
Jesse Kelly & Rush Limbaugh: How Indoctrinating Children Has Evolved Through The Ages
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In 2014, a third-grade teachers called into his show to tell him that she was using his pilgrim book to teach kids about the civil war. But, more important, she believed that reading from the book in the classroom, even if it has absolutely nothing to do with the lesson they are supposed to be learning, will get them excited about Rush Limbaugh and his books and they'll rush off to the taxpayer-funded library to devour more of them. She stated, “Rush, thanks so much for writing these books. They're incredible. I'm telling you, I think that there need to be teachers guides that go with the books. I think teachers need to have classroom sets of these books.”
in “Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims,” Limbaugh seizes upon the Pilgrims' story as an example of the terrible things that can happen when people pool their resources in a collectivist manner. The author seems particularly offended by the idea of a "Common House" at Plymouth. To him, the pilgrims suffered from the evils of a communal way of life and survived only by belatedly injecting individualism and free enterprise into their settlement.
Limbaugh’s story consist of short snippets of these Pilgrim adventures and includes what scholars and historian have come to call popular myths that have become part of American history. For example, while on the Mayflower, Revere and two of his students witness the signing of the Mayflower Compact. During the signing, Revere makes the point that this is a key moment in American history because it is the brief outline of self-government in the New World, and "just as important to American history as the Declaration of Independence." James W. Loewen, professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Vermont, in his book, "Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong," noted that while the Mayflower Compact provided a democratic basis for the Plymouth Colony, the framers of the U.S. Constitution paid little attention to it. If Limbaugh cared about historical accuracy in his books (this one in particular), he could have also included the story of Increase Mather, a Puritan minister, who preached about a land conflict with Native Americans by saying "God ended the controversy by sending the smallpox amongst the Indians."
Another case in point is Limbaugh’s treatment of the Pilgrims’ commitment to liberty or freedom, a recurring theme throughout the book. We learn early on that the Pilgrims were “real people ready to give their lives for their freedom, no matter the cost, no matter the pain, no matter the sacrifice.” And indeed they were. But what the Pilgrims meant by “freedom” and what Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims conveys are two very different things. A great example of this is when Revere has a back-and-forth with his horse Liberty about free will, freedom, and the choices we make when he was trying to force Liberty to stay be his side. “Your freedom to choose as you please is becoming troublesome!” he scolds the horse. But out of the mouths of babes and talking horses can come wisdom, and Liberty responds by telling Rush Revere that he sounds a lot like the tyrannical King James, who had similarly restricted the Separatists’ freedom in England. “I had a sick feeling in my stomach,” a chastened Rush Revere informs the reader. “I felt horrible for trying to force Liberty to do what I wanted.” Rush Revere apologizes to Liberty and adds, “And just for the record, I hope you never feel forced to do anything.” This sets children up with the idea that personal freedom is penultimate. That the thought of trying to force anyone to do anything—even if it’s ultimately for that person’s benefit—is completely antithetical to who we are as a society.
https://faithandamericanhistory.wordpress.com/2014/11/08/rush-limbaugh-revisionist-historian/
Debunking Courses Offered At PragerU Lesson 12—“Why Are So Many Americans In Prison?”
Per the Prison Policy Initiative, in a report released in early 2022, it was found that together, [our criminal justice system] holds almost 2 million people in 1,566 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 2,850 local jails, 1,510 juvenile correctional facilities, 186 immigration detention facilities, and 82 Indian country jails, as well as in military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the US territories.
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2022.html
Per Pew Research, Drug possession arrests held steady at more than a million a year, in stark contrast with a large reduction in overall arrests, which dropped 29%.
According to the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance, “The overwhelming majority (90 to 95%) of cases result in plea bargaining.”
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/plea_bargain
One of the reasons that’s forgotten as to why the 40% is so high. Due to overpopulation in both or federal and state-ran prisons, politicians have had to enact things like the First Step ACT.
These parts of the First Step Act are almost automatic: once the act was signed, judges immediately began sentencing people to shorter prison terms in cases came before them. Similarly, people in federal prison for pre-2010 crack cocaine offenses immediately became eligible to apply for resentencing to a shorter prison term.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/what-first-step-act-and-whats-happening-it
estimate is that 1 percent of the US prison population, approximately 20,000 people, are falsely convicted.
https://innocenceproject.org/how-many-innocent-people-are-in-prison/
The Facts Support It: The Republican Party Really Doesn’t Want People To Vote
It was announced in March, 2022 that Florida will open up the first Office of Election Crimes and Security in the country after the state’s GOP-led House passed a bill authorizing such a thing. The newly approved office, which will be based in Tallahassee, will “initiate independent inquiries and [conduct] preliminary investigations into allegations of election law violations or election irregularities in this state." Though the bill fell short of DeSantis’ original request of $6 million—less than half to be correct—there are still going to be millions of taxpayers’ dollars that are going to fund a non-issue.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/florida-opens-first-office-of-election-crimes-and-security-in-the-us_n_622a0eb1e4b0d1329e817c6b
Again in spring of 2022 in Colorado, a lawsuit was brought about that alleges the US Election Integrity Plan—led by Shawn Smith, an ally of former Trump strategist Steve Bannon and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell—has been using intimidation tactics in an attempt to suppress voters of color.
In it, the lawsuit cites the "County & Local Organizing Playbook" used by the group, which instructs members to "undertake citizen audit activities to either refute or confirm serious allegations of election malfeasance" in order to "support future legal action" as evidence. The group, some of whose members are armed, has been going door-to-door in El Paso, Mesa and Weld counties in Colorado, using public voter lists to identify areas where they believe ballots were fraudulently cast, the Colorado Times Recorder reported last year. Also, the lawsuit claims that the "voter intimidation" campaign violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a post-Civil War law aimed at preventing white vigilantes from terrorizing Black people to stop them from voting.
https://www.salon.com/2022/03/21/pro-group-sent-armed-members-door-to-door-in-colorado-to-intimidate-voters/
Wyoming legislators failed to advance a bill barring so-called crossover voting in state primaries, a measure ex-President Trump backed as he pushes voters to oust one of his most vocal Republican critics, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming. The bill would have prohibited voters from changing their party registration on primary Election Day, barring last-minute changes that would allow them to choose the party primary in which they wanted to participate.
Supporters of the bill said making the change would prevent Democrats or independent voters from casting a ballot in the Republican primary—presumably voters who would be more likely to favor Cheney. Trump has made it clear that he doesn't want to muddy the waters by allowing a liberal taint to the outcome. "This critically important bill ensures that the voters in each party will separately choose their nominees for the General Election, which is how it should be!" Trump said in a February statement.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/597511-wyoming-legislature-kills-crossover-voting-ban-despite-trumps-support
A quote from early 2021 perfectly represents the main reason why it imperative for the GOP to keep the laws in their favor. “From a purely partisan perspective, Republican presidential candidates have won the national popular vote only once in the last 32 years,” read the statement from Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Ken Buck of Colorado, Chip Roy of Texas, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, Tom McClintock of California and Nancy Mace of South Carolina. Between the need for Supreme Court intervention in the 2000 election when it came to recounts, to the exposed failures of the electoral college when it comes to the will of the people via popular vote in 2016, this statement is true.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/06/gop-electoral-college-challenge-backfire-455204
An Associated Press review of every potential case of voter fraud in the six battleground states disputed by ex-President Donald Trump has found fewer than 475—a number that would have made no difference in the 2020 presidential election.
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the myth that the Republicans want to keep the voter turnout lower simply because “history shows us that lower voter turnout favors the GOP.” This is a myth. In the interest of supporting facts—even the ones that I once opposed due to my own personal ignorance—it’s important to note that places like Fact Check.org have debunked this myth previously. There is no clear pattern throughout history which shows a lower voter turnout benefits either party, especially as it pertains to presidential elections.
https://www.factcheck.org/2016/06/sanders-shaky-turnout-claim/
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"I often cite several measures that all states should adopt. Voter identification, signature verification, chain of custody integrity, voter rolls being updated for every election, and most states have statutory language that partisan observers be allowed to watch of the vote count, all political sides, they should watch the count from start to finish."
https://www.foxnews.com/media/hannity-reacts-to-latest-report-about-georgias-election-results
Philosophically Speaking, Red State Independents/Liberals Are Lying To Themselves
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Per Project Five Thirty-Eight, Sinema has voted with Biden’s positions an astounding 97.7% of the time.
… it was on issues that had far-reaching consequences, i.e. things like ending the filibuster. Ending the filibuster by and of itself would create a landslide of potential legislation to go through the democratically controlled House and Senate. Given that the things she agrees with Biden on—i.e., improving the US Postal Service’s finances, services and transparency
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-congress-votes/kyrsten-sinema/
Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson intends to vote for an independent candidate to serve in Congress rather than a Democrat for the first time this fall. Wilson announced in early March 2022 that she is endorsing Evan McMullin in his bid to unseat two-term Republican Sen. Mike Lee. Not only that, Wilson called on Democratic state delegates to back McMullin as well. “When I first heard Evan was running, I was intrigued. I gave it some thought, and it was not a hard decision to back him,” she said, noting a Democrat hasn’t won a US Senate race in Utah for more than 50 years. “Democrats are not winning,” she noted. “I just think we need to do things differently as Democrats.”
First off, when you go to his official site, you get a lot of generically-based platitudes about “It’s time to finally start improving care while lowering its financial burden by making sensible reforms including: negotiating lower drug prices.”
https://evanmcmullin.com/priorities/
You will find that McMullin is pro-life having said that subsidizing abortion undermines the dignity of mother and child. He believes in “traditional marriage.” He also opposes taxing the rich to help reduce student loan interest.
https://www.ontheissues.org/evan_mcmullin.htm
His state is incredibly red, and his voting so closely mirrors this fact that it’s almost comedic. Yes, he’s voted with Biden 95.5% of the time during his tenure. But given the fact he voted with Trump 50.4% of the time during his tenure with the ex-President (per another Project Five Thiry Eight report), it’s hard to truly consider him a true-blue Dem.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-trump-score/joe-manchin-iii/
Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle & The Numbers: Is Being Offensive Good Again?
He responded with, “If this is what being canceled is like, I love it." Later on he addressed the aforementioned attempts on various media platforms more bluntly. “Fuck Twitter. Fuck NBC News, ABC News, all these stupid ass networks. I’m not talking to them. I’m talking to you. This is real life.”
“We know that a number of you have been left angry, disappointed and hurt by our decision to put Dave Chappelle’s latest special on Netflix,” Sarandos wrote in an email. Later in the email, he uses the same rationale which ultimately won the heavy metal band Judas Priest their court case in 1990 (spoiler alert: it’s about personal accountability about the interpretation of a source of entertainment). Adults can watch violence, assault and abuse—or enjoy shocking stand-up comedy—without it causing them to harm others.”
In the 48 hours following the slap, social media exploded with everyone and their mother weighing in on who was in the right and who was in the wrong. Hashtags #TeamWill, #TeamWillSmith, #TeamChris and #TeamChrisRock were trending on Twitter along with phrases like “I support Will Smith” and “I support Chris Rock.” Thanks to a map assembled by Bet Online that tracked and geotagged hashtags and phrases on over 200,000 tweets, we can see which states lent their support to which celebrity. With 41 states taking his side, Chris Rock came out on top.
https://fox59.com/news/whats-trending/see-which-states-support-chris-rock-or-will-smith/
Live event ticketing site TickPick sold more tickets to see Chris Rock overnight than it had in the past month combined, according to a tweet from the company. Also, On March 18 (before the slap), the cheapest tickets were sold for $46, but had increased to $411 within the same 48 hour time frame, according to TickPick's public relations representative Kyle Zorn.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chris-rock-ticket-sales-resale-prices-will-smith-oscar-slap/
Most notable opponent Jim Carrey said of the event, “I was sickened. I was sickened by the standing ovation.” “Hollywood is just spineless en masse and it really felt like this is a really clear indication that we aren’t the cool club anymore.”
https://nypost.com/2022/03/29/jim-carrey-sickened-by-oscars-standing-ovation-for-will-smith/
Debunking Courses Offered At PragerU Lesson 13—“When Big Business Went Woke”
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PragerU “When Big Business Went Woke”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnuInd1385U
Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. Its basic tenets emerged out of a framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s created by legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado, among others.
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/05
Dr. Mark Scanlon, Director of the Centre for Cybersecurity & Cybercrime Investigation at University College Dublin, released a statement when he was asked to use his expertise in examining the image. He determined that the image of a Coca-Cola can with the slogan “try to be less white” is a hoax. “Given the high resolution and quality of typical printing on Coca-Cola cans, the font should be consistent, and the edges of the font should be crisp. Repeated use of the same character in the sentence should be precisely the same,” he said. When rotating the slogan horizontally, Scanlon compared the lettering and noted irregularities with letters ‘o’ and ‘e’ on the can. The ‘o’ has “inconsistent font weight” around the entire letter, while the ‘e’ characters are inconsistent throughout the slogan.
Dead Fetal Theft, Russia & More: What Does The Republican Party ACTUALLY Stand For?
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Handy took it upon herself to remove five aborted fetuses in coolers and take them to her house in various coolers. The good news (if there is any to be found in this ghoulish display) was that per DC Police Executive Assistant Chief of Police Ashan M. Benedict the fetuses appeared to have been aborted in accordance with DC law. "There doesn't appear to be anything criminal about that—except for how they got into that house," Benedict said.
https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/crime/who-is-lauren-handy-fetuses-found-in-capitol-hill-home-founder-of-progressive-anti-abortion-dc-fetuses-found-paau/65-8338cdf3-9d9f-498b-8572-885567ef8678
In March 2022 the Supreme Court of The United States surprised everyone in their ruling of the case Austin v. US Navy SEALs 1-26. The essence of the case came down to Navy SEALs fighting the Covid vaccine mandates and felt that being forced to take them was unconstitutional. The court ruled that yes, in fact, troops do have to follow orders, including an order to take a vaccine.
Though it seems to the average American that given the president’s standing as commander in chief over the military - a tradition that has been around since the birth of our nation - this would be a no Brainerd, it seems some of the GOP activist judges didn't get the memo. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch, dissented from the majority. They bucked over 200 years of tradition and said that "no, the president is NOT the commander of America's military and troops don't have to take orders from him."
https://www.vox.com/22996799/supreme-court-biden-navy-seal-vaccine-austin-covid
Mother Jones reported on March 3, the Kremlin circulated a talking point to state-run media outlets telling them it was of the utmost importance to run Carlson’s commentary. “It is essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts of the popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who sharply criticizes the actions of the United States [and] NATO, their negative role in unleashing the conflict in Ukraine, [and] the defiantly provocative behavior from the leadership of the Western countries and NATO towards the Russian Federation and towards President Putin, personally,” the 12-page document reportedly said, noting that Carlson’s position was that “Russia is only protecting its interests and security."
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/03/tucker-carlson-kremlin-russia-tv
Carlson has made statements that Mr. Putin had never wronged him—and by proxy his enormous audience of Fox News viewers—so why should he oppose the actions of the dictator? Carlson said Putin "never called me a racist." He's also tried to undermine any moral argument for defending Ukraine by claiming it was "not a democracy" and filled with oligarchs …
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/tucker-carlson-fox-news-russian-propaganda-b2033966.html
National Archives officials retrieved 15 boxes of White House documents in January 2022 that former President Donald Trump had removed to his private residence in Mar-a-Lago, including what Trump has described as “love letters” from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, The Washington Post reported. These love letters contained lavish praise along with the insistence on another face-to-face meeting halfway around the world. The Presidential Records Act requires that the White House preserve and transfer all written communication related to a president’s official duties—including everything from memos to emails—to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The records whisked away by Trump “should have been transferred to NARA from the White House at the end of the Trump Administration in January 2021,” NARA said. The boxes of documents removed by Trump also included a letter from former President Barack Obama left for Trump when he took over the Oval Office, and letters from Kim.
when less than one-third of Americans supported the Iraq invasion
https://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/19/iraq.support/index.html
Louis CK & Deshaun Watson; The Entertainment Biz Only Cares To The Point Of Inconvenience
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Louis CK’s comedy special “Sincerely Louis CK” (in which he joked about the sexual misconduct revelations against him), won the award for best comedy album at the 2022 Grammy’s.
CK did what not many other entertainers have done when faced with such allegations; he fessed up. In a statement that came out after the allegations shortly surfaced, he claimed “These stories are true.”
One thing a lot of people weren’t aware of is that this award-winning special isn’t the first one recorded by CK since the stories of his misconduct came out. On December 18, 2021 he released an hour-long special called “Sorry.”
https://theconversation.com/louis-c-k-sexual-misconduct-and-the-pursuit-of-justice-174146
“Louis CK continues to shock and offend years after his scandal, this time in funnier and more interesting ways than he has in years.”
https://movieweb.com/louis-ck-sorry-new-stand-up-special-review/
In April of 2021, 20 women identified themselves as plaintiffs in suits accusing Deshaun Watson of sexual misconduct and sexual assault, while another woman filed a civil lawsuit against the Texans quarterback, making similar accusations and attaching her name to the complaint. Over the following weeks another woman added herself to the list, bringing the total of accusers to 22. In July of the same year, 10 of the women also filed criminal charges of sexual assault. Over the year it continued to escalate in the legal system to the point where on August 18th, Watson had to meet with the FBI. Over the next seven months the courts, lawyers and legal system in general worked it’s way through all legalities before a grand jury refused to indict Watson on the criminal charges.
This revelation came about via a New York Times report which detailed the accounts of the five women, spanning the mid-’90s to 2005. Each woman recounts startlingly similar situations in which CK, an established comedian, either asked them to watch him masturbate or forced them to do so. Not surprisingly, shortly after this news hit the wire, the backlash began. He was dropped by HBO from appearing in Jon Stewart’s “Night of Too Many Stars” fundraising show, along with HBO removing all of CK’s past shows. Netflix cancelled a special they were about to begin.
https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/11/9/16629400/louis-ck-allegations-masturbation
the last five teams to lose the Super Bowl saw franchise value increases of 3% to 19%, according to Forbes magazine’s annual list of NFL Franchise Valuations. Four of those teams saw revenue hikes between 3% and 10%.
Peter King of NBC Sports wrote that Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam were “not the most popular people” at the league meetings in March of 2021, after the trade had occurred. One NFL team executive said it is a move that “stinks to high heaven” for the league.” When you dig a little deeper, you see that these kinds of comments may appear hyperbolic. According to reports from that same meeting, the Browns were not the only team that aggressively pursued Watson. Because winning is all most NFL teams care about. Once a grand jury declined to indict Watson, several teams tried hard to acquire him.
Debunking The Pedophile Attacks Against Justice Jackson; Maybe The GOP Are The Ones Hiding Something
While an ABC review of court records show that Jackson did impose lighter sentences than federal guidelines suggested, Hawley's insinuation neglects critical context, including the fact that the senator himself has voted to confirm at least three federal judges who also engaged in the same practice.
Federal appeals court Judges Joseph Bianco of the Second Circuit and Andrew Brasher of the Eleventh Circuit, both Trump appointees, had each previously sentenced defendants convicted of possessing child pornography to prison terms well below federal guidelines at the time they were confirmed with Hawley's support. Doug Berman, a leading expert on sentencing law and policy at The Ohio State University School of Law wrote, "If and when we properly contextualize Judge Jackson's sentencing record in federal child porn cases, it looks pretty mainstream."
… has a "long record" of letting child porn offenders "off the hook" during sentencing.
"In every single child porn case for which we can find records, Judge Jackson deviated from the federal sentencing guidelines in favor of child porn offenders," Hawley stated, highlighting nine cases from her time as a federal District Court judge.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fact-check-judge-ketanji-brown-jackson-child-porn/story?id=83565833
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Hunter Biden & Jared Kushner: If You Can’t Do The Time, Then … Change The Rules
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In a bit of irony, in early April 2022, Johnson was fined by police for attending a lockdown party in Downing Street, thereby breaking the coronavirus laws made in the very same building by the very same man. After the punishment was announced (a fine), Johnson said that he had paid the fine, though he did not say how much it was. He also stated, “I once again offer a full apology.”
The announcement by London’s Metropolitan Police made Mr. Johnson the first holder of his office in living memory to be found in breach of the law, and provoked anger from Britons who obeyed strict coronavirus rules that sometimes even forbade contact with dying relatives.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/12/world/europe/boris-johnson-partygate-fines-rishi-sunak.html
Dolan walked into Potomac Video and asked the manager on duty whether he could have a peek at Bork’s rental history—something that no specific legislation at the time barred. He walked out with a photocopy revealing the 146 tapes the judge had checked out in the past two years. Once this information was revealed, Washington legislators went into panic mode and began drafting legislation post haste. Within seven months of Dolans revelations, the Video Privacy Protection Act was introduced. Within the year it was signed into law.
https://longreads.com/2014/04/28/the-supreme-court-nominee-the-video-store-and-the-changing-face-of-consumer-privacy/
Given that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI have been actively investigating him for potential tax crimes and other matters since 2018, both he and his laptop have been a limelight mainstay.
Hunter Biden’s history of drug addiction, the untimely death of his brother Beau Biden in 2015, as well as his high-conflict divorce and debt problems around the time of the CEFC China Energy engagements could undermine the government’s case regarding requisite criminal intent. In layman's terms: both he and his life at the time were so messed up that it's difficult to prove the difference between him being evil, or being an idiot.
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/3264088-hunter-biden-controversy-explained/
… the New York Times reported in April 2022, that just six months after leaving the White House, the former first son-in-law’s newly formed private equity firm, Affinity Partners, was awarded a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which is led by MBS.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/jared-kushner-saudi-arabia-2-billion-investment
MATH Books Being Banned Over Critical Race Theory—What Happens When Bad Laws Are Vaguely Written
In 2022 a law was enacted in the state of Florida called “The WOKE Act.” Though its intention is to stop CRT from being taught in public schools, the law was written incredibly vaguely. According to the bill, an individual shouldn't be made to "feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin." Initially I found the law amusing given how frequently the GOP likes to call any liberal a “snowflake,” yet they’re passing legislation based on, and with the intent to protect, feelings.
The state of Florida has banned 54 math books due to their controversial nature. The state school board said that the books have references to critical race theory among a range of reasoning for some of the rejections. The department said in a news release that some of the books had been rejected for failure to comply with the state’s content standards, Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (BEST), but that 21% of the books were disallowed “because they incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including CRT." Department officials disapproved an additional 11 books “because they do not properly align to BEST Standards and incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including CRT."
“In reviewing applicable Texas law, it is clear that Ms. Herrera cannot and should not be prosecuted for the allegation against her,” District Attorney Gocha Allen Ramirez, who represents the counties of Starr, Jim Hogg and Duval, said in a statement.
Debunking Courses Offered At PragerU Lesson 14—“Three Ways To Fix America”
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PragerU—“Three Ways To Fix America”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyeBwFKpQtw
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A 2018 report from the Integrated Benefits Institute (a nonprofit health and productivity research organization) showed that US employers paid nearly $880 billion in health care benefits for employees and dependents. However, illness-related lost productivity costs them another $530 billion per year which amounts to 60 cents for every dollar employers spend on health care benefits. Employees covered for sick time, workers' compensation, disability, and family and medical leave benefits are absent about 893 million days due to illness and incur an estimated 527 million lost workdays due to impaired performance.
I think the conservatives do want to be a part of that world Dave. Between 1977 and 2015 there have been eight murders, 17 attempted murders, 42 bombings, and 186 arsons targeting abortion clinics and providers across the United States.
https://www.vox.com/2015/12/1/9827886/abortion-clinic-attacks-mapped
In January 2020, there were an estimated 580,466 people who were homeless.
In 2019 66.5% of all bankruptcies in America were tied to medical issues.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/11/this-is-the-real-reason-most-americans-file-for-bankruptcy.html
H3H3's Ethan Klein Exposing The Worst Elements Of Identity Politics
In 2021, Pew Research did a poll and found that a majority (59%) of liberal democrats who were familiar with the phrase "cancel culture" felt it meant "actions taken to hold people accountable." Whereas only 36% of Republicans have heard the same definition. Like peanut butter and jelly, liberalism and cancelation based on moral indignation are forever linked because of these kinds of perceptions.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/08/17/how-americans-feel-about-cancel-culture-and-offensive-speech-in-6-charts/
Within a day or two, the cancel culture machine began to pick up steam and messages to the sponsors of H3 started rolling in. These calls were of such a degree to where Klein even addressed it on the following podcast stating, "Today we have no sponsors because I am an existential threat to gay rights, and all progress. So, of course our wonderful fans have taken it upon themselves to rattle our sponsors ... not to support us."
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vxUFgmRxUQA
How The Police & Their Enablers Have Made Body Cam Footage Useless … By Using Very Dubious Methods
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According to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, which published the results of a sweeping two-year long civil rights probe into the Minneapolis Police Department in April 2022, they found that officers often say disrespectful and offensive things to criminal suspects, bystanders, and witnesses. The report, which relies on over 10 years of data on arrests, police stops and searches, trainings, policies, and more, also revealed that MPD officers are "much less professional and respectful" than those in neighboring departments.
"When MPD officers scream obscenities at community members, it makes it challenging for prosecutors to do their job and therefore undermines the criminal justice system," the report said.
… that Minneapolis Police Department's trainings "reinforce a culture that exacerbates a pattern of race-based policing," based on a review of training observations and materials, and witness testimony. It also noted that the police "consistently" use racist and misogynist language, selectively enforce the law based on suspects' race, and violate human rights law.
https://www.insider.com/minneapolis-cops-offensive-language-proves-difficult-for-prosecutors-court-2022-4
California lawmaker Johnathan Ryan Hernandez says police in Santa Ana have been playing loud, copyrighted music so that video of them on patrol would likely be taken down if it was posted online. Disney songs, such as "You've Got a Friend in Me" from "Toy Story" and "We Don't Talk About Bruno" from "Encanto," can be heard …
Santa Ana police said the department “takes seriously all complaints regarding the service provided by the Department and the conduct of its employees. Our department is committed to conducting complete, thorough, and objective investigations.”
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/20/us/santa-ana-police-music-ordinance/index.html
In 2019, Brady Mistic was approached by a pair of police officers, Nicholas Hanning and Ellie Summers in Idaho Springs, Colorado, who’d followed him into a parking lot after he allegedly ran a stop sign.
“He had no idea what was happening, what the police were doing, or if the officers’ presence had anything to do with him,” Raymond Bryant, Mistic’s lawyer said in the lawsuit. He continued, “Within seven seconds of exiting their vehicle, without looking or listening to assess the situation, and without utilizing any reasonable attempts at communication, the officers went hands-on and used force on Mr. Mistic. Reasonable police officers should always de-escalate instead of escalate circumstances so that force is not used unless absolutely necessary. But these were not reasonable officers.”
Officer Hanning threw Mistic to the ground, “bashing Mr. Mistic’s head into the concrete." In body camera video footage that surfaced, the cruiser can be seen driving into the laundromat’s parking lot.
The Idaho Springs Police Department released a statement which said, Mistic “immediately got out of his vehicle” and “quickly“ approached a “clearly marked patrol car” that had its emergency lights activated. “The officers gave verbal commands for Mr. Mistic to get back in his vehicle." ISPD also stated that Hanning suffered a broken leg because of Mistic’s “resistive actions” when Hanning initially approached and used force on Mistic. “Officers attempted to gain control of Mr. Mistic by placing him into handcuffs due to his unexplained actions,” the police statement says. “Mr. Mistic resisted the officers, and a physical altercation took place.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/deaf-man-brady-mistic-jailed-colorado_n_6155da86e4b05040d1d7fa8c
14th Amendment: How Marjorie Taylor Greene's Trial & GOP Lies Are Leading To Another Insurrection
"Former President Trump's actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty," McConnell said at one point. "There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day," he said at another. And McConnell closed with this: "The Senate's decision does not condone anything that happened on or before that terrible day. It simply shows that senators did what the former President failed to do: We put our constitutional duty first."
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/26/politics/mitch-mcconnell-trump-republicans-jan-6/index.html
Greene's woes stem from Section 3 of the 14th amendment which reads: "No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."
CNN published text messages in which Greene, in the weeks after Election Day 2020, suggested to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows that then-President Donald Trump could declare martial law to change the results of the presidential election.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/25/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-jan-6-what-matters/index.html
Asked whether anyone from Antifa or Black Lives Matter was arrested or charged for the Capitol assault, Greene said she didn't know, while hinting at the false political prisoner narrative that the January 6 defendants are being unjustly jailed. "I know they were arrested all over the country much through 2020 and over 95% of them had their charges dropped, unlike January 6 rioters that are still in jail," she said.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/22/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-disqualification-takeaways/index.html
Arizona Representative Paul Gosar claimed in July, 2021 that jailed rioters who had supposedly spent time in solitary confinement "are not unruly or dangerous, violent criminals" but are "political prisoners who are now being persecuted"; he suggested that there are "nearly 200" nonviolent Capitol participants behind bars. And the pro-Trump group behind September's "Justice for J6" rally said its event was meant "to bring awareness and attention to the unjust and unethical treatment of nonviolent January 6 political prisoners."
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/04/politics/fact-check-capitol-insurrection-january-6-lies/index.html
In an early 2021 video, when talk show host Jesse Kelly asked author and former Green Beret Jim Hansen about the conditions the January 6th insurrectionists were being held in. Hansen stated they were "being held in solitary confinement as political prisoners like we live in the Soviet Union or former East Germany." To which Kelly asked the followup question, "Why are they being held ... obviously the crimes don't warrant that Jim, so I mean ..."
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DVj5yo1zMsk
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In a telephonic interview from jail, Edward Jacob Lang (one of the insurrectionists who was captured and charged for the attack), said that he was “disappointed” with Mr Trump for not rallying behind the 6 January prisoners. "It just shows how far we have fallen." Speaking directly to Trump, his next statement is the one that has been repeated most often by the attorneys of those incarcerated. "We are rotting in jail because we stood up for what you told us to stand up for."
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/6-jan-anniversary-trump-capitol-rioter-b1987696.html
During 2022, January 6th committee members have asked three GOP lawmakers — Jordan of Ohio, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California — to testify voluntarily. All have refused.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/evidence-mounts-of-gop-involvement-in-trump-election-schemes/ar-AAWNAZP?li=BBnb7Kz
These repercussions stem from uncertainty over whether such a subpoena could be enforced because of the speech and debate clause of the Constitution, which says members of Congress “shall not be questioned in any other place” for their words in either House.
https://apnews.com/article/steve-bannon-donald-trump-kevin-mccarthy-house-elections-elections-8a23546a6df8709556a7447045ff65b2
RIP Roe V. Wade; What Women's Reproductive Rights (Or Lack Thereof) Will Look Like In 2023
Karina Gould, the minister of families, children and social development, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation shortly after the SCOTUS opinion leak that Americans will be able to obtain abortions in Canada should the Supreme Court overturn the landmark abortion rights decision, Roe v. Wade. “I don’t see why we would not,” she stated. “If they, people, come here and need access, certainly, you know, that’s a service that would be provided.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/canada-abortions-for-americans_n_62734b25e4b03ca8363ce244
Lawmakers in Missouri weighed legislation in early 2022 that would allow individuals to sue anyone helping a patient cross state lines for an abortion. The law was ultimately blocked in the state’s legislature, but experts expect such legislation to gain more support if Roe is weakened or overturned.
“I think states are not going to rest with just saying ‘there won’t be abortions in our state.’ I think they’re going to want to ban abortion for their citizens as much as they can, which would mean stopping them from traveling,” said David Cohen, professor at Drexel University’s Kline School of Law and lead author of a forthcoming article on cross-state legal issues that could arise in the abortion context.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/03/us-abortions-travel-wave-of-restrictions
The opinion noted that "a woman who puts her newborn up for adoption today has little reason to fear that the baby will not find a suitable home." A 2008 CDC report that found "nearly 1 million women were seeking to adopt children in 2002 (i.e., they were in demand for a child), whereas the domestic supply of infants relinquished at birth or within the first month of life and available to be adopted had become virtually nonexistent."
during oral arguments of the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Justice Amy Coney Barrett suggested that the existence of safe-haven laws and adoption in general rendered moot the pro-choice argument that abortion access protects women from "forced motherhood."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/adoption-means-abortion-just-isnt-necessary-scotus-claims-thats-even-worse-than-it-sounds/ar-AAWTh5b?li=BBnb7Kz
A joint review of dozens of Supreme Court cases by The Intercept and the American Prospect found dozens of statutory rulings that Congress could overturn simply by tweaking the statute to remove whatever ambiguity the court claimed to find in its text. Even where the court has ruled on constitutional grounds, there is often much room left to legislate the boundaries, just as conservatives have done in relation to Roe v. Wade and abortion restrictions. From salvaging the Voting Rights Act gutted by Shelby County v. Holder in 2013 to protecting workers’ free speech rights on the job or safeguarding reproductive rights, if Congress truly wanted to, they could take back control from the court. This can happen because these “overrides” can be passed on an individual basis, as part of larger omnibus bills, or even tacked on to unrelated appropriations or debt ceiling bills.
https://theintercept.com/2020/11/24/congress-override-supreme-court/
According to a data analysis by News Watch, abortions performed in South Dakota fell from about 400 in 2019 to 125 in 2020. South Dakota Right to Life Director Dale Bartscher said the pause on the procedures in the state in 2020 “saved more lives,” was “wonderful” for the efforts to eliminate abortion in the state and is one of a number of factors contributing to the anti-abortion movement “winning this war.” Finishing with, “It is our goal to see that abortion is illegal and unthinkable.”
In 2019, 33 South Dakota women went to Nebraska for an abortion. In 2020, 132 traveled there for the procedure. In 2019, 152 South Dakota women traveled to Minnesota for an abortion, compared to 99 in 2019.
global estimates from 2010–2014 demonstrate that 45% of all induced abortions are unsafe. In this report, the term “unsafe” is defined as an abortion performed by untrained persons using dangerous and invasive methods. Of all unsafe abortions, one third were performed under the least safe conditions, i.e., by untrained persons using dangerous and invasive methods. When looking at this from a world perspective, there are two other numbers that stick out immediately in the report. Developing countries bear the burden of 97% of all unsafe abortions, and as a side-effect, each year 4.7–13.2% of maternal deaths can be attributed to unsafe abortions.
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/abortion
An early 2022 report from Planned Parenthood found that health centers in Texas' surrounding states saw a nearly 800% increase in abortion patients from Texas between Sept. 1 and Dec. 31, 2021. Conversely—or as I like to call the “cause”—the same report found that in Texas, the number of clinic abortions performed in the state fell by approximately 60% in the first month after Senate Bill 8 was enacted. During the first four months of S.B. 8 being in effect, Planned Parenthood clinics saw the following increases. Oklahoma saw a nearly 2,500% increase in Texas patients compared to the previous year. New Mexico saw a 100% increase in patients with Texas zip codes. In Colorado, there was a more than 1,000% increase in abortion patients from Texas, "compared to previous years," according to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. There’s so much more, but I think you get the picture.
https://www.axios.com/2022/03/05/texas-abortion-ban-planned-parenthood-roe
Idaho’s trigger law, for example, would make performing an abortion a felony 30 days after the “issuance of the judgment in any decision of the United States supreme court that restores to the states their authority to prohibit abortion.” The law states that the offense would be punishable by a prison sentence of two-to-five years in prison.
Debunking Courses Offered At PragerU Lesson 15—“Fund The Children, Not The Schools”
school choice is an umbrella term used to describe policies that allow parents options other than the school that their home address is zoned to – and that includes everything from public charter schools to programs like education savings accounts, education tax credits and school vouchers that provide private school tuition assistance for low-income students, students with disabilities or those zoned to low-performing schools.
In Utah during the 2022 session, HB 331 was introduced to create the Hope Scholarship Program. It would create an education savings account program for eligible students. What’s interesting is in the fact that in a state with a house comprised of 58 Republicans and 17 Democrats, a senate with 23 Republicans and 6 Democrats, and Republicans occupying both the governorship and the lieutenant governorship, the governor, Spencer Cox, told reporters that he would veto the bill. Stating, that Utah had “a long way to go before we get there.”
In Oklahoma, Governor Kevin Stitt led the legislative portion of his state of the state address by saying, “We know education is not one-size-fits-all, and I pledge to support any legislation that gives parents more school choice, because in Oklahoma, we need to fund students, not systems!”
One example of how the finances can vastly impact the success of these programs is coming from the state of Missouri. Two bill which passed in the state during the spring of 2022 have now opened the door for these school choices to become a reality.
When a complete analysis was done on the financials to these plans, the results were found to be somewhat incomplete. In the study, school districts noted it would be difficult to assess the program’s financial impact until the number of students who will participate is known. However, the Wellsville Middletown R-1 School District shared it would make long-term planning “virtually useless” if enrollment numbers are in flux. And Kansas City Public Schools said the cost of children moving out of the district would be greater than the cost for those receiving, noting a pupil leaving the district would cost roughly $9,000 in state and local aid. “Loss of a child or even two or three from a classroom does not allow the sending district to reduce costs of teachers, transportation, etc., causing the revenue hit to not be balanced with reduced expenditures,” the fiscal analysis read.
For instance, in the same spring of 2022, the Georgia Senate voted down a school choice bill. In that bill, $6,000 would have been diverted from state money for public schools to allow parents to send their children to private school. Senate Pro Temp Butch Miller said the $6,000 figure represents the average amount of state money a public school is allocated per enrolled student. This does not include differences in the amounts between public and private education, either.
A 2019 national survey of teachers by Harvard’s Education Next found that non-union public school teachers are much more likely to support school choice than their union counterparts.
No, Republican Immigration Policies Will Not Keep Your Family "Safer" On Any Leve
"In consultation with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), this termination will be implemented on May 23, 2022, to enable DHS time to implement appropriate COVID-19 mitigation protocols, such as scaling up a program to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to migrants and prepare for resumption of regular migration under Title 8," the CDC said in a highly anticipated announcement, in the spring of 2022.
Former President Donald Trump invoked a public health authority, known as Title 42, at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Title 42 refers to a rarely used section of the US Code that dates to 1944. The law empowers federal health authorities to prohibit migrants from entering the country if it is determined that doing so could prevent the spread of contagious diseases.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/04/27/key-facts-about-title-42-the-pandemic-policy-that-has-reshaped-immigration-enforcement-at-u-s-mexico-border/
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had to make on official statement explaining the realities of the situation. "Once the Title 42 Order is no longer in place, DHS will process individuals encountered at the border pursuant to Title 8, which is the standard procedure we use to place individuals in removal proceedings."
"Nonetheless, we know that smugglers will spread misinformation to take advantage of vulnerable migrants. Let me be clear: those unable to establish a legal basis to remain in the United States will be removed."
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/01/politics/immigration-title-42-repeal-cdc/index.html
ICE deportation officers arrested 74,082 immigrants in fiscal year 2021, which ended in October, which was a 28% drop from 2020.
Under the Biden-era rules, officers generally refrain from arresting immigrants with clean records if they have lived in the U.S. for years.
Collectively, immigrants arrested by ICE in fiscal year 2021 …
ICE recorded 25,993 at-large arrests in 2021, compared to 23,932 in 2020.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-immigration-arrests-deportations-2021/
When going back further and looking at the differences between the numbers of Trump and Obama, the evidence shows that being selective was also much more effective. A Pew Research report from March, 2020 shows that immigration removal numbers under Obama were consistently higher than Trump's. In fiscal 2018 Customs and Border Protection and ICE together carried out 337,287 removals of unauthorized immigrants, a 17% increase from the previous year, according to the Department of Homeland Security. But removals remained below the levels recorded during much of the Obama administration, including a three-year period between fiscal 2012 and 2014 when there were more than 400,000 per year.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/03/02/how-border-apprehensions-ice-arrests-and-deportations-have-changed-under-trump/
According to the IRS, the ITIN is a tax processing number issued by the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS issues ITINs to individuals who are required to have a U.S. taxpayer identification number but who do not have, and are not eligible to obtain, a Social Security number (SSN) from the Social Security Administration (SSA). What this means is that you can be an illegal immigrant here with a job and an assigned payment number that allows you to legally pay taxes while you illegally work. Given that this has now been around for 25 years and the RNC has done literally nothing about it, I really don’t think they are going to start now.
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/individual-taxpayer-identification-number
It’s important to note that every GOP representative of recent history has known about this—there is no plausible deniability. I can feel safe in making this accusation knowing that, per a Forbes report, after the first round of Trump stimulus checks went out in 2020, there were a lot of lawsuits allowed to proceed against the administration because the verbiage of the stimulus check forbade those with an ITIN to get the check. Also, those who shared a checking account with someone in possession of an ITIN were denied their stimulus check as well.
“invasion” from those who have “violently overrun the Mexican border.”
Glenn Beck said that “Biden [is] set to embolden drug cartels and fentanyl deaths in May.
https://www.glennbeck.com/biden-title-42-fentanyl-crisis?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1
Amber Heard & Uvalde Shooting: How Feelings & Identity Politics Are Overrunning Facts
Thompson explained, "One of the great issues to do with that case is fame and how people who are famous are treated differently and viewed differently. A case where the two protagonists arBece that famous is not representative." She continued, "And it's just very important to remember that this movement—which is about human kindness and is just so simple, really, and has been made so complicated—cannot and will not be derailed by one case."
https://people.com/movies/emma-thompson-says-me-too-movement-will-not-be-derailed-by-amber-heard-johnny-depp-trial-verdict/
Heard testified that during her appearance on “The Late Late Show” with James Corden in December 2015, her makeup artist Melanie Inglessis "covered the discoloration, the bruises, with slightly heavier concealer." Heard had also previously testified that there were bruises on her face due to Depp's abuse, and she had fear that the bruising would appear on Corden’s show. Yet, when pictures were shown from her Late Late Show appearance, it was clear that there was no bruising.
"I remember in the car checking my phone obsessively for pictures because my dress was backless. Of all times to have a backless dress," she told the court, starting to get emotional. "I was looking at pictures of us on the red carpet and it was surreal because I was checking for bruises and making sure there would be no marks on me."
https://toofab.com/2022/05/05/amber-heard-johnny-depp-mordecai-premiere/
Heard had previously claimed Depp threw a bottle of liquor at her, threatened to carve up her face and allegedly penetrated her with it. Also during that alleged fight, Heard had also claimed Depp smashed a phone to "smithereens." But Vasquez said no phones were shown smashed in pictures taken of the scene.
https://www.etonline.com/johnny-depp-v-amber-heard-a-breakdown-of-the-ongoing-defamation-trial-182665
At 11:28 am the shooter crashed his vehicle in a ditch near the school. He fires his gun at two male witnesses who began approaching the crash from a nearby funeral home. The witnesses flee and call 911. He enters the school five minutes later. It then took officers 85 minutes to reenter the school after their first confrontation with the shooter.
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/27/uvalde-texas-school-shooting-timeline/
… it was revealed that two officers who initially approached the door were shot at and grazed. This prompted Chief Arredondo to decide that quickly breaching the classrooms without shields and other protection would have led to officers possibly being killed. He focused instead on getting other children out of the school while waiting for additional protection equipment.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/09/us/uvalde-shooting-police-response.html
In the case of Uvalde, a Bloomberg report found that the budget for the police force makes up 40% of the Uvalde city budget.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-28/why-police-funding-makes-up-40-uvalde-s-city-budget
Shortly after the shooting, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz called for more armed school police, describing them as “the most effective tool for keeping kids safe.” This concept has also trickled through the pundits on Fox News and political radio outlets.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/police-arent-answer-texas-shooting-experts-say-rcna30763
Donald Trump and Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz have pushed for hardening school buildings, with Trump calling for …
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/27/trump-cruz-nra-speech-uvalde/
Debunking Courses Offered At PragerU Lesson 16—“The Most Important Question About Abortion”
When it comes to examining Prager's claim about "animal rights," it's pretty clear that they don't know what they are talking about. According to the US Department of Agriculture, there are only three federal mandates as it pertains to animal rights. The Animal Welfare Act (AWA), Animal Welfare Regulations, and Rules of Practice Governing Proceedings under the Animal Welfare Act.
According to 1 U.S. Code § 8 (a): In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word “person,” “human being,” “child,” and “individual,” shall include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/1/8
In 2022, Pew Research found that 69% of Americans polled felt that abortion should be legal in the case of rape or incest. The poll also found that 73% agreed with abortion in cases where the mother could die. In the same poll, only 29% of Americans supported abortion by 24 weeks, with the numbers rapidly declining the later in the pregnancy.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23167397/abortion-public-opinion-polls-americans
Support for legal abortion is greater among those with higher levels of education. While majorities of those with a postgraduate degree (69%), bachelor’s degree (64%) and those with some college experience (63%) say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, adults with no more than a high school education are more divided on the issue: 54% say abortion should be legal in at least most cases, while 44% say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.
In fact, the rapid decline in China’s workforce due to this archaic policy has caused so many issues within the nation that the policy was lifted in 2016 to allow for two children, only to see the nation change the policy yet again in 2021 to allow for three children due to even more of a rapid decline of birthrates than initially anticipated.
How The Democrats Are Trying To Destroy The Freedom Of Speech
In 2017, motivated by concerns about the “narrowing window of permissible topics” for discussion on campuses, John Villasenor (a Brookings Institution senior fellow and University of California at Los Angeles professor) conducted a nationwide survey of 1,500 undergraduate students at four-year colleges. Many of Villasenor's questions were designed to gauge students' understanding of the First Amendment. The results were clear.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-chilling-study-shows-how-hostile-college-students-are-toward-free-speech/2017/09/18/cbb1a234-9ca8-11e7-9083-fbfddf6804c2_story.html
Shortly after the 2022 supermarket shooting that took place in Buffalo, New York, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made a statement reiterating the concept of free speech in these kinds of tragedies; "Obviously you have to balance the free speech issues," Pelosi said. "Freedom is so important to us but that freedom also carries public safety with it and we have to balance that."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pelosi-calls-for-balance-between-free-speech-and-safety-after-buffalo-shooting/ar-AAXiEPb?li=BBnb7Kz
Shawnee State University officials punished a philosophy professor, Dr. Nicholas Meriwether, because he declined a male student’s demand to be referred to as a woman with feminine titles and pronouns (“Miss,” “she,” etc.) Although Dr. Meriwether offered to use the student’s preferred first or last name instead. Initially, the University accepted that compromise, only to reverse course days later. Ultimately, it punished him by putting a written warning in his personnel file and threatened “further corrective actions” unless he acquiesced to the demands.
https://adflegal.org/case/meriwether-v-trustees-shawnee-state-university
“the other bizarre thing about why this quote gets attributed to why it’s okay to limit free speech is, the Schenck case, which has now actually been overturned and has been for 60 years, actually stood for the exact opposite. The Schenck case was applying a pretty large degree of censorship on free speech. That’s why it was overturned is because it was actually found to be completely contrary toward what the First Amendment stood for.”
https://www.whalenlawoffice.com/legal-mythbusting-series-yelling-fire-in-a-crowded-theater/
in 2016, per Pew Research, that Among the post-grad set, more than half of Democrats and Democratic-leaners today are "consistently liberal," with college graduates at 47%.
https://www.npr.org/2016/04/30/475794063/why-are-highly-educated-americans-getting-more-liberal
with President Biden having won about 60% of college-educated voters in 2020.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/08/us/politics/how-college-graduates-vote.html
How Lawmakers Are Using Deception & Ineffective Legislation To Prevent Police Accountability
“I want to go on the record. The way that video was released today was one of the most chicken things I’ve ever seen,” Mayor Don McLaughlin said at a city council meeting.
When questioned why the news outlet "The American Statesman" released the footage, its executive editor Manny Garcia said, “Our goal is to continue to bring to light what happened at Robb Elementary, which the families and friends of the Uvalde victims have long been asking for."
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/uvalde-mayor-don-mclaughlin-response-police-school-video_n_62cec2d2e4b0eef119c0df63
Under the policy, officers may give chase if they believe a person is committing or is about to commit a felony, a Class A misdemeanor such as domestic battery, or a serious traffic offense that could risk injuring others, such as drunken driving or street racing.
Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx. She told reporters that under the new policy, the shooting of Alvarez never would have happened for two reasons. First, when police chased him for a traffic violation "they knew who he was and where he lived."
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/chicago-police-foot-pursuits_n_62b2f546e4b0cf43c85e3070
In 2022, Arizona passed a law which will make it illegal for people to film a police officer from 8 feet or closer without the officer’s permission, placing greater limits on how people can video police officers at a time when calls are growing louder for increased law enforcement transparency.
“I’m pleased that a very reasonable law that promotes the safety of police officers and those involved in police stops and bystanders has been signed into law,” Republican state Rep. John Kavanagh, the bill’s sponsor, told the Associated Press. “It promotes everybody’s safety yet still allows people to reasonably videotape police activity as is their right.”
https://news.yahoo.com/new-arizona-law-places-limits-on-filming-police-amid-growing-calls-for-transparency-204945549.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kLTMzMzI2MTM1OTU0MDgyNDA4NDAzLmFtcHByb2plY3QubmV0Lw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFEVsIIlBSrVUdjdt76yS-QuRfIEHX5tbsPa-YKSXElzuwxVX7y4HETKyn9F9JQlvYYzI6MBcqoOUfZsjj-_7fjEwVgdlVHkZyTRdAB2FzFZUhpzZRvrdPRl5VAUvU9nJikVmpRABS1V981NiAk4YSoC-z9WxIlT4ah94RWpyic9
Democrats Trying To Pass Pro-Gay Marriage & Birth Control Laws; Too Little Too Late?
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the House to pass the Respect for Marriage Act, which would protect marriage equality by repealing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and providing federal protections for same-sex and interracial couples. The bill passed 267-157, with every Democrat voting for the bill.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/house-democrats-same-sex-marriage-contraception-supreme-court-senate/
“Their bodies are not ready for childbirth and it’s very traumatic,” said Marie Bass Gomez, a midwife and the senior nursing officer at the reproductive and child health clinic at Bundung Maternal and Child Health Hospital in Gambia. “The critical issue is that the pelvis of a child is too small to allow passage of even a small fetus,” said Dr. Ashok Dyalchand, who has worked with pregnant adolescent girls in low-income communities in India for more than 40 years.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/18/health/young-girls-pregnancy-childbirth.html
among those who say abortion should be against the law in most or all cases, nearly half (46%) say it should be legal if the pregnancy threatens the health or life of the woman.
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/05/06/americas-abortion-quandary/
Across 31 states, about two-thirds of voters who have switched their official party registrations in the past year have switched to the Republican Party, according to voter registration data analyzed by The Associated Press. The phenomenon is playing out in virtually every region of the country—Democratic and Republican states along with cities and small towns—in the period since President Joe Biden replaced former President Donald Trump.
Why Does The Republican Party Want A Nation Of Rapists?
Fox News host Jesse Watters opened his show by not-so-subtly laying the ground work for a conspiracy theory when it came to the 10 year old rape victim—her attack was a hoax. “You would think the story of a sexual abuser roaming free assaulting 10-year-olds would raise quite a few concerns in small-town Ohio, but no one seems to be doing anything about it,” he said later. “No one even knows anything about it. Local media outlets aren't even alerting the public. There's a monster on the loose and from what we can find, no local newspaper or TV station picked up the story.”
Kansas voters rejected a state Constitutional Amendment that would have said there was no right to an abortion in the state, according to The Associated Press. The results were clear: the proposed Amendment was struck down with 59% of the vote.
https://www.npr.org/sections/2022-live-primary-election-race-results/2022/08/02/1115317596/kansas-voters-abortion-legal-reject-constitutional-amendment
The report showed that the Kansas vote implies that around 65% of voters nationwide would reject a similar initiative to roll back abortion rights, including in more than 40 of the 50 states (a few states on each side are very close to 50-50). This is a rough estimate, based on how demographic characteristics predicted the results of recent abortion referendums. But it is an evidence-based way of arriving at a fairly obvious conclusion: If abortion rights wins 59% support in Kansas, it’s doing even better than that nationwide.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/04/upshot/kansas-abortion-vote-analysis.html
After Roe was overturned, alleged former sex worker (and current Colorado Republican Representative) Lauren Boebert posted thanks on Twitter for the decision handed out by the highest court in the land. "LIFE WINS! Glory to God," she wrote.
https://www.newsweek.com/glory-god-lauren-boebert-celebrates-overturn-roe-v-wade-1718976
Texas attorney general Ken Paxton relished the Roe decision, similarly invoking his religion. "Scotus just overruled Roe and Casey, ending one of the most morally and legally corrupt eras in US history. Praise the Lord.” “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad. Today, along with millions across Louisiana and America, I rejoice with my departed Mom and the unborn children with her in Heaven!” said Louisiana’s attorney general, Jeff Landry, in an official statement.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/24/rightwing-republicans-conservatives-reaction-abortion-ruling
Speaking to Charles Jaco on the Jaco Report on St. Louis’s Fox station, Akin was answering a question about allowing abortions in the case of rape. He said, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2012/08/akin-legitimate-rape-victims-dont-get-pregnant-079864
A 2015 study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, analyzed data from 21,566 male sex offenders convicted in Sweden between 1973 and 2009 and concluded that genetics may account for roughly 40% of the likelihood of committing a sex crime. Women, who commit less than 1% of Sweden's sexual offenses, were omitted from the analysis. Also, based on their analyses, the researchers concluded that shared environment accounted for just 2% of the risk of sexual offense, while genetics accounted for roughly 40%.
https://www.science.org/content/article/reality-check-sex-crime-genetic#:~:text=Based%20on%20their%20analyses%2C%20the,genetics%20accounted%20for%20roughly%2040%25
Alex Jones Proves That Crazy Talk Is Only Acceptable When Coming From Qanon Republican Leaders
Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene described inmates being held at what she called the "patriot wing" of a Washington, D.C., jail in connection with the January 6 Capitol riots as "political prisoners of war" in November, 2021.
https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-january-6-capitol-riots-political-prisoners-1648287
Arizona Republican Representative Paul Gosar said the Justice Department was "harassing peaceful patriots" by investigating their involvement in the insurrection. He too has mentioned them as political prisoners as well.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/conspiracy-theories-paint-fraudulent-reality-of-jan-6-riot
Ryan Dark White, a Republican candidate for the 2022 US Senate race in Maryland under the name Jon McGreevey, has been arrested and charged with filing a false report after he allegedly told law enforcement “an adult bookstore in Edgewood was forcing a young girl to perform sex acts on men," the Harford County Sheriff's Office said.
https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/md-republican-senate-candidate-charged-with-false-report-after-allegedly-claiming-adult-bookstore-trafficked-children/
"84 Republicans signed documents falsely claiming to be the duly chosen electors for Donald Trump in the electoral college despite Trump having lost in those particular states. These include dozens of local Republican party leaders, eight current office holders and at least five previous state and federal office holders."
Attorney Devin J. Stone Esq. August 2022
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e5SUhbegZtc
When Natalie Jackson, a researcher with the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), surveyed Americans on the central views of the conspiracist QAnon movement, she found that only 25% of those who identify as Republican fully believe in the various Qanon conspiracies (when presented with the conspiracies on a one-by-one basis).
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2022-02-24/a-quarter-of-republicans-believe-central-views-of-qanon-conspiracy-movement
"Children are in the greatest danger in America today because traditional family values are being destroyed—the idea that mom and dad together, not fake mom and fake dad, but the biological mom and biological dad, can raise their children together and do what's right for their children," she said.
https://www.newsweek.com/greene-calls-non-biological-parents-fake-amid-post-roe-adoption-push-1725293
The Numbers Are In,Fighting Climate Change Won't Stop The Inevitable
An August, 2022 report from The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that even if the Paris agreement goals are implemented, a 2.4 degree Celsius rise by 2050 is all but inevitable.
https://time.com/6206111/climate-change-anarchy-what-comes-next/
As of 2022, that’s how many tons of carbon dioxide are emitted every year from human activities, including transportation and industrial plants, according to research published last year by Our World in Data. more than 40% higher than 1990 levels
https://ourworldindata.org/greenhouse-gas-emissions#:~:text=This%20chart%20shows%20the%20change,were%20around%2035%20billion%20tonnes.
Greenhouse gas pollution caused by human activities has trapped 49% more heat in the atmosphere in 2021 than they did in 1990.
https://research.noaa.gov/article/ArtMID/587/ArticleID/2877/Greenhouse-gas-pollution-trapped-49-more-heat-in-2021-than-in-1990-NOAA-finds
According to the 2022 Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, 71% of those polled believe that climate change is definitely happening. Additionally, 66% of respondents believe that climate change is caused "mostly" or "entirely" by human activities.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/americans-concern-climate-change-drops-poll?utm_source=msn&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=msn_feed
Cecil Roberts, the president of the United Mine Workers of America had to defended Manchin against attacks that the law was bad for the coal industry. "Those who are attacking this legislation ... overlook some pretty obvious benefits of this bill to West Virginia coal miners, like the billions in tax credits for the application of Carbon Capture and Storage technology, which would allow coal-fired power plants to extend their lives for decades," he said in a statement.
https://www.businessinsider.com/manchin-roberts-west-virginia-coal-mine-workers-union-climate-bill-2022-8
They claim that the bill will invest $369 billion in climate solutions and environmental justice, and it will put us on a path to 40% emissions reduction by 2030 while restoring US credibility to lead climate action on the global stage.
https://earthjustice.org/brief/2022/what-the-inflation-reduction-act-means-for-climate
According to researchers at the University of Stockholm, as of 2022 rainwater almost everywhere on Earth has unsafe levels of “forever chemicals”—making it unpotable.
Debunking Courses Offered At PragerU Lesson 17—“Who’s More Radical: The Left Or The Right?”
In 2022 alone there were 36 Qanon supporters running for Congress. Some of them are GOP darling that capture the news headlines like Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-36-qanon-supporters-running-congress-in-the-2022-midterms-2021-6
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if the Pentagon were a private corporation, gross mismanagement would have forced it into bankruptcy years ago. Dysfunctional internal controls, aided and abetted by years of lax congressional and administration oversight, have enabled it to waste tens of billions of dollars annually, and the last 20 years are littered with a parade of overpriced, botched and bungled projects. In just the first decade of this century, the Pentagon was forced to cancel a dozen ill-conceived, ineffective weapons programs that cost taxpayers $46 billion.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-rein-in-inflated-military-budgets/
Per the Department of Labor, during America’s “golden age” for the middle class (1945-1967), minimum wage was raised seven times for a 300% increase.
Gov. DeSantis & SCOTUS Actions Are Showing Us The Ultimate Republican Policing Goals
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But according to the Orlando Sentinel, Warren is far from the only elected law enforcement official in the state making judgments about which laws to enforce. Numerous sheriffs throughout Florida have openly defied the state's gun laws—with no objection from DeSantis whatsoever.
https://www.rawstory.com/ron-desantis-2657827004/
Kimberly Musselman, an assistant state attorney in Brevard County, told Florida Today she was asked by Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey to bow out of her race for county judge and endorse a candidate backed by him.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/florida-wayne-ivey-pressured-candidates_n_62f43531e4b0da517ef5551d
In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled that police officers are NOT required to know the laws they enforce in the case of Heien v. North Carolina.
https://www.lexisnexis.com/community/casebrief/p/casebrief-heien-v-north-carolina
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Castle Rock V. Gonzales, we learned that police are not required to “protect and serve.”
https://www.lexisnexis.com/community/casebrief/p/casebrief-town-of-castle-rock-v-gonzales
How The Mormons Are Surpassing Catholics In Sex Abuse Cover-Ups
Given that as of 2021, 89 of the 103 seated lawmakers in the state of Utah are members of the Mormon Church …
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2021/01/14/latter-day-saints-are/
Herrod continued to counsel MJ’s father, Paul Douglas Adams, for another year, and brought in Adams’ wife, Leizza Adams, in hopes she would do something to protect the children. She didn’t. Herrod later told a second bishop, who also kept the matter secret after consulting with church officials who maintain that the bishops were excused from reporting the abuse to police under the state’s so-called clergy-penitent privilege.
https://apnews.com/article/Mormon-church-sexual-abuse-takeaways-f01fba7521ddddffa89622668b54ac10
"The AP story has significant flaws in its facts and timeline, which lead to erroneous conclusions. We are puzzled as to why or how a media source as respected as the Associated Press would make such egregious errors in reporting and editing." The statement then continues with facts "missed by the Associated Press.
http://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/church-provides-further-details-about-arizona-abuse-case
"These bishops did nothing wrong. They didn't violate the law, and therefore they can't be held liable," he said. Maledon referred to the suit as "a money grab".
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/seven-years-of-sex-abuse-how-mormon-officials-let-it-happen/ZFQZ5SNNJGR6AVTIGZSJPXQYLI/
Republican Education Plans Will Keep Kids Stupid, Ensuring Their Party’s Future
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"There are many people who have gone through many hoops and hurdles to obtain a proper teaching certificate," said Carmen Ward, president of the Alachua County teachers union. "(Educators) are very dismayed that now someone with just a high school education can pass the test and can easily get a five-year temporary certificate." Alachua County school board member Tina Certain said, "I just think that to the education profession, we're lowering the bar on that and minimizing the criteria of what it takes to enter the profession."
https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/education/2022/07/28/florida-allowing-military-veterans-teach-without-certificate-teacher-shortage/10173158002/
North Carolina’s Republican Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson is now calling for eliminating science and social studies education in elementary schools. In his 2022 memoir, entitled We Are the Majority: The Life and Passions of a Patriot, he railed against kids learning about history in first through 5th grade. “In those grades, we don’t need to be teaching social studies,” Robinson wrote. “We don’t need to be teaching science. We surely don’t need to be talking about equity and social justice. Science classes should end because they’re teaching kids about climate change. Guess what? Most of the people of North Carolina know global warming is junk science,” he wrote.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/gop-lieutenant-governor-wants-to-ban-social-studies-and-science-in-elementary-schools/ar-AA1102jz?li=BBnbfcL
Republican Governor Kristi Noem from South Dakota released a new/2022 draft of social studies standards for K-12 students that “feature a true, honest and balanced approach to American history that is not influenced by political agendas." To ensure this "balanced approach" with zero political influence, Noem signed an executive order to ensure critical race theory would not be taught in South Dakota’s schools.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/raise-the-bar-gov-kristi-noem-releases-new-draft-of-social-studies-standards/ar-AA10H2r9?li=BBnb7Kz
His Kansas Senate Bill Substitute HB 2117 was supposed to be “like a shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Kansas economy.” It wasn't. Revenues fell $700 million in the first year and never recovered.
https://www.cbpp.org/blog/timeline-5-years-of-kansas-tax-cut-disaster
the cuts were so massive that in 2017, the Kansas state Supreme Court ruled that the state’s spending on public education was unconstitutionally low. In a unanimous ruling, the court said black, Hispanic and poor students were especially harmed by the lack of funding, pointing to lagging test scores and graduation rates. It's important to remember that this was the second time in about a year that Kansas’ highest court ruled against the state’s approach to paying for schools.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/us/kansas-supreme-court-school-spending.html
38th out of 71 countries in math and 24th in science (per Pew Research)
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students-internationally-math-science/
Deshaun Watson, Dennis Prager & SCOTUS: How Women Are Being Punished For Simply Existing
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Dennis Prager has A LOT of sway with Republican voters. His video-based "university," PragerU, has a current subscriber count of almost 3 million. And according to a 2019 Los Angeles Times report, their view count had surpassed 2 billion views.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/prageru-surpasses-2-billion-all-time-views-300812721.html
On August 30, the Daily Signal published an op-ed by Prager that was infamously headlined, “Women Are Disproportionately Hurting Our Country.” As you can surmise from the title, it is a misogynistic tirade of pathetic proportions. In the op-ed, Prager writes, “It’s true that females are not inclined to violence or predatory sexual behavior as men are, but this hardly means that girls and women don’t have to learn to control their natures…. It should be obvious that at least two generations of parents — especially among the well-educated — did not teach many of their daughters to control their emotions and think rationally. The result is that women are disproportionately active in doing damage to our society.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/relationships/pure-misogyny-dennis-prager-ripped-for-accusing-women-of-disproportionately-destroying-america/ar-AA11mUML?li=BBnb7Kz
The NFL brought in Judge Sue Robinson to hear the case. In her ruling she stated that the NFL had proven that according to its own definition, he committed sexual assault against the four women whose cases were presented to her. It’s important to recall that around the same time as the ruling was announced, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell called Watson's behavior "predatory."
https://www.nfl.com/news/deshaun-watson-settlement-brings-suspension-saga-to-unsatisfying-close
Araiza, 22, whose powerful and precision kicking in college earned him the moniker “Punt God,” was accused of having sex with the minor outside the home and then bringing her inside to a room where she was repeatedly raped. The lawsuit, filed in San Diego County Superior Court, alleges that the then-high school senior went in and out of consciousness but remembers moments as the men took turns assaulting her.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-08-25/nfl-matt-araiza-sdsu-football-players-accused-rape-lawsuit
General manager Brandon Beane and head coach Sean McDermott announced the move. Beane said that Araiza needed to focus on the accusations and that the alleged behavior would make the player "a no-go for us" if it is true.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/buffalo-bills-release-punter-matt-araiza-lawsuits-rape-accusations-rcna45133
A 2022 NY Times report laid the data out pretty clearly. One in a thousand women who gets pregnant each year is diagnosed with cancer, meaning thousands of women are facing a serious and possibly fatal disease while they are expecting a baby.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/23/health/pregnant-woman-cancer-abortion.html
Debunking Courses Offered At PragerU Lesson 18—“Who Does The Media Most Want To Silence?”
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340 mass shootings that occurred in 2018 (per the Gun Violence Archive) which caused 373 deaths and 1,346 injuries
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-many-mass-shootings-in-america-this-year-2018-2
When discussing the subject, Streisand made it clear that the whole issue is a “terribly complex thing,” and in an attempt to try to understand the women who support Trump, she used the above quoted statement as a means to try and make sense of these women’s choices.
Don’t forget that before being given her prestigious UN appointment she once said about Donald Trump, “I will not stop until we fight a man that chooses not to disavow the KKK. That is not a part of our party. That is not who we want as president.”
Per Pew Research, 62% of American adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
Republicans Are Emotionally Driven Snowflakes; 21st Century Science Proves It
Research published in 2013 in the Public Library of Science journal PLOS ONE, shows that scientists can predict who’s right and who’s left of center politically with 82.9% accuracy.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/study-predicts-political-beliefs-with-83-percent-accuracy-17536124/
A 2022 political study published on April 3rd confirmed that exposure to varied news outlets can promote more divergent ways of thinking, as noted by the study's two authors, political scientists David Broockman of University of California, Berkeley and Joshua Kalla of Yale.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/over-700-fox-news-viewers-000923606.html
In the U of U report, the investigators set out to determine which brain networks are involved in representing spiritual feelings in one group, devout Mormons, by creating an environment that triggered participants to “feel the Spirit.”
https://healthcare.utah.edu/publicaffairs/news/2016/11/religious-brain.php
Combine this with 83% of Republicans identifying as Christian (which includes all denominations of a Christ-based faith) per the 2020 census.
https://www.prri.org/research/2020-census-of-american-religion/
BYU/Duke, Jussie Smollett, And Oberlin College: When Racism Is Weaponized Wrongfully
Between my own experiences in conjunction with knowing the realities of how systematically racist our criminal justice system is, I think it's always important to examine all sides of an issue. Even when it's a side that I feel hurts furthering the overall message; in this case, when racism is used as the core of a false accusation.
Given that per a 2021 report in The Sentencing Project, Black Americans are incarcerated in state prisons at nearly 5 times the rate of white Americans, we know the systemic claim I made is accurate.
https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/color-of-justice-racial-and-ethnic-disparity-in-state-prisons/
In a statement made a few weeks after the event, the private Provo school said it thoroughly reviewed surveillance video from the game and has “not found any evidence” that a fan screamed slurs at Duke sophomore Rachel Richardson as she had reported she heard “very distinctly.”
https://www.sltrib.com/sports/byu-cougars/2022/09/09/byu-says-it-cannot-corroborate/
The lawsuit filed by Gibson’s contended that Oberlin had defamed the bakery when the dean of students, Meredith Raimondo, and other members of the administration took sides in the dispute by attending the protests, where fliers, peppered with capital letters, urged a boycott of the bakery and said that it was a “RACIST establishment with a LONG ACCOUNT OF RACIAL PROFILING and DISCRIMINATION.” Gibson’s also presented testimony that Oberlin had stopped ordering from the bakery but had offered to restore its business if charges were dropped against the three students or if the bakery gave students accused of shoplifting special treatment, which it refused to do.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/08/us/oberlin-bakery-lawsuit.html
In January 2019, Chicago police began investigating a suspected racist and homophobic attack of Empire star Jussie Smollett by two masked men which happened at about 2am. They say the actor was punched in the face, had an "unknown chemical substance" poured on him and a rope wrapped around his neck. Smollett tells police the two attackers also made references to MAGA.
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/9CED/production/_123637104_jussie.png
the case against Smollett was eventually decided in 2021 when a jury in Cook County, Illinois found him guilty of felony disorderly conduct for staging a fake hate crime. Jurors deliberated for a little more than nine hours over two days before finding Smollett guilty on five of the six counts he faced, which were related to a false report he gave on the day of the attack.
https://www.npr.org/2021/12/09/1062768250/jussie-smollett-verdict
“[Gibson’s] called the police on legitimate crime being perpetrated in their fifth-generation shop, and got smeared as racists. Now Oberlin College has agreed to pay $36.59 million in damages to the bakery. The job of the press is to ask questions about anything that happens, to find the truth, but the leftists want to discourage anyone from daring to question their narratives.”
https://www.clayandbuck.com/duke-and-oberlin-shamed-for-false-racism-charges/