About Trump’s “Friendly” Relationship with Russia

Tribal forces are strong and counter-narratives are a bitch. Glenn Greenwald points out that on two key issues, Trump was most definitely not under Russian control. These incidents should have stopped Russiagate in its tracks, but they didn't.

Here's more evidence of the counter-narrative that was ignored and suppressed. It should have been big news and it should have given left-leaning news media pause. Acknowledging facts like this makes you less popular at your friends' cocktail parties.  Greenwald's words are harsh but well-deserved:

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Kenosha Documentary Allows you to Make Up Your Own Mind

Three hellish days of Kenosha told in raw recordings, without commentary. Below is the trailer. I support this project, which is a good step for circumventing filters and lies of legacy media outlets. Now you can make up your own mind.

Hi, I'm Matt Orfalea, producer/director/editor of "Killing Kenosha".

"Killing Kenosha" is a feature-length film documenting the 2020 civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. It covers the dramatic 48 hours between the police shooting of Jacob Blake and the shootings of Kyle Rittenhouse, who is currently on trial for murder. Here's a 10-minute opener.

WHY I'M MAKING THIS FILM The full story of the 2020 Keosha unrest must be told and understood in order to prevent such tragedies from repeating.

WHY I NEED YOUR HELP Unfortunately, even though "Killing Kenosha" has all the aspects of a blockbuster movie (drama, crime, horror), it is not a lucrative endeavor. Everywhere I've tried to secure funding, I've been told, "It's too controversial". Likewise, my YouTube videos on the events have been demonetized. I've been passionately researching and editing this project myself for months and I need your financial support to complete the following tasks. . .

Here's Matt Orfalea's gofundme page.

It should make us all pause to hear anyone criticizing raw footage. It's coming from the political left, unsurprisingly. They are trying to preserve their chosen narrative at all costs, even if it requires attacking classic liberals like the producer of this documentary, Matt Orfalea:

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Scientific American Publishes False Information, Recklessly Stoking the Culture Wars

Three alleged specialists in communications who wrote this article at Scientific American could not be bothered to look up the easily available text of a Wisconsin bill that they are falsely criticizing. This is deeply troubling. This is magazine that purports to celebrate science, yet this article, which has nothing to do with science, blatantly misrepresents the facts (the text of a Wisconsin) bill in order to score political points. Here's the false information:

A bill passed by the Wisconsin Assembly, for instance, bans any books, educational materials, or classroom discussions that include terms like “racial prejudice,” “patriarchy,” “structural inequality,” “intersectionality” or, ironically, “critical self-reflection.”

It only takes 5 minutes to read Wisconsin bill 411 and clearly and immediately know that none of the above claims are true.  Jesse Singal comments.

I'm not taking a position on the above Wisconsin bill. Rather, I'm criticizing well-educated people in high places who deceive others from their perches in order to feel better about themselves.

This is not the first time Scientific American has run off the rails on cultural issues. See here, here and here.

RIP Scientific American.  I used to read and admire you because you tried to get your facts right and you wrote about science.

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Sizing up Diversity Training: Is it Education or is it Indoctrination?

At Counterweight, Chuck Almdale has offered a thoughtful list of ten warning signs in his article at Counterweight: "Ten Signs your Diversity Training Session is CSJ Indoctrination."

Here are the titles to the ten warning signs:

1. It’s mandatory.

2. “Listen with curiosity, without judgment.”

3. “Check your privilege.”

4. “How do you identify?”

5. “What are your pronouns?”

6. Black Allyship.

7. No humor.

8. Shaming for disagreement or critical questions.

9. Diversity of race, gender and ethnicity but not of thought or speech.

10. New terms, rarely supported or defined.

Here's an excerpt on point 8:

Questions are permitted only to increase your shame and acquiescence to their program, as in “How do I stop behaving as a privileged white woman?” Critical questions about their statements or behavior are not permitted. They’ll say, “You’re pulling a power play”—trying to resist them, trying to influence others, subverting the training, and your disagreement proves your racism, that you are “on the wrong side of history”; the future belongs to the Woke. Want to belong? “Do the Work.”

Don’t believe them if they say that the “still, small voice” of your inner self is your White Fragility, panicking at vanishing. If they succeed at inhibiting that voice, your psychological recovery from Wokeness becomes very difficult, as some psychological therapists and others have discovered. Psychotherapist Seerut K. Chawla, practicing in London, dislikes Wokeness for the damage it has caused to many of her patients. Mike Brooks writes in Psychology Today about how Woke shaming destroys compassion. Also in Psychology Today Rupert W Nacoste writes that name-calling is bigotry, not social justice. The pressure to conform from facilitators and other trainees can be overwhelming. Your ounce of resistance is worth a pound of cure. Resist. Question. Tell a joke. Humor subverts Wokeness. One voice of resistance can unleash a chorus of support.

I would add the following. If you are forced to attend such an indoctrination session, go in knowing that you are going to make a lot of people irritated by committing the sin of being honest.  You will be called names and you will be shamed.  You will survive and live another day.  In the middle of the shamefest remember that Martin Luther King put up with abuse a thousand times worse for a period of decades.  Talk loud, hold your head high and know that there are a lot of quiet people in that room who are proud of you and relieved that you are speaking up.

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