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January 2023

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

FBI Agent Investigating Trump for Russia Ties Gets Arrested for Russia Ties By Kevin Downey Jr.

By on January 24th, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/kevindowneyjr/2023/01/23/fbi-agent-investigating-trump-for-russia-ties-gets-arrested-for-russia-ties-n1664212

Charles McGonigal — the former FBI agent who led the Trump-Russia investigation — has been arrested for “agreeing to provide services” to the billionaire Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

FACT-O-RAMA! It seems everything the left accuses Trump of doing – like hoarding classified documents and collusing with Russians- they are guilty of doing themselves.

Sergey Shestakov, a former Soviet, then Russian diplomat, now an American citizen, was arrested as well.

The two men are charged with trying to have Deripaska removed from the U.S. sanctions list.

“Both previously worked with Deripaska to attempt to have his sanctions removed, and, as public servants, they should have known better,” Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, claimed in a statement. “This Office will continue to prosecute those who violate U.S. sanctions enacted in response to Russian belligerence in Ukraine in order to line their own pockets.”

Charges against both men include:

A single count of violating the IEEPA (International Emergency Economic Powers Act)
One count of conspiring to commit money laundering
An additional count of money laundering

Each of these counts carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in a federal hoosegow. Shestakov was also charged with one count of lying to the FBI, which could snag him a maximum of five additional years.

In short, the high-ranking FBI agent sent to investigate Trump for colluding with Russia was busted for colluding with a Russian oligarch.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Leading Democrats Abandon Biden’s Sinking Ship By Robert Spencer

By on January 24th, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2023/01/23/leading-democrats-abandon-bidens-sinking-ship-n1664342

As each new day brings fresh revelations of more classified documents discovered in Old Joe Biden’s garage and luxury beach home, the import of it all is clear: the people who are running this administration have tired of their dementia-ridden front man, and have determined to get rid of him. Another indication of this comes from the fact that the rats are abandoning the sinking ship in ever-increasing numbers. Or, as the Associated Press put it more politely on Sunday, “senior Democrats, dismayed by a steady stream of startling disclosures, expressed criticism Sunday of how President Joe Biden handled classified material after leaving office as vice president and disappointment that the White House has not been more forthcoming with the public.” Whether they want Joe to resign in disgrace or simply to bow out of contention for the 2024 Marxist party nomination is as yet unclear, but there’s no doubt that they want Old Joe to start packing sooner than January 2029.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who is the Chou En-Lai of Senate Democrats — that is, their second-ranking member — declared that Old Joe should be “embarrassed by the situation,” as if the corrupt, venal, mendacious pretend president were capable of embarrassment. “Well, of course,” Durbin insisted. “Let’s be honest about it. When that information is found, it diminishes the stature of any person who is in possession of it because it’s not supposed to happen. … The elected official bears ultimate responsibility.”

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

The Numbers Show That MIT Has a Free-Speech Problem At this world-leading research institution, 40% of faculty say they self-censor more than in 2020. By Daryl Morey

By on January 24th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-numbers-show-that-mit-has-a-free-speech-problem-controversial-education-students-college-self-censor-11674514243?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

Twenty-one years as an executive in the National Basketball Association has taught me to start with the data when confronted with a problem. Now, I am asking my alma mater to do the same on the important issue of free expression.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has suffered several embarrassing incidents regarding free speech in recent years. These include the cancellation of Prof. Dorian Abbot’s John Carlson Lecture on climate change in October 2021 and the institution of a March 2022 policy that students may not ask others to wear masks.

The data point to a growing problem: According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, MIT ranks an abysmal 181st out of 203 universities when it comes to students’ belief that the administration will protect their speech rights. FIRE reports that the mistrust extends to MIT faculty: 38% say they don’t believe the administration would defend a speaker’s rights during a controversy. Forty percent of MIT faculty said they were more likely to self-censor as of summer 2022 than they had been before 2020. Among students, 41% aren’t confident in the administration’s ability to protect controversial speech. Those are disheartening statistics for one of the world’s best research institutions.

If MIT faculty, who are at the cutting edge of science and technology, can’t count on their employer to defend open inquiry, it might prevent them from taking innovative risks. This, in turn, would stymie technological progress and the education of the next generation of innovators.

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Climate Activism Has a Cult Problem As a member of Extinction Rebellion, writes Zion Lights, I watched people brainwashed into pulling outrageous stunts in the name of ‘saving the planet.’ *****

By on January 24th, 2023

https://www.thefp.com/p/climate-activism-has-a-cult-problem?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Maybe you saw Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” smeared with two cans of tomato soup. Or the 20-year-old man who set fire to his arm at a tennis tournament, wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the words “End UK Private Jets.” Or the traffic on London’s M25 highway blocked by protesters for days. One 24-year-old girl, Louise, climbed atop a crane on the highway. “I’m here because I don’t have a future,” she exclaimed between sobs.

All these stories feature young members of a movement that claims to fight climate change by demanding their governments stop using and producing fossil fuels immediately.  

Their methods seem unorthodox, and you’re probably wondering how defacing artwork or gluing your hand to the floor of a Volkswagen showroom reduces carbon emissions. I don’t blame you. 

The difference between me and you is I used to be one of them.  

For the past 16 years, I was part of one environmental organization or another as an activist or paid employee. First it was Camp for Climate Action, where we protested a different corporation every year. Once, in a demonstration outside a bank in Edinburgh, we wore garbage bags and painted ourselves in molasses—a nod to the tar sands that the bank was investing in—and stormed the Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters, where I was arrested.

I became a mother in 2011, and swore off putting myself in danger, but I doubled down on my commitment to the movement. I wrote a book on ecologically minded parenting. I was the co-editor of a magazine, Juno, on the same subject. I gave talks, made television appearances, and wrote articles about the threat posed by unlivable temperatures that come from our reliance on fossil fuels.

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