Tag: hypocrisy

Top D.A.R.E. Officer Says Medical Marijuana Helped His Brother-In-Law Treat Cancer Pain

The anti-drug group D.A.R.E.’s 2022 officer of the year asserts in a new online documentary that “alcohol is a gateway drug”—though he occasionally drinks it. But marijuana is another story and can’t be safely enjoyed recreationally, he says, despite believing that cannabis has medical value after it helped treat his brother-in-law’s cancer-related pain.

D.A.R.E.’s president, meanwhile, acknowledges in the documentary that some of the criticism of the war on drugs might have something to do with earlier scandals within federal agencies, such as the CIA’s implication in a cocaine-smuggling conspiracy that he described as an “unfortunate part of our history.”

As the decades-old program works to reshape its image and move away from its scaremongering anti-drug roots under the Reagan administration, the leaders of the group convened for an international conference in Las Vegas last year where independent journalist Andrew Callaghan spoke to them about contemporary drug policy issues.

The interviews are featured in a documentary for the Callahan’s YouTube program Channel 5 that was released this month.

One of the more notable conversations involved Alex Mendoza, the 2022 D.A.R.E. officer of the year, who has worked to redefine the program’s approach to youth drug prevention.

“For me, it’s really about educating the youth that are out there—to give them the tools necessary to navigate whatever pain that they’re going through” that might lead to substance misuse, he said. “I think that if you don’t have that self-love for yourself and that resiliency, then you’re gonna go to that external source, whatever that might be.”

Keep reading

Play in Israel, just don’t pretend you didn’t know

Since October 7, scores of writers have authored scores of columns pleading – to no avail – with prominent politicians who wield transformative power to stop the genocide unfolding with such obscene lethality in the apocalyptic remnants of occupied Gaza.

The same dynamic applies to a gallery of preening artists who claim that they are not only allergic to conformity, but also reject as tantamount to censorship any call from any quarter not to entertain audiences in Israel.

Rather than beseeching Nick Cave, the Australian troubadour, or the British band, Radiohead, finally to heed the petitions of Brian Eno, Roger Waters and company and forgo performing in an apartheid state, my aim here is to challenge their, by now, discredited defences to opt to play in Tel Aviv.

After not performing in Israel for some 20 years, in 2014, Cave refrained from signing on to an artist-organised pledge – meant to show tangible solidarity with imprisoned Palestinians – to boycott touring in Israel in the aftermath of yet another Israeli killing spree in Gaza.

Cave later explained his decision this way: “There was something that stunk to me about that list. Then it kind of occurred to me that I’m not signing the list but I’m also not playing Israel and that just felt to me cowardly, really.”

The lobbying, Cave added, constituted a “public humiliation” that apparently fuelled his determination to spurn the overture and stage shows in Israel.

“It suddenly became very important to make a stand against those people that are trying to shut down musicians, to bully musicians, to censor musicians, and to silence musicians … so really you could say in a way that the BDS made me play Israel,” Cave said, referring to the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement.

In this flattering construct, Cave is the portrait of the principled renegade resisting the “age-old” rejectionist forces bent on muzzling him and, by extension, his art.

In a 2017 letter to his “hero” Brian Eno, the British musical savant behind the boycott drive, Cave insisted that he was not a supporter of the Israeli government to blame for the “injustices suffered by the Palestinian population”.

And yet, like the Israeli government he distances himself from, Cave recycled the stock canard to discredit the BDS movement by claiming that “the boycott of Israel can be seen as anti-Semitic at heart”.

Keep reading

Biden Files Lawsuit Against Gas Station Chain Sheetz the Same Day He Was Mocked for Shuffling Into It

President Joe Biden stopped by a Sheetz location on Wednesday to purchase snacks while on a campaign swing through Pennsylvania on the same day that his Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit against the company and two of its subsidiaries.

Apparently, no one informed the president that his administration considered Sheetz guilty of racial discrimination against applicants. Or someone did tell Biden that, and he just didn’t care.

It might not matter, given the questionable nature of the claim against the company.

“According to the lawsuit, Sheetz has maintained a longstanding practice of screening all job applicants for records of criminal conviction and then denying them employment based on those records,” the EEOC said in a news release (available below).

Those screenings resulted in 14.5 percent of blacks being turned down for jobs, compared with 13.5 percent of “multiracial” applicants, 13 percent of Native Americans, and nearly 8 percent of whites.

The EEOC did not accuse Sheetz of active racism, but said federal law prohibits hiring practices that impact minorities differently than non-minorities.

Even if the criminal background checks are shown to be necessary, an EEOC lawyer said, they could still be unlawful if some other means could be employed that would provide safety without the allegedly discriminatory effects.

The EEOC statement suggested no such alternatives, however.

Keep reading

Controversies Involving Speaker Mike Johnson and His Son Resurface — From Monitoring Each Other’s Porn Usage to Arrest of His Adopted Son on Charges of Running Illegal Cannabis Business

Speaker Mike Johnson finds himself entangled in controversy once more, as past incidents involving his ‘adopted’ son resurface amidst legislative tumult.

Last week, the House of Representatives, under Johnson’s leadership and his comrades, passed two “America last” legislations.

Firstly, the House approved an extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a measure initially enacted following the September 11, 2001, attacks, in a 273 to 147 vote. This provision allows for the warrantless surveillance of American citizens, a move that has raised concerns about privacy and civil liberties.

An amendment proposed by Rep. Andy Biggs, which sought to impose a requirement for the FBI to obtain a warrant before conducting surveillance on Americans under FISA, ended in a 212-212 tie vote, leading to Speaker Mike Johnson casting the tie-breaking vote against the amendment.

This decision drew sharp criticism, including conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, who accused Johnson of betraying the American people and undermining the Constitution.

In an attempt to halt the momentum of the FISA Section 702 extension, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna employed a procedural strategy to delay the Senate’s consideration of the bill. Despite her efforts, the bill passed again. The vote displayed a uniparty alliance, with 147 Democrats and 126 Republicans supporting the bill, while 88 Republicans and 59 Democrats opposed it.

The second major legislative action under Speaker Johnson involved the passing of three bills aimed at providing financial aid to Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, and other regions engaged in conflicts outside U.S. borders.

The Democrats waved Ukrainian flags on the floor of the United States House of Representatives as they voted to send $60 BILLION of taxpayer money to secure a foreign border.

Keep reading

Law College ‘Anti-Racism’ Fellow Caught on Camera Piling Vicious Hatred on ‘Ugly…Little Jewish People’

At some point in the last five years, we stopped merely studying history’s darkest moments and began experiencing them.

For instance, in an 11-second viral clip posted Wednesday to the social media platform X, a woman identified as Loyola Marymount University graduate student Grace Obi-Azuike effectively re-enacted a scene from Nazi Germany when she spewed venomous anti-Jewish hatred and, significantly, incurred no apparent rebuke from the younger people around her who attended an event featuring Israel Defense Forces members.

“Get the f*** out of here, all you ugly-a** little Jewish people in this b****,” the California law student appeared to say in a clip shared by the StopAntisemitism X account.

Obi-Azuike made the comment while seated and signaling in the direction of people who did not appear on camera.

Her insidious remark drew a look of astonishment but also an open-mouthed smile from an androgynous-looking person seated to her left. The male-looking person to her right wore the cloth mask of the COVID cult. His reaction, therefore — perhaps thankfully — remains a mystery.

But some attendees clapped or otherwise voiced approval.

“Oooooh, hooooo, yeah,” an unidentified female voice said.

At that point, an older, suit-wearing man walked over to Obi-Azuike and stood to her left. The camera did not capture what happened next, but he did not appear pleased as he rubbed his chin.

Keep reading

NASA warns China is conducting military programs in space under the guise of civilian exploration

NASA has warned that China could be preparing for a lunar takeover in the coming years, using its civilian space program as guise for military operations.

Bill Nelson, NASA administrator, fears the Asian nation’s ‘extraordinary strides’ in the last decade are more than just for science, but to exert dominance over the moon.

China has launched a craft to the moon and brought samples back to Earth, has its own space station circling the planet and is eyeing 2030 for when it will send humans to the natural satellite.

While NASA is set to land humans on the lunar South Pole in 2026, Nelson has raised concerns that China has the capabilities to beat them there.  

‘China has made extraordinary strides, especially in the last 10 years, but they are very, very secretive,’ Nelson told members of the House Appropriations Committee at a 2024 budget hearing. 

‘We believe that a lot of their, so-called civilian space programs is a military program,’ Nelson continued. ‘And I think, in effect, we are in a race.’

Nelson made the statements to a committee this week as support for why NASA needs a $25.4 billion budget for 2025.

The country plans to establish a landing base on the moon’s surface within the next five years, making it all the more necessary for the US to ramp up its efforts and investments to send astronauts to space. 

Keep reading

Ukraine’s Opposition To The Assimilation Of Its Refugees Is Extremely Hypocritical

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba warned on Friday that “It has become clear that assimilation would be extremely fast if we do not change our policy towards Ukrainians abroad”, calling on these refugees to “remain Ukrainian” with the innuendo that they shouldn’t plant roots in the West.

He didn’t explicitly say so, but it’s strongly hinted that he hopes that those millions who’ve fled the latest phase of the Ukrainian Conflict over the past two years will eventually return home to their country.

Kiev-based economist Alexey Kushch said in an interview with Ukrainian journalist Yury Romanenko last week that “I estimate that [after the conflict is over] Ukraine’s demographic profile <…> will be made up of 25 million people, including ten million senior citizens, five million children and two to three million disabled persons and veterans receiving social benefits. About seven to eight million working adults will make up the core of the economy.”

These two developments coincided with Ukraine’s passing of a new conscription law that doesn’t include a demobilization clause, which the media reported has left troops feeling “betrayed” while a member of the Rada described it as a “point of no return” in terms of turning citizens against the government. Kuleba obviously hopes that unassimilated Ukrainians will feel so unwelcome in the West that they’ll return home to risk their lives in the meatgrinder and then rebuild their country when the conflict ends.

Basically, he’s manipulating them on a faux “patriotic” pretext into creating problems for themselves abroad so that they’ll consider moving back to Ukraine, but his rhetoric is extremely hypocritical since it’s the opposite of how Kiev itself treats minorities.

It was observed that “The West Would Never Talk About Its Minorities The Way That Ukraine Talks About Its Russian One” after Rada speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk denied their very existence and associated rights last fall.

In other words, Kuleba wants Ukrainian refugees not to assimilate into their host societies, with a wink and a nod that they should exploit the liberal–globalist West’s related legislation and socio-cultural norms to preserve their culture as much as possible.

Keep reading

Harvard’s Disgraced Former President Claudine Gay to Teach ‘Reading and Research’ Ethics Class, Collecting $900,000 Salary

The disgraced former president of Harvard University, Claudine Gay, will return to teaching this fall, less than a year after her dramatic resignation.

Gay will reportedly teach a ‘Reading and Research’ ethics class as part of her commitments to the university which entitle her to a staggering $900,000 a year salary.

Back in January, Gay was forced to resign from her position after researchers found dozens of examples of plagiarism within her academic work. She was also the subject of significant criticism after refusing to condemn calls for the genocide of Jew from various Harvard students.

Keep reading

Biden Education Secretary Miguel Cardona Refuses to Say Whether Men and Women ‘Are Physically Different’

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona refused to answer whether or not men and women have physical differences during a House Appropriations Committee budget hearing on Wednesday.

The question asked to Cardona during the budget hearing was in reference to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) announcing on Monday that they are blocking males who identify as females from playing in women’s sports.

During the hearing, Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) questioned Cardona about the importance of Title IX before questioning him on the physical differences between men and women, according to the Daily Caller.

Title IX is the federal civil rights law that protects individuals from sexual discrimination in educational programs and activities that receive financial assistance from the federal government, according to Thomson Reuters.

“Would you agree that Title IX was necessary to help establish women’s sports because women can’t fairly be expected to compete on biological male teams?” Harris asked Cardona.

While Cardona initially attempted to skirt the question, after being asked by Harris not to filibuster, he agreed that Title IX is important.

Harris then asked Cardona if he would “agree that women are physically different from men.”

Keep reading

Senators Condemn Russia Over American Citizen’s ‘Ludicrous’ Incarceration For Medical Marijuana

A coalition of more than 20 U.S. senators has filed a resolution condemning the arrests of American citizens in Russia, including a Pennsylvania medical cannabis patient, Marc Fogel, who is serving a a 14-year sentence over simple possession of marijuana.

Sponsored by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), the measure was filed to mark the one-year anniversary of the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich over unfounded allegations of espionage.

“By introducing this resolution, we’re yet again bringing to light the cruelty of the Russian government,” Durbin, who also chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a press release on Tuesday. “As fellow Americans, we demand the release of all American citizens who face arbitrary arrests by the Russian government.”

The senator said in a floor speech on Thursday that Fogel’s arrest over possession of medical cannabis he was prescribed in a legal state resulted in a “ludicrous 14-year sentence in Russian labor camps.”

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who is among the prime cosponsors, said Fogel was “detained for carrying a small amount of medical marijuana, which was prescribed by his doctor.”

Keep reading