Authored by Eric Lendrum via American Greatness,

As artificial intelligence (A.I.) technology takes off, the Biden Administration is allegedly pursuing efforts to make sure that such new technology adopts a left-wing worldview by default.

According to Fox News, the report comes from the watchdog group American Accountability Foundation (AAF), which said in a new memo that top officials in the Biden White House are attempting to program “dangerous ideologies” into new A.I. systems.

“Under the guise of fighting ‘algorithmic discrimination’ and ‘harmful bias,’ the Biden administration is trying to rig AI to follow the woke left’s rules,” said Tom Jones, the president of AAF. “Biden is being advised on technology policy, not by scientists, but by racially obsessed social academics and activists. We’re already seen the biggest tech firms in the world, like Google under Eric Schmidt, use their power to push the left’s agenda.”

“This would take the tech/woke alliance to a whole new, truly terrifying level,” Jones added.

One of the examples AAF cited in the memo is a plan released by the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy last October, titled the “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights.” The document claims, with no evidence, that there could be an “algorithmic discrimination” in the way A.I. responds to certain people based on race, gender, and other characteristics. Such programs, the White House orders, should be “reviewed for bias based on the historical and societal context of the data.”

The White House document recommends “proactive equity assessments as part of the system design,” among other tactics, in order to make the A.I. more left-wing. A similar report was released in May by the White House’s Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, titled the National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan, which similarly claims that “AI systems are prone to ‘hallucinate’ and recapitulate biases derived from the unfiltered data from the internet used to train them.”

In February, Biden signed an executive order demanding that all states “root out bias in the design and use of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence.”

Such efforts to politicize A.I. were already hinted at – and warned against – by leaders in the field of A.I. and similar technology, such as Twitter owner Elon Musk. In December, Musk warned that “the danger of training AI to be woke — in other words, lie — is deadly.”

Submitted by Gun Owners of America,

When looking at how gun laws across the United States have changed over the past few years, there’s a lot to be hopeful for. Just this year, Nebraska became the 27th state to pass a “constitutional carry” bill into law, following in the footsteps of Florida, which passed similar legislation just a few days prior.  

The residents of Florida and Nebraska now join 25 other states where American citizens can freely carry firearms concealed without needing a permit, just as our founding fathers intended when they wrote the Second Amendment into the Constitution.  

Those two States won’t be the last to pass permitless carry bills either. There are several different bills at different stages of the legislative process in multiple states nationwide.  

But let’s not forget, just a mere 15 years ago — the Second Amendment was not considered an individual right. If we look further back to the 1980s, there was only one constitutional carry state, Vermont. In addition, very few states would even allow carrying with a permit.  

This is because, before 2008’s landmark District of Colombia v. Heller decision, the Second Amendment was considered a collective right that referred to a militia.  

This interpretation allowed for all sorts of constitutional infringements, which is why Dick Heller sued Washington, D.C., over its city-wide ban on handguns.  

We recently celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Heller decision on June 26th and have Heller to thank for laying the foundation for gun rights to this day.   

Of course, no discussion of present-day gun rights would be complete without mentioning NYSRPA v. Bruen, the landmark case currently providing the legal tools for overturning the most egregious gun control nationwide.  

The Bruen decision has halted some of the worst gun control passed this year. For example, Oregon passed Ballot Measure 114 by an extremely slim margin, with most of the “yes” votes coming from Portland, and the rest of the state voting “no.”. The Ballot measure changed gun law in Oregon to require a permit to purchase a firearm and banned large-capacity magazines.  

But thanks to the Bruen decision, a legal challenge from Gun Owners of America has halted the law from going into effect. 

On this 4th of July, Americans should remember the mentality of the Founding Fathers, who included the Second Amendment in the Constitution. They had just fought a war for independence against a tyrannical government.  

From 1768-1775, the British began a policy to disarm American citizens.  

In 1777, William Knox, the Under Secretary of State in the British colonial office, advocated for this exact policy, writing: 

“The Arms of all the People should be taken away, & every piece of Ordnance removed into the King’s Stores, nor should any foundry or manufactory of Arms, Gunpowder, or Warlike Stores, be ever suffered in America, nor should any Gunpowder, Lead, Arms or Ordnance be imported into it without License; they will have but little need of such things for the future, as the King’s Troops, Ships and Forts will be sufficient to protect them from any danger.” 

William Knox sounds a lot like the anti-gun politicians of today.  

The Second Amendment guarantees all of our constitutional rights, and it ensures the protection of life and liberty. This is what the Founding Fathers wanted when they declared independence from the British 246 years ago.  

We at Gun Owners of America are proud to see gun rights continue to expand, and we will continue working to repeal all infringements on the Second Amendment.   

*   *   *

We’ll hold the line for you in Washington. We are No Compromise. Join the Fight Now. 

Ukraine’s President Zelensky has once again been warning the public and the West that Russia is planning to stage some kind of disastrous nuclear fallout event centered on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest. The claims from Ukrainian top officials have been persisting for weeks at this point, but have grown louder in the last several days, as Americans are busy with July 4th festivities. 

“There is a serious threat because Russia is technically ready to provoke a local explosion at the station, which could lead to a [radiation] release,” Zelensky claimed days ago at a joint news conference in Kyiv. Ukrainian intelligence is at the same time this week saying Russia’s military is reducing its presence there and has told staff to relocate to Crimea.

The Guardian on Saturday cited Ukraine’s intelligence arm, the GUR, to say that “several representatives of Russia’s state nuclear energy agency, Rosatom, have already left” and further that “Ukrainian employees who stayed at the plant and signed contracts with Rosatom had been told to evacuate by Monday, preferably to Crimea, it said.”

All of this is of course impossible to confirm, and such allegations centered on Zaporizhzhia have been consistent throughout much of the war, at times coming from both sides. 

“On Thursday Ukraine conducted nuclear disaster response drills in the vicinity of the power station, regional officials said,” The Guardian wrote further.

The Kremlin has expressly denied the Ukrainian allegations: 

Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, replied saying that he had written to the UN security council and secretary general, António Guterres, to state: “We do not intend to blow up this NPP [nuclear power plant], we have no intention of doing so.”

All this has resulted in heightened international scrutiny over operations at the plant. Ukraine says “the world is watching.” 

The Ukrainian government has actually been making these claims for weeks, with some independent observers such as David Sachs saying this could set the stage for a “Gulf of Tonkin moment”. 

Below is what Sachs wrote last month when Ukrainian claims regarding Zaporizhzhia plant grew louder and louder…

* * *

Is a Gulf of Tonkin moment at hand? Shortly after returning from his latest trip to Kyiv, Senator Graham along with Blumenthal introduced his resolution providing Article 5 guarantees to Ukraine in the event that, among other things, a nuclear facility is destroyed in Ukraine.

Just coincidentally, the Ukrainian government including Zelensky and intel chief Budanov started issuing warnings about Russian plans to blow up the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, even though the plant is under Russian control and blowing it up would have no strategic value.

Ukrainian propaganda channels keep pumping this claim without evidence. Of course, a compliant media has not pressed them for any, simply repeating the claims as if they come from an unbiased source. If ZNPP gets destroyed, we won’t know for sure who did it, but we can be sure that the media will reflexively blame it on Russia, as they ludicrously did with the destruction of Nord Stream.

Ukraine is losing the war like South Viet Nam, a “Gulf of Tonkin Moment” is necessary to put NATO soldiers in Ukraine pic.twitter.com/o59hlxqAJs

— Juan Luis Tostado (@JuanLuisTostad1) July 3, 2023

This press dynamic combined with the Graham-Blumenthal resolution actually creates a perverse incentive for *someone* to destroy ZNPP if they want to draw America deeper into the conflict. Biden has previously sworn that America will not get directly involved, on the grounds that would start World War III, but he also promised not to provide F-16s for the same reason.

We know what happened with that promise. In 1965, LBJ committed large numbers of American troops to the Vietnam War after previously stating “We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10 thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.”

The outrage over the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which we now know to be a lie, created the pretext for that involvement. If ZNPP is destroyed, look for howls of outrage from the War Party seeking the “Americanization” of the Ukraine war to begin.

The Secret Service on Tuesday confirmed rumors from the day earlier that it was investigating an “unknown item” found inside the White House library on Sunday, which was described in radio traffic as a cocaine-like substance.

“On Sunday evening, the White House complex went into a precautionary closure as officers from the Secret Service uniformed division investigated an unknown item found inside a work area,” Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement, adding that the D.C. fire department determined the substance did not present a threat… although it certainly could present Hunter Biden with hours of brand new video material for his infamous notebook.

In a dispatch with an 8:49 p.m. timestamp, a firefighter with the D.C. department’s hazardous materials team radioed the results of a test: “We have a yellow bar saying cocaine hydrochloride.”

The brief broadcast was logged on a website called openmhz.com, which allows people to listen to live and archived radio transmission from police and fire departments. One of the officials familiar with the investigation, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an open case, said the 8:49 transmission was from the White House call Sunday night. The official described the amount of the substance as small, which likely means that most of it had already been consumed.

The discovery came two days after recovering crack cocaine addict Hunter Biden was last seen at the White House; yet even so there appears to be some “mystery” as to how the cocaine got there.

The Biden family arrived back at the White House for Independence Day celebrations as the Secret Service continues to investigate the finding.

Secret Service spokesman Gulielmi said that President Joe Biden was not in the executive mansion when the substance was discovered.

“The DC fire department was called to evaluate and quickly determined the item to be non-hazardous. The item was sent for further evaluation and an investigation into the cause and manner of how it entered the White House is pending,” he said, laughably hinting that there was some “confusion” as to how crack got inside the Blowden Biden family’s DC estate as it is in the process of being auctioned off to Beijing. Here’s a thought: since Hunter has a habit of recording his every close encounter with crack cocaine, just check his cell phone’s latest video recordings.

In its report, ABC notes that “Cocaine hydrochloride can be used as an anesthetic or to control bleeding, but it is also considered to have effects similar to crack cocaine, according to the study National Library of Medicine National Center for Biotechnology Information”, which suggests that the type of cocaine found was of a particular variety especially near and dear to Hunter’s heart.

“The physiological and psychoactive effects of cocaine are similar regardless of whether it is in the form of cocaine hydrochloride or crack cocaine (cocaine base),” the study says. You do learn something new every day.

The “item” was sent to a Secret Service lab for further testing, the sources said.

The White House on Tuesday referred reporter questions about the matter to the Secret Service, because what else could they say: “to pay for Hunter’s crack addition, Joe had to sell even the Resolute Desk to Beijing.” Of course, that’s a silly joke: after all, just imagine what America’s international allies – and enemies – would think if any of this Jerry Springer Special, live from the White House, turned out to be even remotely true…

The Biden’s cocaine antics take place just days after the younger Biden reached a plea deal with Justice Department prosecutors to avoid jail time after lying on a federal form to purchase a firearm. He checked a box claiming that he did not use and was not addicted to illegal substances – a fact that would disqualify him from buying the gun. The form contradicting the timelines and claims made in Hunter Biden’s own memoir.

Biden critics and conservative decried Hunter’s plea deal, claiming that anyone other than the president’s son would receive jail time for the same offense. The deal also saw Hunter plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors which would have been a felony – and meant prison time – for anyone else but the president’s crack and whore-addicted son.

Come to think of it, there was plenty of reasons for Hunter to be celebrating in the aptly named China White house.

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

During an interview with leftist outlet Reason, Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr challenged the hosts to prove him wrong when they suggested that he continually spreads conspiracy theories.

Reason editor at large Nick Gillespie told RFK Jr “One of the critiques of your candidacy or even your public profile is that you traffic routinely in conspiracies and that kind of conspiracist mindset where almost everything that we take for granted is bad.”

“So it’s, you know, the Covid vaccines, you know, not only don’t work, but they’re more dangerous than Covid itself,” Gillespie continued, going on to reel off a list of ‘conspiracies’ that RFK has endorsed.

5G and Wi-Fi are controlling, you know, controlling our mind. The government, you know, aspects of the government that are supposed to be in favor of trying to help people, actually hurting them. AIDS is not, you know, primarily caused by HIV or HIV is not involved in AIDS. Atrazine is changing frog sexuality and by implication, human sexuality. Your cousin is not, your cousin Michael Skakel is not guilty of the murder of Martha Moxley that he was found guilty of.

You know, the 2004 election in Ohio was stolen. It kind of goes on and on. Do you how do you answer people who say, you know, like this is the sign of somebody whose thinking is fundamentally conspiracy-minded rather than kind of dealing with brute reality? You know, that is difficult and, you know, and terrible, but is not what you seem to be making of it.

However, when Kennedy asked Gillespie to “show me where I get it wrong,”  and offered to go through each example point by point, the host didn’t seem too keen.

“You did something that is very unfair. Which is, you made a series of characterizations of my beliefs that you read in the newspapers. Many of which are just wrong,” Kennedy stated.

Conspiracy Theory is a CIA term that was formulated to keep people from investigating government corruption. Specially the intelligence agencies crimes.

— MadCubaninTucson (@Arielhe97434333) July 3, 2023

This was a horrible interview – almost dishonest. I would have liked to hear he responses to each of the points.

— FLBIII Deux (@Jane4UsGirls) July 3, 2023

Will you identify those that turned out to be true??

— rgEPhoto🇺🇸Ŧ (@rgeasley) July 3, 2023

He wasn’t confronted. He was hit with accusations & given no chance to explain himself. The interviewer was gutless. If it was 1% true he would have given RFK the rope to hang himself

— Keith Shilts (@KeithAShilts) July 4, 2023

Funny how you cut off his response once he had a chance to defend himself.

Great journalism. 💩

— Dipperful (@Dipperful) July 3, 2023

Watch the full interview below:

Related:

*  *  *

Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. We need you to sign up for our free newsletter here. Support our sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown.

Also, we urgently need your financial support here.

Update 6/4/2023 1425PM: The Post Millennial is reporting that 40-year-old Kimbrady Watson Carriker has been identified as the suspect in the mass shooting. 

It notes that Carriker was an avid supporter of Black Lives Matter:

On Facebook, Carriker was seen posting in support of Black Lives Matter, and follows the Black Lives Matter Philly Facebook page.

“Black lives matter today; there will be jobs available. Equal opportunity finally. Just tell us where your quitting so we can send someone over,” Carriker wrote in one Facebook comment responding to a story of workers going on a Strike for Black Lives.

Carriker also posted to Facebook a story titled “how do you know if an evil spirit is following you,” as well as one titled “Philly  anti-violence grant program shows promising results, despite some hiccups, new evaluation shows.”

Carriker has also made multiple posts showcasing guns and shooting, including resharing one post showing children shooting, as well as one of a person holding a flintlock pistol with the text “wherefor art thou opposition so I may slide upon thine block and runneth down on thee”

Five people were killed on Monday night in Philadelphia, when a “heavily armed gunman in a bulletproof vest” took to the streets in Southwest Philadelphia, clothed in body armor. 

Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw, who along with DA Larry Krasner, have overseen a surge in crime in the city, told press at a news conference that officers chased the man who eventually gave himself up, according to the Associated Press. 

The shooter wounded two boys and also shot at police, the report says. 

Outlaw said at her presser: “Thank God our officers were on the scene and responded as quickly as they did. I can’t even describe the level of bravery and courage that was shown, in addition to the restraint that was shown here.”

The shooter was armed with a rifle, multiple magazines, a handgun and a police scanner, AP reported. There was no known connection between the shooter and the victims, the report added. 

The incident started at about 8:30PM on Monday when a call for shots fired from the Kingsessing neighborhood came in. The shooter was identified as a 40 year old man.

AP reported that a second person was taken into custody as well, noting that the second person may have returned fire on the shooter during the incident. “Dozens” of shell casings littered the streets where the shooting took place. 

Outlaw added: “You can see there are several scenes out here. We’re canvassing the area to get as much as we can, to identify witnesses, to identify where cameras are located and to do everything to figure out the why.”

“He was using my car as a shield shooting out into the street,” resident Tim Eads said, telling AP he heard fireworks and then gunshots. He said his wife “was looking out the bay window and saw the shooter actually coming down this street here behind me.”

Another resident noted: “Everybody thought it was fireworks but .. been around here about three years so I heard it enough. I looked out the window and seen a bunch of people running.”

“You have angry people sometimes who just don’t know how to express themselves and unfortunately they go grab a gun and do the worst,” he concluded. 

Beijing has hit back at the Biden administration’s recently imposed export curbs on select materials which are crucial for advanced semiconductors and chip-making machinery, and it comes just before Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is set to arrive in Beijing Thursday, the first visit of her tenure. 

China has just put in place its own export curbs on two rare metals commonly used in computer chips and solar cells. This expands the already complicated fight between the two economic powerhouses over high tech trade.

But Beijing has on the whole been slow to retaliate, likely on fears of expanding the tit-for-tat restrictions, given especially that America’s semiconductor industry is significantly more advanced. The two metals newly impacted by the measure are gallium and germanium.

According to details in The Associated Press: 

The controls on gallium and germanium are intended to “safeguard national security,” the Commerce Ministry said late Monday. It said exports will require official permission once the rules take effect Aug. 1 but did not say what restrictions might be applied.

And The New York Times notes just ahead of Yellen’s arrival in Beijing, “The Biden administration is mulling further controls on advanced chips and on American investment into cutting-edge Chinese technology.”

Treasury said in the statement announcing her trip, “While in Beijing, Secretary Yellen will discuss with [People’s Republic of China] officials the importance for our countries — as the world’s two largest economies — to responsibly manage our relationship, communicate directly about areas of concern, and work together to address global challenges,”

However, a Treasury official sought to temper expectations, saying no breakthrough is expected, following Secretary of State Blinken’s mid-June trip where he met with President Xi Jinping. Any positive opening created by Blinken’s trip was damaged when within days of his return to Washington, President Biden during a campaign event in California called Xi a “dictator”. 

Last month, Yellen had attempted to soften the remarks before a press conference, saying of Biden’s remarks which had outraged Bejing officials, “With respect to the comments, I think President Biden and I both believe it’s critical to maintain communication …to clear up misperceptions, miscalculations. We need to work together where possible.” 

In preparation for the trip, Yellen met with Xie Feng, China’s ambassador to the United States, in Washington on Monday. The Treasury readout cited “frank and productive discussion” over global and bilateral issues.

Much more impactful than China potentially restricting exports of gallium and germanium. https://t.co/xj0Nlh0C7L

— Martijn Rasser (@MartijnRasser) July 4, 2023

“Xie expressed China’s concerns on economic and trade issues and asked the United States to take action to resolve them, according state media broadcaster CCTV,” Reuters detailed. “He also expressed hope that the United States and China will eliminate interference while strengthening dialogue, CCTV said.”

Also top of the list of topics for dialogue when Yellen is expected in China July 6-9 will be Taiwan, at a moment the Biden administration has continued approving arms deals for the self-ruled island.

Authored by James Bovard via JimBovard.com,

America was founded by rowdy folks who enjoyed nothing better than applying tar and feathers to British tax collectors. For a couple centuries, Independence Day was an occasion for raising a ruckus with firecrackers and plenty of other friendly detonations.

But in recent times, the Fourth of July has been downgraded to simply another opportunity for citizens to express gratitude to their political masters. We are still permitted to celebrate, but unfortunately, federal, state, and local governments routinely trample the rights that the Founding Fathers sought to make sacrosanct.

The Fourth of July in Washington has been going downhill ever since 9/11. In his first draft of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson scratched out the word “subjects” and replaced it with “citizens.” But on Independence Day 2003, I wondered whether that had been an editing error. I saw long lines of people awaiting outside government checkpoints around the National Mall, kowtowing for permission to celebrate independence according to the latest edicts. Police and security agents continue to have a far heavier presence in Washington and many other places than in earlier times. In 2015, police urged people heading for the National Mall on July Fourth to sign up for a free emergency text alert system called NIXLE. (Subtext: “All your email addresses belong to us!”)

How many Americans recall that the Fourth of July originally consecrated an independence achieved thanks to resistance to a corrupt, oppressive regime? In 2018, Facebook, auditioning for a Federal Censorship Medal of Honor, deleted a Texas newspaper’s reposting of a portion of the Declaration of Independence because it went against Facebook standards on hate speech. Facebook used the same standard to suppress photos of the Branch Davidian home in flames after the FBI tank assault.

In 2019, when President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to bring out of mothballs some World War II-era Sherman tanks, the media was indignant. The Washington Post condemned Trump’s “gaudy display of military hardware that is more in keeping with a banana republic than the world’s oldest democracy.” But the real problem was not the military relics. It was exalting government power and politicians on a day meant to celebrate individual liberty.

In 2020, politicians in most areas effectively canceled Independence Day. Governors and mayors had quickly imposed “stay at home” orders restricting 300 million people after the COVID pandemic erupted. Most of the media ignored the fact that Independence Day occurred under the most dictatorial restrictions of the modern era. Crowds were banned from watching fireworks that governments often chose not to ignite. The Maryland Office of Tourism offered residents consolation prizes—the opportunity to watch a “virtual pet parade” online or see a “virtual Independence Day Tour” of the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

Could Independence Day ever become more servile? “Hold my beer,” announced Team Biden.

In March 2021, President Joe Biden announced plans to convert the Fourth of July as Americans’ shrink-wrapped “Freedom Day.” In lieu of “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness,” July 4 became a benchmark for presidential browbeating for Americans to get politically-approved injections. If people dutifully got vaccinated, Biden said, “There’s a good chance you, your families and friends, will be [permitted] to get together [in small groups] in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout or a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day.” Biden did not specify how many people would be permitted to consume hot dogs together before an FBI SWAT team intervened.

On May 4, 2021, Biden announced that he wanted 70% of American adults to be vaccinated by Independence Day. On June 2, Biden declared that people should “exercise your freedom” to get vaccinated so Americans can enjoy a “summer of freedom.” On the day of the holiday, the Biden White House titled his remarks as “Celebrating Independence Day and Independence from COVID-⁠19.” Biden proclaimed, “We are closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus.” Biden sounded like a high priest issuing a reprieve to his fearful flock: “We can live our lives.” But two months later, Biden announced that Americans had failed him and commanded that more than 100 million private citizens get COVID vaccine injections which the Biden White House browbeat FDA into approving. (The Supreme Court nullified his edict for 84 million citizens.)

Independence Day should be a vivid reminder of how badly officialdom behaved in the past. The Founding Fathers carved the First Amendment to ensure freedom of the press after the crown’s appointees muzzled criticism of King George’s regime. The Second Amendment, recognizing the right to keep and bear arms, was spurred by British troops seeking to seize firearms at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches because British agents with general warrants would ransack any colonist’s house. The Fifth Amendment’s eminent domain provision was written after British agents claimed a right to seize without compensation any pine tree in New England for British navy ship masts.

But the battles our forefathers fought to secure our rights have long since been forgotten amidst a deluge of abuses at the federal, state, and local government level. There are good reasons why barely 20% of Americans trust the federal government nowadays.

Americans should take their Fourth of July to higher ground. What matters is not what politicians say on any given day but the principles and values by which Americans live. Regardless of how often government agents violate the Constitution, citizens retain all the rights for which our forefathers fought. Government has become far more oppressive and intrusive in recent decades. But we still have enough freedom to left to make it hot—at least sporadically—for politicians who trample the Constitution.

On the Fourth of July, Americans should recognize those who fought for individual freedom in past times and those who are fighting for it now. One of my favorite Washington Fourth of July events was the “Stop NSA Surveillance” rally a decade ago. That protest occurred one month after Edward Snowden began leaking documents exposing the Deep State crime wave. Thomas Drake, a former National Security Agency executive who heroically whipped the Justice Department in federal court, challenged the audience: “The government has given up on the Constitution. Have you?” Drake warned that “the acid of government secrecy is eating out the heart of who we are as a people” and that “national security has become the state religion.” His warnings are as true now as they were then—and the Fourth of July is a fine time to watch this video of Drake’s fiery speech.

To safeguard our remaining rights, we must keep up a spirit of resistance to official abuses and political lies from all parties. Federal Judge Learned Hand warned in 1944: “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.” On this Fourth of July, Americans should nourish that spirit of liberty by taking a long walk, drinking a good beer, or heartily cussing the politician of your choice. As I tweeted eleven years ago:

Three Boston-area civil rights groups on Monday filed a complaint with the Education Department, asking it to end Harvard University’s “legacy” admissions practices, in which applicants get special treatment if they are relatives of alumni or donors.  

The groups say legacy policies favor white applicants at the expense of blacks, Hispanics and Asians. Citing a Duke University research paper, the 31-page complaint says that “nearly 70% of donor-related applicants are white, and nearly 70% of legacy applicants are also white.” Those applicants are, respectively, nearly 7 and nearly 6 times more likely to be admitted than non-legacy applicants. 

“Harvard’s practice of giving a leg-up to the children of wealthy donors and alumni – who have done nothing to deserve it – must end,” said Michael Kippins, an attorney with Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR). The public agrees: a 2022 Pew Research poll found 75% oppose legacy admissions.  

As someone who thinks legacy admissions is bad and who has a kid who’ll be applying to colleges in nine years, I endorse the “end it in 10 years” plan. https://t.co/j2AUjwImTT

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 3, 2023

The complaint, asserting that legacy programs violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964, comes just a few days after the Supreme Court ruled that “race-conscious” affirmative action admissions practices at Harvard and the University of North Carolina violate the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. 

Making the case, the complaint quotes from last week’s Supreme Court’s decision, which said “a benefit provided to some applicants but not to others necessarily advantages the former group at the expense of the latter.”

Colleges have said legacy programs foster a sense of community — but that’s not the kind of community that’s eligible for promotion these days. Of course, legacy practices are also a way to extract more donations from alumni. 

While Harvard makes for a high-profile target, legacy programs are common. They also became a major lightning rod in the immediate aftermath of last week’s affirmative action decision, particularly among leftist who were outraged over that ruling. Here’s Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez playing to her crowd while demonstrating her ignorance of last week’s case — which did not challenge legacy admissions — and the judicial system in general:

If SCOTUS was serious about their ludicrous “colorblindness” claims, they would have abolished legacy admissions, aka affirmative action for the privileged.

70% of Harvard’s legacy applicants are white. SCOTUS didn’t touch that – which would have impacted them and their patrons.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 29, 2023

In his remarks after the ruling, President Biden said he would ask the Education Department to scrutinize “practices like legacy admissions and other systems that expand privilege instead of opportunity.”

That said, the attacks on legacy admissions are increasingly bipartisan. South Carolina Senator and presidential candidate Tim Scott told a Fox News host that, “One of the things that Harvard could do to make that even better is to eliminate any legacy programs where they have preferential treatment for legacy kids.” 

In 2021, Colorado banned legacy admissions at the state’s public institutions, and the Times also notes that Johns Hopkins, MIT and Amherst don’t offer legacy favoritism. Otherwise, there’s been little momentum against the practice among other states or individual schools — but look for the fledgling trend to snowball rapidly.  

As it does, you can also expect journalists, pundits and politicians to refrain from acknowledging a reality that would make for awkward conversation: Among whites admitted to so-called “elite” institutions, Jews are extraordinarily over-represented when comparisons are made using various groups’ share of the country’s National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, as was done in a 2012 analysis by Ron Unz, which he re-examined this week in light of the Supreme Court ruling. Unz had found that:

“Asians appear under-represented relative to Jews by a factor of seven, while non-Jewish whites are by far the most under-represented group of all, despite any benefits they might receive from athletic, legacy, or geographical distribution factors…

In the three decades since I graduated Harvard [in 1983], the presence of white Gentiles has dropped by as much as 70 percent, despite no remotely comparable decline in the relative size or academic performance of that population; meanwhile, the percentage of Jewish students has actually increased.”

Legacy admissions are commonly traced to the 1920s, and seen as having been created to limit the admission of Jews and Catholics. Last week, Jewish Insider noted that “the Jewish community’s history with affirmative action is complicated, with some Jewish groups originally outspoken against it now lamenting its end.”

The Anti-Defamation League, for example, filed an amicus brief supporting an affirmative action challenge about 20 years ago, but this time took the opposite side, filing a brief on Harvard’s behalf, writing: 

“The lack of racial animus, intent to discriminate, or imposition of quotas, as well as the fact that Harvard’s admissions practices today promote (rather than inhibit) diversity, all distinguish those practices from Harvard’s admissions practices in the 1920s and 1930s, which were motivated by antisemitism, imposed a quota on Jews, and were explicitly designed to decrease Jewish enrollment…

In light of those key distinctions, petitioner’s attempt to draw a comparison between Harvard’s discriminatory practices against Jews in the 1920s and 1930s and its current admissions practices is fundamentally flawed.”

Of course, many Asians and whites would challenge the ADL’s assertion that Harvard and other colleges are free of racial animus. 

In any event, Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, LCR executive director on Monday put forth a principle that a growing number of Americans are amenable to: “Your family’s last name and the size of your bank account are not a measure of merit, and should have no bearing on the college admissions process.”

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

The Wall Street Journal reports that corporations are increasingly backing away from woke policies and stances.

‘Stop being so woke.’ Current and former diversity and HR heads say they are hearing from employees discouraged about what they view as lost momentum in advancing inclusion AND employees pushing back against such efforts. With @tepingchen https://t.co/6aDiqUt1E1 via @WSJ

— Ray A. Smith (@rayalexsmith) July 3, 2023

The report notes that a recent Pew Research Center survey found that fewer than one third (32%) of workers believed that working at an ethnically diverse place was “very important” to them, while 38% said it was “not too/not at all important.”

The survey also noted that only a quarter (26%) of workers find an “equal mix of men and women” to be “very important” in the workplace, while 44% said it is not important.

“There are people who say, ‘I really wish we were more diverse,’ and I’ve also seen people say, ‘Stop being so woke,’” Sarah Sharp, a vice president of human resources at Clayton, a home builder based out of Tennessee told the WSJ.

The report also points to a recent Gallup survey that found of 140 heads of human resources, 59% plan to increase their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) budgets in the next year, down from 84% in 2022.

The findings come in the wake of high profile cases such as Bud Light and Target losing upwards of $10 billion for implementing LGBTQ+ campaigns.

Related:

*  *  *

Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. We need you to sign up for our free newsletter here. Support our sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown.

Also, we urgently need your financial support here.