Fake News Comes to Academia

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The existence of a monthly journal focused on “feminist geography” is a sign of something gone awry in academia. The journal in question—Gender, Place & Culture—published a paper online in May whose author claimed to have spent a year observing canine sexual misconduct in Portland, Ore., parks.

The author admits that “my own anthropocentric frame” makes it difficult to judge animal consent. Still, the paper claims dog parks are “petri dishes for canine ‘rape culture’ ” and issues “a call for awareness into the different ways dogs are treated on the basis of their gender and queering behaviors, and the chronic and perennial rape emergency dog parks pose to female dogs.”

The paper was ridiculous enough to pique my interest—and rouse my skepticism, which grew in July with a report in Campus Reform by Toni Airaksinen. Author Helen Wilson had claimed to have a doctorate in feminist studies, but “none of the institutions that offers such a degree could confirm that she had graduated from their program,” Ms. Airaksinen wrote. In August Gender, Place & Culture issued an “expression of concern” admitting it couldn’t verify Ms. Wilson’s identity, though it kept the paper on its website.

All of this prompted me to ask my own questions. My email to “Helen Wilson” was answered by James Lindsay, a math doctorate and one of the real co-authors of the dog-park study. Gender, Place & Culture had been duped, he admitted. So had half a dozen other prominent journals that accepted fake papers by Mr. Lindsay and his collaborators—Peter Boghossian, an assistant professor of philosophy at Portland State University, and Helen Pluckrose, a London-based scholar of English literature and history and editor of AreoMagazine.com.

The three academics call themselves “left-leaning liberals.” Yet they’re dismayed by what they describe as a “grievance studies” takeover of academia, especially its encroachment into the sciences. “I think that certain aspects of knowledge production in the United States have been corrupted,” Mr. Boghossian says. Anyone who questions research on identity, privilege and oppression risks accusations of bigotry. (Read more from “Fake News Comes to Academia” HERE)

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Brooklyn College Professor Under Fire for Blog Post Defending Kavanaugh, Ripping ‘Totalitarian’ Dems

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An associate professor of business at Brooklyn College is facing calls to resign after he issued a “satirical” essay in defending Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh that argued “sexual assault” is a rite of passage for young males.

Mitchell Langbert wrote a Sept. 27 blog post calling Democrats the “party of tutu-wearing pansies, totalitarian sissies” who use have used “anonymity and defamation” in trying to bring down a conservative judge, who strongly denies all allegations of sexual misconduct.

“If someone did not commit sexual assault in high school, then he is not a member of the male sex,” Mr. Langbert argued. “The Democrats have discovered that 15-year-olds play spin-the-bottle, and they have jumped on a series of supposed spin-the-bottle crimes during Kavanaugh’s minority, which they characterize as rape, although no one complained or reported any crime for 40 years.”

The blog post has outraged students, prompting a protest to take place Thursday afternoon. Corrinne Greene said her campus group, Young Progressives of America, wants the professor fired.

“To have someone in a position of power espousing sexual assault is not a joke,” Ms. Greene told CNN. “It’s something that needs to be taken seriously.” (Read more from “Brooklyn College Professor Under Fire for Blog Post Defending Kavanaugh, Ripping ‘Totalitarian’ Dems” HERE)

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Pence Warns China on Election Interference

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Vice President Mike Pence sharply criticized Chinese interference in U.S. politics and increasing military aggression Thursday, leveling up a blistering rhetorical assault at a moment when Washington and Beijing are hardening the battle lines after months tension over tariffs and trade.

The U.S. “will not be intimidated” and “will not stand down,” Mr. Pence told a conservative think tank in Washington, expanding on President Trump’s recent charges of Chinese meddling by insisting that Beijing “is targeting U.S. state and local governments and officials to exploit any divisions between federal and local levels on policy.”

“Beijing has mobilized covert actors, front groups and propaganda outlets to shift Americans’ perceptions of Chinese policies,” said the vice president, citing “a senior career member of our intelligence community.” “What the Russians are doing pales in comparison to what China is doing across this country.”

Mr. Trump raised the issue at the U.N. General Assembly in New York a week ago, accusing Beijing of attempting to subvert the U.S. election process to hurt him and fellow Republicans in the upcoming midterms. Chinese officials firmly deny the allegation.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry last week accused the Trump administration of engaging in “slandering” through “unwarranted accusations” of U.S. election meddling. (Read more from “Pence Warns China on Election Interference” HERE)

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Dem Senator on Kavanaugh’s FBI Report: It’s a Cover up by the Trump White House

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Well, there you have it, folks. Democrats are now saying the FBI report on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s sexual misconduct allegations is not acceptable because it doesn’t confirm all the smears they’ve lobbed against him. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said, “The most notable part of this report is what’s not in it.” Yeah, that’s because all three allegations have zero evidence and no corroborating witnesses. It’s what we’ve known all week, but Democrats wanted an FBI investigation, and they got one when Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) decided to side with them in that effort.

Flake voted to advance the nomination to the Senate floor, but asked that a weeklong delay occur in order for the FBI to look into these allegations. It’s done. And we all knew Democrats wouldn’t accept the report. This was all part of their delay antics, which are now coming to an end. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell invoked cloture, meaning we could see a final vote come Saturday. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-MA), however, seems to think the FBI report is part of a cover-up (via The Hill):

Markey said on “CNN Newsroom” that the bureau’s investigation, which did not include interviews with Kavanaugh or Christine Blasey Ford, the first woman to publicly accuse him of sexual assault, made a “mockery” of the Senate.

“It’s obviously a cover-up,” he said, as senators took turns reviewing a single copy of the final FBI report throughout the morning.

(Read more from “Dem Senator on Kavanaugh’s FBI Report: It’s a Cover up by the Trump White House” HERE)

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Man Caught on Video Kicking Pro-Life Woman During Peaceful Protest

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Marie-Claire Bissonnette, a pro-life activist, was kicked by a pro-abortion man during the peaceful “Life Chain” event held across Canada Sunday. The altercation was caught on video and brought to the attention of Canadian authorities who, Bissonnette says, initially shrugged off the assault despite the video evidence she showed them.

“I warned people to shield their signs, he then proceeded to run up behind five of the participants (including a ten-year-old girl) and scribble with his markers on their backs, ruining their clothing,” she wrote. . .

As the video she took shows, he then asked her about abortion in cases of rape. When she answered that a woman should keep the baby, he roundhouse kicked her in the shoulder, knocking her phone to the ground. . .

The man was later identified as Jordan Hunt, a hair stylist for Noble Studio 101. . .

“It has been brought to our attention that Jordan Hunt has been caught on camera assaulting an innocent bystander at a pro-life rally,” they wrote. “We don’t condone his actions and he has been let go. We believe that everyone has a right to an opinion and the right to voice their opinion without fear of physical violence.” (Read more from “Man Caught on Video Kicking Pro-Life Woman During Peaceful Protest” HERE)

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Kavanaugh Fate Hangs in Balance, With 3 Swing-Vote Senators

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By Fox News. With tensions boiling over on the eve of a major procedural vote in the Senate on Friday morning on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation, three of four key moderate swing-vote senators are “trying to get to yes,” a GOP source told Fox News.

Those senators — Arizona Republican Jeff Flake, West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, and Maine Republican Susan Collins — have kept their options open throughout the nomination process, but there were outward indications that at least some of them will ultimately support Kavanaugh.

In an unexpected, almost movie-like twist late Thursday, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., announced he’s going to attend his daughter’s wedding back home in Montana on Saturday — meaning that even though he strongly supports Kavanaugh, he would be unavailable to immediately vote for his confirmation, which is scheduled to be taken up that evening.

But Fox News has learned that Daines made an unusual late-night phone call Thursday evening to Kavanaugh and personally reassured him that “he has made arrangements to be there to get him across the finish line as needed.” (Read more from “Kavanaugh Fate Hangs in Balance, With 3 Swing-Vote Senators” HERE)

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Kavanaugh Protesters Arrested at Capitol, After Thousands March on Supreme Court

By Fox News. Thousands of liberal protesters, fired up by Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, marched up Capitol Hill on Thursday to protest Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court and put pressure on the handful of undecided senators who will determine whether Kavanaugh gets confirmed in the coming days.

By Thursday afternoon, Capitol Police began arresting hundreds of protesters inside the Hart Senate Office Building who raised their fists and loudly started chanting “Kavanaugh has got to go.” Arrests were made after protesters began sitting down in the building’s atrium, refusing to cooperate with law enforcement.

In all, some 302 protesters were arrested and charged with unlawfully demonstrating in Senate office buildings Thursday, police said.

During the rallies and marches, protesters made it clear they were mad that Kavanaugh – who has denied allegations of past sexual assault – might be confirmed as early as this week. (Read more from “Kavanaugh Protesters Arrested at Capitol, After Thousands March on Supreme Court” HERE)

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Clinton Lawyer Gave FBI Documents for Russia Probe

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A top lawyer working with the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign contacted the FBI’s general counsel in late 2016 and provided documents for the Russia probe as federal investigators prepared a surveillance warrant for Trump campaign aide Carter Page, sources close to a congressional investigation told Fox News, citing new testimony.

The FBI official who was contacted, James Baker, revealed the exchange to congressional investigators during a closed-door deposition Wednesday. He said Perkins Coie lawyer Michael Sussmann initiated contact with him and provided documents as well as computer storage devices on Russian hacking. The sources said Baker described the contact as unusual and the “only time it happened.”

Perkins Coie was a key player in the funding of the controversial anti-Trump dossier, which Republicans have long suspected helped fuel the FBI’s investigation. The DNC and Clinton campaign had hired opposition research firm Fusion GPS in April 2016, through Perkins Coie, to dig into Trump’s background. Fusion, in turn, paid British ex-spy Christopher Steele to compile the dossier, memos from which were shared with the FBI in the summer of 2016.

Sussmann’s contact with Baker suggests another connection between the early stages of the FBI’s Russia probe and those working with the DNC and Clinton campaign. Sussmann’s bio on the Perkins Coie website describes him as a former senior Justice Department official with extensive national security and cybersecurity experience: “[Sussmann] is engaged on some of the most sophisticated, high-stakes matters today, such as his representation of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in their responses to Russian hacking in the 2016 presidential election.” (Read more from “Clinton Lawyer Gave FBI Documents for Russia Probe” HERE)

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FBI Lacks White House Approval to Talk to Kavanaugh and Ford

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By Bloomberg. The FBI hasn’t interviewed Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh or Christine Blasey Ford because it doesn’t have clear authority from the White House to do so, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

Instead, the White House has indicated to the FBI that testimony from Kavanaugh and Ford, who has accused him of attempting to rape her when they were in high school, before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week is sufficient, said the people, who asked to not be identified discussing the sensitive matter.

On Wednesday night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell started the clock for a Friday test vote on the nomination. McConnell said that the Senate “would receive the results” of the FBI’s inquiry into the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh on Wednesday night.

A tentative plan for viewing the report is that a single copy will be available in a secure room for senators to view starting Thursday morning, at one-hour intervals alternating between Republicans and Democrats, according to a person briefed on the matter. . .

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation was trying to force the issue and seek explicit approval from the White House to interview Ford and Kavanaugh. And it wasn’t clear why the FBI hasn’t yet talked to other people who have been recommended by lawyers or who have voluntarily come forward — or if the bureau would need explicit approval to talk with them as well. (Read more from “FBI Lacks White House Approval to Talk to Kavanaugh and Ford” HERE)

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White House Says FBI Report Supports Kavanaugh Confirmation

By Washington Post. The White House said early Thursday morning that it had received the FBI’s completed report on Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh and that it was “fully confident” that the Senate would vote to confirm President Trump’s nominee to the nation’s top court.

Raj Shah, deputy White House press secretary, said the report, which Democrats have denounced as hasty and incomplete, marked “the last addition to the most comprehensive review of a Supreme Court nominee in history, which includes extensive hearings, multiple committee interviews, over 1,200 questions for the record and over a half million pages of documents.”

In three tweets, the first published at 2:24 a.m. Thursday, Shah said lawmakers will have had “ample time” to review the results of the latest probe by the time they vote on Friday, according to a schedule set into motion Wednesday by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Senators will be able to review the report at a secure facility at the Capitol beginning Thursday.

(Read more from “White House Says FBI Report Supports Kavanaugh Confirmation” HERE)

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Hollywood, Parkland Activists Unite for Sexually Explicit Get out the Vote Effort

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Hollywood knows that sex sells. That’s why several celebrities have teamed up with Parkland survivors in the March for Our Lives movement to motivate people to register to vote in a new ad titled “My First Time.”

The ad features notable celebrities including Scarlett Johansson, Chadwick Boseman, Don Cheadle, Chris Evans, and Zoë Kravitz using sexual innuendo to describe their first time voting. Johansson talks about being “nervous.” Cheadle says his “first time” was in a church. Evans explains his “first time with woman was in 2016.” Mark Ruffalo says he didn’t know “where to put it,” and Boseman adds, “You know, where to slide it in.” They’re all talking about voting, obviously.

The Parkland activists Emma González and David Hogg appear in the video, clarifying that they have the numbers and the power to vote and, presumably, knock Second Amendment-defending Republicans out of office to enact sweeping gun control legislation.

One student says he was so excited when he voted for the first time that he “elected all over the place.” Gross.

If this sexually themed ad rings a bell, it’s likely because you’re dredging up the repressed memory from that time “Girls” star Lena Dunham made voting for Obama a double entendre for losing her virginity.

Flashback to 2012:

Making voting sexual was creepy then, and it’s still creepy now. (For more from the author of “Hollywood, Parkland Activists Unite for Sexually Explicit Get out the Vote Effort” please click HERE)

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Navy Veteran Arrested in Connection With Trump Ricin Letter

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A U.S. Navy veteran in Utah was arrested Wednesday in connection with suspicious envelopes that were sent to President Donald Trump and top military chiefs.

William Clyde Allen III, 39, was taken into custody in in the small northern Utah city of Logan, said Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the state’s U.S. attorney’s office.

The arrest comes after authorities confirmed an investigation into two envelopes once thought to contain ricin and later found to be castor seeds, the substance from which the poison is derived. They can cause injury if swallowed.

The FBI said there were potentially hazardous chemicals involved with their operation in Utah on Wednesday, but declined to give additional details. No attorney was immediately listed for Allen.

The envelopes addressed to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the Navy’s top officer, Adm. John Richardson, were isolated at a mail screening facility and sent to the FBI. No one was injured, and neither envelope entered the Pentagon. Mattis is traveling in Europe this week. (Read more from “Navy Veteran Arrested in Connection With Trump Ricin Letter” HERE)

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