Did you miss the other parts? Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 During Max’s studies of civil unrest, she’d learned that the best way to get through a mob was to stick to the edges of the crowd, move diagonally if you had to cross, and to look like part of that crowd. If you looked like you were on the same side, nobody would think twice about you being there. Being one of many allowed you to move through a crowd almost invisibly. The three women pulled up their hoodies, slipped on sunglasses, and linked arms. Max and Savannah each held signs in one hand and steadied Joan in between them. The older woman was obviously exhausted but gamely joined into the plan to get them to their destination. The street was totally clogged with what had to be thousands of protesting pedestrians and there were barricades that stopped cars from getting onto Embassy Row. The chanting was, obviously, in Greek. At Max’s suggestion, they waved their signs and moved their lips in time with the crowd. The din was so loud that nobody could tell that they were just lip-synching. The trio stuck to the outer edge of the mob, grateful that the embassy was on their side of the street and that they wouldn’t have to shove their way across. Things didn’t move very quickly. It took 25 minutes of jostling to get within sight of the embassy gates. And within sight seemed like about as close as they were going to get. There was a thick crowd of people who seemed to be getting increasingly angry blocking the gate. It seemed impossible for them to get any closer. Would they be this close to safety only to be unable to get there? It felt like one of those bad dreams where you can’t get your feet to move and get you out of the way of whatever impending doom you were dreaming about. Implacable US Marines stood watch to protect the premises, not reacting to the shouts and jeers. The heavy, barred gate prevented the objects that were thrown by the crowd from hitting them. “How are we going to get to the gate?” Savannah shouted to be heard over the crowd. Max shook her head slowly. There were not any good, safe options. “We’re just going to have to push our way to the front. There’s no other choice.” Joan grimaced. “Okay, we need to hang on to each other tight. If we get separated, we’ll never find each other in this crush.” Gritting her teeth, Max linked arms more tightly and dragged the other women into the fray. They got stepped on, elbowed, shoved, squashed, and nearly separated a dozen times. It took a solid thirty minutes to push through the crowd and get close enough to determine their next move. Savannah had dropped her sign somewhere, but Max still waved hers with determination, although she wasn’t quite certain what it said. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Max got close enough to drop her sign and grab one of the bars of the gate with one hand, pulling Joan and Savannah with the other. “Hey!” she yelled to the Marine closest to her. “Can you help us?” He ignored her, staring out at the crowd. Max let go of the gate and grabbed her passport out of her pocket. She stuck it through and waved it. “Please let us in! We’re American!” she added. She was reluctant to be overheard by the crowd, but she had to get their attention. The soldier finally saw her outstretched arm holding the familiar navy-blue booklet and consulted quickly with another uniformed Marine. The second man came to the gate and took Max’s passport. “Are you by yourself?” he asked her. “No, I’m with my friends,” she nodded her head toward Joan and Savannah, who looked hopeful. “I need all of your passports and then I need to call it in.” Savannah began frantically digging through her purse while Joan reached into her shirt and pulled her passport out of her bra. “What?” she asked in response to Max’s raised eyebrows. “Who’s going to look for it there on a woman my age?” Max handed Joan’s passport through the gate and waited for Savannah’s. She was practically in tears as she tried to root through her bag with one hand and hold onto Joan with the other. The Marine had walked away with Joan’s and Max’s passports. Someone in the crowd saw the interaction. Suddenly, the mob’s attention was on the three women who were on the wrong side of the gate, instead of the soldiers they couldn’t reach. A young woman, her face studded with piercings, shoved Savannah, causing her to drop her purse. After the long night of constant stress, Savannah burst into tears. She started to bend over to pick up her belongings when another shove took her to her knees. Max yanked Joan to the gate and put her hand on the bar so she could stay standing, then dove into the fracas after Savannah, who sobbed as her hand was now under someone’s heavy-soled shoe. The mood turned uglier fast. Savannah was an easy target, especially when she couldn’t stand up. Max was terrified the girl would be trampled and she flung herself on top of her to protect her. She pushed the person standing on Savannah’s hand, who may not have even been aware they were doing so. Max braced herself, feet wide and elbows out for some added distance, then grabbed her under the armpits and pulled her roughly to her feet. Savannah stood unsteadily. “My purse, my purse! It has my ID!” “Come on,” Max shouted, dragging her through the crowd, throwing elbows without regard for anything but getting to that gate. The Marines had let Joan through, and the woman was wringing her hands, crying out for them to help Savannah and Max. Max got one hand on the gate and kept her other arm wrapped tightly around Savannah’s waist. “I need your passport!” the Marine guarding the gate shouted to Savannah, who shook her head tearfully. The man took pity on them and opened the gate with just enough room for them to squeeze through. Max dragged Savannah in so fast they both sprawled to the pavement, but they were finally inside the gate. Two soldiers helped them to their feet, one consoling Savannah that they would file the paperwork to say her passport had been lost. “Everything will be just fine,” one of them assured her. And just like that, they were on the American soil of the embassy. They had reached the end of the longest, most precarious three-mile journey any of them had ever taken. Epilogue Max, Joan, and Savannah were well-treated at the embassy. They spent the remainder of the day handling the paperwork for Savannah’s replacement passport and making reports to try to help Ellen, Robert, and Will, who had been taken to in an Athenian jail among the hundreds of other people who had been arrested. Officials confirmed their whereabouts and promised that they would be processed and released from the jail within 48 hours, finally free to go home to America. The following day, they took a car service to the Athens International Airport, 30 minutes outside the city. From there, they would fly home, their adventure a memory that would stick with them all. The women had formed a bond during their ordeal that would be long-lasting. You really got to know a person during an emergency, for better or for worse. As for Max, she was delighted that her hard-earned survival skills had served them well. They were things she’d never hoped to use, but she was incredibly glad she had spent the time, money, and effort to learn them. She planned to double down on her preparedness efforts when she got home because she knew exactly how fast things could change. If disaster could strike under a cobalt sky on a sunny afternoon while you were on vacation in paradise, it could happen any time, any place. The philosophy was true. You should always hope for the best but prepare for the worst. If you want to read about the rest of Max’s escape from Athens, name your price for the novella here. The post Three Miles: Conclusion appeared first on The Organic Prepper.

Last month, ABC anchor Martha Raddatz was mocked by JD Vance when she tried to minimize the threat of gangs in Colorado taking over apartment buildings by force. “The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment complexes,” she said. It’s too bad for you if you lived in one of those buildings. “Do you hear yourself?” Vance asked. That’s echoing now on biological males invading women’s sports. On his HBO soapbox, “Last Week Tonight,” British comedian/activist John Oliver expressed disgust that Kamala Harris couldn’t rebut Donald Trump on this. “There are vanishingly few trans girls competing in high schools anywhere,” Oliver claimed. “Even if there were more, trans kids, like all kids, vary in athletic ability, and there is no evidence they pose any threat to safety or fairness.” Out came the “no evidence” argument, which is simply overstated. You can easily find evidence, like 17-year-old volleyball player Payton McNabb getting injured in the head and neck and suffering partial paralysis after getting spiked in the face by a man in 2022. But Oliver dismissed her and her side. “It’s very weird for you to be so focused on the subject,” he said as he focused on the subject. MSNBC anchor Jen Psaki echoed Oliver, taking after Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., telling The New York Times he didn’t want his girls to be run over on the field by a male. The backlash among Democrats was intense. “Reflection is good, but if that were actually an issue at thousands of schools across the country, it would be worthy of a debate,” she said. “There are just incredibly few examples of transgender girls playing in youth sports, and when we do see these examples, there is no evidence that these kids are a threat to safety or fairness.” Psaki mocked the red states that passed bans on boys in girls sports, since they could only find one in Utah and one in South Dakota. She may have a point, since it’s in blue states where this is all the rage, and the blue states wouldn’t dare offend the LGBTQ forces. The social contagion of transgenderism is at odds with the notion that the number is “vanishingly few.” Oliver and Psaki are mad that this was a losing issue for Democrats. A survey from the University of Chicago found that 65% of Americans said transgender athletes should never or rarely be allowed to compete in sports leagues that don’t match their biological sex. The election seems to have underlined it. “Trump and the Republicans have managed to amplify their bad-faith attacks to the point where people do have concerns, as misguided and misinformed though those concerns may be,” Psaki claimed. On the Left, any challenge to transgender orthodoxy is considered a “bad-faith attack.” You’re “misinformed” if you think this issue isn’t insignificant. Dissent equals misinformation. Psaki described it as a fight between “manufactured panic” on the Right versus “actual facts” on the Left. But this professional Democrat failed to consider the actual fact that biological males simply cannot “become” girls in athletics. They have a pronounced physical advantage. The libertine Left creates a “manufactured panic” that laws against transgender crossover into women’s sports is “targeting” people and harming their mental health to the point of suicide. Consider the actual fact that nearly 900 biological females were robbed of medals in sports competing against transgender athletes, according to a United Nations study titled “Violence Against Women and Girls in Sports.” Concerns about young women’s fairness and safety cannot be mocked away by comedians and cable TV hosts. COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Liberal Media Stars Mock the Threat of ‘Transgender Women’ in Sports appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Debunking the Left's Deportation Hysteria

In the aftermath of Congresswoman Nancy Mace pushing to ban biological men from using the women's restrooms in the Capitol, CNN host Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday and Wednesday only included critics of the South Carolina Republican who accused her of dishonestly having an ulterior motive. On Tuesday, Collins had on a transgender Democrat state legislator from Montana, Zooey Zephyr, who already has a history of attacking Republicans over the issue, accusing them of having "blood on your hands" for making it illegal to perform sex change surgery on children. When asked by Collins how Democrats should react to Congresswoman Mace, Zephyr declared: "I think it's important to note that when Republicans are driving outrage politics -- when they're trying to fearmonger around a minority community  -- to pay attention to what they're trying to get you to look away from." She then accused Republicans of trying to use transgenders to distract attention from former Congressman Matt Gaetz's legal problems and a possible drive to repeal ObamaCare. The CNN host concluded by lauding the "thoughtful" conversation with her liberal guest. The next day, after House Speaker Mike Johnson announced a ban on biological men using women's restrooms in the Capitol, Collins had a panel that included liberal contributor Jamal Simmons and ex-conservative contributor S.E. Cupp as both were critical of Republicans over the bathroom issue. As Collins began by asking how the ban would be enforced, Cupp immediately trashed the new rule: "Well, you're getting to the silliness of this, and some of this is just performative." After taking a moment to admit that Republicans have a point in opposing biological men playing on women's athletic teams, Cupp again took aim at Republicans: We should have civil, good debates about policy. The problem is, Republicans aren't doing that. Republicans are using a very complicated and emotional issue to create a wedge and to create a punitive attack on a new member who -- as she pointed out -- doesn't want any of this. This is not why she was sent to Congress, and it's not what she wants to do and occupy her time with as a member of Congress. But that's sort of what Republicans do on these culture war issues. There could be a grain of truth or a majority of Americans with them on an issue, but they go to the cruelty to make a point instead of a policy. Collins soon undermined Congresswoman Mace further from reading from a tweet by a former communications director accusing the South Carolina Republican of using the issue to try to get on Fox News: "Well, and, S.E. Cupp, Mace's former comms director has been criticizing her online, and she posted it once and said, 'If you think this bill is about protecting women and not simply a ploy to get on Fox News, you have been fooled.'" Transcripts follow: CNN's The Source November 19, 2024 9:55 p.m. Eastern KAITLAN COLLINS: Today, House Speaker Mike Johnson did not say what he plans to do about South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace's resolution to ban transgender women from using women's restrooms on Capitol Hill. MIKE JOHNSON, HOUSE SPEAKER: Let me be unequivocally clear. A man is a man, and a woman is a woman, and a man cannot become a woman. (editing jump) But I also believe that we treat everybody with dignity, and so we can do and believe all those things at the same time. COLLINS: That's what he said when he was asked about a bill Mace introduced two weeks after Sarah McBride became the first transgender person elected to Congress. McBride is going to be sworn in in January, and responded, saying, quote, "Every day, Americans go to work with people who have journeys different than their own and engage with them respectfully. I hope members of Congress can muster that same kindness. My source tonight knows what it's like to the first. In 2023, Zooey Zephyr was sworn in as the first transgender representative in the state house. She was just reelected, and she joins me now. And thank you so much for being here. You know, I was looking at this resolution today, and Mace does not name McBride specifically, but she did make sure she was referencing her today, saying it was, quote, "Absolutely 100 percent because of McBride." What do you make of this? What was your response to this resolution. STATE REP. ZOOEY ZEPHYR (D-MT): You know, I think we see from Congressman Mace "outrage politics." We see an attack on a newly elected congresswoman who's representing the same amount of people that Congresswoman Mace is representing, and they're trying to paint her in some ways as dangerous or a villain. I mean, she is just using the bathroom like any other person and like many congressional staffers have been doing in years past.  COLLINS: And McBride responded also in that statement, you know, talking about hoping to have colleagues who were respectful and said, "We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars." You know, in two weeks, when she's up on Capitol Hill being sworn in in the same hallways, how would you advise her to handle this? ZEPHYR: You know, Congresswoman-elect McBride has the privilege of getting to represent 500,000 Delaware -- Delawareans in the halls of Congress, and I would tell her to do what she was sent there to do -- to spend every day trying to make sure that she betters the lives of her constituents. The other thing I would say is that what we see from the attacks from Congressman Mace is day one trying to target her. It's important that she recognize there is no amount of coloring within the lines that will keep someone like Congressman Mace from throwing mud at her and trying to drive outrage after outrage. So stick to your guns and represent your constituents. COLLINS: And Mace is clearly leaning into this. I mean, I was watching her comments on Capitol Hill today when she was being asked about this. I mean, she knew like what the response would be to this resolution and pushing this. She also wants broader legislation banning transgender women from using women's bathrooms in all federal buildings and any schools that get federal funding. But on this specifically, I mean, we saw Republicans campaigning on limiting transgender rights in the 2024 race. Some of them believe that was really successful, having that culture war as they were framing it, brought to the middle. How do you think Democrats should handle this? What does that look like in politics generally? ZEPHYR: You know, I think it's important to note that when Republicans are driving outrage politics -- when they're trying to fearmonger around a minority community  -- to pay attention to what they're trying to get you to look away from. When it comes to Congresswoman Mace targeting Sarah McBride, they're trying to get you to look away from the fact that they're hiding a report on Matt Gaetz who has been accused of sex trafficking a minor. When it comes to Trump's attacks on transgender people -- when they talk about prisoners and inmates, etc., they're trying to prime you for the idea that health care comes with an asterisk in this country. And this is especially poignant when you look at Speaker Johnson saying that the goal is to repeal the ACA. So make sure that when they target a community, you're saying, "What are they trying to get us not to look at?" And here it is them trying to figure out who they can peel off the American dream. COLLINS: State Representative Zooey Zephyr, I always appreciate having a thoughtful conversation, so thank you very much. (...) CNN's The Source November 20, 2024 9:32 p.m. Eastern KAITLAN COLLINS: Today on Capitol Hill, House Speaker Mike Johnson banned transgender women from using women's restrooms at the Capitol. His statement announced, quote, "All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings are reserved for individuals of that biological sex." This came after last night after you saw us report here, Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace introduced a bill with that ban. And, of course, this is all happening two weeks after the first openly transgender person was elected to Congress. Democratic Congresswoman-elect Sarah McBride. McBride responded to House Speaker Johnson today, saying, quote, "I'm not here to fight about bathrooms. I will follow the rules as outlined by Speaker Johnson, even if I disagree with them." I want to bring in my political sources tonight, and, S.E. Cupp, I just want to start with you because I think my first question looking into this was: How is Speaker Johnson going to even enforce something like this? S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, you're getting to the silliness of this, and some of this is just performative. As you know, every House member has their own personal bathroom and unisex bathrooms all over all of the buildings on Capitol Hill, so some of this is just performative. And it is unenforceable unless you're relying on staffers and members of Congress to turn each other in, which I don't think is the kind of environment you want to create. But, listen, there are real concerns among average Americans about some of these trans issues around biological men and boys playing sports against biological women and girls. That does not make them bigoted for having those concerns. There are concerns around gender reassignment surgery for children. They aren't bigots for having those concerns. We should have civil, good debates about policy. The problem is, Republicans aren't doing that. Republicans are using a very complicated and emotional issue to create a wedge and to create a punitive attack on a new member who -- as she pointed out -- doesn't want any of this. This is not why she was sent to Congress, and it's not what she wants to do and occupy her time with as a member of Congress. But that's sort of what Republicans do on these culture war issues. There could be a grain of truth or a majority of Americans with them on an issue, but they go to the cruelty to make a point instead of a policy. COLLINS: Yeah, Jamal, looking at McBride's response to this saying, you know, "This is not what I'm going to be focusing on -- this is not why I'm here." Of course, you know, you can't ignore how all of this started, which is from Congresswoman Mace, and, seeing what she said today, she was the one who introduced this bill and then wanted Mike Johnson to put it in the packages rule. But I want to point you to something that is still up on Mace's House website even today where she said, quote, "I strongly support LGBTQ rights and equality. No one should be discriminated against." She said, "I do believe religious liberty, the First Amendment, gay rights, and transgender equality can all coexist. She talked about her own friends who identify as LGBTQ. Now, look at that and then compare that with her Twitter feed today. And look at how much she has posted about this in just the last 24 hours alone. This is a small snapshot if you're looking through her X feed on this. And I just wonder your view of that, Jamal. JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, what's happened is Donald Trump got elected President, and since Donald Trump's got elected President, we've normalized cruelty. We've normalized things that we just wouldn't do otherwise. You know, what's interesting about this, in 1990 we passed the Americans with Disabilities Act. When my former boss, Max Cleland who was in a wheel chair, got to the United States Senate in 1997, there was not an ADA-compliant bathroom. So you know what he did? He used the bathroom -- he used the women's room because the women's room in the Senate was the only one that was ADA compliant. The men's room was not ADA compliant. So the Senate was able to figure this out twentysomething years ago, and now here it is in the House we're doing it just because it's cruel. And I bet you, just like me, I'm sure you know right now in America this weekend, there will be night clubs all over America where women are tired of standing in line, and they choose to go into the men's room to go to the bathroom. Americans can figure this out. This is just something that's cruel that's being done on behalf of Nancy Mace, and she should be ashamed of herself. COLLINS: Well, and, S.E. Cupp, Mace's former comms director has been criticizing her online, and she posted it once and said, "If you think this bill is about protecting women and not simply a ploy to get on Fox News, you have been fooled." CUPP: Yeah, Nancy Mace really likes TV time. She likes being at the center of these. And I don't know if it's for -- to curry favor among MAGA or just because she wants attention, but she's done this before, and she's, you know, glommed onto an issue that she thinks works for her. But that's the point. This is a policy issue. And I'm not just talking about the bathroom in Congress. I'm talking about this entire issue of trans rights, and it is an issue. And it's an issue that deserves some serious attention to policy. And we should do that with compassion and understanding. I've been in the gay rights and LGBT community as a supporter and advocate since I'm a child, and I know from experience that the way you move people on these issues of progress is not at the barrel of a gun, and it's not by yelling at them, screaming at them, telling them they're awful and bigots. That' not it. You've got to wait until people meet these people. When you meet a gay person, when you meet a trans person,  that's when the conversations sort of start to change. So, on the left, they can't force this issue on Americans who don't find some of this stuff very popular. But, on the right, they are hoping that the cruelty is going to move people on this issue, too, and that's just not how it works either. That's not -- that's not getting it.

Since January, blockchain technology company Digital Asset has issued at least eight press releases detailing its progress toward completing the Canton Network, a blockchain ledger designed to house tokenized assets. To run its Canton Network pilot programs, Digital Asset partnered with the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation and Euroclear, two of the world’s most influential financial institutions.These successful pilot programs indicate the imminent arrival of a global, dematerialized macroeconomic system, which could lead to the loss of remaining property rights over virtually all of our assets.Are you ready to own nothing and be happy?DTCC and Euroclear play critical roles in tokenization. DTCC serves as the clearing and settlement provider, standing “at the center of global trading activity” and processing trillions of dollars in securities transactions daily. Euroclear, meanwhile, is “the leading International Central Securities Depository (ICSD).” Together, these entities handle the majority of global securities transactions.In the pilot program with DTCC, U.S. Treasuries were tokenized and used as collateral for margin calls. In the future, other tokenized assets could also serve as collateral for similar purposes and beyond.Deloitte, which observed the Canton Network pilot programs, stated that tokenization aims to transform illiquid assets, create new assets usable like cash, open capital markets to more customers by making assets “cash-like,” and automate transactions. The Canton Network pilot programs demonstrated the feasibility of achieving all three objectives.The organizations behind the Canton Network present it as a promising solution to address ownership and privacy concerns associated with other blockchain networks. While tokenization carries significant risks, it is not inherently problematic if properly designed and can even be beneficial.However, the Canton Network’s processes for tokenization, custody, and control lack sufficient precision to guarantee that investors will retain their property rights. More concerning, Digital Asset states in a report that the Canton Network complies with Articles 8 and 12 of the Uniform Commercial Code, a comprehensive set of state laws governing commercial transactions in the United States.In a paper I co-authored with Heartland Institute Research fellow Jack McPherrin, we discuss how the UCC has already undermined property rights to investment securities through the creation of a legal concept called a “security entitlement.” Revisions to Article 8 transformed individual securities investors from outright property owners into “entitlement holders,” allowing the world’s largest banks to seize what most consider personal property during insolvency scenarios.As we emphasize in our paper, the proposed UCC Article 12 — along with amendments to Article 9 — threatens to extend this framework to all tokenized assets, further benefiting too-big-to-fail financial institutions at the expense of individual property rights.In its report, Digital Asset asserts,The creation of a digital twin of the UST fits neatly into [the Article 8] framework: the security interest in the underlying 'original' UST is perfected through Article 8 while the security interest in the controllable electronic record representing the UST is perfected by established control over the digital twin. However, the phrase 'digital twin' may end up creating confusion – market participants should consider simply explaining that these are securities entitlements represented by ledger entries on the blockchain.In plain English, this means that tokenized assets will function in the exact same way as “security entitlements,” meaning that this technology will allow Digital Asset and its allies to legally own anything that is tokenized and housed on its blockchain.As McPherrin and I explain, “UCC Article 8 defines individual securities investors as entitlement holders — with no property rights to the securities that investors think they own — the amendments to UCC Articles 9 and 12 would define individuals as purchasers of ‘interest,’ who are considered neither secured parties nor qualifying purchasers.”We further clarify:Under this new arrangement, ‘entitlement holders’ are treated as unsecured creditors rather than property owners. The ‘secured creditors’ are the too-big-to-fail financial institutions to which securities brokers have pledged investors’ assets as collateral for loans and derivatives. In other words, if a securities broker or the DTC/DTCC goes bankrupt, their creditors — primarily the world’s largest banks — have priority over the securities that investors believe they own.As of October, 25 states and the District of Columbia have passed the 2022 amendments to the UCC that create Article 12 and update Article 9 for this centrally controlled, tokenized economy. Why is this happening?According to David Rogers Webb’s “The Great Taking,” the derivatives market needs more collateral to survive. Transforming currently illiquid assets into liquid forms of collateral solves this problem, while giving even greater control to the banks.Once everything is tokenized, all assets will become collateral for the derivatives markets in which too-big-to-fail institutions are the secured creditors — and therefore the legal owners of all of our property. It is no longer a matter of if all assets will be tokenized but when they will be tokenized. Are you ready to own nothing and be happy?

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