What Happens When Google Disagrees With You?

 

I used to be a senior software engineer at Google. Until they fired me.

For doing something unforgivable…

Something so controversial that it was the number one news story for days.

My crime: I wrote an internal document that, among other things, suggested that men and women, on average, are different.

Like I told you: Unforgivable.

The politically progressive viewpoint, which is dominant at Google and in the media, is that all disparities in society are due to injustices. Or, in this case, that the gender gap in tech is solely due to some form of sexism.

But is this true?

The politically correct answer is: yes. And Google acts accordingly. It treats men and women differently during hiring and promotion, holds official women-only events, and gives mandatory sensitivity training on how to combat alleged sexist bias.

Of course, all of this makes sense if sexism is indeed the sole cause of the imbalance.

But what if men and women are not exactly the same?

Then, sexism is just one of many possible causes of the imbalance, and exclusionary programs and differential treatment can be a counterproductive form of sexism. These practices actually increase tensions and make some feel like Google cares more about their gender than their programming ability.

As an engineer, when I’m faced with a problem, I want to solve it. So, I decided to research the premise: that men and women are exactly the same.

I wrote my findings in a 10-page document titled, “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber.” You can read it online.

What did I discover? That not all of the male-female disparity in tech may be the result of sexism.That at least some of it may be attributed to men and women having different goals for their careers and their lives.

To cite just two examples:

In the study, “Women, Careers, and Work-Life Preferences,” published in the British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, the study’s authors conclude that women across populations tend to look for more work-life balance, while men tend to have a higher drive for status.

And according to a study by Cal State Fullerton psychologist Richard Lippa, men, on average, tend to be more interested in things, while women tend to be more interested in people.

These findings have been replicated many times. They’ve actually been cited by other researchers as a cause for the gender gap in tech.

In other words, I didn’t make this stuff up.

In fact, after my document came under attack, evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller said its “empirical claims are scientifically accurate.”

But Google disagreed. Like?really disagreed.

First, the company’s newly appointed VP of Diversity, Integrity, and Governance, Danielle Brown, posted a memo that said my report “advanced incorrect assumptions about gender.”

Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, sent a memo to all employees saying that I “cross[ed] the line by advancing harmful gender stereotypes.” This was, he added, “not O.K.” 

Then, he fired me.

By that point, much to my shock, my document had gone viral. News outlets were branding it an “anti-diversity manifesto.”

But if they had read what I wrote, they could see for themselves that it was pro-diversity. I had suggested multiple ways that we could get more women into tech without resorting to counterproductive discrimination.

Ironic, isn’t it? The company that hires some of the smartest people in the world couldn’t handle a well-reasoned, scientific discussion.

But my firing pales in comparison to a larger issue: Will Google force upon its users the same politically correct views that it forces upon its employees?

The evidence is disturbing. Google already manipulates its products to fit a certain viewpoint.

Just one example: YouTube, Google’s video platform, restricts access to dozens of PragerU videos, along with videos made by other influential moderates and conservatives.

Yes?Google is a business and can set its own policies. But for its billions of users, Google is their main gateway to information, the lens through which they view the world.

This makes Google, in some ways, more powerful than even the government.

And that means Google has a special responsibility to, well?simply follow its own motto: “Don’t be evil.”

I’m James Damore for Prager University.

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How can the States Fix the Federal Government

A Convention of States and Article V of the Constitution.

Washington is gigantic, corrupt, and unaccountable. Can it be fixed? Learn more about the Convention of States and Article V of the Constitution. Jim DeMint, former Senator from South Carolina, explains.

The federal government has become a lumbering giant. With each passing year, it gets bigger and scarier. In 1965, Washington was 761 billion dollars big. In 2016… it was 3.5 trillion ? five times the size.

If the government spent only the money it collected in taxes, that would be one thing. But it always spends more­­?which is why we’re $20 trillion dollars in debt. That’s 13 zeroes. Count ’em: Thirteen.

But the crazy spending isn’t even the worst of it. Washington is involved in every part of our lives.

Think about anything you do, from driving your car to buying your groceries to mowing your lawn. Whatever it is?your education, your job, your health? the government has its hands on your shoulder, if not on your throat.

As a congressman and senator for 14 years, I know this only too well.

So, how do we cut this giant down to size? Is it even possible?

Yes. And the amazing thing is, the answer is right in front of us.

The Founding Fathers, in their wisdom, foresaw the situation we find ourselves in today. They wrote into the Constitution a way to repair Washington…not from the inside, because that will never happen but from the outside, where it might. It’s right there in Article 5. Most people are familiar with the first part: “The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution…”

All 27 Amendments we have now started this way. Congress proposed them and at least three-quarters of the states ratified them.

But is this the only way to amend the Constitution?

Well, let’s read the next clause: It says that Congress, “?on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments…”

Did you catch that?

Congress must call a convention to amend the Constitution if two-thirds of the states?that’s 34 states?demand it.

The time has come to demand it.

The time has come to propose amendments that will restore meaningful limits on federal power and authority.

The time has come for a convention of states.

Here’s how it would work: Once the 34 states call a convention, all 50 states send a delegate to represent their interests. For any constitutional amendments proposed, each state gets one vote. And an amendment only passes out of the convention and to the states for ratification if a majority of the states’ delegates vote in the affirmative. In this scenario, Congress has no say. It is completely in the hands of the states, which means it’s a whole lot closer to the hands of the people.

We’ve never once amended the Constitution this way?but that doesn’t mean we can’t.

But, you might ask, doesn’t this open the door to rewriting the entire Constitution?

Antonin Scalia, the late Supreme Court justice, acknowledged this risk but regarded it as a “minimal” and “reasonable” one. Why? Because to be ratified, a proposed amendment would need the approval of 38 states. That’s a high bar. Thirty-eight states would never agree to something radical like abolishing freedom of speech. “The Founders,” Scalia said, “knew the Congress would be unwilling to give attention to many issues the people are concerned with, particularly those involving restrictions on the federal government’s own power… [so] they provided the convention [of states] as a remedy.”

This should not be a partisan, left/right, Democrat/Republican issue. This should be a “who controls your life” issue: you or the government?

Today, politicians can turn your life upside down on a whim, kind of like King George in 1775. Being at the mercy of distant, disconnected rulers was why the American Revolution was fought in the first place!

But we don’t need a revolution. We have Article Five.

So, what amendments might a Convention of States propose to limit Washington’s power?

Term limits, for one.

No one should be in Congress for 20 or 30 years. The only people who disagree have been in Congress for 20 or 30 years.

And how about a limit on taxes, spending, and borrowing? Since you began this video, the national debt has gone up $8.4 million dollars.

Here’s one more idea: A constitutional amendment that Congress can’t exempt itself from the laws it passes?something it’s done dozens of times, from insider trading to Obamacare.

Now, I don’t believe a Convention of States will solve all of America’s problems. But the Founders put it in the Constitution for a reason. They knew a time would come when Washington would become so big, and so intrusive, that only we the people could cut it down to size.

That time is now.

I’m Jim DeMint for Prager University.

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The Southern Poverty Law Center ? A Hate Group ?

The “Anti-Hate” Group That Is a Hate Group

Shutting down people you don’t agree with is about as un-American as you can get.

Rigorous debate, honest discussion, open exchange of ideas?that’s the American way.

But free thinking and speech are threatened today by a group with a sweet-sounding name that conceals a nefarious purpose. This group is called the Southern Poverty Law Center, or SPLC.

Originally founded as a civil-rights law firm in 1971, the SPLC reinvented itself in the mid-’80s as a political attack group. Every year now it produces a new list of people and charities it claims are “extremists” and “haters.”

Aided by glowing coverage from the establishment media, the SPLC’s hate list has become a weapon for taking individuals and groups they disagree with and tarring them with ugly associations.

The SPLC employs a two-pronged strategy:

First,  find a handful of crazies with barely any followers, no address, and no staff, and blow them up into a dangerous movement? proof that there are neo-Nazis lurking everywhere. On their notorious “Hate Map,” the SPLC lists 917 separate hate groups in the U.S.! No one has even heard of more than a handful of them.

The second strategy of the SPLC is to undermine legitimate political voices that they oppose by associating them with extremists like the KKK.

Take the charity known as the Alliance Defending Freedom. The SPLC lists them as a “hate group.” Is that fair? Well, the ADF has a network of 3,000 attorneys from all across the U.S. who’ve donated more than a million volunteer hours in defense of religious liberty. They’ve had a role in 49 victories at the U.S. Supreme Court. Putting the Alliance Defending Freedom on a list with 130 Ku Klux Klan chapters is not only wrong, it’s malicious.

According to the SPLC, one of the most influential social scientists in the U.S.? Charles Murray?is a, quote, “white nationalist.” Ayaan Hirsi Ali, perhaps the most eloquent spokesperson for the rights of Muslim women, is, to the SPLC, a “toxic… anti-Muslim extremist.”

Scores of other individuals and charities active in mainstream conservative or religious causes have likewise been branded by the Southern Poverty Law Center as threats to society.

Mind you, it is entirely fair to disagree with any of those folks. But it is utterly unfair to call them haters or extremists. The largest category listed by the SPLC as extremists?with 623 entries?covers groups like the Tea Party organizations that are wary of centralized government. Last time we checked, favoring smaller government was a mainstream and perfectly honorable American tradition.

What is not honorable is the course prescribed by a leader of the SPLC, Mark Potok, who was caught on video proclaiming the organization’s true intentions. He told a group of supporters, quote, “the press will describe us as ‘monitoring hate groups’?. I want to say plainly that our aim in life is to destroy these groups, to completely destroy them.”

Portraying someone with political views different from your own as a public menace is bullying.

And it’s a dangerous game. Instead of reducing hate and violence, the SPLC’s name-calling directly incites it.

In March 2017, Charles Murray was trying to discuss his acclaimed book Coming Apart at Middlebury College when he was violently attacked by protesters inflamed by the SPLC’s labeling of him as a racist. A professor escorting Murray ended up in the hospital.

In 2012, a gunman attempted mass murder at the Family Research Council, and failed only because the first man he shot managed to disarm him. The attacker told the police he acted because the SPLC had listed the Family Research Council as a hate group.

It’s a vicious irony: while promoting itself as a monitor of “hate groups,” the SPLC has, in practice, become a fomenter of hate.

Yet the group rolls on, bigger than ever. What keeps them going?

For one thing, the establishment media constantly quote them.

Scare stories about right-wing storm-troopers are a sure way to attract eyeballs, and fit nicely with the media’s own preconceptions of the “dangerous reactionaries” lurking out there in middle America.

Second, alarmism is a great fundraising technique. Convincing people there are fascists everywhere has turned the SPLC into a cash machine. Last year, the group hustled $50 million dollars out of frightened liberal donors, adding to the $368 million dollars of assets they were already sitting on.

So, the next time you see the Southern Poverty Law Center quoted in the news, just remember: the masterminds behind the SPLC aren’t eliminating hate. They are fueling it.

I’m Karl Zinsmeister for Prager University.

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President Trump Gives Remarks on Tax Reform to American Truckers

in Harrisburg, PA

The American Trucking Association. 

The current tax code is a disaster and needs to be reformed for all Americans. President Donald J. Trump is committed to bringing historic tax relief to the American people based on four key ideas ? cutting taxes for every day Americans, simplifying the tax code, giving business the competitive edge, and investing in America. Today, President Trump is traveling to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to deliver this message on tax reform to the American Trucking Association.

 

The American Trucking Associations, founded in 1933, is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry.

 

Trucking Leaders Join President Trump in Calling for Tax Reform 

Reducing Rates Will Allow Industry to Expand, Add Jobs

 

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania ? Today, leaders with the American Trucking Associations joined President Trump in calling on Congress to quickly act on comprehensive tax reform as a way of growing the economy and creating jobs.

 

“While trucking sustains the vitality of the U.S. economy, we also carry a heavy tax burden, paying the highest corporate tax rate of any transportation mode,” said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear. “That is why we joined President Trump at today’s event, in support of his plan to reform our tax code. We urge Congress to follow the President’s lead and pass tax reform by year’s end.

 

“Hearing the President specifically call out the benefits of tax reform for ATA’s members and the trucking industry underscores the need for this effort. We urge Congress to work with the President to achieve the goal of reducing the rates families and small businesses pay in taxes,” he said.

 

Spear was joined at the event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, by several ATA members, in support of the tax reform effort.

 

“Few industries are as connected to every facet of the American economy as trucking. From that vantage point, we can see clearly what the President’s tax reform plan would do to drive our economy,” said ATA Chairman Kevin Burch, president of Jet Express Inc., Dayton, Ohio. “Every day, we proudly do our job to move America forward. We join the President in calling on Congress to do the same.

 

“Lower rates equals money that can be used to hire and pay drivers ? the top job in 29 states. It can be used to purchase new, safer equipment, or hire highly skilled technicians to maintain it,” Spear said. “By easing the tax burden on the truckers that literally move our economy, Congress will enable us to invest in our employees, equipment and the growth of our companies. Higher tax rates mean higher transportation costs, which make everyday goods more expensive ? hurting lower-income Americans the most. By contrast, the benefits of lowered rates will reverberate up and down the supply chain, from the manufacturer to the small business and individual household.”

 

“Passing tax reform would help me as the owner of a small family-owned business, by not only helping us add drivers and trucks, but in allowing this business to stay in my family by eliminating the estate tax,” said ATA member Calvin Ewell, president of H.R. Ewell Inc., East Earl, Pennsylvania. “Trucking is a low-single-digit-margin  business, and family-owned companies aren’t flush with cash, but they have millions in capital tied up in trucks and facilities, so eliminating this tax will preserve our small family trucking businesses as a small family business.”

 

American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of 50 affiliated state trucking associations and industry-related conferences and councils, ATA is the voice of the industry America depends on most to move our nation’s freight. Follow ATA on Twitter or on Facebook. Trucking Moves America Forward

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President Trump – Remarks on Las Vegas Mass Murder

It was an act of pure evil

Thank you.

My fellow Americans, we are joined together today in sadness, shock, and grief.

Last night a gunman opened fire on a large crowd at a country music concert in Las Vegas, Nevada. He brutally murdered more than 50 people and wounded hundreds more.

It was an act of pure evil.

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are working closely with local authorities to assist with the investigation and they will provide updates as to the investigation and how it develops.

I want to thank the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police department and all of the first responders for their courageous efforts and for helping to save the lives of so many. The speed with which they acted is miraculous and prevented further loss of life. To have found the shooter so quickly after the first shots were fired, is something for which we will always be thankful and grateful. It shows what true professionalism is all about.

Hundreds of our fellow citizens are now mourning the sudden loss of a loved one, a parent, a child, a brother or sister. We cannot fathom their pain, we cannot imagine their loss. To the families of the victims, we are praying for you and we are here for you. And we ask God to help see you through this very dark period.

 
 
Scripture teaches us the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. We seek comfort in those words, for we know that God lives in the hearts of those who grieve. To the wounded who are now recovering in hospitals, we are praying for your full and speedy recovery, and pledge to you our support from this day forward.

Psalm 34:18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

 

In memory of the fallen, I have directed that our great flag be flown at half-staff. I will be visiting Las Vegas on Wednesday to meet with law enforcement, first responders, and the families of the victims. In moments of tragedy and horror, America comes together as one. And it always has.

 

We call upon the bonds that unite us, our faith, our family, and our shared values. We call upon the bonds of citizenship, the ties of community, and the comfort of our common humanity. Our unity cannot be shattered by evil, our bonds cannot be broken by violence, and though we feel such great anger, at the senseless murder of our fellow citizens, it is our love that defines us today. And always will. Forever.

In times such as these, I know we are searching for some kind of meaning in the chaos, some kind of light in the darkness. The answers do not come easy. But we can take solace knowing that even the darkest space can be brightened by a single light and even the most terrible despair can be illuminated by a single ray of hope.

Melania and I are praying for every American who has been hurt, wounded or lost the ones they loved so dearly in this terrible, terrible attack. We pray for the entire nation to find unity and peace, and we pray for the day when evil is banished and the innocent are safe from hatred and from fear.

May God bless the souls of the lives that are lost, may God give us the grace of healing and may God provide the grieving families with strength to carry on. Thank you. God bless America.

Thank you.

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