Liberty Rising Brief: One Week in Ukraine

“When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty.” – John Basil Barnhill

THE DAY AHEAD:

One week into the Ukraine war, Russia is continuing to attack the city's capital in an attempt to seize power in the country.

A Ukrainian colonel told reporters,

The Russians thought they could break through and be in Kyiv in a couple of days. They didn't realize that we have learned how to wage war in the past eight years. Now they sit there, hungry, without fuel, demoralized, and we just come in every little while and pop them off. And every day, we are pushing them back.

Meanwhile, the news cycle is continuing to churn although audiences are focused on the dramatic invasion.

Social, political, humanitarian, and economic concerns are at the forefront of our concerns lately. However, here are a few recent and upcoming events to keep you in the loop.

Starting with positive news, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is continuing to express an anti-Covid-19 masquerade across his state.

DeSantis appeared slightly irritated when University of South Florida students were wearing masks behind him during a press conference.

Florida was one of the first states to take a hard stance against mask mandates. Now, states including Oregon and California are following after nearly two years of intrusive policies.

Despite loosening its obsession with masks, the West Coast is still in disarray. Upon the release of the United Nation's latest climate report, experts are warning of intense natural disasters across the western coast.

Dramatic warnings have fueled America's depression-inducing obsession with climate change. While the climate is indeed changing, the matter is not one of life or death, especially amid unprecedented technological opportunities.

The infatuation with the environment is in juxtaposition to the liberal desire to change their lifestyle and address the issue head-on.

Meanwhile, the House committee is still investigating the events of January 6th. Now, a new filing claims former President Donald Trump and his close allies committed crimes.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal,

The panel suggested it had evidence that Mr. Trump potentially engaged in conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstructed an official proceeding and committed fraud—serious federal charges that could eventually be referred to the Justice Department for consideration. Such a move would immediately thrust the Justice Department into a political firestorm.

In more serious legal matters, a judge disregarded New York Attorney General Letitia James' attempt to divide the National Rifle Association (NRA). Although other parts of the case will move forward, this section was nixed.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Joel Cohen asserted,

The complaint does not allege the type of public harm that is the legal linchpin for imposing the ‘corporate death penalty. Moreover, dissolving the NRA could impinge, at least indirectly, on the free speech and assembly rights of its millions of members.

And, numerous states' are succeeding in their fight against TikTok. The Chinese-created social media platform has attracted record numbers of users through its targeted algorithm.

Prosecutors are focusing on physical and mental health concerns.

The investigation will look into the harms such usage causes to young users and what TikTok knew about those harms. The investigation focuses, among other things, on the techniques utilized by TikTok to boost young user engagement, including increasing the duration of time spent on the platform and frequency of engagement with the platform.

One last thing. Over 100 college and university professors were targeted for their personal opinions during 2021. This is the second consecutive year the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has reported over 100 incidents.

As per FIRE's investigations and its new report “Scholars Under Fire: 2021 Year in Review,” academics were commonly targeted for opinions pertaining to social issues in legal, English, political science, and medicine disciplines.

Thank you for reading today's briefing!