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Though Vought said that the president remains "fully committed to the fair and equal treatment of all individuals," he said "false" and "demeaning propaganda" had no place in the federal government, pointing to training sessions which teach that "virtually all white people contribute to racism" or require staff to state that they "benefit from racism."

According to internal documents obtained by Christopher Rufo, the director of the right-leaning Center on Wealth and Poverty, the training courses for government officials have encouraged personnel to "own their racism," as well as to accept their "unconscious bias," "white privilege" and "white fragility." Agencies including the FBI, the Sandia National Laboratories, the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, among many others, have undergone such training.

After ordering federal agencies to stop spending tax dollars on 'anti-racism' training, President Trump called 'critical race theory' a "sickness," and vowed to "quickly extinguish" it from the government.

As Trump's supporters cheered the ban, the president himself doubled down on Saturday.

Critical race theory has existed in academia since the 1980s, but exploded into the mainstream in recent months, as 'Black Lives Matter' protests and riots swept across the US following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. Its core concepts are the existence of 'white privilege' - the notion that America is founded on "white supremacy" and "institutional racism," and that all white people must be pushed to confront their own "unconscious racism."

Some of its most ardent preachers have spun their teachings into a viable cottage industry, with author and academic Robin DiAngelo, for instance, charging upwards of $20,000 to lecture corporate boards on the original sin of whiteness.

Trump's ban came after a number of conservative reporters revealed that federal employees - from FBI agents through treasury officials to nuclear scientists - were being 'educated' on how to deconstruct their "white male culture."

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On Wednesday, Pompeo described the ICC as "a thoroughly broken and corrupted institution" and said the US "will not tolerate its illegitimate attempts to subject Americans to its jurisdiction."

The US has opposed the ICC from the very beginning, and refused to ratify the Rome Statute. The George W. Bush administration even passed the American Servicemembers Protection Act in 2002, which includes the so-called "Hague invasion clause" authorizing the use of force to liberate any American or allied national held by the ICC.

A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday. The opinion delivered by Judge Marsha Berzon reportedly contained multiple references to Snowden and his role in disclosing the program to the public - for which he became a wanted fugitive.

While the ruling might pave the way for Snowden seeing charges against him dropped, or perhaps receiving a presidential pardon, its significance was otherwise symbolic.

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After months of insisting the riots were peaceful protests, Joe and Kamala released a TV ad "now is the time for racial justice" now blaming the riots on Trump who was deploying the National Guard at the governor's request.

The former VP is promoted as coming with "compassion, a desire to heal, and a fire extinguisher" to Trump's "matches and kerosene." Biden would provide "the selfless leadership and constructive voice we have sorely missed for almost 4 years," is how former Obama aide David Plouffe put it:

The reception in Kenosha certainly seemed different. While Trump's visit drew crowds of both supporters and protesters, Biden's visit seemed to have attracted only the media, with locals apparently conspicuously absent.

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• The MSM won't report what it's really like in Kenosha, Wisconsin, so I will

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