Tag Archives: Abortion

Did Secret Service arrest people for protesting Biden?!

Claim : Secret Service Arrested People For Protesting Joe Biden Motorcade!

People are sharing a video clip of US Secret Service agents wrestling a protestor to the ground, and arresting her for protesting while a motorcade with President Joe Biden passed by, with accompanying comments like:

The Secret Service arrested protesters who were demonstrating as the Biden motorcade passed by.
Imagine if this happened in China..!

Western media will endlessly report on the brutality of the Chinese police… 😡

Did US Secret Service arrest people for protesting near Joe Biden's motorcade?! 😮

Here is my fact check : https://t.co/2ZnoVxL79P #TechARP #JoeBiden #SecretService #Protest #Arrest #Police #China #Wumao #Facts #FactsMatter #FactCheck #Hoax #Fake #FakeNews #Freedom #Politics pic.twitter.com/xfrEgt3GHC

— Dr. Adrian Wong (@AdrianTechARP) April 3, 2023

Truth : Secret Service Did NOT Arrest People For Protesting Joe Biden Motorcade!

This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS created by Chinese 50 Cent Army (wumao, 五毛) or pro-CCP netizens and groups, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : Video Was Taken On June 8, 2022

This video is being shared by pro-CCP netizens in April 2023, it is actually more than two years old.

The video was recorded on June 8, 2022, as President Joe Biden was being driven in a motorcade to the LA Convention Center for the Summit of the Americas.

The video and photos of that incident were published by many news organisations, including CBS News, Fox News, NBC, Daily Mail, New York Post, etc. so this is easily verified by a simple online search.

Fact #2 : Protestor Was Arrested For Approaching Motorcade

The US secret agent did not wrestle the young woman to the ground for protesting President Joe Biden. She was tackled and arrested, because she broke the security cordon and approached the presidential motorcade.

By walking onto the restricted road into the path of the presidential motorcade, she not only risked getting hit by the passing vehicles, she posed a potential security risk to President Joe Biden and other people travelling in that motorcade.

Hence, the Secret Service agent had no choice but to tackle her, and remove her from the restricted roadway. Secret Service chief of communications Anthony Guglielmi later confirmed this:

Shortly after 5pm, an adult female entered a restricted roadway along a motorcade route on Chick Hearn Ct in Los Angeles.

As the woman approached passing vehicles, a United States Secret Service agent swiftly removed her from the roadway and placed her into custody.

There was no impact to the motorcade movement or our protectees. Our investigation into this incident is ongoing.

Fact #3 : Summit of the Americas Protestors Were Not Arrested

In the United States of America, people have the right to protest. It is enshrined in the First Amendment of its Constitution, which states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The First Amendment not only guarantees freedom of religion and speech, it also guarantees the right to assemble and protest peacefully.

Like many major international events, the 2022 Summit of the Americas saw people from different camps coming out to protest.

One group protested President Joe Biden’s decision to exclude Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from the event, while the other group were there to counter-protest in agreement with the president.

Fact #4 : She Was Not Protesting President Joe Biden

Ironically, the protestor who was wrestled to the ground was not even protesting the Summit of the Americas. Neither was she protesting against President Joe Biden.

She was just a pro-choice activist who was incensed by a leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade decision on abortion rights. She was heard screaming, “An abortion ban will not stop abortions – only safe ones.”

The Biden Administration is pro-choice, and is in favour of abortion rights. So the claim that she was protesting President Joe Biden is nonsense.

Even if she was protesting Joe Biden, she would not have been arrested if she did not breach the security cordon surrounding the presidential motorcade.

Fact #5 : China Often Arrests Protestors

It is extremely hypocritical for pro-CCP netizens to share this fake news, because China often arrests people who protest. Even something as innocuous as putting up a protest banner can get you arrested.

Take for example, the famous Bridge Man. On Thursday, 13 October 2022, a man was quickly arrested after he strung banners across a bridge in Beijing that accused President Xi Jinping of being a dictator.

Needless to say, people who actually participate in a protest are quickly arrested by Chinese police, as the photo below shows – that man was arrested for protesting COVID-19 restrictions in Shanghai on 27 November 2022.

Even online dissent is firmly and quickly quashed. Anything remotely sensitive is quickly censored, and the user’s account either suspended or deleted. People who make controversial comments are also often called up by the police, and may be arrested for making them.

Fact #6 : This Is Just Chinese Propaganda

This appears to be yet another example of Chinese propaganda created by the infamous Chinese 50 Cent Army (wumao, 五毛), or pro-CCP netizens.

Here is just the latest dozen the other wumao articles and videos that I looked at so far:

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Fact Check : Did Michelle Obama Call Women “Womxn”?!

Claim : Michelle Obama Called Women “Womxn”!

Many people are deriding former US First Lady Michelle Obama for allegedly calling women “womxn”. Some even sarcastically ask – how should we pronounce womxn?

Amongst them are Sky News Australia host Piers Morgan, who claimed that by changing the spelling of the word to womxn, Michelle Obama was deriding women, and making a mockery of the trans cause.

What makes this particularly absurd is that Ms Obama’s post was supposed to be supporting women’s rights.

Instead she’s trampled on them by pandering to a tiny minority of people who get upset when they hear a word that’s been used for centuries to describe people who aren’t men.

Many shared his video, with denigrating comments like this :

Totally disgusted! How low will she go?

Michelle Obama is not even a womxn. She’s a man. Everybody knows that.

Truth : Michelle Obama Did Not Call Women “Womxn”!

As much as I like Piers Morgan, he’s intentionally shit-stirring, and factually wrong. Here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : Michelle Obama Did Not Use The Word “Womxn”

Michelle Obama ostensibly posted the word, “womxn” in an Instagram post on May 15, 2022 that offended Piers so much he posted a screenshot of it in his video (see screenshot above).

I went to check out Michelle Obama’s “controversial” Instagram post, but could find no reference to the word, “womxn”.

This was what she posted. See if you can spot the offending word. I could be blind…

It’s been a tough couple of weeks since we saw the leaked SCOTUS draft opinion on abortion. If it comes to pass, we may soon live in a country where millions of women — not to mention our children and grandchildren — lose the right to make decisions about their bodies and their health. Even if we knew the courts were heading toward this day, it doesn’t make the frustration, grief, and fear any less real.

But we don’t have to stand idly by while others try to turn back the clock on progress. I’m so inspired by everyone out marching today. And I know that we’re going to see so many folks carrying this energy forward to the elections in November and in every election after that.

And if any of you are questioning whether or not your vote matters, I get it. But state lawmakers are the ones who will determine whether abortion is safe, legal, and accessible in your communities. And we are the ones who determine our state lawmakers. So when you get home from marching, check your voter registration status with @WhenWeAllVote and encourage others to do the same at WhenWeAllVote.org.

There were seven slides too, but none of them had the word womxn. It is possible that one of the slides did use the word “womxn”, but has been removed.

But what’s certain is that the message that Michelle Obama wrote did NOT use the word “womxn”.

Fact #2 : Womxn Was Used In Slide She Shared

If you head over to Twitter, you will see that Michelle Obama posted a tweet on May 15, 2022 too, that included the word, “womxn” in the slide :

The leaked SCOTUS draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade could give state lawmakers the power to strip womxn of the right to make decisions about their bodies and their healthcare. If the decision becomes final, anti-abortion laws will go into effect almost immediately in 13 states.

But again, her own message did not use the word “womxn” :

If any of you are questioning whether or not your vote matters, I get it. But remember that state lawmakers are the ones who will determine whether abortion is safe, legal, and accessible in your communities. And we are the ones who determine our state lawmakers.

In other words, Michelle Obama did not actually use the word that offended so many people, including Piers Morgan.

It was used in at least one slide that I can confirm, and another slide that I’m happy to assume existed earlier in her Instagram post, but might have been removed.

Not that there is anything wrong with the word, but it is wrong to falsely claim that Michelle Obama used it in her May 15, 2022 posts when she did not.

Fact #3 : Slides Were Created By NGO, Not Michelle Obama

It may seem obvious, but I have to say it for Piers’ benefit – the slides were created by an NGO called When We All Vote, not Michelle Obama.

If you look carefully at those slides, you can see the When We All Vote logo, with the orange check mark on the upper left corner (Instagram) or upper right corner (Twitter) of the slides.

Therefore, it would be incredibly disingenuous to credit Michelle Obama for the use of the word that Piers and anti-abortion activists find so offensive.

It’s also wrong to insert Michelle Obama’s name to the bottom of the slide (as Piers did on his show), when she was obviously not its creator.

Fact #4 : Womxn Is Not New…

The term “womxn” is not really new, having been used in writing together with the alternative version, womyn, since the 1970s!

Yes, before many of you were even born, some people had already felt that the term “woman” had sexist connotations, due to the inclusion of the word, “man”.

The term “womxn” started gaining traction in the 2010s, as a more inclusive alternative to the traditional term “woman” as it includes both trans and non-binary women.

It was even added to the dictionary in 2019 by Dictionary.com, which defined the womxn as :

a woman (used, especially in intersectional feminism, as an alternative spelling to avoid the suggestion of sexism perceived in the sequences m-a-n and m-e-n, and to be inclusive of trans and nonbinary women).

Fact #5 : Trans + Non-Binary Females Are Females Too

Trans and non-binary people who are born female do not magically lose their reproductive capabilities and/or rights.

Just because they have a different gender identity does not make their reproductive organs disappear into thin air.

They can still get pregnant, and they are most certainly affected by the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States.

Fact #6 : It Is Their Choice, Not Ours

It is also up to trans and non-binary females to determine if they want to be identified as womxn or not.

The womxn naming preference really has nothing to do with heterosexual people like Piers Morgan and me.

If women, including trans and non-binary females, prefer to be called womxn or even womyn, that is their right.

Don’t worry if you still wish to be referred to as a woman. It is up to YOU to determine which term you prefer.

And if Piers Morgan wakes up one day and demands to be known as a mxn called Pierce Morgan, I would gladly call him that.

Anti-abortion activists are doing their best to promote this womxn hoohah to divert attention from the likely overturning of Roe v. Wade, and the bigger question of the right of womxn to make their own health and reproductive choices.

So please SHARE this fact check out, so we can all focus on the facts, rather than false controversies.