Tuesday, April 02, 2019
Jussie Smollett's fake attack wasn't an uncommon ploy
Jussie Smollett's fake attack wasn't an uncommon ploy:
That shouldn’t surprise anyone.
- In writing a book about hate crime hoaxes, I found more than 400. Such frauds damage good race relations.
That shouldn’t surprise anyone.
Smollett’s story was bizarre, bordering on the absurd.
...The questions here are obvious.
How many Trump supporters even exist in the downtown of a city that went 83% for Hillary Clinton — and how many of them watch "Empire?"
How many guys looking for a fight carry rope and bottles of bleach around with them?
How many Trump supporters even exist in the downtown of a city that went 83% for Hillary Clinton — and how many of them watch "Empire?" How many guys looking for a fight carry rope and bottles of bleach around with them?
A great many hate crime stories turn out to be hoaxes.
...Simply looking at what happened to the most widely reported hate crime stories over the past 4-5 years illustrates this: not only the Smollett case but also the Yasmin Seweid, Air Force Academy, Eastern Michigan, Wisconsin-Parkside, Kean College, Covington Catholic, and “Hopewell Baptist burning” racial scandals all turned out to be fakes.
And, these cases are not isolated outliers.
...Simply looking at what happened to the most widely reported hate crime stories over the past 4-5 years illustrates this: not only the Smollett case but also the Yasmin Seweid, Air Force Academy, Eastern Michigan, Wisconsin-Parkside, Kean College, Covington Catholic, and “Hopewell Baptist burning” racial scandals all turned out to be fakes.
And, these cases are not isolated outliers.
Doing research for a book, Hate Crime Hoax, I was able to easily put together a data set of 409 confirmed hate hoaxes.
An overlapping but substantially different list of 348 hoaxes exists at fakehatecrimes.org, and researcher Laird Wilcox put together another list of at least 300 in his still-contemporary book Crying Wolf.
An overlapping but substantially different list of 348 hoaxes exists at fakehatecrimes.org, and researcher Laird Wilcox put together another list of at least 300 in his still-contemporary book Crying Wolf.
...There is very little brutally violent racism in the modern USA..."
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Report: Gang Stole Billions, Infiltrated UK Govt, Funded al-Qaeda, Labour
Report: Gang Stole Billions, Infiltrated UK Govt, Funded al-Qaeda, Labour
"A vast network of British Asian gang members linked to Abu Hamza and the 7/7 bombers infiltrated government agencies, defrauded taxpayers of billions of pounds, and funnelled tens of millions to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda over 20 years, an investigation claims to have found.
"A vast network of British Asian gang members linked to Abu Hamza and the 7/7 bombers infiltrated government agencies, defrauded taxpayers of billions of pounds, and funnelled tens of millions to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda over 20 years, an investigation claims to have found.
The report suggests that, through a complex series of tactics, including exploitation of illegal immigration, benefits fraud, VAT fraud, and mortgage fraud, the gang managed to steal an astonishing £8 billion.
These funds were allegedly used to provide lavish lifestyles for the gang’s members, including luxury cars and properties — but also helped bankroll Osama bin Laden’s notorious al-Qaeda network, claims a Sunday Times investigation.
It is believed that £80 million was sent to the jihadists to help them fund their radical Islamic terrorist activities, with a source claiming that “MI5 had information that the ultimate destination for some of the money was Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad.”
...It is claimed that “thousands” of pounds were donated to the then-governing Labour Party by the gang..."
Read all.
Read all.
New study claims white people's diets disproportionally contribute to climate change - TheBlaze
New study claims white people's diets disproportionally contribute to climate change - TheBlaze:
If you're white, then your dining choices contribute to climate change more than the diets of any other ethnic groups, a new study boldly declares.
What are the details?
The study, released last week in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, determined the diet of typical Caucasian Americans includes a greater variety of foods than African-American and Hispanic diets, therefore requiring the use of more land and water, which leads to greater greenhouse gas emissions.
...The study comes just weeks after a separate study claimed that white people disproportionally produce air pollution."
- 'It's very clear that whites are responsible for the majority of greenhouse gases emitted...'
If you're white, then your dining choices contribute to climate change more than the diets of any other ethnic groups, a new study boldly declares.
What are the details?
The study, released last week in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, determined the diet of typical Caucasian Americans includes a greater variety of foods than African-American and Hispanic diets, therefore requiring the use of more land and water, which leads to greater greenhouse gas emissions.
...The study comes just weeks after a separate study claimed that white people disproportionally produce air pollution."
EXCLUSIVE – NSA Whistleblower: Page FISA Warrant Likely a Gateway to Spy on Entire Trump Campaign | Breitbart
EXCLUSIVE – NSA Whistleblower: Page FISA Warrant Likely a Gateway to Spy on Entire Trump Campaign | Breitbart:
The Obama-era FISA warrant obtained to monitor the communications of Carter Page was most likely utilized as a gateway to spy on the rest of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, contended William Binney, a former highly placed NSA official turned whistleblower.
The same warrant against Page technically could also have been used to legally justify collecting data on the Republican National Committee (RNC) or the leadership of the Republican Party, Binney said.
Binney was an architect of the NSA’s surveillance program. He became a famed whistleblower when he resigned on October 31, 2001 after spending more than 30 years with the agency.
The same warrant against Page technically could also have been used to legally justify collecting data on the Republican National Committee (RNC) or the leadership of the Republican Party, Binney said.
Binney was an architect of the NSA’s surveillance program. He became a famed whistleblower when he resigned on October 31, 2001 after spending more than 30 years with the agency.
Detroit Lawmaker Would Repeal City’s Post-Bankruptcy Financial Oversight – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Detroit Lawmaker Would Repeal City’s Post-Bankruptcy Financial Oversight – Michigan Capitol Confidential:
...The 2014 bailout gave Detroit $195 million up front and authorized another $350 million over 20 years to ease its way out of federal bankruptcy court.
But to ensure the city did not resume the practices that caused insolvency in the first place, the Legislature imposed oversight of Detroit’s finances.
James Hohman, director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, cautioned legislators about liberating Detroit from state financial oversight.
Among other reasons, he pointed to the 2018 conviction of a former Detroit employee for embezzling from the city.
Masharn Franklin had worked in Detroit’s audit and payroll department and was sentenced to 18 months in prison in November 2018 for embezzling $265,000.
...“Some of its elected officials and managers have been charged with corruption after bankruptcy. ...But its residents deserve a competent and functional government, and lawmakers shouldn’t act like the city’s problems are over."
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- Critic:‘Lawmakers shouldn’t act like the city’s problems are over’
- Several bills proposed by state Sen. Sylvia Santana would end state oversight of the city of Detroit’s finances, a condition that was part of a 2014 “Grand Bargain” bailout package designed to help pull the city out of bankruptcy.
...The 2014 bailout gave Detroit $195 million up front and authorized another $350 million over 20 years to ease its way out of federal bankruptcy court.
But to ensure the city did not resume the practices that caused insolvency in the first place, the Legislature imposed oversight of Detroit’s finances.
- Under the bargain, the state’s financial oversight would last 20 years, but Santana’s Senate bills 222 through 226 would formally terminate the oversight after just five years.
- No longer would city financial decisions be reviewed by a nine-member commission comprised mostly of gubernatorial appointees and chaired by the state treasurer.
- ...Santana’s bills would also end state oversight of the Detroit Public Schools Community District.
- Additionally, the bills would repeal a provision of state law affecting the city and employee health insurance. That particular law requires municipal employees across the state to contribute specified amounts to their employer-provided health insurance benefits. Municipal governments can exempt their employees from these cost-sharing duties with a two-thirds vote by their governing body, but currently, Detroit cannot. Santana would let the city do so.
- Santana has also introduced a bill to let large cities, including Detroit, impose a 10 percent amusements tax on tickets to concerts, shows, sporting events, zoos and more. The proceeds would be used to prop up underfunded police pensions and retiree health insurance benefits.
James Hohman, director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, cautioned legislators about liberating Detroit from state financial oversight.
Among other reasons, he pointed to the 2018 conviction of a former Detroit employee for embezzling from the city.
Masharn Franklin had worked in Detroit’s audit and payroll department and was sentenced to 18 months in prison in November 2018 for embezzling $265,000.
...“Some of its elected officials and managers have been charged with corruption after bankruptcy. ...But its residents deserve a competent and functional government, and lawmakers shouldn’t act like the city’s problems are over."
Read all.
History for April 2
History for April 2 - On-This-Day.com
Hans Christian Andersen 1805 - Author ("The Ugly Duckling"), Frederic Bartholdi 1834, Emile Zola 1840 - Novelist
Walter Chrysler 1875 - Auto manufacturer (Chrysler Corporation), Buddy Ebsen 1908 - Actor ("The Beverly Hillbillies," "Barnaby Jones"), Sir Alec Guinness (Alec Guinness de Cuffe) 1914 - Actor ("Bridge Over River Kwai," "A Passage to India," "Star Wars")
1982 - Argentina invaded the British-owned Falkland Islands. The following June Britain took the islands back.
1990 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein threatened to incinerate half of Israel with chemical weapons if Israel joined a conspiracy against Iraq.
Monday, April 01, 2019
Chris Wallace Fact-Checks Democrat Rep. Jim Himes On Russia Collusion During Live Interview | The Daily Caller
Chris Wallace Fact-Checks Democrat Rep. Jim Himes On Russia Collusion During Live Interview | The Daily Caller:
Wallace interrupted, “No, excuse me. With all due respect, sir, that’s absolutely incorrect. I’m going to put up on the screen because we know that this probably was going to come up, the specific quote from Attorney General Barr. Here’s what he says: ‘The special counsel did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in these efforts despite multiple offers from Russian affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign.'”
“So specifically the special counsel is not saying there is insufficient evidence to prosecute. He’s saying it didn’t happen,” Wallace concluded.
“So specifically the special counsel is not saying there is insufficient evidence to prosecute. He’s saying it didn’t happen,” Wallace concluded.
AN UNCONSTRAINED BUREAUCRACY | Thongchai Thailand
AN UNCONSTRAINED BUREAUCRACY | Thongchai Thailand
"THE UNITED NATIONS IS AN UNCONSTRAINED BUREAUCRACY.
It is financed mostly by taxpayers from a few donor countries but the large and growing bureaucracy is too far removed from those taxpayers to be directly accountable to them.
It is run by unelected, unaccountable, undisciplined, and incompetent bureaucrats.
The organization’s size, budget, and scope are unconstrained.
The budget funding process provides perverse incentives for these bureaucrats to increase the size and scope of their organization simply by creating multitudes of agencies and programs, and by inventing problems and environmental crises set on a global scale.
...In the case of the United Nations these concerns are magnified manifold because this public sector is so far removed from the taxpayers that provide its funds that it operates in an oversight vacuum with no accountability
The United Nations Convention against Corruption or UNCAC fights corruption in poor countries by promoting transparency, accountability and oversight.
Yet, the UN is itself immune to these anti-corruption measures.."
Read all.
- HOW THE UNITED NATIONS USES GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTALISM
"THE UNITED NATIONS IS AN UNCONSTRAINED BUREAUCRACY.
It is financed mostly by taxpayers from a few donor countries but the large and growing bureaucracy is too far removed from those taxpayers to be directly accountable to them.
It is run by unelected, unaccountable, undisciplined, and incompetent bureaucrats.The organization’s size, budget, and scope are unconstrained.
The budget funding process provides perverse incentives for these bureaucrats to increase the size and scope of their organization simply by creating multitudes of agencies and programs, and by inventing problems and environmental crises set on a global scale.
...In the case of the United Nations these concerns are magnified manifold because this public sector is so far removed from the taxpayers that provide its funds that it operates in an oversight vacuum with no accountability
The United Nations Convention against Corruption or UNCAC fights corruption in poor countries by promoting transparency, accountability and oversight.
Yet, the UN is itself immune to these anti-corruption measures.."
Read all.
How the Modern State Commits the Very Evils It Was Created to Prevent - Foundation for Economic Education
How the Modern State Commits the Very Evils It Was Created to Prevent - Foundation for Economic Education
"One of the striking things about America’s recent political environment has been the increasingly warm embrace of socialism, particularly by younger generations.
At the same time, as the title of a recent New York Post editorial put it, “Socialism’s millennial fans don’t even know what it is.”
And the text makes the point more stron
gly: “Millenials—ignorant of socialism’s appalling economic and human-rights history—increasingly embrace socialism and its naively unrealistic prescriptions.”
Defenders claim they don’t want complete, or “real” socialism, but selective socialism in areas where they anticipate benefiting at the expense of others.
...But they do want selective socialism in areas where they anticipate benefiting at the expense of others as recipients or as arbiters of what “society wants” and will impose on citizens.
Further, they generally want the government to determine how nominal resource owners are to use them rather than direct government ownership.
Of course, that means their preferred system is better described not as socialism but as fascism...
Bastiat's Defense of Liberty...
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"One of the striking things about America’s recent political environment has been the increasingly warm embrace of socialism, particularly by younger generations.
At the same time, as the title of a recent New York Post editorial put it, “Socialism’s millennial fans don’t even know what it is.”And the text makes the point more stron
gly: “Millenials—ignorant of socialism’s appalling economic and human-rights history—increasingly embrace socialism and its naively unrealistic prescriptions.”
Defenders claim they don’t want complete, or “real” socialism, but selective socialism in areas where they anticipate benefiting at the expense of others.
...But they do want selective socialism in areas where they anticipate benefiting at the expense of others as recipients or as arbiters of what “society wants” and will impose on citizens.
Further, they generally want the government to determine how nominal resource owners are to use them rather than direct government ownership.
Of course, that means their preferred system is better described not as socialism but as fascism...
Bastiat's Defense of Liberty...
Read all!
Here’s Why Trey Gowdy Opposes Release Of Mueller Report | The Daily Caller
Here’s Why Trey Gowdy Opposes Release Of Mueller Report | The Daily Caller:
Gowdy, who left Congress in January, was referring to anti-Trump text messages that former FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok exchanged with his mistress.
“I don’t think the report should be released because the Department of Justice speaks in indictments. They’ve already indicted a lot of people,” said Gowdy.
“If you’re not indicted, I don’t know that the Department of Justice should be releasing a political hit piece that people like Schiff and Nadler are then going to use for 2020.”
“I don’t think the report should be released because the Department of Justice speaks in indictments. They’ve already indicted a lot of people,” said Gowdy.
“If you’re not indicted, I don’t know that the Department of Justice should be releasing a political hit piece that people like Schiff and Nadler are then going to use for 2020.”
Jussie Smollett, and the strange alchemy of egalitarian despotism | Spectator USA
Jussie Smollett, and the strange alchemy of egalitarian despotism | Spectator USA:
Especially pernicious, he noted, was the conjunction of the word ‘social’ with the word ‘justice.’ ‘Much the worst use of the word “social,”’ he wrote, and ‘one that wholly destroys the meaning of the word it qualifies, is in the almost universally used phrase “social justice.”’
There are, Hayek continued, other instances of this sort of ‘semantic fraud.’
...You could see this process at work in the spontaneous two minutes of hate directed at the MAGA-behatted students from Covington Catholic last month.
The instant, hysterical pile-on against the boys was a marvel to behold.
...Now we have the example of Jussie Smollett...
The outrage over this horrible hate crime was as instant and hysterical as that which greeted the unfortunate boys from Covington Catholic.
Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory ‘Spartacus’ Booker spoke of ‘a modern day lynching.’
...Except, as all the world now knows, Jussie Smollett was not set-upon by Trump-supporting thugs..."
Read all.
- The less hate there is in the United States, the more hate crimes must be manufactured in order to keep the Fraternal Order of Victims afloat
Especially pernicious, he noted, was the conjunction of the word ‘social’ with the word ‘justice.’ ‘Much the worst use of the word “social,”’ he wrote, and ‘one that wholly destroys the meaning of the word it qualifies, is in the almost universally used phrase “social justice.”’There are, Hayek continued, other instances of this sort of ‘semantic fraud.’
...You could see this process at work in the spontaneous two minutes of hate directed at the MAGA-behatted students from Covington Catholic last month.
The instant, hysterical pile-on against the boys was a marvel to behold.
...Now we have the example of Jussie Smollett...
The outrage over this horrible hate crime was as instant and hysterical as that which greeted the unfortunate boys from Covington Catholic.
Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory ‘Spartacus’ Booker spoke of ‘a modern day lynching.’
...Except, as all the world now knows, Jussie Smollett was not set-upon by Trump-supporting thugs..."
Read all.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory…
Instapundit Blog Archive QUOTE OF THE DAY: QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory.
Destroy its books, its culture, its history.
Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history.
Before long that nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was.
The world around it will forget even faster.”
—“Milan Kundera Warned Us About Historical Amnesia. Now It’s Happening Again,”
Ewan Morrison, Quillette, today.--Posted by Ed Driscoll
Ewan Morrison, Quillette, today.--Posted by Ed Driscoll
CNN, MSNBC Ignore Inappropriate Kissing Allegations Against Biden | The Daily Caller
CNN, MSNBC Ignore Inappropriate Kissing Allegations Against Biden | The Daily Caller:
CNN and MSNBC have not covered the allegations a former Democratic lawmaker levied against former Vice President Joe Biden in the 12 hours after the allegations surfaced on Friday afternoon.
Former Nevada Assemblywoman Lucy Flores, whom Biden campaigned for at the time of the incident in 2014, accused him of inappropriately kissing her. The allegation was published in an essay titled, “An Awkward Kiss Changed How I Saw Joe Biden,” in New York Magazine.
CNN and MSNBC have not covered the allegations a former Democratic lawmaker levied against former Vice President Joe Biden in the 12 hours after the allegations surfaced on Friday afternoon.
Former Nevada Assemblywoman Lucy Flores, whom Biden campaigned for at the time of the incident in 2014, accused him of inappropriately kissing her. The allegation was published in an essay titled, “An Awkward Kiss Changed How I Saw Joe Biden,” in New York Magazine.
Castro, Chavez, and 'bad luck': Glenn Reynolds
Castro, Chavez, and 'bad luck': Glenn Reynolds:
In fact, as Yale professor Carlos Eire notes in The Washington Post, Castro was not a benevolent patron of the poor, but a "brutal Big Brother” who crushed dissent, tortured, imprisoned and executed his critics, and stole everything he cared to steal from his island’s inhabitants.
- Castro and his ilk showed us that under socialism, the powerful grow rich — and everyone else grows poor.
Robert Heinlein once wrote:
Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.em
This is known as “bad luck.”
I thought about this statement this weekend, reading two news stories.
The first was about the tide of Venezuelans taking to boats to escape Venezuela’s economic collapse.
As The New York Times reported, “Venezuela was once one of Latin America’s richest countries, flush with oil wealth that attracted immigrants from places as varied as Europe and the Middle East."
The first was about the tide of Venezuelans taking to boats to escape Venezuela’s economic collapse.
As The New York Times reported, “Venezuela was once one of Latin America’s richest countries, flush with oil wealth that attracted immigrants from places as varied as Europe and the Middle East."
"But after President Hugo Chávez vowed to break the country’s economic elite and redistribute wealth to the poor, the rich and middle class fled to more welcoming countries in droves, creating what demographers describe as Venezuela’s first diaspora.”
Now, in their absence, things have gotten worse, and it’s poorer Venezuelans — the very ones that Chavez’s revolution was allegedly intended to help — who are starving...
Well, Venezuela was once rich.
But mismanagement and kleptocracy can make any country poor...
But mismanagement and kleptocracy can make any country poor...
Under capitalism, the rich grow powerful. Under socialism, the powerful grow rich — and everyone else grows poor.
Which brings me to the other story, the death of Cuban dictator-for-life Fidel Castro.
Although many among Western political and entertainment elites still think of Fidel Castro fondly, such people are, at best, what Lenin called “useful idiots.” In fact, as Yale professor Carlos Eire notes in The Washington Post, Castro was not a benevolent patron of the poor, but a "brutal Big Brother” who crushed dissent, tortured, imprisoned and executed his critics, and stole everything he cared to steal from his island’s inhabitants.
He lived the lifestyle of an emperor, while his people were subjected to poverty.
He persecuted gay people and Christians, and exported war and terror.
Oh, he said things about equality and justice, but those were lies.
In his country, as in socialist dictatorships everywhere, there were two sets of rules:
Those for the connected elite, and those for the subjects.
They talk about equality, but what they set up turns out to be an awful lot like a monarchy..."
Read all.
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