The Capital Research Centerposted a humorous piecea few days ago demonstrating how through simply parsing words, the Leftists at Snopestried to wiggle out of their “fact-checking” that had concluded that convicted terrorists had not helped fund Black Lives Matter.
(I sure hope none of you rely on Snopes!)
Snopes Avoids Truth of BLM Ties to Terrorism by Torturing Language
In the public policy world, where part of CRC’s mandate is calling out the hypocrisies and fabrications of the other side—hopefully to effect change toward the better—there may be no better measure of success than when the other side is forced to start redefining terms to make their lies sound like truth.
Last week, Capital Research Center achieved that measure of success. Not since President Bill Clinton wrestled with the meaning of what “is” is has America witnessed such tortured verbal parsing.
It began with a well-received June blog post from CRC President Scott Walter telling the tale of Susan Rosenberg, a convicted terrorist who spent 16 years in a federal prison:
Rosenberg . . . started out as a member of the 1960s revolutionary group Weather Underground, graduated into even more violent, and arguably successful, forms of terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s—including bombings at an FBI field office in Staten Island, the Navy Yard Officers’ Club in Washington, DC, and even the U.S. Capitol building, where she damaged a representation of the greatest of the Democrat defenders of slavery, John C. Calhoun.
At some point after President Bill Clinton commuted her sentence in 2001, Rosenberg landed on the board of Thousand Currents, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit that fiscally sponsors the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Global Network Foundation.
Cut to July 14, when suspected less-than-unbiased fact-checking site Snopes decided it needed to set the record straight about Rosenberg and BLM. Snopes likely weighed in because CRC researchers had done several high-profile media appearances—including appearing on the Mark Levin Show—discussing the piece, and formidable cable news pundits such as Tucker Carlson covered the Rosenberg saga as well.
Poor Snopes. In trying to debunk the Rosenberg connection to Thousand Currents, they found that it was, in fact, all true. So, they consulted their Orwellian playbook and simply questioned the definition of the word “terrorism.”
Then they could rate the claim as only half true. Which is exactly what they did in an odd post (see below) that seems to move backward in time.
So while we are on the subject of fact-checking. One of my local friends (Dick) sent me a youtube video (see it below before it disappears, he warned).
(You may have already seen it since it has been circulating since the beginning of the month.)
After watching it, the first thing I did was look for so-called ‘fact-checkers.’ I found two.
Perhaps the most interesting of the two was the one from the Associated Presswhich asserts this at the end of its fact check of ‘Insurgency-911.’
This is part of The Associated Press’ ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform.
LOL! Follow that link and see that Facebook uses ‘third party fact-checkers’ which immediately raises the question, so who are they and are they unbiased (of course not!)?
There isanother ‘fact-check’ by highly suspect ‘Lead Story’s’ Eric Ferkenoff who is one of Facebook’s independent (ha! ha!) fact-checkers.
So this is what you do. Watch the video, read the fact-checks (consider how they parse words) and see what you think.
BTW, one of my favorite things the Left does is at the outset they say that we think the virus is a “hoax.” By using that word they immediately signal readers/viewers not to believe what they are about to read or see.
I don’t think the virus itself is a hoax and I doubt you do either. The question is whether it has been blown way out of proportion, and has the panic response been warranted.
Decide for yourself (but LOL! if you go to youtube to get the video, you will see that they try really hard to keep you from seeing it and that tells you all you need to know!)
I don’t think preparing for the possibility that we could be visited by chaos and catastrophe this fall and winter is giving into the COVID panic. Sensible people prepare for life changing events—they buy life insurance, change the batteries in smoke detectors and keep their automobile gas tanks full.
Do we call those people preppers? We could because they are!
The warning signs have been right in front of our faces since about March!
The media has over the years depicted preppers as those who take to the back woods, lugging water from a nearby stream, and killing game to eat which they cook over spits in the ‘yard.’ But there is a wide range of possibilities for how much you want to prepare, and some of it is completely sane and sensible.
I had no interest this morning in writing one more crooks and criminals post that will only serve to feed your news reading addiction, because today I’m working on my to-do list for being prepared.
And, hey, look at it this way. If conservative-minded people prep for the worst and the libs think the government is going to take care of them, guess who might survive riots, civil unrest and a pandemic. You guessed it!
I just started reading a great book (well, I’ve only read a few chapters, so shouldn’t prematurely call it great) entitled “Start Prepping”by Tim Young.
The author discusses something that keeps most people from moving when faced with immediate or longterm danger. He calls it ‘normalcy bias.’ He lists several examples of where people died because their brains just couldn’t go there—that they were in danger of being killed—and so they did nothing.
Case in point….
I recently read a novel about the Titanic and subsequently read a non-fiction book on the horrific sinking of the unsinkable ship.
The ship (on its maiden voyage!) sank in about two hours and 40 minutes from the time it struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic until it went down.
Initially the captain and officers didn’t think it was possible that they would lose the whole ship and many passengers did not move to lifeboats (there weren’t enough anyway) continuing to play cards and otherwise entertain themselves as normalcy bias overcame them. At least 1,500 people went down with the ship.
Bad things do happen in history, after all, Rome fell, Nazi Germany nearly conquered all of Europe, the Twin Towers fell, is it so far-fetched that we are due for some rough times.
Heck we have had a little taste of it already.
Six months ago would you have dreamed that millions would lose their jobs and fat women would be punching each other in the aisles of supermarkets over toilet paper?
So what is the downside of learning how to protect your family? A few people might think you are nutty—so what!
I suggest you stop reading this post, and look for a few good books and then head out to the grocery stores near you that are (still) open and begin getting in the things you would hate to live without even for a brief time—coffee maybe?
But, don’t forget water! Author Tim Young says it is the most vital commodity for surviving even a few days. Those of you living on ‘city water’ could find your water supply suddenly shut off for myriad reasons.
And, so what if you spend some time preparing, get in some food, water and other supplies and thank God nothing out of the normal happens later this year, then you can enjoy a few less shopping trips over the winter, eat some of what you have stored, and spend the extra free time on your political news reading addiction instead!
Finally, are you an ant or a grasshopper?Aesopfigured this out, oh, about six centuries before Christ. Of course, one big difference now is that the ‘grasshoppers’ of today are mean SOBs often with weapons. But that is another thing you need to be prepping for!
Rutgers English Department to deemphasize traditional grammar ‘in solidarity with Black Lives Matter’
Also pledges to decolonize the writing center
The English Department at Rutgers University recently announced a list of “anti-racist” directives and initiatives for the upcoming fall and spring semesters, including an effort to deemphasize traditional grammar rules.
The initiatives were spelled out by Rebecca Walkowitz, the English Department chair at Rutgers University, and sent to faculty, staff and students in an email, a copy of which was obtained by The College Fix.
Walkowitz sent the email on “Juneteenth,” which celebrates the commemoration of emancipation from slavery in the United States.
Titled “Department actions in solidarity with Black Lives Matter,” the email states that the ongoing and future initiatives that the English Department has planned are a “way to contribute to the eradication of systemic inequities facing black, indigenous, and people of color.”
One of the initiatives is described as “incorporating ‘critical grammar’ into our pedagogy.”
[….]
Walkowitz explained in the email that since 2012, the Rutgers English Department has had a Committee on Bias Awareness and Prevention.
Following the committee’s most recent meeting in mid-June, its members agree it needs to “move from a role emphasizing awareness and prevention towards a role emphasizing ‘culture change.’Several initiatives came out of that meeting,” she wrote.
A recommendation endorsed by leaders of all instructional units is to require all fall 2020 instructors in English to attend at least one workshop remotely on “how to have an anti-racist classroom,” the email states.
Just a reminder first about what Ned Ryun said at American Greatness (reported here by me yesterday) as he proposed that it is imperative that the Right grows a spine:
Some people might think this is mean. [To fight like the Left does.] To which I say: grow up. There is a war for the republic’s existence and some people are like, “Ew, this approach would make me feel so icky.” You know what will make you feel super icky? When your indoctrinated kids inform on you and get you sent to a re-education camp. So suck it up, buttercup.
I am ashamed to admit that I have an undergraduate degree from Rutgers University (graduate degree from Yale), but if I had it to do over, I would tell my kids—do not go to college!
And whatever you do, don’t send money to colleges like Rutgers!
Do you remember the controversy in 2014 when Condi Rice was forcedto turn down her invitation to speak at a Rutgers commencement when students protested that woman of color because she was a Bush Republican? So much for BLM!
My brother, who also graduated from Rutgers, told me that he told a phone solicitor for Rutgers to NEVER call him again for a dime in the wake of that shameful RU episode.
And, you have been sending your money their way thinking that they are fighting for you in the swamp, only to find out that they are basically wimps who have gotten just too damn comfortable in the swamp.
Ned Ryun founder and CEO of American Majority.
There is an excellent piece by Ned Ryun at American Greatnessin which he suggests it is time to build a new, leaner, meaner political Right. (Hat tip: Richard Falknor on twitter https://twitter.com/highblueridge)
For conservatives it seems every day brings with it another betrayal from the professional Right. The hollow people leading the Republican Party and Conservatism, Inc., have been exposed. Some of us have known for years they wouldn’t be up to the task when a true challenge came, but it is still staggering to watch the meltdown happen in real-time.
So maybe it’s finally time for those on the Right to stop doing the same things they’ve been doing for nearly half a century, and instead form a new movement—a New Right that is actually equipped to defeat the Left.
As the think tanks are shown to be ineffective in the face of the aggressive Left, more people are beginning to realize that perhaps the money given to places like Heritage, American Enterprise Institute, and Cato was squandered. And it was a lot of money. The three organizations combined raised roughly $2.45 billion between 2001-2018, and that does not include the hundreds of millions in investments and real estate.
Rational people should acknowledge this reality and stop pretending it’s not happening. People invested billions of dollars in these entities, only to realize they never intended to be anything but sinecures.
Even worse, so-called conservative think tanks have little if anything in common with America First and have been corrupted by corporatism and imagined access to power.
It’s time to abandon the concept of institution building, as though we will ever have the ability to match the Left institution for institution. It’s time for a scrappy New Right to be built with an insurgency approach: we must accept that we are not in power, that we do not control the institutions, and that it’s time to go on the offensive. Our thinking, our strategy, and our investments must reflect that belief.
[….]
Let’s Build Fleet of PT Boats
For too long we have accepted the rules of the game laid out by the statists and the Left. It’s past time to stop playing by Goliath’s rules; time to start playing by David’s.
Some people might think this is mean. To which I say: grow up. There is a war for the republic’s existence and some people are like, “Ew, this approach would make me feel so icky.” You know what will make you feel super icky? When your indoctrinated kids inform on you and get you sent to a re-education camp. So suck it up, buttercup.
Well, they didn’t use those words exactly, but the Trump Administration says Minnesota must pay from its own coffers; federal taxpayers are not responsible for the mess politicians instigated and the riots they failed to control in Minneapolis.
Federal government denies Minnesota’s request for aid to clean up, rebuild in Twin Cities
The federal government has denied a request from the state of Minnesota for a disaster declaration and accompanying financial support, to help clean up and repair fire damage from unrest following the police killing of George Floyd.
Governor Tim Walz (boo hoo!)
Gov. Tim Walz’s office said it received the denial on Friday, eight days after Walz had submitted the request. A Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesperson said the agency had determined the damage was something local and state governments could handle on their own.
In a letter to President Trump on July 2, Walz had noted more than $15 million in damage and cleanup costs that could be eligible for federal reimbursement.
The state has estimated total damages at more than $500 million.
Hundreds of buildings were looted, damaged or destroyed by fires in the Twin Cities, primarily in Minneapolis and St. Paul, after Floyd was killed on May 25.
“The governor is disappointed that the federal government declined his request for financial support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help Minnesota rebuild after civil unrest damaged public infrastructure and caused extensive fire damage in the wake of George Floyd’s death,” Walz’s spokesperson Teddy Tschann said in a statement. “As we navigate one of the most difficult periods in our state’s history, we look for support from our federal government to help us through.”
In making the request for help, Walz had noted that the financial challenge had been made even harder by the impacts on the state budget from the cononavirus pandemic. A projected $1.5 billion budget surplus in February was soon wiped out by a projected $2.4 billion revenue shortfall, he wrote to in the request to President Trump via FEMA.
In a statement provided to MPR News on Saturday, a FEMA spokesperson said:
“After a thorough review of Minnesota’s request for a major disaster declaration from extensive fire damage as a result of civil unrest in late May and early June, it was determined that the impact to public infrastructure is within the capabilities of the local and state governments to recover from. The governor has 30 days to appeal that decision.”
Rep. Emmer to Trump: Do not give Minnesota any money without a full investigation of how this level of destruction was allowed to occur.
The federal government’s denial of the request from Walz, a Democrat, came a day after Republican U.S. Rep Tom Emmer of Minnesota sent a letter to Trump and other federal officials raising questions about the request.
While not stating opposition to Minnesota receiving federal money, Emmer asked that — in the wake of Walz’s request — the Trump administration “undertake a thorough and concurrent review of my state’s response to the violence.”
Emmer wrote that if federal money helps pay for cleanup and rebuilding, the government “has an obligation to every American — prior to the release of funding — to fully understand the events which allowed for this level of destruction to occur and ensure it never happens again.”
Slightly changing the subject, there is a new book publishedon how immigrants turned Minneapolis, a dying WHITE city of the 1970s, into the wonderfully diverse and vibrant city it is today.
Catholic and Lutheran refugee resettlement agencies come in for praise for helping to save the city from a “death spiral.”
And, so what if you spend some time preparing, get in some food, water and other supplies and thank God nothing out of the normal happens later this year, then you can enjoy a few less shopping trips over the winter, eat some of what you have stored, and spend the extra free time on your political news reading addiction instead!
