Posts Tagged ‘Ann Coulter’

LinkSwarm For August 14, 2026

Friday, August 14th, 2026

Finally, an SPLC arrest, Iran is broker than broke, a crazy commie loses despite a huge poll lead, more Russian Wildberries, ships, and conveys blow up, more of that voting fraud that never happens, and Israel dirtnaps more Hamas scumbags.

It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!

  • “Authorities Arrest Ex-Southern Poverty Law Center CFO on Fraud Charges. The indictment alleges Heidi Beirich, who also supposedly had a romantic relationship with an informant, helped funnel money to white supremacist groups through informants.”

    Authorities in California arrested Heidi Beirich, a former chief financial officer (CFO) at the Southern Poverty Law Center, on fraud charges.

    The indictment alleges Beirich helped funnel money to white supremacist groups through informants. She also supposedly had a romantic relationship with one of them.

    From CNN:

    The woman, Heidi Beirich, previously ran the SPLC’s project tracking hate groups in the US and allegedly “oversaw payments of donors’ money” to people inside of these hate groups, according to the indictment. Prosecutors say she shared a bank account with one of those sources, which included funds from the SPLC’s payments.

    “I believe she was part of the effort to open bank accounts in completely fictitious companies’ names and make payments to individuals for reasons that that were not accurate as as described,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a news conference Wednesday. “This is exactly what we said would happen in a case like this, which is that our investigators and the US attorneys and the agents working the case will can keep on working it even after the initial indictment.”

    Oh yeah, Blanche was confirmed as Attorney General. Maybe should have had a link on that, but, eh.

    The grand jury indictment against the SPLC came down in April 2026, including 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

    “In order to covertly pay the individuals, the SPLC opened bank accounts connected to a series of fictitious entities,” the DOJ wrote in a press release. “The covert nature of the accounts allowed the SPLC to disguise the true nature, source, ownership, and control of the fraudulently obtained donated money the SPLC paid the individuals. In order to keep the scheme going, the SPLC made a series of false statements related to the operation of the accounts.”

    Beirich is “Employee-2” in the indictment, who worked as SPLC’s director of intelligence between 2012 and 2019.

    SPLC said America had a racism problem. It did. It was the SPLC…

  • Not a whole lot of kinetic news out of Iran this week, but there are additional signs that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s economy is cracking.

    Despite the bluster from Iranian officials on social media, it should come as no surprise that the country is not doing well economically. From the beginning of the conflict to current day, Iran has been dealt an estimated $270 billion to $300 billion in total damage due to a steady barrage of strikes, including numerous infrastructure targets from bridges, highways, railways, airports, etc.

    The three-month-long US blockade on Iran’s oil exports have also taken a toll, with national oil output dropping from 2.2 million bpd to less than 300,000 bpd. It is likely that there has been some long term damage to the regime’s oil wells and they have lost approximately $6 billion in oil revenues so far.

    With a general information blackout in place, getting a proper estimation of the damages can be difficult. However, in recent months many Iranian leaders and media sources have indicated a dangerous shift in the stability of the country. The situation has become so volatile that citizens are reportedly turning to theft in order to get their hands on basic necessities including food.

    Iranian newspaper Jahan-e Sanat has reported increased theft of basic groceries over recent months, with store workers linking the trend to rising poverty. Related reports say meat is in short supply, there is reduced consumption of staples, subsidy shortfalls, and broader poverty pressures.

    Analysts note that while full state collapse or famine has not yet occurred, the combination of high food inflation, currency weakness and job losses is placing severe strain on households. Iran’s President, Masoud Pezeshkian, seemed to confirm the decline last week when he noted that the country was facing economic “difficulties and problems,” while claiming the enemy was trying to provoke protests.

    At Iran’s 33rd Conference on Monetary and Banking Policies (around June 2026), he questioned why people wake up to find their purchasing power has fallen and stated there are “hundreds of ways to overcome the economic impasse.” He noted that policymakers take people’s money and “return it with reduced value.”

    Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati presented a recovery roadmap and acknowledged an ongoing GDP contraction. He stated that “the combination of war and cruel sanctions has posed serious challenges to the country’s economy. Most importantly, people’s livelihoods have been severely affected because various sectors of the economy have been impacted by sanctions.”

    He also cited inflation at around 53%, which appears to be a underestimation of the real currency destruction taking place.

    Government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani has discussed infrastructure damage (e.g., bridges, tunnels, gas and electricity capacity losses), adjustments to gasoline rations, and challenges with subsidy payments disrupted by banking issues or cyberattacks.

    These admissions are often wrapped in claims of resiliency despite the crisis, but the biggest danger (inflation) has yet to fully play out. SCI data for the Persian month of Khordad (ending ~June 21, 2026) showed overall year-on-year inflation of 88.6% (up from pre-escalation levels around 50%). Food inflation reached 134%, with oils/fats at 278%, red meat/poultry at 178%, and bread/cereals at nearly 139%.

    The rial hit record lows of around 1.5–1.9 million per USD at various points during the war. This has amplified import costs and eroded purchasing power.

    Crippling infrastructure damage and currency devaluation might help to explain Iran’s desperate insistence on charging tolls in the Strait of Hormuz. If their oil industry is facing a multi-year setback and damage to infrastructure is extensive, tolls on shipping through the strait may be their only source of economic recovery.

  • There seems to be just enough juice left in the Corrupt Wing of the Democrat Party to rise up and defeat the very worst candidates of the insane wing, as Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong lost.

    Yesterday, faced with a potential gubernatorial nominee who hates a bunch of American holidays, Wisconsin Democrats pulled it together and got just enough votes to nominate Milwaukee County executive David Crowley instead of the DSA candidate, Francesca Hong. As of this writing, Crowley has a bit more than 313,000 votes, and Hong has a bit more than 310,000. The Associated Press called Crowley the winner at 2:34 a.m. local time.

    Keep in mind, recent polling had Hong with a lead of 18 to 29 percentage points.

    More glory for America’s political pollsters…

  • More on Hong:

    7 months ago Francesca Hong voted against a bill that made it illegal for teachers to groom their students for sexual purposes

    Here’s what happened: A 30-year-old teacher messaged a 13-year-old student of his every day for six months and talked about how he wanted them to be together, she had a nice body, and he was jealous when she talked to other boys. He also sent her pictures of himself lying shirtless in bed

    So the cops arrested him but when they went to charge him, they realized nothing he did was actually illegal. They never made sexual contact and no pictures were exchanged that were explicit enough to qualify under Wisconsin state law. This guy was actively trying to rape a 13-year-old student and there was no law forbidding his conduct

    He wound up being charged with a bunch of disturbing the peace charges and only spent six months in prison for spending half a year abusing his authority as a teacher to manipulate a 13-year-old girl into having sex with him. He is not a convicted felon – since all the charges were misdemeanors – and is not on the sex offender registry

    The Wisconsin State Assembly responded to this by drafting a bipartisan bill that made it a felony to engage in any course of conduct clearly and obviously intended seduce or lure a child into engaging in sexual acts or exchanging illicit images. It passed 193-6 and was signed into law by the Democratic governor. Francesca Hong voted no.

    4 months later the first person was charged under the new law. He was 36-year-old man who met a developmentally disabled 16-year-old in a public park when she was 13 and spent the next three years trying to manipulate her into running away from home so he could make her his live-in sex slave.

    To recap: Earlier *this very year* Franesca Hong was one of only six people to vote against a bill that made it illegal to take affirmative action designed to lure a minor into sexual acts and the very first person the bill Hong voted against was used to arrest was a guy who tried to rape an underage girl with Down Syndrome

    (Hat Tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

  • “‘We’re Here To Destroy The White Race‘: Democratic Socialist Of America Hero Declares War On West.”

    Marxist streamer Hasan Piker has emerged as an increasingly visible, if unofficial, spokesman for the Democratic Socialists of America’s rapidly expanding political action network. He campaigned for Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong while cultivating close ties with socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

    From an electoral-risk perspective, Piker is becoming a liability for Democrats. His far-left, anti-American rhetoric provides Republicans with what we called “a gift” last week. Even Hillary Clinton warned on Friday that the GOP’s “anti-communist messaging is very effective.”

    Piker calls on his followers to “kill capitalists”:

    Piker: “We want more immigrants to come into your countries and then they’re gonna f**k your sisters and then your daughters. We’re here to destroy the White Race, Bitch.”

    He’s the perfect face for the modern Democrat Party.

  • Another win for Texas voter integrity laws.

    A federal appeals court has delivered another victory for Texas’ landmark 2021 election integrity law—the same legislation that prompted Democrat lawmakers to flee the state in an unsuccessful attempt to block its passage.

    The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday reversed a lower court ruling that blocked nine provisions of Senate Bill 1, including requirements related to voter identification for mail ballots and assistance provided to voters.

    The three-judge panel sharply criticized the lower court’s handling of challenges to the law.

    “In short, we have been playing an exhausting game of Whac-A-Mole to correct the district court’s mishandling of this case,” Judge Andrew Oldham wrote after recounting a series of previous Fifth Circuit decisions reversing or staying rulings against SB 1.

    Oldham opened the opinion with an equally forceful defense of mail-in voting safeguards.

    “It has long been established that mail-in ballots are prone to fraud,” wrote Oldham, adding that voting by mail “jeopardizes election integrity and democracy itself.”

    Passed by the Legislature in 2021, SB 1 established new safeguards, including requiring voters casting ballots by mail to provide an identification number or Social Security number that matches state records.

    The law also established procedures for voters to correct defective mail ballots and imposed requirements on individuals assisting voters, including an oath that they did not coerce or intimidate the voter and disclosure of their relationship to the voter.

    The legislation became the centerpiece of a months-long political battle at the Texas Capitol.

    Democrat lawmakers first broke quorum near the end of the 2021 regular legislative session to kill an earlier version of the election legislation. When Gov. Greg Abbott called lawmakers back into a special session, more than 50 House Democrats left Texas for Washington, D.C., again denying the chamber a quorum.

    The effort ultimately failed, and lawmakers returned to Austin. SB 1 was subsequently approved by the Legislature and signed into law by Abbott.

    The decision is the latest in a series of Fifth Circuit victories for the state over challenges to SB 1.

    In 2025, the appeals court reversed separate permanent injunctions against provisions of the law challenged under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the latter ruling in June.

    Earlier this year, the Fifth Circuit also reversed another permanent injunction against SB 1 provisions challenged under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

  • “Federal Grand Jury indicts 11 in massive $100K-per-couple marriage fraud scheme.”

    The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed a two-count indictment charging 11 individuals for orchestrating a massive, decade-long marriage fraud network that arranged over 1,000 sham marriages.

    Federal prosecutors described the operation as one of the largest marriage fraud prosecutions in U.S. history, spanning “from 2016 through July 2026 and generating tens of millions of dollars in illegal revenue.”

    The criminal scheme primarily aimed to secure fraudulent green cards and lawful permanent residency for foreign nationals, predominantly citizens of the People’s Republic of China, the DOJ noted.

    According to the 21-page indictment unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the defendants marketed their services through social media, word of mouth and targeted advertising.

    Foreigners reportedly paid the enterprise up to $100,000 each to facilitate a fake marriage and process green card applications. In turn, the network recruited U.S. citizens to act as spouses, paying them up to $30,000 per arrangement, while recruiters pocketed commissions of around $5,000 for every participant enrolled.

    Federal officials explained further how the syndicate functioned as a “full-service” operation designed to systematically evade federal immigration checks. Facilitators hired officiants and photographers, staged wedding ceremonies — sometimes at local restaurants where participants wore traditional attire to fabricate authenticity — and generated fake documentation.

  • “One Of Ukraine’s Longest Range Drone Strikes: Petrochemical Facility Hit in Tobolsk, 2,250km Away!”
  • “Another Wildberries Destroyed! In Voronezh. Burned Down Extremely Quickly!”
  • “Ukrainian Drones Hit TANECO Oil Refinery in Nizhnekamsk (1,200km from Ukraine!)”
  • Ukraine hits “multiple Black Sea Fleet ships at Novorossiysk, including a Project 22160 patrol ship, a Kilo-class submarine, and the Admiral Makarov, an Admiral Grigorovich class frigate, as well as grain export terminal facilities.
  • Ukraine destroys a train carrying North Korean ballistic missiles some 6,000 miles away on the Transiberian Railroad. Depending on where on the Transiberian Railroad it was hit, that could put a real crimp on Russian logistics coming from China, one of its last lifelines.
  • Russian oil refinery 6,500km away from Ukraine goes up in flames, but it probably wasn’t a Ukraine strike.
  • “Ukraine Destroys Massive 50 Vehicle+ Convoy in Donetsk.”
  • “Ukrainian Air Strike Destroys Two Key Bridges in Urazovo, Russia.” That’s in Belgorod Oblast, just north of Ukraine.
  • That thing that never happens happened again. “Non-citizen sex offender given green light to vote by Dearborn poll officials.”

    OMG [O’Keefe Media Group]’s undercover journalists investigated two Michigan registered voters identified as non-U.S. citizens in federal court and DHS records. One of them, Afshin Masheli, is identified in federal court records as an Iranian national and non-U.S. citizen. DHS has previously featured Masheli on its publicly released “Worst of the Worst” list, which highlights noncitizens arrested by ICE for serious criminal offenses. According to United States District Court records, Masheli is a registered sex offender.

    OMG proved that at Masheli’s assigned polling location, election workers confirmed a voter registration under his name appeared in the poll book and stated that a registered voter listed there could cast a ballot. Our undercover journalist spoke to Afshin Masheli himself and Masheli said he planned to vote later that day.

    Our investigation also identified another registered voter, Fazlollah Haritash, whose federal records identify him as a non-U.S. citizen. Public court records and Michigan’s public sex offender registry showing the criminal convictions, and the registry lists him as incarcerated. At the polling location associated with Fazlollah Haritash’s voter registration, an election worker confirmed that a voter registration under his name appeared on Michigan’s voter rolls.

  • More tax incentives to hire foreigners over Americans. “Employers Using J1 Student Visas for Seasonal Work Pay NO Social Security Taxes.”

    When a company hires J1 student temporary or season employees, they do not have to pay the 7.5% FICA or Social Security tax on the wages.

    If a company hires a seasonal American student, they have to pay the 7.5%. If the company hires a foreign student, they don’t. This creates a perverse incentive for private equity firms, companies or corporations to hire foreign seasonal workers…

    Apparently, this is now the common approach within the hospitality industry to save money and increase profit from payrolls. Unfortunately, this approach puts young Americans at a disadvantage when seeking summer or short-term seasonal employment.

    For fiscal Year 2025: The U.S. State Department processed 506,142 applications and successfully issued 451,803 J-1 visas.

  • “Violent Anti-ICE Protesters Are Sentenced, Convicted.”

    Among the recent criminal sentencings and convictions:

    — Jacob Daniel Terrazas, 31, of Paramount, Calif., was sentenced July 22 to ten months in federal prison “for throwing chunks of cinderblock at Border Patrol agents and injuring one of them during a protest that turned violent,” according to a Justice Department press release. Terrazas pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of simple assault on a federal officer.

    — Yachua Mauricio Flores, 23, a Mexican illegal immigrant living in Los Angeles, was sentenced August 3 to 37 months in federal prison “for pouring two bottles of lighter fluid onto a burning California Highway Patrol (CHP) vehicle and throwing an electric scooter over a freeway overpass near officers during an anti‑immigration law enforcement riot in a downtown Los Angeles,” according to a Justice Department press release.

    — Ismael Vega, 42, from Los Angeles, was sentenced July 27 to 37 months in federal prison “for throwing rocks and ignited debris at California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers trapped underneath a downtown Los Angeles freeway overpass … during a violent anti-immigration law enforcement protest last year,” according to a Justice Department press release. Vega pleaded guilty to one count of obstructing, impeding, and interfering with law enforcement during a civil disorder.

  • “Israel Eliminates Two Hamas Commanders Involved in October 7 Massacre. Out of estimated 5,000 Gaza terrorists who invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, over 2,700 have been eliminated.”

    On Friday, the IDF disclosed the recent elimination of Hamas company commander Muhammad Mushtaha, who committed atrocities on October 7, 2023, and kept several Israelis in captivity. “The IDF now confirms the elimination of the terrorist Muhammad Bassam Muhammad Mushtaha, who was struck two weeks ago in the northern Gaza Strip,” the military said in a statement on Friday. “Muhammad Mushtaha served as a company commander in the Shati’ Battalion in the Hamas terrorist organization׳s military wing.”

    Snip.

    On Thursday, an Israeli airstrike killed another Hamas commander who took part in the October 7 Massacre. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) “struck in the area of Gaza City and eliminated the terrorist Jamal Mahmoud Abu Kamil, a commander in the Hamas terrorist organization who infiltrated Israeli territory during the October 7th Massacre,” the IDF announced on Friday. ”

  • From Dwight comes the heartwarming story of Gina LaPlaca, former mayor of Lumberton Township in New Jersey, who, with her husband Jason Carty, was indicted for voting fraud, namely collecting fraudulent signatures to compete in a Democrat primary…only to come in third of three.
  • Brandon Herrera and Wes Virdell buy silencers. “GOA Members to Make History with First Suppressor Transfers Without NFA Registration Since 1934.”
  • This week’s Flock camera meme:

    (Hat tip: According to Hoyt.)

  • Ann Coulter: “Google AI will NOT cite The Daily Mail.” Specifically, Google will not find a 2013 Daily Mail article about Trayvon Martin and drug use, even if you search for the exact name of the article. The Ministry of Truth is hard at work hiding those pesky facts from you. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • Well: “Jason Arday, ex-Cambridge professor accused of plagiarism, found dead in UK week after investigation launched.” (Previously.) (Hat tip: Dwight.)
  • “North Carolina man with several prior arrests goes on white-woman-beating spree, posts videos of crimes on social media.”

    One of the videos showed an alleged assault that was reported on July 30. The video appeared to show [Diquan] Hunt punch a woman on a sidewalk off East Boulevard in Charlotte’s South End before running away.

    The person suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries. It was not immediately clear why Hunt punched her, but it does appear to be random.

    In the video, it appears you can hear Hunt say to a woman passing by, ‘Don’t wave to me.’ Hunt appeared to hit the woman and can be seen standing over her, screaming at her and asking her, ‘You still talking?’

    Hunt was taken to a local medical facility for treatment. He will be transferred into the custody of the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office once he is released and charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

    Bonus: “This is Hunt’s tenth arrest since 2023.” Of course Mecklenburg County DA Spencer Merriweather is a Democrat…

  • Bad guy threatens gas station clerk after being denied alcohol because he didn’t have ID. Good guy with gun: DELETED. Bonus: Perp’s name: “Ofa’tangikivaha Angilau (a classic Utah name right there).”
  • “Bitcoin Red Team Says AI Is Finding Critical Exploits Across Core Projects. A volunteer security effort says it has scanned 150 Bitcoin repositories, disclosed more than a dozen vulnerabilities, and is building an open-source AI platform to automate software security reviews.”
  • Beware of knockoff tool batteries. 
  • “Josh Kushner, Bob Iger Stun Sports World With Record-Shattering $12 Billion Lakers Takeover Deal.”
  • Karoline Leavitt steps down as Trump’s press secretary.
  • Royce White, the Rockets draftee turned Republican congressional candidate has declared for the WNBA, along with ex-NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom. How far is the WNBA willing to go to tie itself into knots rather than offend the radical left by just declaring that no one with XY chromosomes can play in the WNBA?
  • “Democrats Announce You Aren’t Allowed To Remember What They Did A Few Years Ago.”
  • “Scientists Hard At Work Making IPhone Weather App Even Less Accurate.”
  • Treats. Serious business.

    (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)

    • I’m still between jobs. Feel free to hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.





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    Posted in Crime, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Media Watch, Social Justice Warriors, Technology, Texas | 5 Comments »

    Jeffrey Epstein Revelations Update For February 12, 2025

    Thursday, February 12th, 2026

    Revelations continue to surface from the giant Epstein files data dump, so let’s do a roundup of some of the more interesting bits.

  • By far the most frustrating revelation for TDS-obsessed Democrats is learning that Donald Trump’s main tie to Epstein was being one of the first people to report him to the police. “Unsealed court docs reviewed by the Miami Herald show DONALD TRUMP called Palm Beach police about Jeffrey Epstein in 2006.”

    Mar-A-Lago is a mixture of everyone. DONALD TRUMP told [blacked out] that he threw EPSTEIN out of his club. TRUMP called the PBPD to tell him “thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this”. TRUMP told him people in New York knew EPSTEIN was disgusting. TRUMP said [GHISLAINE] MAXWELL was EPSTEIN’s operative, “she is evil and to focus on her”. TRUMP told [blacked out] that he was around EPSTEIN once when teenagers were present and TRUMP “got the hell out of there”. TRUMP was one of the very first people to call when people found out that they were investigating EPSTEIN.

    Snip.

    Trump’s comment came in direct response to reporters asking if he had any knowledge that Epstein had molested girls. He was denying awareness of Epstein’s crimes or the allegations of molestation/sex trafficking that surfaced prominently around Epstein’s 2019 arrest.

    Nowhere in this FBI interview does it indicate he had specific knowledge of the criminal molestation, sexual abuse, or trafficking details that later emerged in the full Epstein investigation or his 2008 plea deal. It’s Trump saying he had heard from others about “disgusting” behavior and how he was so creeped out that he had to remove Epstein from his club.

    Countless people in Palm Beach social circles noticed Epstein had a pattern of questionable behavior with young women, without having direct evidence or knowledge of the felony-level crimes. Good try, media.

    “Nothing within the FBI report even alludes to Trump knowing about Epstein and Maxwell’s crimes. Sometimes your gut tells you something is off about people.”

    You know Democrats and their MSM familiars must be gnashing their teeth as their Great White Whale swims away again…

  • But you know who did pal around with Epstein? Noam Chomsky.

    Valeria Chomsky, the wife of Noam Chomsky, issued a statement about their longtime friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. Noam Chomsky, 97, suffered a massive stroke in 2023 and is unable to speak.

    Noam and I have felt a profound weight regarding the unresolved questions surrounding our past interactions with Epstein. We do not wish to leave this chapter shrouded in ambiguity.

    Throughout his life, Noam has insisted that intellectuals have a responsibility to speak the truth and expose lies — especially when those truths are uncomfortable to themselves.

    As is widely known, one of Noam’s characteristics is to believe in the good faith of people. Noam’s overly trusted nature, in this specific case, led to severe poor judgment on both our parts.

    Ah. Another brilliant and successful expert in human behavior who hung around Epstein at length and just never noticed anything unusual or suspicious about him. It’s amazing how often those keen, long-honed skills at reading people just disappeared once Epstein entered a room. Valeria Chomsky continues:

    Noam and I were introduced to Epstein at the same time, during one of Noam’s professional events in 2015, when Epstein’s 2008 conviction in the State of Florida was known by very few people, while most of the public – including Noam and I – was unaware of it. That only changed after the November 2018 report by Miami Herald.

    A reminder: That conviction was for “felony solicitation of prostitution and, pursuant to the NPA, to a criminal information charging him with procurement of minors to engage in prostitution.” It was public record and covered in the Palm Beach newspapers.

    We had lunch, at Epstein’s ranch, once, in connection with a professional event; we attended dinners at his townhouse in Manhattan and stayed a few times in an apartment he offered when we visited New York City. We also visited Epstein’s Paris apartment one afternoon for the occasion of a work trip. In all cases, these visits were related to Noam’s professional commitments. We never went to his island or knew about anything that happened there.

    We attended social meetings, lunches, and dinners where Epstein was present and academic matters were discussed. We never witnessed any inappropriate, criminal, or reproachable behavior from Epstein or others. At no time did we see children or underage individuals present.

    Here’s the biggest and most prominent problem with Valeria Chomsky’s “we just had no idea” excuse. Several months after the Miami Herald published the series, on February 23, 2019, Epstein emailed Chomsky looking for advice on how to handle his bad press.

    In a response purportedly from Chomsky, the famed linguistics professor advised Epstein “the best way to proceed is to ignore it” and “not to react unless directly questioned.”

    Chomsky drew parallels to his own experience with “hysterical accusations of all sorts,” writing, “I pay no attention, unless I’m approached for a comment on a specific matter.”

    “What the vultures dearly want is a public response, which then provides a public opening for an onslaught of venomous attacks, many from just publicity seekers or cranks of all sorts,” the email said. “That’s particularly true now with the hysteria that has developed about abuse of women, which has reached the point that even questioning a charge is a crime worse than murder.”

    Does that sound like a man who’s deeply concerned about what Epstein may have done?

    But Valeria Chomsky insists that message is being taken out of context.

    Noam’s email to Epstein, in which Epstein sought advice about the press, should be read in context. Epstein had claimed to Noam that he [Epstein] was being unfairly persecuted, and Noam spoke from his own experience in political controversies with the media. Epstein created a manipulative narrative about his case, which Noam, in good faith, believed in. It is now clear that it was all orchestrated, having as, at least, one of Epstein’s intentions to try to have someone like Noam repairing Epstein’s reputation by association.

    Noam’s criticism was never directed at the women’s movement; on the contrary, he has always supported gender equity and women’s rights.

    Oh, shut up. You don’t get to send a message to Epstein reassuring him that “hysteria that has developed about abuse of women, which has reached the point that even questioning a charge is a crime worse than murder” and then turn around and tout yourself as a feminist.

    But there’s more. Back in 2023, Noam Chomsky confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that he received a March 2018 transfer of roughly $270,000 from an Epstein-linked account. That too was just an innocent favor, Valeria Chomsky insists.

    Regarding the reported transfer of approximately $270,000, I must clarify that these were entirely Noam’s own funds. At the time, Noam had identified inconsistencies in his retirement resources that threatened his economic independence and caused him great distress. Epstein offered technical assistance to resolve this specific situation. On this matter, Epstein acted accordingly, recovering the funds for Noam, in a display of help and very likely as part of a machination to gain greater access to Noam. Epstein acted solely as a financial advisor for this specific matter. To the best of my knowledge, Epstein never had access to our bank or investment accounts.

    Now, keep in mind, for just about all his intellectual career, Noam Chomsky has been a furious critic of American capitalism (“a grotesque catastrophe”), the wealthy elites of the U.S., and corporate influence over politics. He has written, “in this world there happen to be huge concentrations of private power that are as close to tyranny and as close to totalitarian as anything humans have devised… The corporations are just as totalitarian as Bolshevism and fascism.”

    Recall that Epstein ran a financial management firm that catered to billionaire clients.

    Let yea who has never had a convicted pedophile wire $270,000 into their account cast the first stone.

  • But Chomsky isn’t the only left-wing grandee that shows up as a buddy of Epstein. So does Democrat megadonor Reid Hoffman.

    Top donors to Wis­con­sin politi­cians are men­tioned in the latest release of files related to invest­ig­a­tions into pedo­phile Jef­frey Epstein, includ­ing top Demo­cratic donor Reid Hoff­man, who appears in the doc­u­ments more than 2,500 times.

    Hoff­man, a ven­ture cap­it­al­ist and co-founder of LinkedIn, has donated $15 mil­lion to the state Demo­cratic Party since 2019, con­tri­bu­tions that include a recent pair of dona­tions total­ing $275,000, state cam­paign records show.

    Hoff­man was among those who vis­ited Epstein’s private Carib­bean island called Little St. James in 2014, six years after the Amer­ican fin­an­cier pleaded guilty to soli­cit­ing pros­ti­tu­tion of a minor and registered as a sex offender, accord­ing to report­ing by the Wall Street Journal.

    The Mil­wau­kee Journal Sen­tinel first repor­ted the Demo­cratic donor’s ties in 2023. Hoff­man has not lived in Wis­con­sin, but the Sil­icon Val­ley bil­lion­aire has ded­ic­ated his spend­ing in part because of Wis­con­sin’s battle­ground polit­ical dynamic.

    The new batch of doc­u­ments show sched­uled meet­ings between Hoff­man and Epstein between 2013 and 2018.

    At one point in 2015, Epstein invited Hoff­man to visit him to “play.” In 2014, Hoff­man told Epstein he had sent gifts to his New York home that included ice cream for Epstein to try or “for the girls.”

    What girls might these be, one wonders…

  • Ann Coulter (remember her?) has extracted a couple of additional notable names from the files.

    I don’t have a team of researchers like The New York Times to review the Epstein files, but I have flipped through them and found a couple things that you won’t read in the Times — and you definitely won’t see on MS-NOW.

    Criminal defense lawyer David Schoen sent an informative email to Epstein, saying no one would ever take the Russia investigation seriously because special counsel Robert Mueller had selected a legal team that was a “murderer’s row of the worst.”

    Schoen’s case-in-chief was Andrew Weissmann, frequent Times opinion writer (Title of actual column: “A Former Prosecutor on the ‘Incredibly Strong Case’ Against Trump”). He appears so frequently on MS-NOW, he has a cot and toothbrush under Lawrence O’Donnell’s desk.

    Weissmann, Schoen said, was known in the U.S. attorney’s office as “The Pathological liar,” because he “literally would withhold exculpatory evidence throughout the case.” When defense counsel complained, Weissman waited until the guy “went to the bathroom or lunch, stick the documents under other [papers] on his table, and tell the judge the lawyer had it all along.” He did this even in murder cases, which Schoen knew because, “his rats have come to me to admit their role in it.”

    If true, this is a Brady violation, about as bad as it gets.

    The Times has frequently discussed the rule, saying it ought to be “obvious,” to “prosecutors with any sense of fairness” that they have to “inform a defendant’s lawyer of evidence that could be favorable to the defendant’s case.” The paper complains about the “near complete lack of punishment for prosecutors who flout the rule.”

    Democrats are demanding that ICE agents be stripped of their qualified immunity? Federal prosecutors like Weissmann have absolute, blanket immunity for their actions.

    Schoen noted that Weissmann’s unsavory tactics “ruined” some of the biggest criminal cases ever tried. For example, he led the federal prosecution of Arthur Andersen LLP, a major player in the Enron scandal. But because of his extreme overreach on jury instructions (agreed to by the pliant judge) the Supreme Court unanimously reversed the conviction.

    In terms of Weissmann’s appearance of fairness, Schoen said Weissmann is a “Trump hater and Clinton sycophant.”

    Saying he could “go on and on,” Schoen singled out only two other Trump/Russia investigators with personal and political baggage: Jeannie Rhee, who “was actually Clinton’s lawyer in the email investigation,” and Greg Andres, “100% in the pro-Clinton, anti-Trump camp.”

    Snip.

    The media may want to ignore Barry Krischer, but the Epstein files don’t.

    Palm Beach’s Democratic district attorney, Krischer spent years going after Rush Limbaugh for pain pills — raiding drugstores, seizing records, and leaking to the press — before finally dropping all charges. But when the Palm Beach police handed him a child sex ring implicating Epstein, a major Democratic donor, Krischer intentionally tanked the case.

    There was no excusing it: The police’s meticulous investigation gave us pretty much everything we know today about Epstein’s crimes. The media have raged against U.S. attorney Alex Acosta for his sweetheart plea deal with Epstein a few years later, solely because he was Trump’s first Secretary of Labor. Krischer makes Acosta look like Elliot Ness.

    Instead of locking up Epstein and putting an end to his sexual predations on young girls back in 2006, Krischer’s office treated the girls as if they were the ones on trial. Prosecutor Lanna Belohlavek accused the teens of prostitution, asking them, “You’re aware that you committed a crime?” She also grilled them about their drug and alcohol use, body piercings and posts on MySpace.

    After a presentation like that, the grand jury ended up charging Epstein with only one count of soliciting prostitution. Krischer released him on bond. No prison sentence, no fine — and no ankle monitor to get in the way of massages.

    One of Epstein’s semi-literate emails gives us some insight into Krischer’s thinking. Reporting a conversation between the Democratic prosecutor and the Democratic former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, Epstein says Krisher believed that “what i did was barely crimianl but basically inapporritate,,, “ [spelling in original].

    Perhaps this was merely Epstein’s self-flattering version of the conversation. Except we know what Krischer did. Back pain pills: Bigger than the Manson murders! Raping 14 year-olds: Basically “inapporritate”

    (Hat tip: Director Blue.)

  • A few days ago we talked about the appearance of the word “jerky” in Epstein communications. Well, the Podcast of the Lotus Eaters (Sargon of Akkad, Firas Modad and “Nate” AKA MrHReviews) delve into the Epstein files and notice a lot more weird food references that appear to be codeword for…something else. Including:
    • Shrimp
    • Tuna
    • Pizza
    • Grape soda

    And they watch the Asmongold jerky clip as well.

    “There’s not enough evidence to say that this is a satanist network or that this is a child eating network.”
    “That’s very restrained of you.”
    “Yes. And I’m willing to accept that they might be all of these things.”

    “Epstein is messaging [I assume Peter] Mandelson saying, quote, I love the torture video. It’s [hard] to think of a good context for that.”

    They also note how a journalist who dismissed “Pizzagate” as a “right wing conspiracy” later went to prison for child rape.

    • I don’t know what to make of this, but the possibilities range from dark to very, very, very dark…

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    Posted in Crime, Democrats, Media Watch, Social Justice Warriors | 3 Comments »

    Reminder: Kamala Harris Is Just The Worst

    Thursday, July 25th, 2024

    Now that most prominent Democrats have dutifully lined up behind Kamala Harris as their 2024 presidential candidate, let’s have a roundup that confirms what regular blog readers already know: Kamala Harris is just the worst.

  • We should all rejoice that Democrats are stuck with Harris, as she’s the next best thing to running against Biden’s ambulatory corpse.

    Short of Joe Biden staying in the race while exemplifying the energy and lucidity of an empty bag of Lay’s Sour Cream and Onion potato chips on the floor of a basement frat party, “passing the torch” to Kamala Harris is the best thing Republicans could have wished for — and simply “the next worst thing” for Democrats who, in their hail mary hour, reached into their quiver and pulled out the political equivalent of a Fran Drescher laugh track on repeat.

    The entire party all of a sudden throwing their endorsement behind a woman who polled worse than a quart of cottage cheese that was left to sit in the sun for six months during the 2020 primary exemplifies the point I made a month or two ago when I argued that politicians have a talent for making the worst possible decisions.

    Not only did Tulsi Gabbard publicly humiliate Kamala Harris on the debate stage during the 2020 primaries, but both polling and the results of Harris’ campaign forced us to one conclusion: most Americans find Harris detestable. And, in 2024, there doesn’t seem to be any indication that this attitude has changed.

    I can’t describe the pleasure I get from watching the stupid decisions the Democratic party makes—namely, selecting Kamala Harris based on her gender and race to be Vice President of the f*cking United States —come back to bite them in the ass.

    The fact is that if Harris was not vice president, she would never be next in line to be the Democratic nominee. She was picked to be vice president only because Joe Biden made his selection based on race and gender hustling, completely ignoring the fact that nobody seemed to like Harris and she doesn’t appear to have the brain torque necessary for the job.

    By circumventing an actual legitimate selection process for Vice President, which should always boil down to a meritocracy as one of the most important positions in the world, Democrats planted a political seed in a pile of horse manure that has now blossomed into poisonous, cackling political fungus. And by moving Kamala Harris into position to be the next Presidential nominee, the party is officially taking the first bite of the fungi they began growing on the dung heap four years ago.

    Beyond identity politics coming back to bite Democrats, the Harris pick makes no obvious sense because she is easily tethered and tied to the horrific last four years President Biden had in office. We are voting to “continue to be burdened by what was”, to use the parlance of Kamala’s time.

  • VP Kamala Harris Had 92% Staff Turnover During Her First Three Years.

    Under Kamala Harris, the Office of the Vice President has been called a “revolving door,” a “staff exodus” of key aides “heading for the exits.”

    That’s not hyperbole from the national media. Our auditors at OpenTheBooks quantified an extraordinarily high 91.5-percent staff turnover rate. We used U.S. Senate disclosures to conduct our investigation and those databases can be downloaded below.

    Elected in November 2020, Harris took the oath of office in January 2021. As of March 31, 2024, only four of the initial 47 staffers from the first year are still employed – consistently and without interruption – by the Vice President.

    Furthermore, the turnover chaos isn’t getting better. In the trailing 12-month period, 24 staffers left — that’s almost half the employees.

    The “top-to-bottom dysfunction” that The Atlantic referenced in October 2023 is shown in the reported payrolls that we captured.

    “In her first year and a half as vice president, Harris saw the departure of her chief of staff, communications director, domestic-policy adviser, national security adviser, and other aides,” the magazine wrote.

    If only that was all who left.

    The semi-annual Report of the Secretary of the Senate, among other things, lists the names, titles and salaries of staff in the Office of the Vice President (OVP).

    In the most recent publishing through March 31, only four staff from the original 47 listed in the 2021 report remained consistently employed and are among the office’s 50 current staff members.

    The Kamala Harris Fabulous Four – here are the names, titles, employment date, and salaries of the four employees most loyal to Kamala Harris:

    • Yael S. Belkind has been assistant to the chief of staff since Jan. 20, 2021, earning $85,924;
    • Nasrina Bargzie was associate counsel since Feb. 10, 2021, now is deputy council, taking home $118,066.
    • Oludayo O. Faderin was associate director from July 2021, then became deputy director of west wing operations, making $85,924.
    • Olivia K. Hartman was hired in August 2021 as advance coordinator and became deputy director of scheduling, making $94,750.
  • Remember how everyone was saying that only Harris could use money raised for Biden? Trump’s lawyers say “Not so fast!”

    Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers on Tuesday filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission arguing that Vice President Kamala Harris cannot legally gain control of nearly $100 million donated to President Joe Biden by changing the name of his campaign committee.

    “This is little more than a thinly veiled $91.5 million excessive contribution from one presidential candidate to another, that is, from Joe Biden’s old campaign to Kamala Harris’s new campaign,” Trump general counsel David A. Warrington wrote in a complaint obtained by The Daily Wire. “Contributions by federal candidate committees to other federal candidates are limited to $2,000.”

    “Kamala Harris is in the process of committing the largest campaign finance violation in American history and she is using the Commission’s own forms to do it,” the complaint alleges.

    Candidates for office must create a campaign committee which includes their name, and file a statement of candidacy designating that committee as their fundraising vehicle. Harris did neither. Instead, on Sunday, the campaign treasurer “amended” Biden’s statement of candidacy to swap his name with Kamala’s, and pointed to Harris for President as her committee, using the same ID as the Biden for President committee. It also filed amended paperwork changing the name of that committee.

    “There is no provision in federal campaign finance law for Kamala Harris to take over Joe Biden’s candidacy now by quite literally attempting to become him via an amendment… and making off with all of his cash,” Trump’s lawyers say. “Ms. Harris’ actions constitute a massive excessive contribution from Biden for President to Ms. Harris.”

    With few exceptions, a campaign committee can only be linked to one candidate. Harris’s name has appeared on the Biden committee’s forms since 2020, but Trump’s lawyers argue that does not entitle her to the funds. Had Harris dropped off the ticket to challenge Biden for the presidential nomination, they note, she would not have been able to claim half of the campaign’s war chest.

    “If the Commission were to deem Joe Biden to have ended his candidacy before transferring his campaign funds to Kamala Harris, then this only creates another violation. Federal candidates are prohibited from keeping contributions for elections in which they do not participate,” the complaint said.

    Trump’s lawyers accuse Harris and committee treasurer Keana Spencer, who is in charge of submitting forms to the FEC, of committing “an attempted fraud on the Commission and should be referred to the Department of Justice for investigation and prosecution” as “a conspiracy to obstruct the lawful functions of the United States.”

  • “Democrats’ enjoyment of the Kamala Harris campaign’s ‘new car smell’ may prove short-lived, as a brand new poll shows the vice president trailing former President Trump by a whopping 11 points among likely voters — matching up even worse than President Biden, who trailed by 10.”
  • A thread covering some of Kamala’s greatest hits. Like this:

  • You know who else doesn’t trust Kamala Harris? Democrats.

    This is going to sound immodest,” Kamala Harris told an interviewer in the summer of 2019, “but I’m obviously a top-tier candidate.” That, she said, was why she drew so much fire from her fellow Democratic presidential candidates. But her face-saving appeal did not explain why she wilted in the face of those attacks, made a hash of her campaign, and ultimately dropped out of the race before a single primary vote was cast. Harris’s aborted presidential campaign clarified for Democrats what Republicans already knew — that the former California senator cannot live up to the standards her image-makers set for her. Contrary to the story Democrats are about to try to sell to the public, Harris’s party has never regained confidence in her abilities.

    The trouble signs were apparent early in the vice president’s tenure. Just six months after she was sworn in, sources in Harris’s orbit began telling anyone willing to listen that her office was “not a healthy environment.” She was accused of refusing to read her briefing materials only to turn around and “berate employees” whom she accused of being responsible for her embarrassing unpreparedness. By the summer of 2022, 13 senior Harris staffers had left for greener pastures.

    The chaos unfolding behind closed doors reinforced the impression she cultivated in public as a maladroit executive. The revolt of the staffers coincided with a one-on-one interview with NBC News reporter Lester Holt, in which Harris defended her failure to visit the rapidly deteriorating Southern border by laughing awkwardly while insisting she hadn’t “been to Europe” either. “I don’t understand the point you’re making,” Harris insisted. No one else appeared similarly perplexed.

    As New York Times reporter Astead Herndon later detailed, Harris and her allies were so demoralized by the vice president’s faceplant that she withdrew from the public spotlight. “Over the following year, Harris traveled less often,” he reported, “and she mostly avoided further media interviews, preferring friendly settings like The View and a show on Comedy Central hosted by Charlamagne tha God.”

    “Whatever happened to Kamala Harris?” Los Angeles Times columnist Mark Barabak asked in late 2021. Barabak attributed Harris’s disappearing act to the demands of the vice presidency and the Biden team’s allergy to the “merest hint of personal ambition” shown by the president’s subordinates. But as CNN reported at the time, Harris was being managed by the White House in ways her supporters bitterly resented.

    “Many in the vice president’s circle fume[d]” over the degree to which Harris was “being sidelined,” the dispatch revealed. “The vice president herself has told several confidants she feels constrained in what she’s able to do politically.” Indeed, Harris was “perceived to be in such a weak position” that Democrats had begun to wonder aloud why the White House would allow the vice president to “become so hobbled in the public conscious” — the assumption being that this was done to Harris rather than something she did to herself.

    After spending the first two years of the Biden administration waiting without reward for the competent campaigner Democrats had been promised to emerge, Harris’s allies began to show their impatience. The “painful reality” of Harris’s vice presidency, Times reporters wrote in early February 2023 after speaking to “dozens of Democrats,” was that “she had not risen to the challenge of proving herself as a future leader of the party, much less the country.” These sentiments were not confined to Harris’s embittered rivals within her own party: “Even some Democrats whom her own advisers referred reporters to for supportive quotes confided privately that they had lost hope in her.”

    Democratic leaders soon moved on Harris in a scaled-down version of the very putsch that finally rid them of Joe Biden. In January 2023, Senator Elizabeth Warren was asked if Biden should keep Harris on the ticket in 2024. “I really want to defer to what makes Biden comfortable on his team,” Warren replied. The remark was described as “pretty insulting” by Harris’s staff, and Warren made multiple efforts to apologize to the vice president for her flippancy. But if Warren’s remarks betrayed her doubts about Harris’s political acumen, those doubts weren’t hers alone.

    In September of that year, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper pressed former House speaker Nancy Pelosi for her thoughts on Harris’s potential. “Is Vice President Kamala Harris the best running mate” for Biden, Cooper asked. “He thinks so,” Pelosi replied curtly. In turn, influential House Democrat Jamie Raskin was asked the same question, and he, too, attempted an evasive maneuver. “That’s President Biden’s choice,” Raskin finally said when pressured for a definitive answer. “Raskin, after receiving backlash, later went on a different network to clarify his support,” Herndon noted.

    Today, for want of any realistic alternatives, Democrats are stuck with Harris at the top of the party’s ticket in November. But for all the party’s public displays of bravado, Democrats appear to understand that the vice president needs to operate in a rigidly structured environment . . . or else. “Harris has been cautious and reluctant to participate in events that weren’t tightly controlled,” Axios reported on Monday. For example, when Harris was invited to attend a 2022 dinner at the house owned by the former owner of the Atlantic, David Bradley, Harris was so beset with anxiety that “her staff held a mock dinner beforehand,” with her staffers “playing participants.” The preparation must have proven insufficient because, in the end, Harris declined to attend.

    Say what you want about Trump, but he’s never been afraid to attend a dinner party.

  • Don’t forget that Harris had a huge roll in the wave of crime now engulfing California.

    As attorney general, it was her job to give propositions appearing on the ballot accurate titles and explanatory summaries. In order to fool the voters into passing Proposition 47 — decriminalizing crime — and Proposition 57 — allowing the release of thousands of violent criminals — Harris intentionally lied to the voters about what these laws would do.

    Proposition 47 basically turned every crime into a “misdemeanor.” Grand theft, commercial burglary and possession of illegal narcotics — all misdemeanors.

    Theft of anything worth less than $950 — even theft of a gun — became a misdemeanor, no more consequential than a waiter giving a straw to someone who didn’t ask for one. As Californians have since learned, that $950 cap does not include the tens of thousands of dollars required to repair smashed car windows, store fronts or display cases.

    As a result, smash-and-grab robberies have become the new sport in the Golden State, leaving entire inner-city neighborhoods without a pharmacy. The police don’t even respond to thefts of less than $950. Retail stores have to keep their entire inventory under lock and key, including ordinary items, like shampoo and toothpaste — and those are the ones that aren’t closing permanently. San Francisco’s landmark Union Square shopping district is now plastered with “For Lease” and “Going Out of Business” signs. Roughly 50% of all videos on the internet are clips of California “teens” dashing out of upscale stores with armloads of stolen goods — Gucci, Prada, Burberry, Luis Vuitton.

    Last year, Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco topped the list of the U.S. cities with the most retail theft, according to the National Retail Federation. A fourth California city, Sacramento, came in at No. 7. These days, when a customer tries to actually pay for something, the cashier calls the manager.

    The shoplifting is so pervasive that, earlier this year, a Target shoplifter strolled out of the store right past Gov. Gavin Newsom. During a CNN report on the rash of thefts in San Francisco, three shoplifters hit the CVS as they were filming.

    Also good for business: Tourists are warned not to rent cars, because they’ll only be broken into. Drug addicts clog the sidewalks, writhing in their own needles and fecal matter.

    (Hat tip: Director Blue.)

  • A greatest hits package of her willing to endorse every bit of leftwing idiocy to come down the pike, including defunding the police:

  • And a greatest hits compilations of some of her most cringe-worthy speaking moments:

  • Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is also not a fan:

  • As California attorney general, she refused to reduce prison populations by releasing non-violent offenders, despite a court order.
  • She’s lazy and not very bright:

    (Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)

  • Let’s also not forget that she’s a liar, even about trivial crap:

  • You know how Democrats crowed about that one poll that showed Harris was leading Trump? Yeah, they oversampled Democrats, just as you would expect. Always check the crosstabs…
  • It sounds like the Democratic Media Complex (including Axios, GovTrack and Wikipedia) are trying to whitewash Harris’ record even as we speak. (Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)
  • MSNBC did a focus group of Wisconsin women and, boy, did it not go well for her.

    “How do you perceive Vice President Harris compared to President Biden in terms of competency and experience?” Jordan asked.

    One woman said she believes Harris is “worse” while another said, “She doesn’t even know what’s going on at the border. That’s what she was supposed to be doing.”

    Jordan asked when the group believes the United States will have its first woman president.

    “When there’s a competent one,” a different voter said.

    Another voter said, “I don’t get a good feel for her” while a voter named Mary said, “I think she’s an idiot.”

    Jordan asked Mary why she feels this way about Harris.

    “Because she hasn’t done anything in the time that she’s had. We don’t know anything about her as far as her three years so far in the White House. She’s not real smart.”

  • I can’t find a full video of that, just this snippet:

    Either MSNBC or YouTube (or probably both) sure doesn’t want you to find that interview…

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    Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Media Watch, Social Justice Warriors, video | 13 Comments »

    Mickey Kaus on Ann Coulter on Immigration

    Monday, August 13th, 2018

    This is an interesting breakdown on the different stands of restrictionist thought. Mickey Kaus starts off with his own position:

    My party line, in clip and save form, was:

    1. The immigrants we get, including illegal Mexicans, are mainly hard-working potential citizens, like waves of immigrants before them;
    2. The problem, as Mark Krikorian argues, is that we’ve changed, and the world has changed. We don’t need unskilled labor like we used to. Our native unskilled workers are having trouble earning a living.
    3. The main reason to limit immigration flow, then, is to protect wages of Americans who do basic work. We desperately need a tight labor market. We won’t get it as long as millions of people from abroad respond to any tightening by flooding our work force.
    4. The most important thing, then, is getting control of that number by securing the border — stopping illegal immigration. Once that’s done we can argue about what the legal number should be (and what should be done about current illegals).
    5. But if wages are rising, it could be a reasonably big number! See point 1;
    6. There are second-order worries about cultural assimilation, especially the huge flow from Mexico, a nation a day’s drive away many of whose citizens (polls show) don’t acknowledge the legitimacy of our Southern border.
    7. One solution is to let in more people from other, non-Mexican cultures — Koreans, Chinese, Africans, Indians, etc. We want diversity! Ha ha. That joke never gets old.

    But Kaus also notes that Ann Coulter (whom I’ve generally ignored over the last several years or so due to her tendency to say outrageous things solely for media attention) has some cognizant points for even more restriction of even legal immigration. The points Kaus summarizes seem to be from her book Adios, America:

    1) Cultures differ, and culture matters: “The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society,” said Daniel P. Moynihan in his finest try for Bartlett’s.** Does anyone really doubt this? If businessmen can make millions babbling about corporate “culture” — If Reddit can have a culture — why can’t we talk about the cultures from which immigrants come?

    Snip.

    2) Some cultures are “better” at becoming American than others: The fatal mistake, in Coulter’s eyes, was Teddy Kennedy’s 1965 immigration act, which “snuffed out the generous quotas from countries that had traditionally populated America–England, Ireland and Germany”–and added “family reunification” policies, allowing recent immigrants to bring in their relatives [not just their nuclear families], and those relatives to bring in their relatives, until entire Somali villages have relocated to Minneapolis.”

    Snip.

    3) Crime, in particular is an issue: Coulter was driven to focus on immigration, she says, out of frustration when she discovered that the government makes it virtually impossible to find good statistics on the amount of crime committed by immigrants:

    Every time you think the government has finally produced a real number of immigrants convicted of crimes in America, there’s a catch. Legal immigrants will be excluded, convicted criminals whose country of birth is unknown are left out, Hispanic criminals will be classified as white …

    Like Trump, Coulter thinks the actual amount of immigrant crime is “staggering.” Unlike Trump, she doesn’t claim the Mexican government is intentionally sending us bad actors. She argues culture, not conspiracy (or genetics). The habits we don’t like — a non-progressive view of women, for example — are characteristic of many “peasant” cultures. Mexico just has the closest.

    Snip.

    4) Legal immigration matters: When I first heard the restrictionists at the Center for Immigration Studies lump illegal and legal immigration together, I thought they were weird. After all, border-controllers spend a lot of time fending off the charge that they’re “anti-immgrant.” The usual response: “That’s not true! I’m not against immigration! I’m against illegal immigration,” etc. And if you want to get control of the situation — well, that almost by definition means targeting illegal immigration (while allowing whatever immigration you decide to permit).

    Yet if you worry about the effects of uncontrolled immigration on wages and culture, you have to admit that legal immigration, if large enough, could have exactly the same wage-depressing and culture-dissolving effect. Scott Walker got in huge trouble a few weeks ago when he dared to suggest setting the level of legal immigration low enough to allow U.S. workers to find good jobs. Had he joined Numbers U.S.A? No. He was just carrying the logic of supply and demand to its conclusion.

    Snip.

    5) Diversity sucks! According to Coulter, my idea of a Los Angeles in which Korean immigrants live with Latino immigrants to produce a vibrant synergistic whole is insane. Diversity is “a train wreck.” Her big gun in this argument is the inconvenient work of a beloved liberal professor, Robert Putnam:

    Contrary to his expectations–and desire –Putnam’s study showed that the greater the ethnic diversity, the less people trusted their neighbors, their local leaders, and even the news. People in diverse communities gave less to charity, voted less, had fewer friends, were more unhappy …It was not, Putnam said, that people in diverse coummnities trusted people of their own ethnicity more, and other races less. They didn’t trust anyone.

    Snip.

    6) We need a moratorium on immigration: You don’t need to accept any of Coulter’s heresies — cultures are unequal, diversity is bad, maybe today’s immigrants really are more problematic than previous waves — to oppose the smug consensus CW favoring “comprehensive” immigration reform. It’s enough to recognize that a) too much immigration bids down pay at the bottom, and that b) we’ll never control immigration if we try to do an amnesty before the border is secure (because the border security arrangements will promptly be undermined, as happened after the last amnesty)….She wants a 10 year “total immigration moratorium,” on the grounds that any loopholes will be abused and expanded by the immigration bureaucracy. “Just shut it down.”

    I agree with all Kaus’ points and about half of Coluter’s. One exception to that moratorium I’d make is letting in the very best knowledge-workers around the world, people with critical technical skills (advanced programming, chip design, etc.) that can be done anywhere in the world in the Internet economy, so it would be best for them to do the work here. (Of course, since even that program is currently abused (“My cousin Sanjay knows Sharepoint, let’s write the rec so only he can apply so we can get him over here…”), the minimum wage threshold to qualify should be something like three times the national average wage.)

    Even though this is an old post on an old book, the basic dynamics Kaus/Coulter outline are still highly relevant, if not more so after the election of Donald Trump.

    The American public wants a halt to illegal alien entry into America and limitations on immigration. The ideological core of the Democratic Party wants open borders at any cost. Something has to give.

    (Hat tip: Director Blue.)

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    Posted in Border Control | 2 Comments »

    Post-Election Roundup for 11/4/10

    Thursday, November 4th, 2010

    A few bits:

    • Jim Gegharty speaks to Obi Wan: “The people tried trusting Democratic claims that they would govern as moderates. That didn’t work out, and that trust won’t be back any time soon”
    • Republicans increased their share of trifectas (i.e., where they control both state congressional chambers and the Governorship) from 8 to 20, while the Democratic Party’s trifectas declined from 16 to 9. That means Republican’s big win will become even bigger next year for redistricting.
    • The GOP also picked up state legislative chambers in New Hampshire, Maine, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
    • Battle10 on the Republican takeover of Wisconsin.
    • The quantity of Republican senators elected yesterday was lacking, but the quality of the ones getting in is impressive, especially considering who they replaced.
    • I’m not a big Ann Coulter fan, but this debunking of pre-election myths has some nice bits of snark: “Republican landslides are apparently inevitable whenever Democrats try to turn our health care over to the Department of Motor Vehicles.” “Even Lindsey Graham is going to start voting with the Republicans!”
    • Another Daily Kos writer employees the calm, dispassionate reason for which that site is known far and wide: “Screw you, whitey!”
    • Today’s winner of the Least Psychic Pundit Award: Stuart Rothenberg: “There are no signs of a dramatic rebound for the party, and the chance of Republicans winning control of either chamber in the 2010 midterm elections is zero. Not ‘close to zero.’ Not ‘slight’ or ‘small.’ Zero.”

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Uncategorized | No Comments »