It’s Monday, March 11th, 2019…but before we begin, in honor of the great Thomas Sowell, we offer a couple random thoughts on the passing scene. Thought #1 was occasioned by the following headline:
It occurred to us, if these children have been separated from their mother because of her incredible irresponsibility and violation of the law, why should the offspring of those who drag, or allow others to drag, their ninos over 1,000 miles to illegally enter the United States…
…be afforded different treatment?
Thought #2: TLJ and we just watched Indictment, an account of the McMartin Preschool “trial” starring James Woods. For those either too young or who don’t recall, the McMartin “trial” (we use the term in quotes because what transpired was half farce, half kangaroo court) was part of a nationwide wave of hysteria brought on by a mix of misinformed, overreacting parents, a gullible public, inaccurate, biased coverage by the MSM and a children’s version of the #MeToo movement spearheaded by an older generation of self-promoting Feminazis and self-proclaimed “experts” on child sex abuse.
It was the Tawana Brawley and Jussie Smollett scams on steroids…and every bit as fabricated.
The McMartin witch hunt would be followed by similarly preposterous indictments and trials in Malden, MAand Wenatchee, WA. The WSJ’s Dorothy Rabinowitz (who subsequently earned a Pulitzer Prize for her dogged defense of the Amiraults’ innocence) reports the bizarre and nonsensical nature of the “facts” which convicted the defendants in the Massachusetts madness:
“…Gerald, it was alleged, had plunged a wide-blade butcher knife into the rectum of a 4-year-old boy, which he then had troubleremoving.When a teacher in the school saw him in action with the knife, she asked him what he was doing, and then told him not to do it again, a child said. On this testimony, Gerald was convicted of a rape which had, miraculously, left no mark or other injury.Violet had tied a boy to a tree in front of the school one bright afternoon, in full view of everyone, and had assaulted him anally with a stick, and then with “a magic wand.” She would be convicted of these charges.Cheryl had cut the leg off a squirrel.
Other than such testimony, the prosecutors had no shred of physical or other proof that could remotely pass as evidence of abuse. But they did have the power of their challenge to jurors: Convict the Amiraults to make sure the battle against child abuse went forward.Convict, so as not to reject the children who had bravely come forward with charges…”
Sound at all…
…familiar?!?
Writing at AEI back in May of 2014, comparing the ’80’s child abuse frenzy with the then-flowering but equally non-existent “rape culture”, Christina Hoff Sommers noted, it’s a “panic where paranoia, censorship, and false accusations flourish.“
And as Stanton Peele, Ph.D. wrote in 2010 at Psychology Today:
“McMartin was one of the first Multi-Victim Multi Offender (MVMO) child abuse cases. It lasted six years — the longest US criminal trial in history. At a cost to the state of $15 million, it was also the most expensive. No convictions were obtained. The main evidence of abuse was based on what the children testified were memories of repeated, sadistic, ritual molestation. Years later, child psychologists realized that such memories can be easily implanted in children’s minds by the interview techniques which were used at the time.Since psychologists and police investigators have changed their methods of interrogating young children, no more MVMO cases have surfaced in the U.S.“
None…zero…zip…zilch…nada. What are the odds? And all thanks to Progressives battling monsters which existed only in their own minds. As proved by the borking of Brett Kavanaugh and knee-jerk support for Jussie Smollet, both of which flew in the face of the facts as well as common sense, nothing’s changed.
Now, here’s The Gouge!
First up, added proof even a broken clock is right on occasion:
“Something remarkable is happening on the Democratic side of the aisle. Faced with multiple anti-Semitic statements from freshman member of Congress Ilhan Omar, the Democrats are actually struggling to unite to condemn her remarks. This disunity is made all the more remarkable by the fact that there is nothing at all subtle about what Omar has said. In the past she’s tweeted that Israel has “hypnotized the world.” Recently, she’s claimed that American support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins” and has now twice raised the argument that support for Israel involved “allegiance” to a foreign country.
Each of these statements represents a classic anti-Semitic trope, and the latter statements were made after she came under fire for her previous comments. She knew she was under scrutiny and yet doubled down.
While multiple Democrats have condemned her comments forcefully and unequivocally, she’s also enjoying a curious wave of support…
…This is campus activism come to Congress. Did you wonder why campus incidents so often seem to elevate the most radical voices? The same dynamic applies. Activists who possess theproper identity then speak with absolute authority, and the only acceptable woke response is to ally with their demands.
On the one hand, there is an element of intersectionality that simply comports with common sense — after all, people from different identity groups do experience the world differently, and any diverse society values diverse voices. But identity isn’t a substitute for credibility or authority or morality. We respect people enough to treat them as adults and weigh their ideas on their own merits.
By that standard, there is no merit to Omar’s noxious thoughts. Accusations of Israeli hypnotism, purchased loyalty, and dual allegiance don’t represent thoughtful critiques of Israeli policy. Omar’s challenging childhood isn’t the fault of the Israeli government, and it doesn’t relieve her of the obligation to shun the vicious anti-Semitism that plagues the extreme Left.
Moreover, anti-Semitism is no small matter. Carol Roth gets this exactly right:
We might also add that, immediatelyafter the Holocaust, multiple Arab nations united in a generation-long effort to use massive military force to wipe out the world’s only Jewish state. And even today, Jews in the most advanced nations of Europe face a level of anti-Semitism and violence that is utterly shameful. Americans shouldn’t be so arrogant as to assume that our nation is immune to those ideological currents.
In fact, given the zealous defense of Ilhan Omar, the continued reign of the anti-Semites perched atop the Women’s March, and the ongoing acceptance of Louis Farrakhan, it’s clear that parts of the American Left are drifting in the direction of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party.
Identity cannot be a substitute for or a supplement to reason and morality. Anti-Semitic voices are no more valuable coming from a refugee than from a redneck. If Democrats cannot recognize that fundamental fact, then intersectionality will have encroached on decency, and bigotry will have made yet another cultural advance.“
“…Asked if Omar’s comment about Jewish dual loyalty was anti-Semitic, Representative Emmanuel Cleaver of Missouri offered this profile in courage: “It may or may not be. I haven’t thought deeply about it.”
…Leave aside the fact that whatever happened to Omar in Kenya or Somalia, it has nothing to do with Israel or Jews. Are we going to have greater tolerance for bigotry based on a time-since-victimhood score? Slavery was even longer ago than the Holocaust. Does that make racist comments less outrageous than anti-Semitic comments?
On Thursday, Pelosi announced that the House would vote on a resolution condemning all forms of “hate.” It’s a transparent dodge to avoid condemning a specific kind of hate.
It might do the trick to turn the page. But it will almost surely be a temporary respite, because Omar (and others) come to their anti-Semitism honestly, and they’re inclined to be honest about it. So we’ll be here again.“
“…Ms. Omar has been consistent not only in attacking the pro-Israel lobby, but in purveying a conspiratorial view of the world. The evidence-free accusation that illegitimate moneyed or foreign interests are corrupting her opponents and dictating U.S. policy is her modus operandi.
…Anti-Semitism is the ultimate conspiracy theory.It’s the point at which the far right and far left meet to indict the shadowy moneyed elite controlling the government, the banks and the media, oppressing the masses and betraying the nation.“
(For those interested, Goldberg offers another excellent commentary on what he terms The Aristocracy of Victimhood.)
Here’s the juice: it’s the height of both hypocrisy and ingratitude when someone of Ilhan Omar’s background and religion chastises America, her adopted country, about ANYTHING!!!
We’re with the fictional Colonel Nathan R. Jessup on this one:
Because, when it comes to Ilhan Omar…
The craven responses of Pelosi, Clyburn and other Dimocrats reminds us of when the United States Naval Academy, our alma mater, “amended” its sacred Honor Concept to provide “minority” Midshipman a mulligan on an honor offense because such moral values might not have been part of their upbringing.
Really? They supposedly achieved a GPA and SAT score deserving of appointment to the finest service academy on the planet, yet somehow failed to learn lying, cheating and stealing were wrong?!?
And we find it more than curious while any possible link between The Donald and White Supremacists is always front-page news, while David Duke’s support for Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitism…
…warrants nary a mention anywhere in the MSM.
Next up, writing at Best of the Web, Jim Freeman records…
“Polling suggests that the more people learn about the cost and bureaucracy likely to result from a government-run health system, the less they favor it. So naturally Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has decided to make his plan for a government-run health system bigger and more expensive.
This column recently noted that Mr. Sanders is the kind of socialist who demands $32.6 trillion from taxpayers to alter their medical care and then misleads them about the imagined benefits. But that description now seems unfair since the 2020 presidential candidate has decided to shove the price tag significantly further north.
The Associated Press reports today:
Sen. Bernie Sanders is raising the stakes of the “Medicare for All” debate by expanding his proposal to include long-term care, a move that is forcing other Democratic presidential candidates to take a stand on addressing one of the biggest gaps in the U.S. health care system…
Some moderate Democrats have criticized the cost of such an expansive proposal and by adding the long-term care provision, Sanders could further expose that divide.
…The original Sanders “Medicare for All” plan would end all private health insurance as well as government programs like Medicare and replace them with a new government medical system. Now on top of that Mr. Sanders wants to extend coverage beyond strictly medical services. Reports the AP:
People of any age could qualify if illness, injury or age limit their ability to perform at least one “activity of daily living,” such as bathing or dressing, or one or more “instrumental activities of daily living,” such as managing money or taking prescribed medications. There would be no income or assets tests to qualify, and no copays or deductibles.
One oddity of the 2020 race is that Democratic candidates closer to the political center seem careful not to offend Sanders voters on the extreme left, yet Mr. Sanders seems not to care about offending any Democratic moderates. Does he know something the other candidates don’t about building political coalitions?
This week former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who successfully created and owned the means of craft beer production, resisted describing himself as a capitalist during an appearance on MSNBC.
And he’s the Great White Moderate!
Meanwhile Mr. Sanders has decided that packaging his government-run health care with an abolition of traditional energy production at a cost that may run above $90 trillion over ten years is not enough. The new long-term care plan could make Mr. Sanders the $100 trillion man in terms of the amount of other people’s money he’s willing to commit to his agenda…”
Meanwhile, Bernie will continue to enjoy his three homes between junkets jetting around the country lecturing the rest of us about income inequality and limiting our carbon footprints.
This forward from Wink Martindale highlights what inquiring minds want to know:
Which brings us to the lead item in Friday’s edition of the Morning Jolt, as Jim Geraghty relates…
“…You’re going to hear a lot of talk today that the sentence of Paul Manafort is too light. He received nearly four years in prison in the financial-fraud case, far lighter than the 19- to 24-year prison term recommended under sentencing guidelines. Manafort still faces sentencing for two separate conspiracy counts from a different judge.
There’s no denying that when Donald Trump came into Washington, he brought along a slew of crooks, opportunists, reprobates, and assorted creeps of the political world: Manafort, Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, George Papadopoulos. Of course, all of the above names have been prosecuted for crimes and either pled guilty or have been convicted.Roger Stone now faces charges of witness tampering, false statements, and obstruction of proceedings.
Unlike some on the Right, I don’t believe that the above men are wrongfully accused, unjustly targeted, or any kind of victim. They’ve had fair trials, and in many cases the best legal counsel they could possibly want.Karma caught up with them.
But karma has taken its time with a lot of other political figures…
…Prosecutors have chased after Trump’s associates with the relentless and methodical determination of Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive. It’s just remarkable how lucky some Democratic officeholders are, that prosecutors look at allegations from multiple accusers describing the same type of crime…and conclude there’s just not a winnable case.“
A number immediately…
…come to mind. Sorry, but when these four…and many, many more like them…haven’t even been indicted, let alone not already serving time, we couldn’t care less how light a sentence Paul Manafort received.
Turning now to The Lighter Side:
Then there’s these memes forwarded by the legendary Wink Martindale…
…Speed Mach…
…and Shannon:
Finally, we’ll call it a day with another sordid story straight from the pages of The Crime Blotter, and this just in from The Magnolia State:
Mississippi man killed wife, friends after they wouldn’t let him drive drunk
“…Michael Barnhill, 30, was celebrating his wife Marlee Barnhill’s 27th birthday at a friend’s home in Carroll County on Friday, Fox affiliate WLOV-TV reported, citing the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office. The man, according to Sheriff Clint Walker, became “drunk and belligerent during the course of the event” while the group of friends were “having a nice time together.”
Marlee, upset with the way her husband was acting, took away his keys “to prevent him driving away in his drunk state.” The sheriff said she “was trying to do the right thing to protect his life and the lives of other drivers.”
But when his keys were taken away, Michael allegedly got a pistol from his truck, slapped a cigarette out of Marlee’s hand and shot her in the chest, according to investigators.Michael then allegedly shot the party hosts, Jim Harrell, 44, and his wife, Brooks Harrell, 39, when they tried to intervene…”
Proving, once again, no good deed goes unpunished. Thankfully, the state of Mississippi will undoubtedly ensure Barnhill ultimately gets what he deserves.
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