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April 2025

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

The Climate Crisis Con Game The climate crisis isn’t just a narrative—it’s the Left’s longest-running confidence game, leveraging fear for our children to loot wallets, liberties, and the public trust. By Thaddeus G. McCotter

By on April 12th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/04/12/the-climate-crisis-con-game/

The technical term is “confidence game.” A crook gains the confidence of a victim (the “mark”) and preys upon their naivety, greed, and/or fear. Ultimately, the duped mark gives their money and/or property to the crook willingly.

Consider this real-world example provided in Connie Fletcher’s 1991 book, What Cops Know: Today’s Police Tell the Inside Story of Their Work on America’s Streets, wherein an anonymous Chicago Police Department (CPD) detective reminisces about a con game he redressed:

“One of the superintendents of the Chicago Police Department—his aunt was taken for $15,000… She was a recent widow, Italian. And during this con, they sent her back to Italy to dig up her husband’s body and take a button off his vest. International phone calls were made between Chicago and Palermo, Italy, continuing the con on this woman, warning her that she must do these things in order to keep her three grandchildren safe. It was five thousand dollars for each grandchild.”

“When I went to the [lead con artist, Louis]… I said, ‘Louis, you cost these people [fifteen thousand] dollars.’ He said, ‘I was taking a curse off their children.’ ‘Louis, come on.’ ‘Listen, are those children safe today?’ ‘Yeah, they’re safe.’ ‘Then it’s off. The curse has been taken off them.’ I said, ‘Why did you charge them [fifteen thousand] dollars?’ He said, ‘It was to take the curse off.’”

While this seems a rather involved scam, boiled down to its essence, it aligns with the experience of another CPD detective: “The best con is the simplest con.” At its stony heart, the con preys upon a grandmother’s love and fears for her grandchildren to extort money from her.

Viewed in its proper light, then, what to make of the Left’s “climate crisis?”

Despite the lack of any remote consensus regarding the alarmists’ proclamations of an impending climate apocalypse, what to make of the leftist “experts” and politicians who implore a concerned public to trust the science—i.e., the selectively chosen science that purports to support their alarmist position and deepens the “mark’s” fears for their offspring and/or planet?

What to make of the left’s incessant warnings of impending environmental doom despite the failure of past dire prognostications to materialize?

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Trump, Trade, and the Tragedy of the Working Class Moynihan’s warnings on family breakdown echo louder than ever, as cultural decay—not just trade policy—lies at the heart of America’s working-class collapse. By Stephen Soukup

By on April 12th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/04/12/trump-trade-and-the-tragedy-of-the-working-class/

Last month marked the 60th anniversary of the first serious attempt on the part of social scientists to analyze and evaluate the collapse of the traditional family in American society. On March 1, 1965, the U.S. Department of Labor released a report written by then-Assistant Secretary (and future Senator) Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D, NY) on the dissolution of black families in America. That report, “The Negro Family:  The Case for National Action,” was both groundbreaking and enormously controversial. Sixty years later, the study remains groundbreaking. However, its conclusions are, sadly, no longer especially controversial, having been corroborated by endless data spanning decades and extending to every race, culture, and creed in the country. At some point, the rescue of the American family will either become a serious and urgent focus of societal action, or it will prove the undoing of the great American experiment.

Among other things, Moynihan noted in his report the existence and the pervasiveness of black poverty and the correlation between that poverty and the breakdown of the black nuclear family. In an attempt to explain why black economic advancement lagged behind both political advancement and the economic fortunes of other ethnic groups, Moynihan examined reams of data and endless studies on black family life. And what he found—a paradox which came to be known as “Moynihan’s Scissors”—was” that welfare and male unemployment in the black community no longer appeared to be nearly perfectly correlated, as they were in the past and in other populations.

As it turned out, male unemployment was diverging from welfare outlays because the family was breaking down. In other words, welfare made it possible for women—black women, in this case—to survive and raise their children without the children’s father present in the home. In turn, the absence of the father from the home became necessary for the collection of welfare. A vicious circle had been created, and it was exacerbating black poverty tremendously.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Sahel: Emerging Center of Global Islamism The West Is Nowhere to Be Seen by Nils A. Haug

By on April 11th, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21522/sahel-islamism

Global Terrorism Index 2025, published by the Institute for Economics & Peace, reveals that the primary instigator of global terrorism during 2024 was the Islamic State (ISIS) and associated groups — such as al Qaeda, Jamaat Nusrat Al-Islam wal Muslimeen, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and al- Shabaab — together responsible for more than 7,500 deaths.

Although the West is experiencing escalating terrorism in countries such as Sweden, Australia, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, the Sahel region evidently remains the “global epicentre of terrorism, accounting for over half of all terrorism-related deaths in 2024.” Here, conflict deaths exceeded 25,000 for the first time, of which nearly 4,000 were directly connected to terrorism.

A perturbing factor is that in Europe, “one in five persons arrested for terrorism is legally classified as a child.”

The consequence is, of course, that with the West’s retreat, ISIS has free rein to action their visions of global influence. They are present in 22 countries at present….

Russia’s Wagner mercenary militia, although rebranded as an “Expeditionary Corps,” continues its predatory activities in the area, offering “governments in Africa a ‘regime survival package’ in exchange for access to strategically important natural resources.”

Covertly obtained Russian documents reveal how the group strives to “change mining laws in West Africa, with the ambition of dislodging Western companies from an area of strategic importance.” The upshot is accelerating anti-Western sentiment, resulting in the local states seeking to expel hitherto entrenched foreign interests.

“This is the Russian state coming out of the shadows in its Africa policy.” Russia’s patent objective is therefore to “seize control of critical resources,” and “aggressively pursue the expansion of its partnerships in Africa, with the explicit intent to supplant Western partnerships.” — Jack Watling, Royal United Services Institute, February 20, 2024.

Currently, the significant strategic, political, and economic benefits in the region are reaped by Russia, China and Turkey. The West is nowhere to be seen.

The center of world terrorist activity and violent death is no longer the Middle East. The “Sahel region of Africa is now the ‘epicentre of global terrorism,'” responsible for “over half of all terrorism-related deaths” worldwide, according to the respected Global Terrorism Index.

The sub-Saharan Sahel is largely unknown to much of the world. It can be described as the large, mostly flat, strip, nearly 600 miles wide, located between the savannahs of Sudan to the south and the Sahara desert to the north.

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ELECTIONS, IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Dems fight bill to stop illegal immigrant voting despite polls showing voter support 208 Democrats on Thursday voted against the Trump-backed measure that would crack down on noncitizen voting y Deirdre Heavey , Elizabeth Elkind

By on April 11th, 2025

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dems-fight-bill-stop-illegal-immigrant-voting-despite-polls-showing-voter-support

The House passed the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act on Thursday, with 208 Democrats voting against the President Donald Trump-backed measure that would crack down on noncitizen voting.

The SAVE Act, which passed 220-208, now heads to the Senate, where it will need the support of some Democrats to meet the 60-vote threshold for advancement. Democrats have rejected the bill, despite polling indicating bipartisan support for voter ID requirements. 

A Gallup Poll released ahead of the 2024 election found that 84% of respondents favor requiring a photo ID to vote, and 83% support requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote for the first time. 

If passed in the Senate and signed into law by Trump, the SAVE Act by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, would require voters to obtain proof of citizenship in person before they register for a federal election, and it would remove noncitizens from voter rolls. 

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Paying a Heavy Cost for Going After a Tax Cheat Named Hunter Biden IRS agents blew the whistle on Hunter Biden’s tax case, endured retaliation, and are now back in government to fix the system that tried to silence them. By Nancy Rommelmann

By on April 11th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/04/11/paying-a-heavy-cost-for-going-after-a-tax-cheat-named-hunter-biden/

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.

Joe Ziegler is not a beaten man – not for his antagonists’ lack of trying. Across his seven-year pursuit of Hunter Biden’s unpaid taxes, Ziegler, a special agent in the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigative division, and his colleague Gary Shapley were shunned, threatened, and lied to. Ziegler was doxed. Shapley was told to accept a demotion or resign. Convinced the IRS and Department of Justice were stonewalling their efforts to bring charges against a sitting president’s son, the agents went public as whistleblowers in 2023.

The result, during the hyper-polarized years spanning the Trump-to-Biden-to-Trump administrations, was predictable: The two men were accused of partisanship, lambasted by Democratic members of Congress and the press, and had their reputations impugned by high-powered lawyers paid for by those sympathetic to the Bidens.

The fortunes of these political victims have now turned. In mid-March, incoming Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Ziegler and Shapley would start work as senior advisers, helping to guide tax reform.

Which is all the agents had ever wanted and tried to do. “At the end of the day, this is truly about doing the right thing and standing up for what is right,” Ziegler would testify before the House Ways & Means Committee in December 2023. “I will say this again and again, this is much bigger than the Hunter Biden investigation. This was not a personal attack on Hunter Biden, but a call for change.”

While the reprisals they say they endured for their acts of conscience appear to have ended, Ziegler and Shapely do not want their experience to be memory-holed – especially because other whistleblowers who spoke out during the Biden administration have received less attention for their tribulations. Speaking with RealClearInvestigations recently, the two men gave their first in-depth interviews on the years-long case that upended their lives and careers.

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FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Will Iran Seize Its Only Chance with President Trump? Not agreeing to serious talks with the US to end its nuclear weapons program could prove disastrous for Iran. By Fred Fleitz

By on April 11th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/04/11/will-iran-seize-its-only-chance-with-president-trump/

President Trump stunned the world this week when he announced that the U.S. would hold direct talks with Iran on its nuclear weapons program this weekend. The president has given Iran two months to negotiate a new agreement to end its nuclear program and said at the press conference, “I think if the talks aren’t successful with Iran… Iran is going to be in great danger, and I hate to say it.”

The talks are scheduled to take place on Saturday in Oman. The U.S. will reportedly be represented by Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. Iran’s chief negotiator reportedly will be Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

Trump said in response to a reporter’s question about whether he would use military force if Iran refused to agree to a nuclear deal, “If it requires military, we’re going to have military.” The President later added that Israel would “be the leader” of a military strike on Iran if nuclear talks fail.

After Trump’s announcement, however, Iranian officials indicated their nation might not engage in serious negotiations when they said Iran would only agree to indirect talks with the U.S. mediated by Oman. Foreign Minister Araghchi added that his government primarily wanted the talks to rule out the use of U.S. military force against Iran.

An administration source told me Iran’s resistance to direct and meaningful talks to end its nuclear weapons program might mean the talks will not take place, at least this weekend. This could lead to Iran suffering severe repercussions from the U.S. and possibly Israel by mid-year.

Why Trump Believes Addressing Threats from Iran Is Urgent

President Trump has moved fast to address threats from Iran because they surged to a dangerous level—especially concerning its nuclear weapons program—due to the Biden administration’s inept Iran policies that amounted to appeasement.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Ballerina who was imprisoned by Russia after $52 donation to Ukraine charity has returned to U.S.

By on April 11th, 2025

https://www.aol.com/ballerina-imprisoned-russia-over-ukraine-030744498.html

A Russian American woman who spent more than a year imprisoned in Russia over allegations of financially supporting Ukraine’s military returned to the United States on Thursday night after a prisoner exchange.

Ksenia Karelina, a former ballerina who had been living in Los Angeles, was arrested in Russia in February 2024 and sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony for “high treason.”

The plane carrying Karelina touched down at 10:56 p.m. at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, near Washington, D.C.

She was smiling as she exited the plane’s steps and embraced her fiancé, Chris van Heerden, who was waiting outside the jet. Van Heerden gave his coat to Karelina in the 50-degree night air and put his arm around her as they walked away from the plane.

“Mr. Trump, I’m so, so grateful for you to bring me home and for American government,” Karelina said in video recorded by Trump administration official Sebastian Gorka. “And I never felt more blessed to be American, and I’m so, so happy to get home.”

The Russian legal group Perviy Otdel and the U.S. spa where Karelina worked said she was arrested because of a $51.80 donation to a charity that provides aid to Ukraine.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

Ivory Tower Hypocrite: George Mason University Female students censored for concerns about men using women’s restrooms. by Sara Dogan

By on April 11th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/ivory-tower-hypocrite-george-mason-university/

Editor’s note: Over the past several decades, few places in America have become more hostile to free speech than our universities. Yet in the wake of rising anti-Semitism and the pro-Hamas campus rallies and occupations that were sparked by the terror group’s October 7 massacre, university administrators seem to have had a sudden change of heart.

The Freedom Center is exposing the most egregious perpetrators of these double standards in free expression as the Top Ten Ivory Tower Hypocrites. These are universities whose leaders have permitted woke leftist activists to run roughshod over campus rules and violate codes of conduct with impunity, while failing to extend even basic free speech protections to students and faculty with opposing views. George Mason University is #9 on our list.

#9: George Mason University

When George Mason University played host to egregious pro-Hamas protests, university administrators defended the demonstrators on free speech grounds. But when two female law students at the university expressed their concerns about gender-confused biological men using the women’s restrooms on campus, the university quickly enacted legal measures to silence them and prevent any further discussion of the issue.

GMU has a lengthy resume of anti-Semitic and pro-terror activism. Just days after the Hamas massacre that killed 1200 and resulted in the rape, mutilation and kidnapping of hundreds more, SJP held an “Emergency Palestine Protest – Support the Resistance.” During this event, SJP’s chants glorified the Hamas terrorists, some of whom gained entry into Israel via hang gliders: “They’ve got tanks we’ve got hang gliders, glory to the resistance fighters;” “glory to the resistance fighters;” “settler, settler go back home, Palestine is not your home.” An advertisement for the rally stated: “SJP Mason calls on the GMU community to support the struggle of our people against colonialism and the zionist occupation. It is our duty to echo the calls for liberation of our homeland and our people, from the river to the sea. Show up and show out for Palestine, and let GMU know that we will rise against the occupation!”

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Christopher F. Rufo, David Reaboi How “Tesla Takedown” Activists Fool the Public The campaign against Elon Musk’s company is hardly a grassroots movement.

By on April 11th, 2025

https://www.city-journal.org/article/elon-musk-tesla-takedown-protests-activists

Last month, a wave of more than 200 protests targeting Tesla properties erupted across the United States. The media portrayed this movement, officially branded the “Tesla Takedown,” as a spontaneous grassroots backlash against CEO Elon Musk’s role in dismantling waste and fraud in the U.S. federal bureaucracy. Each of these demonstrations appears to have been sparsely attended, but both the number of protest sites and the timeline of events suggest a coordinated effort.

On February 21, Rolling Stone published an article by activist-filmmaker Alex Winter describing the genesis of the Tesla Takedown protest campaign. Within two weeks of its publication, multiple Tesla properties were attacked with incendiary devices, and three men were arrested for separate attempts to firebomb Tesla locations in Salem, Oregon; Loveland, Colorado; and Charleston, South Carolina.

If the mainstream press accounts—as well as Winter’s own description—are to be believed, the fire-bombings and protests were unrelated. When mentioning the protests at all in the context of the violence, some outlets described them only as “dozens of peaceful protests at Tesla dealerships and factories.” Stories did not touch on how, more often than not, violent and nonviolent tactics reinforce one another and work toward the same ends.

A closer look suggests that Tesla is the latest target of an activist and organizing ecosystem that the Left has built over decades. That infrastructure manufactures, amplifies, and strategically uses protests and “direct actions” to force concessions or policy change. These direct actions range from nonviolent (sit-ins or flash mobs) to violent (arson, harassment, or even assassination), all meant to focus attention through the drama of real-world confrontation. The goal is to bypass the normal channels of democratic decision-making, obtaining desired ends through minoritarian pressure campaigns.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The insane campaign to decriminalise Hamas A UK legal firm says it’s an abuse of ‘human rights’ to brand Hamas a terrorist outfit. Pull the other one. Brendan O’Neill

By on April 11th, 2025

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/04/10/the-insane-campaign-to-decriminalise-hamas/

It’s safe to say Britain did not cover itself in glory this week. We’ve had legal bigwigs warning that we risk resurrecting the crime of blasphemy following the charging of a man for burning the Koran. We saw the safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, announce that the UK government can’t be arsed with inquiries into the industrial-scale abuse of working-class girls by gangs of mostly Pakistani Muslim men. And now, the icing on this rancid cake: British lawyers are agitating for Hamas to no longer be designated as a terrorist organisation.

Yes, a UK legal firm is making a plea for Hamas to be ‘un-proscribed’. It’s called Riverway Law. It’s making representations for Dr Mousa Abu Marzouk, Hamas’s head of international affairs. Their case is that Britain’s use of the term ‘terrorist’ against Hamas is a breach of its supporters’ human rights. I’m not making this up. It ‘unlawfully restricts’ their freedom of speech, apparently. Welcome to modern Britain, where you must never desecrate the Koran or expect an inquiry into rape gangs, but you might soon be free to say: ‘I love Hamas.’

The lawyers have submitted a 106-page legal application to the home secretary. It wails about how unfair it is that Britain brands Hamas a terror group. Yes, how dare we use the word terrorist to describe a movement that sent thousands of armed hysterics to slit the throats of Jews on 7 October 2023? Hamas is a ‘resistance movement’, the application says, whose aim is to ‘liberate Palestine’. The trouble is, Hamas, that those of us still in possession of a moral compass know what this means: you want to ‘liberate’ the Middle East of its Jews. You want to banish, with savage violence, the Jews from their homeland. And that’s terrorism. Actually, it’s worse: it’s the dream of genocide wrapped in the lie of ‘resistance’.

Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, was proscribed in 2001. Its political wing was proscribed in 2021, when the then Tory government decided that the distinction between the two was ‘artificial’. The proscription means it’s a criminal offence for anyone here to be a member of Hamas or to drum up support for it. Waving the Hamas flag and wearing pro-Hamas clothing is a crime, too. Hamas – brace yourselves for this – is now citing the European Convention on Human Rights against the UK government. Your proscription of our lovely resistance movement is an assault on our British supporters’ ‘freedom of speech’, it says.

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