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Ruth King

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GODFATHER NOT BY DIANA WEST

By on June 5th, 2017

Some call it reframing; others put a coat of paint on it and call it a new car. Basically, it is the process by which a deception is perpetrated simply by saying thus is so and pointing to the shiny surface as proof.

This is once again happening with the egregious David Horowitz. Several years ago, I had the unexpected misfortune of having to experience the true nature of David Horowitz due to his spearheading a disinformation campaign against me and my 2013 book American Betrayal. This campaign of lies would end up including nearly two dozen pieces by a cabal of writers, the first of which I rebutted, perhaps ironically, at Breitbart News. (Other rebuttals, too, for that matter, ran at Breitbart when other websites refused me space.) For new readers, American Betrayal, in part, is about how Moscow-directed and -loyal communists and their accomplices were secretly able to infiltrate and influence the US and other great powers into cataclysmic acts that entrenched, enriched and expanded the Soviet empire abroad; at home, they rotted out the Republic long before “the Sixties” ever began — all, according to “court history” ever since, under the banner of “victory” in World War II and the Cold War. It seems fair to say this is not a subject that a normal anti-Communist, especially ex-Communist, would lose his mind over.

In the several years since (and during) this shockingly sustained attack-campaign, I also began to learn how Horowitz has shaded his own biography to obscure the proximity of his early life to the KGB in America — an alarming choice for one self-billed and trusted as a guide to domestic Communist affairs.

There. Disclaimer done. Where was I?

The latest Horowitz-reframing appears in a paint-job-superficial Washington Post piece headlined: “How a ‘shadow’ universe of charities joined with political warriors to fuel Trump’s rise.”

The Post’s premise — the centrality of Horowitz in that “shadow” universe supposedly fueling the rise of Donald Trump — could not be more wrong, or more absurd. For one thing, Trump’s lift-off was in 2015, sans charities or shadow-universe thereof. Where was Horowitz? “This column is not an endorsement of Donald Trump or any candidate,” Horowitz wrote on December 22, 2015. (Full disclosure: My own endorsement of Trump ran at Breitbart News on December 26, 2015; then again, I am not a tax-exempt charity.) Soon thereafter, as Trump swept toward the nomination, Horowitz would start piggybacking onto Breitbart News with a series of look-at-me-Trump op-eds. At the time, it struck me as a naked effort to catch up with the Trump Train before it pulled into Washington without him.

This is somewhat interesting on different levels. One would think, as a universe-creator and all that, Horowitz’s own Frontpagemag.com was the center of that supposed Trumpian firmament; at least, if Horowitz really was, as the Post claims, the “intellectual godfather to the far right.”

For some time in 2016, however, Horowitz was just another Breitbart by-line (average age 25?), apparently seeking some new credentials, if not “cred,” of his own. In May 2016, which was really just in the nick of time to make any kind of a pre-nomination fuss, Horowitz finally scored by dropping the perfect stinkbomb of a headline at Breitbart News: “Bill Kristol: Republican Spoiler, Renegade Jew.”

Antique echoes of Daily Worker jargon aside (who but old-time Bolshis say “renegade” anything?): In the ensuing media clamor over Horowitz’s “Renegade Jew” headline (he *confessed* to writing it himself), Breitbart had to fend off charges of anti-Semitism, which would dog the site throughout the presidential campaign — but now with the help of Horowitz, who is Jewish. Mission accomplished! Having mixed it up with Breitbart boys under siege, Horowitz was now, basically, one of them. Plus, in so gratuitously slamming neocon Kristol, ex-Communist and, now, surely, ex-neocon Horowitz was also able to run up the Jolly Roger of the alt-right. “Renegade Jew,” indeed. Good political positioning is more like it. Meanwhile, the issue that lit him up so much — Obama’s Iran deal — is still on Trump’s table, not that Horowitz cares so much now.

So, why wouldn’t Horowitz just take care of all of this personal reframing exclusively at his own website?

A quick look at the latest Alexa website rankings explains all.

Today, Frontpage.mag is No. 12,639 in the US — which, of course, means there are 12,638 more popular websites than David Horowitz’s website out there today; it ranks 41,338 globally.

Breitbart News, on the other hand, is No. 61 in the US today, and No. 292 in the world.

To be fair, yours truly’s site ranking is barely measurable at No. 140,911 in the US — but perhaps dianawest.net would do a bit better if it raked in some fraction of the $5.4 million David Horowitz’s Freedom Center received as charitable largesse in 2015 alone, as the Post reports. Horowitz, not by the way, skimmed $583,000 of the top in salary that same year. Running a “shadow universe” is so terribly taxing, especially when your fancy web$ite isn’t so widely read.

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“Buy American” May Not Be American By Herbert London

By on June 5th, 2017

https://spectator.org/buy-american-may-not-be-american/

President Trump asserts with patriotic fervor that his administration stands for America First, a commendable but somewhat ambiguous concept. What gives it meaning is the idea that Americans “buy American.” Presumably when facing consumer choices Americans should look for a label that keeps them at home.

The problem with the concept is that it defies an American commitment to the free market – an argument at least as patriotic as America First. Comparative advantage has been a hallmark of trade, notwithstanding many abuses and currency manipulation. Trade is never entirely fair since each of the trading partners seeks an advantage. Yet the market has a mechanism for addressing excesses, such as “dumping.”

If there is confusion in the market, it is over production provenance. The Ford, manufactured (or should I say assembled) in the United States has parts from at least 14 nations. Globalization, for better or worse, has changed the nature of trade and the method of manufacturing. We may choose to call a Ford an American car but it is no more American than a Volkswagen assembled in Mississippi. Even when one says I want to buy American because it is good for the country I love, you cannot be sure the product in question doesn’t have parts from abroad.

“Buy American” invariably requires an undesirable economic choice. Americans may be willing to pay a premium for a product manufactured here, but that is a choice rarely considered as Walmart’s gross sales suggests. Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, accounts for eleven percent of the unfavorable trade balance with a reliance on electronic products manufactured elsewhere. Unless a tariff is imposed on these products, it is unlikely U.S. counterparts can compete on economic terms. That is a reality the Trump position seemingly overlooks.

Ultimately what is good for the nation is not easy to determine. Job loss is a real problem when U.S. companies are unable to compete. Free market economics often overlook the plight of a steel worker – to cite one example – whose company cannot compete against foreign rivals. This individual may be less interested in efficiency than job protection. On the other hand, an unfavorable balance of trade may have a salutary effect on the economy. The allocation of resources based on products from abroad allows the U.S. economy to concentrate on sectors likely to be most productive. Were it not for this internal market allocation, most Americans would be farmers today.

Clearly the free market is imperfect. Many are left behind in the process of rewards and penalties or what Schumpeter described as creative destruction. As I see it, mature economies must put an emphasis on retraining. The idea that an employee will hold the same position throughout his working life is anachronistic. In fact, while trade has resulted in some job loss, the real culprit in this matter is technological advancement. Yet most Americans are not Luddites and any referendum on the matter would favor advancement.

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The Month That Was – May 2017 Sydney Williams

By on June 5th, 2017

The recent Islamic-inspired killings in Manchester, Kabul and London make more urgent the President’s message on his first trip abroad.

The focus of Donald Trump’s first foreign trip as President was radical Islam. In Riyadh, Mr. Trump, a man the media calls an Islamophobe, was well received by leaders of fifty Muslim nations. He did not patronize them. He did not mince words. He told them we have a common enemy – Islamic extremists who have subsumed the Muslim religion for their purpose. He said: “This is not a battle between different faiths…or different civilizations…This is a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life and decent people, all in the name of religion.” In Jerusalem, he spoke frankly to the duplicitous Mahmoud Abbas and the stolid Benjamin Netanyahu, that living in peace is better than dying in war. To the Pope, he talked of radical Islam in terms of immigration. To the pampered elites in Brussels, he told them what they knew, but had ignored – that peace is not free, that security requires a strong NATO that must be funded. He told them they must live up to their financial and defense obligations. In Sicily, he met with the Group of Seven. Their main concern was the Paris Climate Accord – an “agreement,” as the New York Times put it, that “does not require any country to do anything.” – when the immediate risk is Islamic extremism.

Europe has been living in a cocoon. With the United States providing the bulk of their security needs, their welfare systems have blossomed. Birth rates are far below replacement rates, challenging economic growth and indicative of a pessimistic outlook. The situation cannot endure. Mr. Trump understands consequences of radical Islam better than do European leaders – that the risk is not just terrorists who maim and kill; it is the cultural challenges radical Islam poses for the West – an adherence to religious intolerance, the rise of multiculturalism and the nihilism that is its progeny. As Nietzsche wrote:

“Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

…………………………………….

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.”

The West needs people who will lead from the front; people who will show that patriotism does not mean retreat from the world. We need leaders who will restore values we are at risk of losing and who will provide a sense of morality – that evil must be confronted, good must be commended and peace can be achieved only through strength. We are a conglomeration of independent nations, each with its individual culture. Countries must respect one another; they must be mindful of one another’s laws. They should encourage trade, with peace as a goal; but all must understand that all compete for economic advantage. In terms of immigration, it is not pluralism we seek, but assimilation, so we can become one. This is not to say that one culture is superior to another, but nations have identities, which should be maintained. It is what makes them unique. As Pierre Manent, the French philosopher, once said regarding immigrants to America: “…people came from all over the world, not to be human beings, but to be citizens of the United States.”

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MY SAY: THE SIX-DAY WAR JUNE 5, 1967 – JUNE 10, 1967

By on June 5th, 2017

The Six-Day War was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967 by Israel against the more populous and well armed neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, who were cheered on by all the Arab/Moslem states, heeding Nasser’s bloodthirsty calls for Israel’s annihilation. Against all odds Israel succeeded in lightning strikes that liberated and unified Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria (the West Bank of the Jordan River-The East Bank is comprised of Jordan), captured Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights.

For most of the ‘ignoranti” academics and journalists, that is when the history of the Israel/Arab conflict began…..a Jewish Palestinian land grab of Arab Palestinian land, and an ensuing “occupation.” The Balfour Declaration, the partitions of Palestine in 1922 and 1947, the 1948 war of Independence, the illegal occupation of Judea and Samaria by Jordan which trashed every single Jewish shrine in the area and limited access to Christian tourists, are all air-brushed.

Furthermore, Israel’s immediate offer to return all territories was categorically rebuffed by The Khartoum Resolution of 1 September 1967. The Arab League summit was convened in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan and was attended by eight Arab heads of state: Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, and Sudan. The resolution is famous for containing (in the third paragraph) what became known as the “Three No’s”: “no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with the Jewish State.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 (S/RES/242) was adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council on November 22, 1967, in the aftermath of the Six-Day War. It was adopted under Chapter VI of the UN Charter.

It states: “Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in recent conflict. The word “all” was deliberately omitted regarding territories.

It further calls for “Termination of all states of belligerency and acknowledgement of the sovereignty of every state in the region to live within secure and recognized boundaries.”

By relinquishing the Sinai peninsula (23,166 square miles) and Gaza (140.0 square miles) Israel has returned 92% of all lands captured in 1967 and fully met all its obligations to Resolution 242 and all the Arabs, including those in Judea and Samaria whose life is better and more free than in any other Arab nation.

God bless Israel- an amazing and inspiring democracy…rsk

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Owning Their Future: The Joy of DECA, Part I By Jay Nordlinger

By on June 5th, 2017

Editor’s Note: In our May 29 issue, we published a piece by Jay Nordlinger about DECA. The organization held its big international conference in late April. This week, Mr. Nordlinger expands his piece in his Impromptus.

Sixteen thousand high-school students have converged here in Anaheim, Calif. — but they’re not going to Disneyland. Well, some of them are. But mainly they’re here to participate in a giant career-development conference. The theme of this conference is “Own Your Future.” The participants, the high-schoolers, are walking around in blue blazers, which have a patch that says “DECA.”

What does “DECA” stand for? “It stands for truth, justice, and the American way,” says John Fistolera, an official with DECA. It’s a good quip. “We’re about free enterprise,” says Fistolera, “and free enterprise is the American way.”

For decades, DECA has been known as “DECA,” plain and simple. (The word is pronounced “Decka” — like the record label, Decca.) But, once upon a time, the letters stood for “Distributive Education Clubs of America.”

The term “distributive education” is now antique — even more antique than “voc-ed” (for “vocational education”). The preferred term now is “career education,” or “career and technical education.” I myself had never heard the term “distributive education” until a few years ago, when I was interviewing Harold Hamm.

He is the 13th and last child of cotton sharecroppers in Oklahoma — and the leading oilman in the United States. When he was in high school, in the early 1960s, he took part in a D.E. program. It meant that you got school credit for working. And the classes you took probably related to the work you were doing. Young Hamm was working at a truck stop. And he wrote a paper on oil exploration.

His D.E. teacher was a man named Jewell Ridge. The teacher meant a lot to Hamm, and to many other students, most of them poor. When Ridge died, Hamm delivered a eulogy at his funeral. Recounting all this to me, Hamm got tears in his eyes.

For the piece I wrote about Harold Hamm, go here. (Incidentally, he has devoted a lot of the money he has earned to providing educational opportunity to the poor.)

DECA was founded in 1946, when going to college was not de rigueur. Young people needed skills for the work world. They still do, of course. But college is a box that increasingly must be checked. Most DECA students are college-bound. Nonetheless, the organization still serves kids who aren’t.

Here in Anaheim, I meet a young man who is going straight to the Air Force. Another one is joining the family business, to learn the ropes.

DECA has 200,000 members in 3,500 high schools. The members, I should make clear, are students. And they pay dues, as members of organizations often do. The dues are $8 a year. If a student can’t afford this sum, he can work for it, for example in a DECA-run school store.

There is also a college division, though smaller: 15,000 members in 275 colleges and universities.

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The Campus Speech Police Come to Fresno State On campuses across the country, the same illiberal attitude toward disagreeable speech is growing, and the broader public must take notice. By Jake Curtis

By on June 5th, 2017

There is certainly no shortage of examples of progressive attempts to silence “unacceptable” political speech. From Charles Murray to Ann Coulter to David Horowitz, the Left has upped its game when it comes to censoring, and in some cases even silencing, its political opponents. Some Yale students have even gone so far as to “petition” for a repeal of the First Amendment in its entirety.

Nobody, however, has done more to reveal the true nature of modern progressives’ illiberalism than Fresno State professor Gregory Thatcher. Thanks to cell-phone video and a timely complaint filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom, Thatcher’s utter contempt for contrary political thought was exposed after he directed students to scrub pro-life messages that had been scrawled on campus sidewalks by the Fresno State chapter of Students for Life. This sort of mentality is endemic in American academia — and increasingly in society at large.

A month prior to the incident, Students for Life e-mailed the appropriate authorities at the University, asking for permission to move forward with their “chalking” plans. Their request made clear that the plan would aim to convey “different facts about development in the womb” and “celebrat[e] pregnant and parenting students’ hard work as they pursued their education” with messages such as “Support Pregnant and Parenting Students,” “Pregnant on Campus Initiative,” and “Know Your Title IX Rights.” Ultimately, Fresno State’s Event Review Committee approved the request, just as it had approved many other similar requests in the past.

Pursuant to the approval, the students proceeded to chalk a sidewalk near Fresno State’s library on the morning of May 2. The messages included provocative statements such as “love them both,” “choose life,” “save the baby humans,” and “unborn lives matter.”

As seen in the video, after Students for Life chalked around three dozen of these hate-filled messages, students who admitted they had been deputized by Thatcher began scrubbing the sidewalk. Professor Thatcher then came rushing out to the pro-life students, demanding they put an end to the messages and directing them to an unidentified “free-speech area.” After the pro-life students informed him that they had received university approval for their activities, Thatcher himself began scrubbing, and told the students, “You had permission to put it down. . . . I have permission to get rid of it. . . . This is our part of free speech.” As if that weren’t enough, Thatcher concluded by emphasizing that “college campuses are not free-speech areas.”

Let that sink in for a moment: “College campuses are not free-speech areas.” If Thatcher’s right about that, it’s only because he and his progressive ilk have succeeded in perverting the sacred academic mission of free and open inquiry beyond recognition. Thankfully, they don’t seem to have thus succeeded at Fresno State, which in the wake of the incident reaffirmed its policy that “freedom of expression is allowed in all outdoor spaces on campus,” essentially throwing Thatcher under the bus.

On campuses across the country, the same illiberal attitude toward disagreeable speech is growing, and the broader public must take notice.

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Ramadan in London The holy month returns with its sacred traditions. Bruce Bawer

By on June 5th, 2017

Yet again it has returned, the sublime and hallowed month of Ramadan – a beautiful and particularly sacred period that was an original part of the magnificent revelation handed down by Allah to the Prophet himself (peace be upon him) in the Holy Quran. Indeed, it has been widely postulated by many of our holiest of men that the precious text of that sacred volume was revealed to the Prophet himself (even more peace be upon him) during the very first Ramadan.

Needless to say, this is an exceedingly special and sanctified period of the year, a period of grace and majesty as well as of prayer and charity – a time during which the eternally beloved people of Allah are encouraged to demonstrate the depth and strength of their faith by engaging in sawm, or fasting, from dawn until sunset, as well as by strictly avoiding the intake of food and beverages, the use of tobacco, and any kind of carnal activity, although the standard acts of incestuous intercourse with minors and, naturally, the brutal sexual violation of the wives and offspring of infidels can be safely pursued per usual. Furthermore, it is to be hoped that the faithful will manifest the great extent of their self-restraint during this period by scheduling such activities as female genital mutilation, wife-beating, and the theologically obligatory honor killing of wives, sisters, and daughters for the hours following sundown – that is to say, after the iftar, the solemn supper taken in the wake of the sinking of the sun below the horizon, and before the suhur, the consecrated common meal that is directed to take place just prior to the rising of the sun.

It is particularly vital that the people of God make a special effort during the holy month of Ramadan not to engage in any act of unkindness, injustice, or insensitivity directed at their fellow believers – although, of course, the tossing of homosexuals from the roofs of buildings, the remorseless stoning to death of rape victims, and the violent execution of apostates may proceed as usual, preferably during the hours of darkness. It it crucial, moreover, to underscore that Ramadan is a time during which the followers of the Prophet are enjoined to take part in even a more extensive and profound degree of spiritual reflection than is their usual practice during the remainder of the year: they are, for instance, called upon to recite the special Ramadan prayers, known as the Tarawih, during the nights of this dearest of months, and even, if they are capable of such an accomplishment, to read prayerfully through the entire Holy Quran from start to finish. All of this contemplative and devout activity, to be sure, should not be permitted to distract the children of Allah from such equally urgent and virtuous tasks as mowing down infidels with cars, trucks, and other vehicles, shooting deadly rockets into the heart of urban areas where civilian non-believers are wont to gather, and committing sundry acts of mass annihilation and bloodshed involving such handy implements as machetes and Kalashnikovs.

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Run, Hide and Deny in London Islamic terrorism has no religion even when it’s shouting, “This is for Islam.” Daniel Greenfield

By on June 5th, 2017

As Muslim terrorists rampaged around London, Met police debuted the new “Run, Hide and Tell” program. But instead some Londoners chose to stand and fight. They fought with pint glasses and barstools as the Muslim killers shouting, “This is for Allah” stabbed women in trendy eateries.

Some drivers tried to ram the killers. An unarmed police officer attacked the terrorists with a baton. An off-duty police officer tackled one of the Muslim terrorists. Both men were severely wounded.

Other unarmed police officers ran away.

Met counter-terrorism chief Mark Rowley sympathetically noted that, “If someone acts on instinct and perhaps decides to fight because they have no choice, we would never criticise them for that.”

It was kind of him not to criticize those Londoners who reacted with their base instincts and tried to fight the Muslim killers instead of running, hiding and telling, then reemerging for a vigil or a concert.

After the Manchester Arena attack, Rowley had urged, “Enjoy yourselves. We can’t let the terrorists win by dissuading us from going about our normal business.”

Going about our normal business has become the highest form of courage. Run, Hide and Deny.

Ariana Grande’s manager described her upcoming Manchester concert as representing, “courage, bravery and defiance in the face of fear”. “We’re going to go shopping’ – How defiant Londoners refused to bow to terrorists,” an article at The Independent boasts. Courage, bravery and defiance used to be found on the beaches of Normandy. Now they come from attending a concert or trying on a new blouse.

Londoners took Rowley’s advice. And then they found themselves running and hiding from Muslim killers. Video shows cringing diners lying on the floor of “London’s Coolest Bierkeller” as frantic Met police scream, “Get down”. In the Black & Blue Restaurant, the first “modern American steakhouse” in the city, some hid under the tables. Four friends jammed inside a toilet stall while the screams went on outside. A woman barricaded the door while other diners fled through the back.

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Peter Smith Don’t Mention the Religion

By on June 5th, 2017

“The religion is the problem; the scripture is the problem. We should do nothing to give it an ounce of credibility. Sharia law lovers, fundamentalist Imams, jihadis, terrorists and the Johnny-come-lately ISIS are mere symptoms.”

You’re more likely to be killed by a refrigerator than Islamic terror, proffers Lawrence Krauss, favoured guest of the ABC. What a joke! Extremism is the creeping lifeblood of The Prophet’s gospel. It crept on 9/11. It crept in Manchester. It crept in London. And it will creep again tomorrow.

Yet another barbaric Islamic terrorist attack in London so shortly after Manchester. Now following: praise to the first responders, more armed police on the streets, flowers and candles. As to effective action to counter the source of the problem; rest assured there will be none.

Shock and horror, British intelligence sources report that there are 23,000 Muslims with extremist tendencies living in the UK. Be really shocked. Anyone who thinks that this is not the tip of the iceberg has not kept up with surveys on the religio-medieval attitudes of Muslims living in the West.

We know that our elites have not kept up. They are locked in a bubble of denialism. They believe all religions to be intrinsically peaceful and that this most particularly applies to the Religion of Peace™. “A great religion,” they are also apt to call it. That’s right, a great religion of peace whose very scripture is regularly invoked by base murderers of men, women and children.

By extension, the Islamic nature of atrocity after atrocity is disguised for as long as is credulously possible. The insanity defence is trotted out if at all credible. To ask why insane Baptists don’t regularly go on killing sprees risks brings accusations of Islamophobia. “Islamophobia” is, in a word, mightier than the sword in hamstringing the enemy; to wit us.

When the obvious perpetrators can no longer be obfuscated, perfidious perspective takes over. This takes two forms.

One takes the form of claiming that Islamic terrorists kill more Muslims than they do non-Muslims. True or false, this is monumentally beside the point. Killing in the name of religion is killing in the name of religion, whether the victims are less-than-devout Muslims, Muslims of the ‘wrong’ sect, or ‘infidels’. It is no consolation to Christians facing beheading in the Middle East to know that ISIS is not solely singling them out.

A second is more invidious: we are told, with a straight face, that the chance of being killed by a variety of accidents involving mundane objects or natural causes is far higher than being killed by [Islamic unstated] terrorism. Presumably this is meant to make us shrug fatalistically when the next Allahu Akbar rings out and mutilated bodies are strewn about a street.

“You’re more likely to be killed by a refrigerator,” smugly proffers Lawrence Krauss, US cosmologist, professional atheist, global warmist, Trump-basher, and pop-over guest on the ABC. He was probably speaking hyperbolically, but that made his remark no less callously insensitive to victims of terrorism and their families. And, unfortunately, his resort to the length of odds to downplay maiming and killing is all too common among apologists for Islamic barbarism.

It isn’t necessary to say this among rational people, but insidiously those of unsound mind have got themselves a public platform. So, to be crystal; young girls at a concert having their bodies peppered with bolts and nails, people being mowed down with trucks, or blown up, or shot, or stabbed, or decapitated, is not remotely in the same ballpark as accidents or illnesses, however more frequently such accidents and illnesses take lives.

If you don’t get that, you are an idiot; and a particularly useful one. In other words, you are an apologist for the Religion of Peace™; which, with your help, is busying itself undermining Western civilisation.

And replacing it with what? With nothing good is the right answer. Speaking of Islam (“Mohammedanism”) Mr Churchill was unflattering to say the least. “No stronger retrograde force exists in the world,” he wrote in 1899, after listing its litany of defects. Was he prescient? Was he right?

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Social Security Fraudster Cuts Ankle Monitor, Goes On the Run By Rick Moran

By on June 5th, 2017

A lawyer who ran a $550 million Social Security disability fraud scheme cut off the ankle bracelet monitoring his movements and is now on the run, according to the FBI.

Eric C. Conn (yeah, that’s his real name) pleaded guilty last month to bilking the government out of a potential $550 million in Social Security disability benefits. He has left in dire straits hundreds of his clients who will now have to reapply for benefits.

This was no nickel-and-dime operation. Conn had a stable of dozens of doctors who made the false determinations of eligibility and had a Social Security law judge in his pocket to approve the cases.

Washington Times:

“I’m very concerned for Eric,” said Scott White, Mr. Conn’s lawyer, in a statement to The Washington Times. “It’s a defense attorney’s worst nightmare as not only has he placed himself at very real risk, but law enforcement and the public.”

“Its tragic because by accepting responsibility and being willing to testify he had the opportunity to restart his life,” Mr. White said. “Just very sad and we pray he snaps out of it and turns himself in. Its not too late to fix this if he does.”

Conn was expected to testify against Alfred B. Adkins, a psychologist who would rubber-stamp the disability application medical reports that Conn would then send to the administrative law judge, David B. Daugherty.

Daugherty pleaded guilty last month and is also awaiting sentencing.

Conn was well known throughout eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, where he called himself “Mr. Social Security” and promised an uncanny ability to win disability benefits for his clients. He even had a crew of “Conn Hotties” — young women he dispatched to community events in skin-tight T-shirts that advertised his law firm and its phone number, 1-800-232-HURT.

After the scheme was reported in the Wall Street Journal in 2011, Conn began to destroy documents detailing the fraud, and even had one of his law firm employees falsify a video to try to get a whistleblower fired by discrediting her, according to court documents.

Courts have ordered Mr. Conn and his law firm to pay more than $36 million in restitution, damages and penalties.

As Conn was indicted, fear spread through the Kentucky and West Virginia communities that had relied on him, as Social Security sent out notices canceling benefits. CONTINUE AT SITE

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