Sharyl Attkisson – the big miss via YouTube, November 13, 2o16
(A transcript is available here. — DM)
Archive for the ‘Media’ category
Sharyl Attkisson – the big miss
November 14, 2016Cartoons of the Day
November 13, 2016
Krugman Freaks Out, Vows to Keep Fighting,
November 9, 2016Krugman Freaks Out, Vows to Keep Fighting, Power Line,
There is much to savor this morning, including the hysteria that is sweeping across the Left. We see it in ways large and small. At one of our local colleges, a class was canceled because the professor was crying too hard to teach. “I don’t feel safe here,” she said. The storm troopers were due any minute, apparently.
On a slightly larger (if rapidly fading) stage, Paul Krugman comforts the leftist faithful:
Some morning-after thoughts: what hits me and other [sic] so hard isn’t just the immense damage Trump will surely do, to climate above all.
This is unintentionally hilarious. The idea that the President controls the climate is wholly unscientific, but look on the bright side: if the worst Trump can do is harm the climate, the world is safe!
There’s also a vast disillusionment that as of now I think of as the end of the romantic vision of America (which I still love).
What I mean is the notion of US history as a sort of novel in which there may be great tragedy, but there’s always a happy ending.
Remember how the Democrats loved to tell us that they were on the “right side of history”? That meant that their victory was inevitable. Now, not so much. So is Krugman telling us that they turned out to be on the wrong side of history?
That is, we tell a story in which at times of crisis we always find the leader — Lincoln, FDR — and the moral courage we need.
So Krugman was looking to Hillary Clinton for moral courage? That’s pretty funny, too.
It’s a particular kind of American exceptionalism; other countries don’t tell that kind of story about themselves.
The British never talk about Churchill that way, or the French about DeGaulle.
But I, like others, believed it.
But no longer!
Now it doesn’t look very good, does it?
Actually, it looks pretty great. News flash, Paul: your side lost an election. That’s all.
But giving up is not an option.
Whew! I was afraid he might tell us we wouldn’t have Paul Krugman to kick around any longer.
The world needs a decent, democratic America, or we’re all lost. And there’s still a lot of decency in the nation — it’s just not as dominant as I imagined.
Those who voted for Trump: not just wrong, indecent! This is, of course, the attitude that mainstream Americans can’t stand, and it accounts in considerable part for Trump’s victory, and the ascendancy of the GOP generally. Krugman and his ilk still don’t understand how unpopular they are.
Time to rethink, for sure. But not to surrender.
It doesn’t appear, though, that the rethinking will go very far. As long as they insist that it’s indecent to be a Republican, we can’t expect much change from the Democrats. And you know what that means:
Morning Joe highlights liberals, Democrats claiming 2000 and 2004 elections were unfair, stolen
October 20, 2016America is addicted, sleepy and becoming comatose.
October 18, 2016America is addicted, sleepy and becoming comatose, Dan Miller’s Blog, October 18, 2016
(The opinions expressed in this article are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of Warsclerotic or its other editors. — DM)
Hillary and her media titillate us with their sexual fantasies and put us to sleep with heroin for the body and heroin for the mind. Trump yells “Wake up and Fix our open borders!” Hillary mumbles “America is already great and that’s not who we are.” Is “H” for Hillary or Heroin?
Sources of America’s Hard Drugs
Most heroin consumed in America enters across our southern border.
According to the DEA, the majority of the heroin consumed in the United States comes from Mexico (50%) and Colombia (43-45%) via Mexican criminal cartels such as Sinaloa Cartel.[90] However, these statistics may be significantly unreliable, the DEA’s 50/50 split between Colombia and Mexico is contradicted by the amount of hectares cultivated in each country and in 2014, the DEA claimed most of the heroin in the US came from Colombia.[91] As of 2015, the Sinaloa Cartel is the most active drug cartel involved in smuggling illicit drugs such as heroin into the United States and trafficking them throughout the United States.[92]
That’s the border that Trump wants to close and Hillary wants to keep open for the Mexican criminal cartels, rapists, other criminals and potential Democrat voters; U.S. citizen or non-U.S. citizen? What difference it make now? Just play Catch and Release.
Heroin is not the only “recreational” drug transiting our southern border.
Venezuela, Iran, USA and Narco-Terrorism
[D]eeper and more alarming than the Venezuelan homicide toll, there appears to be an imminent threat to the entire Western hemisphere from partnerships between Venezuelan drug traffickers and terrorist networks like Hamas and Hezbollah, two groups that act a proxies for Iran.
Together, terrorism and illegal drugs represent a significant export for Venezuela. Iran and Venezuela partner together to move terrorist cells and drugs to hubs in the United States and throughout North America.
. . . .
Hezbollah’s annual budget of more than 100 million dollars is provided by the Iranian government directly and through a complex system of finance cells scattered around the world, from Bangkok and Paraguay to Michigan and North Carolina.
Far from being the passive beneficiaries of drug-trafficking expats and sympathizers, Hezbollah has high-level officials directly involved in the South American cocaine trade and its most violent cartels, including the Mexican crime syndicate Los Zetas. Hezbollah’s increasing foothold in the cocaine trade is facilitated by an enormous Lebanese diaspora.
. . . .
Alongside their efforts to battle their own serious homegrown drug problems in Iran, the Revolutionary Guards are also reportedly working to harness the strategic and tactical potential of the international drug trade in order to advance Iran’s expansion. [Emphasis added.]
. . . .
At the same time, the U.S. administration continues to purchase 10% of its oil (roughly 300 million barrels per year) from Venezuela, the same entity that it sanctioned in 2011 for shipping gasoline to Iran.
This is all happening while terrorist groups are regularly connecting to drug cartels in the region, and forging a deepening narco-terror machine that in turn is funding terrorist activities. [Emphasis added.]
Hizballah is a wholly owned and operated subsidiary of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran has repeatedly declared its intention to destroy the United States, as you can read about in detail in my book The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran (Regnery). Hizballah working with the drug cartel kills two birds with one stone: drugs weaken and destroy Americans, and sap American resources in largely futile anti-drug efforts, and the cash Hizballah earns in working with the drug cartel goes for more jihad against the U.S. [Emphasis added.]
How do the drugs get to America and elsewhere?
Police in New York said the boy, a U.S. citizen who had been living with grandparents in Nigeria, is one of the youngest drug ‘mules’ they have ever seen.
He was only caught because his body began to pass the condoms the drug was hidden in while he was in a taxi.
Doctors who removed the remaining ‘packages’ from his colon said he would have died if one had burst. [Emphasis added.]
Police said the boy, Prince Nnaedozie Umegbolu, made the dangerous journey because he wanted to see his mother, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia. He was to be paid £1,200.
His father, Chukwunwieke Umegbolu, is in prison in Virginia for drugsmuggling.
The boy’s journey began in Nigeria where drug smugglers gave him the condoms to swallow.
He then travelled alone to London by Air Nigeria before flying on to New York by British Airways.
Please see also, Here’s What It Feels Like to Smuggle 700 Grams of Cocaine in Your Stomach and The Down And Dirty Of Vagina Smuggling.
(Update — This new Project video was just posted. It’s about vote fraud and how to engage in it without being caught.)
(Update — This new Project video was just posted. It’s about vote fraud and how to engage in it without being caught.)
Heroin for the mind
Don’t look behind the curtain; you might see how the witch wizards are feeding us heroin for the mind.
Conclusions
America has a substantial drug problem; most hard drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, come across our southern border with help from Iran and its proxies. Trump wants to close the border to “undocumented aliens” and Hillary wants to keep it open to all, regardless of why they are coming and regardless of the consequences to Americans (as well as to young drug mules). Trump has the first endorsements ever by the Border Patrol Employees’ Union and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Employees’ Union because they are not being permitted to do their jobs.
Aside from her hopes for votes from new Democrat voters, why does Hillary support open borders? I don’t know because (unlike Abraham Lincon) she often lies about what she thinks and wants. But is it possible that she favors a continuous and copious supply of hard drugs for many of her supporters in large, Democrat controlled, American cities? Because she believes that America should share the disasters the “third world” continues to face? Because has sees no problem with this?
an imminent threat to the entire Western hemisphere from partnerships between Venezuelan drug traffickers and terrorist networks like Hamas and Hezbollah, two groups that act a proxies for Iran.
Together, terrorism and illegal drugs represent a significant export for Venezuela. Iran and Venezuela partner together to move terrorist cells and drugs to hubs in the United States and throughout North America.
Perhaps she is uncomfortable with the notions that, despite the Iran Scam, Iran continues to be our enemy and that Iranian proxies Hezbollah and Hamas are terrorist organizations.
If Hillary becomes our next president, will America’s already serious problems with Iran and drugs worsen? I think so.
NY Times: ‘Militant Violence’ Vanishing. Really?
September 21, 2016NY Times: ‘Militant Violence’ Vanishing. Really? Clarion Project, Meira Svirski, September 21, 2016
(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Writing in a joint op-ed yesterday in The New York Times, after a weekend that saw four Islamist terror attacks in the U.S., the mayors of New York City, London and Paris made an astonishing statement: “In our experience, they wrote, “militant violence is vanishingly rare.”
Only they didn’t write that. A correction appeared today at the end of the article noting that the phrase was added by an editor without the approval of the authors.
In the article, titled “Our Immigrants, Our Strength,” Bill DeBlasio, Sadiq Kahn and Anne Hidalgo, mayors of NYC, London and Paris respectively, argue that, “Investing in the integration of refugees and immigrants is not only the right thing to do, it is also the smart thing to do. Refugees and other foreign-born residents bring needed skills and enhance the vitality and growth of local economies, and their presence has long benefited our three cities.”
Just to make sure the Times’ readers didn’t get nervous about an influx of refugees, a zealous editor added the sentence about vanishing “militant violence” (code word for Islamist terrorism).
While one can argue the point the authors are making — that “policies that embrace diversity and promote inclusion are successful” (ask voters in Germany who recently gave Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open door policies an enormous thumbs down) — no one can say that “militant violence” in the world is vanishing.
In fact, London’s Mayor Kahn said the day after the NY/NJ bombings that urban dwellers might as well get used to terror attacks, because they are now “part and parcel” of city life.
The Democratically-aligned mainstream media’s desire to shape world events by whitewashing reality or by shockingly adding words, opinions or (in this case) entire sentences to falsify the narrative seems to have gotten out of control this election season.
Consider the following facts (which are not an endorsement of any particular candidate, but rather an indictment of the mainstream media):
When Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump expressed his support for profiling to weed out terrorists, CNN added the word “racial” to Trumps comments. Headlines on CNN screamed: “Trump says ‘racial’ profiling will stop terror” and “Donald Trump defends racial profiling in wake of bombs.” (Trumps actual words were: “As you know in Israel they profile, they’ve done an unbelievable job — as good as you can do,” Trump said. “And they’ll profile, they profile. They see somebody who’s suspicious, they profile, they will take that person and they’ll check [them] out.”)
When Trump called the bombing in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan a “bombing,” the press blasted him for not calling it an “explosion” in the early stages.” When Democratic presidential candidate Hilary Clinton did the same thing (called out the explosion as a bombing), CNN removed that sentence in her statement.
Speaking on Meet the Press, NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd said, “My friends won’t even read any — if I do interviews with Trump. They won’t read them. And basically, they would like to censor any stories about Trump and also censor any negative stories about Hillary. They think she should have a total free pass because as she said at that fundraiser recently ‘I’m the only thing standing between you and the abyss.’”
On PBS newsman Bill Moyers’ website, acclaimed journalist Neil Gabler wrote of the media bias against Trump, “Call it partisan bias if you like. I call it journalism.”
Univision and Fusion anchor Jorge Ramos, who is against Trump, advocated that journalists be partial when it comes to covering Trump. “Neutrality is not an option,” he said.
CNN contributor and progressive activist Sally Kohn argued that the atmosphere on college campuses that has prevented those from expressing views that run contrary to the “progressive agenda” is a good thing. Kohn was commenting on tactics such as disruptive protests and hostility from peers and professors. “If they feel like they can no longer speak against positive social change, good,” she said.
A society and its press that makes it its project to distort reality and stomp on the free expression of opinions will end up being tyrannized by those very concepts.
Lack of free speech and expression are the hallmark of fascism and totalitarianism. But before a society gets to that rock bottom, a lot of blood can be shed.
Ironically, today marks the 34th annual International Day of Peace. While the world today is far from attaining international peace, a small step in that direction would be a commitment to honesty and fair play by the media, on college campuses and in our country at large.
Turkey: Child Rape Widespread, Media Blackout
September 3, 2016Turkey: Child Rape Widespread, Media Blackout, Gatestone Institute, Robert Jones, September 3, 2016
♦ The journalist who reported the rape for the newspaper Birgun, said that that he and the newspaper received countless death threats on social media for reporting the case.
♦ Turkey’s constitutional court in July annulled a criminal code provision punishing all sexual acts involving children under the age of 15 as “sexual abuse”, giving a six-month period for parliament to draw up a new law.
♦ The facts on the ground indicate that the sexual abuse of children in Turkey is extremely widespread and the Turkish state authorities are not acting responsibly.
♦ When Syrian babies and other children, as well as women, are being raped and treated horribly in Turkey, and their abusers go free; when journalists covering these abuses are threatened; when publication bans are imposed on the crimes committed against Syrians, and when criminals are given “good conduct abatement” by courts, Turkey seems to be one of the last countries on earth to have the moral right to demand visa-free travel in Europe or anywhere else.
Turkey has once again threatened to tear up a controversial migrant deal and send hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers to Europe if its citizens are not granted visa-free travel to the European Union within months.
Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, demanded the EU drop visa requirements for Turkish citizens by October.
Meanwhile, Syrian children are being raped and abused inside and outside of refugee camps in Turkey.
Nine-Month-Old Syrian Baby Raped; Media Blackout Imposed
A 9-month-old Syrian baby was raped in the Islahiye district of Gaziantep on August 19. The baby is the child of a Syrian family who fled the war in Syria, according to the newspaper Birgun. The family, agricultural day-laborers in Gaziantep, had set up a tent in the field where they work.
On the day of the rape, the parents left their baby with an 18-year-old man before leaving to work a field 100 meters away.
When the parents returned, they saw the young man, a Turkish citizen who works as a shepherd, walking away from the tent. The mother noticed that her baby girl had been raped and took her to a local hospital, where the attack was confirmed.
The governor’s office of Antep announced that the young man had been arrested and brought to court.
Huseyin Simsek, the journalist who covered the incident for the newspaper Birgun, said that that he and the newspaper received countless death threats on social media for reporting the rape.
Simsek tweeted:
“Today, a 9-month-old baby was raped in Antep. There is a medical report. I am being sworn at, informed on, and threatened with death.
“The incident is real. The doctors say the baby is 7 or 9-months-old. We will keep on writing.”
Some Twitter users called the reporter “a PKK terrorist”, “a FETO [Gulenist] terrorist”, “a traitor” and “a son of a bitch”, among others. Other users referred to Birgun as “toilet paper” and called for destroying the newspaper building.
When Samil Tayyar, an Justice and Development Party (AKP) MP from Gaziantep, confirmed the rape on his Twitter account, another Twitter user responded:
“Dear MP, such news should not be used. We are shooting ourselves in the foot. We are giving material to the enemy. Be responsible, please.”
He was apparently referring to the recent criticism by Sweden that Ankara was legalizing sex with children.
Turkey’s constitutional court, in July, annulled a criminal code provision punishing all sexual acts involving children under the age of 15 as “sexual abuse”, giving a six-month period for parliament to draw up a new law.
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström tweeted on her official account that the “Turkish decision to allow sex with children under 15 must be reversed. Children need more protection, not less, against violence, sex abuse.”
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek tweeted back: “You are clearly misinformed. There is no such stupid thing in Turkey. Please get your facts right.”
Turkey summoned Sweden’s ambassador and displayed a billboard in Istanbul’s main airport that warned travelers against visiting Sweden.
“Travel warning!” stated a large advertisement on display in the departure section of Ataturk Airport’s international terminal. “Do you know that Sweden has the highest rape rate worldwide?”
An electronic billboard in Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport last month displayed: “Travel warning! Do you know that Sweden has the highest rape rate worldwide?” It was posted in retaliation for a critical tweet by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström that read: “Turkish decision to allow sex with children under 15 must be reversed. Children need more protection, not less, against violence, sex abuse.” (Image source: Reuters video screenshot)
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also said that Wallström had failed to act “responsibly”.
However, the facts on the ground indicate that the sexual abuse of children in Turkey is extremely widespread and it is the Turkish state authorities that are not acting responsibly.
The Islahiye Penal Court of Peace in Gaziantep has issued a media blackout on the rape of the Syrian baby.
“Until the investigation is finalized, all kinds of news, interviews, critiques, and similar publications regarding the investigation file have been banned in the written, visual and social media as well as on the internet,” the ruling said in part.
30 Syrian Boys Raped at Nizip Camp
The daily, Birgun, also reported in May that 30 Syrian boys between the ages of 8 and 12 had been raped at a refugee camp in the Nizip district of Gaziantep.
The assaults took place, over a period of three months, in the restrooms of the camp, which is run by the Prime Ministry’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).
The camp was visited by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Turkey’s then Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, and several Turkish ministers, as well as the mayor of the city on April 23, celebrated as “Children’s Day” in Turkey. The leaders praised the camp, which houses 14,000 Syrians.
A cleaning worker at the camp paid the children for a few Turkish liras to sexually abuse them. The man confessed his crimes and claimed that “it was the children who motivated him to abuse them.”
Eight families of abused children lodged complaints about the attacks. Erk Acarer wrote in Birgun:
“It is understood that some of the families have not lodged complaints against E.E., who sexually abused the children, because they are afraid, since they are asylum seekers in Turkey. That is why they do not want to confront the situation.”
AFAD, the state institution that runs the camp, confirmed the rapes:
“AFAD has taken precautions to prevent the repetition of the incident. Psychological support services have been given to those affected by the incident from the beginning.”
Syrian Children Sexually Abused at Islahiye Camp
Shortly after the scandal at the Nizip camp, it was reported that five Syrian children staying at the Islahiye refugee camp in Gaziantep, and also run by AFAD, were sexually abused by an 87-year-old Syrian national, Ahmed H., multiple times. Again, the authorities of the camp were not “able” to protect the children, whose ages ranged from 4 to 8.
Two of the abused children were his own grandchildren; one was his niece and the other, his nephew. Ahmed H. — apparently before the eyes of everyone — made the children sit on his lap while he sexually abused them.
The crimes were revealed on November 20, 2015, when a person informed local gendarmerie officials of “an elderly man sexually abusing a 2-or 3-year old girl while sitting on his chair in front of the camp.”
The children then told the authorities about the abuse they had been exposed to. The abuse was also proven by surveillance cameras.
On May 3, Ahmed H. was acquitted for the sexual abuse of his grandchildren on grounds that “[t]here was not enough persuasive evidence” for a conviction.
As for his trial for abusing the other victims, he was given “good conduct abatement” by the court due to “his positive behavior during the trial process.”
“The Syrians Staying Outside of the Camps are… Unprotected.”
“The asylum seekers staying at refugee camps are 10 percent of all asylum seekers,” said Mahmut Togrul, an MP from the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) for the city of Gaziantep.
“The Syrians staying outside of the camps are going through a real drama. People are staying in the streets unprotected. We tried to tell the authorities, but unfortunately no one does their duty in Turkey and they do not deal with fundamental problems”
“Since the AKP has become preoccupied with its own troubles, Syrians have been left to their fate… We are faced with a vile situation. They admit their Syrian policy has been wrong. If they had not carried out that policy, so many people would not be so devastated now. It is not enough to say, ‘We have done wrong’. They have to solve the problems caused by this wrong policy. The AKP that has left people idle and uncontrolled has to take responsibility of these people.”
“Where Are the 3 Billion Euros?”
In the meantime, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave a speech at the Bestepe National Congress and Culture Center on August 24, saying:
“What did they [the Europeans] say?: ‘We will give the refugees who come to these camps three billion Euros of aid’. Where is it? This year is almost over. Where is it? Not here.”
Reporters and eyewitnesses, however, have revealed that Turkey has allowed jihadists travel in and out of Turkey and has even provided funds, logistics and arms for extremist groups, including the Islamic State (ISIS) and the Al Nusra Front.
The Turkish government — along with others in the region — has turned Syria into a true nightmare, apparently to expand Sunni Turkish influence over Syria and other countries, and to stop Kurds from establishing a free homeland in northern Syria.
Since the war broke out in Syria in 2011, jihadist terror groups have terrorized millions of people, particularly Alawites, Christians and Kurds, and caused millions of people to flee their country. In despair, many Syrians arrived in Turkey and still live under the “temporary protection” of the Turkish government.
If the Turkish government had not facilitated the rise of jihadist terrorism in the region, however, much of this would not have happened.
Turkey now not only leaves Syrian asylum seekers uncared for and unprotected, but is also blackmailing the EU over the Syrians, whose pain and devastation the Turkish authorities are largely responsible for.
Given the increasingly violent crackdown on the Turkish media and pressures against free speech in the country, it is highly probable that the child sexual abuse cases reported in Gaziantep are just the tip of the iceberg.
When Syrian babies and other children, as well as women, are being raped and treated horribly in Turkey, and their abusers go free; when journalists covering these abuses are threatened; when publication bans are imposed on the crimes committed against Syrians, and when criminals are given “good conduct abatement” by courts, Turkey seems to be one of the last countries on earth to have the moral right to demand visa-free travel in Europe or anywhere else.
Trump’s Triumphant Trip to Mexico
September 1, 2016Trump’s Triumphant Trip to Mexico, Power Line,
Lately, Donald Trump seems to be recovering his momentum. After appearing mostly flat-footed since the GOP convention, he is back to his old table-upsetting self–today, with a quick trip to Mexico to meet with President Enrique Peña Nieto. The meeting implicitly gave Trump the status of a head of state, and much of the news coverage, like this headline at CNN, puts a positive spin on Trump’s mission:
Of course we have a right to build a wall. I don’t see how anyone could argue to the contrary. In fact, federal law already requires a wall to be built; the Obama administration is simply ignoring the statute. If this is the ground the battle is fought on, Trump can’t lose.
Byron York sees the Mexico junket as a big win for Trump:
Indeed, it was a big win — a very big win — for Trump. Going into a meeting with the potential for disaster — who knew how Pena Nieto would receive the world’s most controversial presidential candidate or what embarrassments might lie ahead? — Trump came out of the meeting looking very much like a potential President of the United States. Standing beside the Mexican leader in front of a green-gray granite wall reminiscent of the United Nations, Trump presented the picture of a statesman.
Less than 24 hours earlier, Trump was reciting “The Snake” before a rowdy audience in Everett, Washington. In Mexico, he looked like a world leader.
Given that Mexico’s President extended the invitation to meet, accepting it was, I think, an easy decision. There was no need to accomplish anything in particular:
After the hour-long session, Trump benefited enormously from the conventions and practices of international relations. There they were, the president at one podium and the candidate at another, translators translating, the assembled international press watching. When it came time to talk, Pena Nieto observed the niceties of diplomacy, treating Trump as a quasi-president already.
Score one for Donald.
Cartoons of the Day
August 27, 2016
Scarborough to Hillary spox: “Go back to middle school”
August 25, 2016Scarborough to Hillary spox: “Go back to middle school”, Hot Air, Ed Morrissey, August 25, 2016
Over the last few days, Hillary Clinton apologists have taken to the airwaves and Internet to declare any criticism of the Clinton Foundation as an attack on charity itself. James Carville launched these talking points, suggesting that critics would find themselves damned to Hell if the foundation shut down or curtailed its activities. Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough punctured Carville’s trial balloon earlier this week with barely-disguised disgust.
After watching a clip of Hillary Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon trot out the same argument on Andrea Mitchell’s show yesterday, Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski didn’t even bother with the disguise, calling the argument “pathetic” (via The Hill):
(Video at the link. — DM)
‘Pathetic’ – @JoeNBC on Clinton campaign’s defensive play in foundation donor controversy
“That is so pathetic, you all are not really that pathetic, are you?” the “Morning Joe” host shot back.
“You’re going to actually say that if Bill Clinton doesn’t have the opportunity to shake down billionaires, that AIDS will not be cured?” he asked.
Scarborough went on to mock Fallon’s defense, saying that President Obama is “Moses and has the ability to stop the tides from rising in our time.”
“And Bill Clinton, shaking down billionaires in Kazakhstan, while doing deals on the side and getting down $550,000 for a one-hour speech — that’s our only path forward to curing AIDS,” he said.
“You’re not really that pathetic, are you? Because if that’s the best line of attack you have, you need to go back to middle school and start all over again.”
Yes … yes, they really are that pathetic. And they’re not alone, either. The internet is filling up with the argument that a shutdown or scale-back of Clinton Foundation operations will suddenly leave the world’s downtrodden with no other path to salvation, and that its critics literally just want little children to die. That’s an argument based on nothing more than pathos and partisan hackery, making it both literally and figuratively pathetic.
Here are two inconvenient facts for those trotting out this argument:
- There are a number of charitable organizations that work on the same issues as the Clinton Foundation, including AIDS and poverty. Those existed before the Clintons started their foundation, and they will operate after its closure.
- Most of these organizations had pass-through grant rates far above the 15% level of the Clinton Foundation during the years that Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State, not to mention the 6.4% pass-through grant rate in 2013.
The Federalist’s Sean Davis exposed the low pass-through rates 18 months ago, and their defenders have yet to catch up to them:
Between 2009 and 2012, the Clinton Foundation raised over $500 million dollars according to a review of IRS documents by The Federalist (2012,2011, 2010, 2009, 2008). A measly 15 percent of that, or $75 million, went towards programmatic grants. More than $25 million went to fund travel expenses. Nearly $110 million went toward employee salaries and benefits. And a whopping $290 million during that period — nearly 60 percent of all money raised — was classified merely as “other expenses.” Official IRS forms do not list cigar or dry-cleaning expenses as a specific line item. The Clinton Foundation may well be saving lives, but it seems odd that the costs of so many life-saving activities would be classified by the organization itself as just random, miscellaneous expenses.
In the absence of the Clinton Foundation, those millions of dollars would simply flow to other charities — if indeed that was the purpose of those funds. If the purpose of those funds was to curry favor with the Clintons and influence government actions to benefit themselves, as seems to be the case, then those dollars weren’t really saving lives at all anyway. Based on the financials, the Clinton Foundation took the axiom Charity begins at home literally — which is why the Sunlight Foundation’s Bill Allison called it a “slush fund” for the Clintons, and why Charity Navigator watch-listed the foundation for years as “problematic” and still won’t provide a rating for it.
Hillary’s defenders want to save lives, all right — mainly the political lives of the Clintons.
anneinpt
artaxes
danmillerinpanama
davidking1530
Peter Hofman
Joseph Wouk
Peter
Louisiana Steve
WarSclerotic 
Recent Comments