[PJ] Thirteen-year-old Adam Toledo didn’t deserve to die. He didn’t deserve to die for violating curfew. He didn’t deserve to die for unlawfully discharging a weapon. He didn’t deserve to die for being in possession of a handgun. He didn’t deserve to die because he was a black kid in a high-crime area. He didn’t deserve to die for running away when police ordered him to stop. He didn’t even deserve to die for having a gun in his hand and running away from the police. Police are trained to handle situations like this without killing someone.
None of those offenses carry a death sentence in a court of law. He didn’t deserve to die.
The circumstances of young Toledo’s death have already been mythologized and memorialized by bodycam footage, which the the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) released on Thursday. It is very difficult to watch.
#6
Young Master Toledo was Mexican-American, according to Wikipedia, the events took place in the Little Village neighbourhood, known locally as Mexico in the Midwest, and the 21 year old Toledo was with at 2:30 in the morning had been shooting at passing cars when the police were called. Possibly of interest, the Latin Kings gang received orders to shoot at unmarked police cars two days after Toledo was killed, reinforcing to me the idea that he was one of theirs rather than an innocent bystander.
According to Fox News, “ Lightfoot said earlier this month she instructed Chicago Police Department officials "to use every resource to track down the origins of this gun – through tracing, fingerprinting and DNA and any other means – and to find the person responsible for giving it to Adam,"” which certainly implies she believes the police when they said Toledo had a gun when he was shot.
[YouTube] In this special episode, Dinesh devotes the full hour to an in-depth discussion on fascism and civil war with one of America's preeminent historians, Stanley Payne. An emeritus professor of history at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Payne is the author of "A Short History of Fascism" and "The Spanish Civil War." Dinesh engages Payne in a wide-ranging discussion of such questions as, what is the core meaning of fascism? Is fascism on the Right or on the Left? Are there fascist strains in America today? What are the factors that led up to the Spanish civil war, and are there parallels between Spain then and America now? Is America headed toward civil strife? What lessons can we learn from history on how to resist fascism and avoid civil war?
—
Dinesh D'Souza is an author and filmmaker. A graduate of Dartmouth College, he was a senior domestic policy analyst in the Reagan administration. He also served as a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
He is the author of many bestselling books, including "Illiberal Education," "What's So Great About Christianity," "America: Imagine a World Without Her," "The Roots of Obama's Rage," "Death of a Nation," and "United States of Socialism."
His documentary films "2016: Obama's America," "America," "Hillary's America," "Death of a Nation," and "Trump Card" are among the highest-grossing political documentaries of all time. He and his wife Debbie are also executive producers of the acclaimed feature film "Infidel."
#1
Thank you for this. A superb interview -- literate, clear, historically deep and astute. Regardless of his offline antics, D'Souza speaks extremely well and is very knowledgeable about a wide range of subjects.
And Historian Stanley Payne is a treasure. Surprised that he's not better known.
Interesting points that Prof. Payne makes in this interview:
- "Identity politics is the stigmatization of groups as "victimizers" and is itself simply a form of racism
- When interviewed in 2016 by media types hoping he, the expert on fascism, would label Trump a fascist, Payne replied, "No! Trump is an un-fascist! He's reducing the power of the state and avoiding war wherever possible!"
- interesting that Prof. Payne predicts there will NOT be another civil war in this country because of the success (by Democrats, Woke left, the Deep State and Big Tech) in creating a powerful centralized state in recent years. "There's nothing left to rebel with" against this Leviathan
- instead of civil war, Payne expects to see Americans who still love freedom and the Constitution - the true "anti-fascists" - to exercise "the Benedict option of a retreat into privatism."
Thank you again. This a gem worth listening to again and again.
#2
If retreat to privatism is coming, then Helen’s Page might be of interest. She started it in the wake of conservative social media start-ups being slammed by leftwing hosting sites as a place where conservative creatives and businesses could meet like-minded customers.
#4
*sigh* Yes, my dear Skidmark, it is — in the sense that the intent is economic transactions between strangers for things that would be free if done in the privacy of the home.
[Just Facts.com] During the late 1800s when the renowned scientist Louis Pasteur was trying to overturn the medical community's deadly belief that germs are not communicable, he wrote: "The greatest aberration of the mind is to believe a thing to be, because we desire it." The results of a scientific survey conducted just after the 2020 presidential election show that voters from across the political spectrum have failed to heed that warning. Or were blissfully unaware of said "warning". The survey, commissioned by Just Facts, reveals that the vast bulk of voters have embraced false and harmful dogmas that accord with their political views. This is a typical consequence of confirmation bias, the human tendency to reflexively accept anything that accords with one's preexisting beliefs and ignore or twist everything that defies them.
While most polls measure public opinion, this annual scientific survey measures voters' perceptions of issues that can have major impacts on their lives. This year's survey used an entirely new set of questions that addressed the topics of Covid-19, income, poverty, racial disparities, global warming, drug overdoses, life expectancy, pollution, and the national debt. They also provide the 'correct' answers, with which some may disagree.
Some illuminating examples of the misconceptions held by voters with differing political preferences include the following:
76% of Trump voters think that the average income of middle-income households fell during the Obama administration. In reality, their inflation-adjusted average income rose by $5,300 during this period. I wonder of O changed the definition of "middle-income"?
88% of Biden voters think that police are more likely to use lethal force when arresting black people than white people. In reality, police are 42% less likely to use lethal force when arresting blacks than whites. Hmmmmm....
The survey also found that a considerable portion of Trump voters have adopted some progressive fallacies spread by the media. For instance, 38% of Trump voters (and 86% of Biden voters) think that the number of strong-to-violent tornadoes in the U.S. has generally increased since the 1950s. In reality, they have slightly decreased. The science is unsettled? I was surprised by a couple of correct answers. Unexpectedly.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/17/2021 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11125 views]
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#1
"The greatest aberration of the mind is to believe a thing to be, because we desire it."
"Wants what he wants when he wants it – and thinks that constitutes a natural law" - Robert Heinlein
#2
"inflation-adjusted average income" Calculating the rate of inflation can be adjusted by choosing the benchmark commodities and has been. If "Joe Average" looks at what they are buying and it costs more than there IS inflation.
#3
Adjusted for inflation, there has never been any inflation. So there!
Posted by: Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 ||
04/17/2021 11:09 Comments ||
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#4
There is no 'adjustment for inflation", rather it is debasing of the currency. Long, long ago, but within my lifetime you could walk in to a bank and exchange (silver certificate) paper dollars for 10 silver dimes, 4 silver quarters, 2 silver half dollars or one silver dollar. Today they give you federal reserve note dollars. Extrapolating that the silver in those old coins (90%) is now worth around $20 (frn) dollars, they debased the currency to 1/5th of the original.
#7
What I got from the whole article was that the average American is not terribly bright, and made consistently dimmer by the biased, slanted, bottom-feeding media they claim to not believe in. Ironic, eh?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/17/2021 17:27 Comments ||
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#8
Doesn't this show a complete and total failure of the education system and the media. There should be a class action lawsuit.
#9
WRT increased income under Obama; income may have actually gone up, but any increase was supplanted by horrific tax payments resulting in a net decrease in middle income and assets.
Direct translation of the article in regnum.ru
Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov on April 9 warned Ukraine that Russia will not stand aside if the situation "similar to the tragedy in Bosnian Srebrenica" repeats itself .... Recall that in July 1995, the city, previously declared by the UN Security Council as part of the "security zone", was taken by the army of the Bosnian Serbs.
According to the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, 7,000-8,000 adult men from the ranks of Bosnian Muslims were killed after the capture of the city. The authorities of the Republika Srpska in 2003 recognized responsibility for the killings of Muslims, and in 2019 the Serbian parliament condemned the massacre in Srebrenica, but refused to recognize it as genocide. In 2015, Great Britain padded to the UN Security Council a draft resolution on Srebrenica, recognizing the massacre as an act of genocide, but Russia vetoed this document.
[Zero] In 2018, the Chinese launched a gold-backed, yuan-denominated oil futures contract. These contracts were priced in yuan, but convertible to gold, raising the prospect that "the rise of the petroyuan could be the death blow for the dollar."
Two weeks ago, The IMF reported that the global share of US-dollar-denominated exchange reserves dropped to 59.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the IMF’s COFER data released today. This matched the 25-year low of 1995.
And just last week, China became the first major economy to unleash a Central Bank Digital Currency, "cementing its trailblazer status in virtual currencies far ahead of other countries, after already recently experimenting with large-scale trials of actual payments by consumers, which was met with mixed results."
Also last week, Peter Thiel warned "Bitcoin should also be thought [of] in part as a Chinese financial weapon against the US... It threatens fiat money, but it especially threatens the U.S. dollar."
#1
The StarShip going to the moon would be big enough to carry major mining equipment to the moon. One crater has over 4 quintillion dollars worth of gold in it. Just saying... it could make a gold currency worthless.
IF
true or until proven otherwise.
Then GOLD prices will soar.
But if China is playing a World Market Currency Game to break it. Then the price will suddenly drop leaving plans and investments based on Gold profits penniless.
#5
Some say money is all about confidence. The US has "printed" trillions of dollars over previous US administrations. So why no inflation?
No guarantees that money backed by gold would work. The Chinese have a lot of convincing to do, but if the US commits political & economic suicide, it may happen by default.
#7
The Whole Industrial Revolution could be considered a "Chinese Weapon Against The Dollar" as long as their pawns here in power in the US are still pursuing their Morgenthau Plan against us.
#8
Going back to the PRC with a pile of yuan and trying to convert it back into physical gold would truly be a fool's errand.
Posted by: Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 ||
04/17/2021 10:59 Comments ||
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#9
Biden gonna sell 'em the gold from Fort Knox?
Posted by: San Fran Nan with a turban ||
04/17/2021 11:20 Comments ||
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#10
Seems a dubious strategy. The US, Australia and Canada produce more gold than China does. China's producing a lot more gold but still only around 10% of world production, and US and other countries' scrap metal supplies as much or more gold as mines do.
#12
"Scientists believe all the gold on Earth formed in supernovae and neutron star collisions that occurred before the solar system formed. In these events, gold formed during the r-process.
Gold sank to the Earth's core during the planet's formation. It's only accessible today because of asteroid bombardment.
Theoretically, it's possible to form gold by the nuclear processes of fusion, fission, and radioactive decay. It's easiest for scientists to transmute gold by bombarding the heavier element mercury and producing gold via decay." - the web
At a certain point in price, the third method becomes viable.
#17
You don't have to go to the Wharton School to suspect a huge worldwide inflationary period is coming rapidly. If paper money loses more confidence, hard assets would seem to be a smart hedge position to hold, they almost certainly cannot decline in relative value, so land and gold seem sensible. It might be nothing more complex than that!
gold seem sensible. It might be nothing more complex than that!
Converting Federal Reserve Notes into gold is rather complex. Buying a week's supply of food with gold is not easy either. Has anyone been able to fill their gas tank on the spot sing gold as money?
Posted by: Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 ||
04/17/2021 23:18 Comments ||
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[Townhall] "It was 60 years ago this week that an uncertain new president launched an ill-conceived military venture of astonishing naivety (italics mine)...1,400 U.S.-trained Cuban exiles would land at the Bay of Pigs...It was an unmitigated disaster...Kennedy had learned the hard way not to blindly trust the advice of his decorated military and intelligence chiefs," wrote Beltway media stalwart and former Democrat White House official Lawrence Hass in The Hill.
And yet again, rather than go through the trouble of concocting their own propaganda, communist Cuba’s KGB-founded and mentored media simply transcribed the U.S. beltway media....Think I exaggerate?
"It was 60 years ago this week that an uncertain new president (John F. Kennedy, JFK) launched an ill-conceived military venture of astonishing naivety.... 1,400 U.S.-trained Cuban exiles would land at the Bay of Pigs... Lawrence J. Hass, a U.S. expert on international relations, acknowledged on Monday that Washington's invasion of Cuba in Bay of Pigs was 'an ill-conceived military venture and an unmitigated disaster,'" Stalinist Cuba’s propaganda organ Prensa Latina published.
Between snickers 62 years earlier, Che Guevara explained the fascinating process seen so starkly above: "Much more valuable than rural recruits for our Cuban guerrilla force were American media recruits to export our propaganda," said Ernesto "Che" Guevara in1959.
#1
Please post links to anyone making a case for the invasion being something OTHER than an ill-conceived military venture, and I might be interested in this topic.
Posted by: Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 ||
04/17/2021 11:01 Comments ||
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#2
We think today's media is bad for covering up for the likes of Obama and Biden. But they did the same for Kennedy, most likely for Roosevelt as well. They have a long, long tradition of deceit.
Posted by: San Fran Nan with a turban ||
04/17/2021 11:30 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The survey, commissioned by Just Facts, reveals that the vast bulk of voters have embraced false and harmful dogmas that accord with their political views. This is a typical consequence of confirmation bias, the human tendency to reflexively accept anything that accords with one's preexisting beliefs and ignore or twist everything that defies them.
