Archive for the ‘Liberal Agenda’ Category

A look at statistics on black-on-black murders

Saturday, March 7th, 2015

A look at statistics on black-on-black murders

By Amy Sherman on Wednesday, July 17th, 2013 at 2:20 p.m.

The acquittal of George Zimmerman, a white Hispanic, in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager, has prompted commentary from the left and right about race and murder statistics.

We saw this statistic repeated multiple times by conservatives on Twitter after the July 13 verdict: “In the 513 days between Trayvon dying, and today’s verdict, 11,106 African-Americans have been murdered by other African-Americans.”

We will leave it up to others to interpret the relevance of such statistics in the Zimmerman trial or other cases. Our role here as fact-checkers is to examine the numbers and their context. 

A quick note on the case before we turn to the numbers: Hispanic is an ethnicity — someone can be Hispanic and white, as in Zimmerman’s case — or Hispanic and black. The crime data we reviewed generally focused on whites and blacks, though it sometimes included a generic “other” category.

Martin, 17, was unarmed when he got into a scuffle with Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26, 2012. A jury acquitted Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer whose lawyer argued self-defense, of second-degree murder and manslaughter. (Read our fact-checks that relate to the case and Florida’s “stand your ground” law.)

Statistic about blacks killed during course of Trayvon case

We found the claim about murders on the conservative soopermexican blog; it appears to have originated there. His blog walks readers through the math on getting to 11,106 deaths in 513 days. (We counted 503 days, not 513, but that’s a tiny quibble.)

The blogger, citing an earlier blog post and The Blaze, stated that there were 8,000 to 9,000 African-Americans killed each year — 93 percent of them by African-Americans.

The numbers came from a 2007 U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics report, which stated that blacks were victims of 7,999 homicides in 2005 and said that 93 percent were killed by people who shared their race. (It wasn’t clear to us where the blogger’s 9,000 figure came from.)

Using the number 8,500, that translated to 21.65 blacks murdered each day by other blacks. So the blogger came up with a mathematical formula: 21.65 times 513 days=11,106. That 8,500 figure seems high, though, especially if we look at more recent figures. The FBI reported for 2011 that 6,329 black people were murdered, for example.

The blog post makes it sound as if the black-on-black murder rate is particularly significant, but we found similar high percentages for whites.

The report also stated that 85 percent of white victims in single-victim and single-offender homicides were murdered by someone of their race. So that means the majority of black and white people are murdered by someone of their own race. In 2005, there were 8,017 white homicide victims.

The race victim/offender data isn’t shown for every case: It is only shown in thecases in which the race was known (some murders are never solved) and in cases involving a single victim and defendant.

We sent a summary of our findings to the soopermexican blogger.

“I think your criticism of the number I arrived at has some merit,” he wrote in an email. “I should have made it more clear that is the best extrapolation from the numbers that are available. While the FBI stats don’t include all known cases, I don’t see why the cases where race stats are known shouldn’t be representative of the entire class of murders. Yes, it’s true that murder rates have come down generally, which I’m pretty sure applies to all race/ethnic classes.”

As for white-on-white homicides also representing a high percentage, he said the point he was trying to make is that it’s wrong to suggest that “white racism is killing blacks disproportionately.”

What homicide-race stats show about our relationships

So statistics show that most murders in which the race can be measured are intraracial. We wanted to know why.

We interviewed Professor David M. Kennedy, director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.

“Homicides overwhelmingly happen among people who know each other,” he said. “There are relatively few absolutely straight-up stranger homicides. Homicide is a phenomenon of social networks. … Most peoples’ relationships are primarily with someone of their own race or ethnicity. As long as anybody has studied homicide, this has been the pattern.” (See the historical data.)

Writer Jamelle Bouie in The Daily Beast wrote a response to conservatives who have been trying to shift the conversation to black-on-black crime while ignoring that the same shared racial identity holds true for white-on-white crime, too.

Bouie wrote that what is missing from the conversation about crime is that “it’s driven by opportunism and proximity; If African-Americans are more likely to be robbed, or injured, or killed by other African-Americans, it’s because they tend to live in the same neighborhoods as each other. Residential statistics bear this out (PDF); blacks are still more likely to live near each other or other minority groups than they are to whites. And of course, the reverse holds as well—whites are much more likely to live near other whites than they are to minorities and African-Americans in particular.”

Our ruling

In response to the Zimmerman case, social media repeated this claim: “In the 513 days between Trayvon dying, and today’s verdict, 11,106 African-Americans have been murdered by other African-Americans.”

Some who are citing this statistic are using it to portray race as an overemphasized point in the Zimmerman trial. We’re not evaluating that opinion; we’re fact-checking the math based on the available data.

The number sounds extremely precise, but it’s actually something of a rough guess based on back-of-the envelope math. No one actually knows how many African-Americans were murdered by other African-Americans in that time frame, and the numbers cited are actually an extrapolation of murder statistics for 2005. More current figures from 2011 show fewer deaths. So the specific numbers are not literally accurate.

Also, this claim lacks important context. Yes, it’s true that the majority of black murder victims are murdered by blacks, but the same holds true for whites: Most whites are murdered by whites. And in both cases, this race statistic is not available for all murders, but only ones where the race of both perpetrator and victim can be determined.

The claim contains an element of truth, but it’s not fully accurate. We rate this claim Mostly False.

Retired NYPD officer responds to Mayor DiBlasio:

Thursday, December 18th, 2014

Retired NYPD officer responds to New York Mayor Bill DiBlasio:

“Don’t know if you saw Warren Wilhelm’s (AKA Bill DiBlasio’s) recent speech.  He rambled on about racism; how the cops needed to be re-trained; how Erick Garner, New York’s own version of the Gentle Giant, was a “Good Man”; how he mourns for Garner’s six children; and how he FEARS for his son, Dante…

Really Bill????  Let’s dissect a few of the ridiculous talking points you made to massage the ghetto trash who put you in office, and your ‘Co-mayor’, Al Charlatan.

Erick Garner was NOT a good man. He was a career criminal with 30 arrests under his more than ample belt.  How did he support those  six kids? Did he have a job?  What was his visible means of support besides criminal activity and public assistance?  I believe that these are questions that NEED to be asked! He resisted arrest for the last time the day he died.  He died NOT because of a choke hold, but because he weighed 400 pounds due to a lifetime eating pork rinds and chitins. He had a bad heart, was  diabetic, and had asthma.

Let’s stop with the bullshit nonsense of choke holds. O.K. Bill????  This turd was just one Big Mac away from a heart attack!Let’s stop with the race card. I know that Sharpton has his hand up your ass and controls you like the clown hand puppet that you are; but let us also dissect this fallacious claim: The BLACK Precinct Commander ordered Garner to be locked up because of the plethora of complaints from minority shop owners whose shops he was plying his illegals trade in front of. The Supervising Sergeant at the scene was a BLACK female.

I think your claim of this vast racist conspiracy can be thrown out. That fat tub of shit died over an hour later at the hospital.  So, “IF” he had been choked to death/ as all the idiots are claiming, he would have been dead on the sidewalk!

You lamented that Garner died because he was selling cigarettes. Well, Billy Boy, YOU’RE the Mayor.  Why didn’t you have the Untaxed Cigarette Statute taken off the books?  Why didn’t you instruct your media  whore Bratton to tell the cops to stop enforcing that law?  Because of you, making about $6.00 in assorted taxes on each pack, that’s why.  I guess you have some of Garner’s blood on our hands too!
As for the fears you have for Dante, besides having his own racist, Gestapo police bodyguards, (guess the cops are O.K. when they are doing YOUR bidding…) all you had to do is be a good father and tell your son NOT to be a criminal, not to engage in criminal or anti-social behavior, and IF stopped by the Police, cooperate and  follow instructions.  IF he does that, they won’t harm a hair on his head!

Why not admit what you, Big Al, Obana and his boot licking yes man Holder REALLY MEAN is that you should cut the balls off the police  and make them nothing but speed bumps for your constituents: criminals, ghetto trash, welfare queens, drug dealers, and the rest of your vast Obama-voting block?!

You’re a fraud and a DISAGRACE to the Office of Mayor of NY.  Any cop who goes out there and aggressively does his job is out of his mind. My advice to them is to be just a responder and report- taker; go home  safe at night. NOTHING you do is right or appreciated. I had to get this off my chest; because I CANNOT stomach the BULLSHIT that’s being spewed by the media 24 x 7!!!!

Dennis J. Fitzgerald
President. NJ Shore 10-13

Reverend Sharpton? Really?

Wednesday, December 10th, 2014

Al Sharpton Is As Much A Reverend As I Am A Black Man

BETHANY BLANKLEY
DECEMBER 9, 2014

In America, many people claim to be something they are not and get away with it, which explains why Al Sharpton continues to use the title Reverend. However, he is as much a reverend as I am a black man.

At age ten, Sharpton was “ordained” by Pentecostal minister Bishop F.D. Washington—a man with no training or education. Regardless of education, no one in his or her right mind can ascribe the title of minister to a 10 year old.

Most professions require relevant credentials and skills. For teachers this includes a master’s degree, certifications, and background checks. For police, graduation from police academy and ongoing job training and evaluations are required. Attorneys and judges must also not only have a law degree and have passed the bar, but follow a code of ethics and maintain accreditation standards to keep their license.

Al Sharpton never finished college. He has less education than a kindergarten teacher. He possesses a high school level knowledge of English. And his version of history speaks for itself. He famously quipped: “White folks was in caves while we was building empires…. We taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it.”

Most Christian ministers have earned an MA degree and learned the now non-spoken languages of Greek and Hebrew originally used to write the Bible. Additionally, PhD’s require fluency in French, Latin, and German to understand translations from original texts to the vernacular.

Granted, someone can earn numerous degrees and still be neither a Christian nor a minister, which is why what one says and does reveals their motivation and conviction about Biblical authority and the Gospel.

Sharpton claims to have preached his first sermon at four years old; whether the topic was potty training or a popular song, it undoubtedly was not about Jesus Christ. To state the obvious, toddlers cannot read. They also do not have the capacity to gain knowledge or wisdom from years of prayer and studying the Scripture.

Sharpton has never professed a testimony of conversion, nor has he ever led a church. He has written no books about the Bible, and any language of grace, salvation, forgiveness, repentance, restoration, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or even Jesus are consistently absent from his remarks.

Sadly, Sharpton’s life exemplifies everything that Christianity is not.

Sharpton’s father left his mother for his half-sister. Fortunately, Sharpton chose the lesser of two evils. Between incest and a musician, he chose the latter–James Brown–as his father figure, who he says “taught him how to be a man.”

What was Brown’s example? Having largely raised himself on the streets with a sixth grade education, Brown’s life reads like a rap sheet, no pun intended.

Brown was convicted for robbery at age 16, went to juvenile detention, and was paroled at age 19. By age 40, in 1973, the IRS claimed he owed over $2 million in unpaid taxes. To avoid concurrent problems with the IRS and not pay what he owed, Brown credited his then-second wife and two of their children as the writers of the 1976 hit song, “Get Up Offa That Thing.” In 1986, after several gun possession charges, Brown went to prison again, ultimately for assault and battery with intent to kill. In 1998, Brown was charged with drug possession.

Sharpton’s life follows a similar trajectory. In 2002, a 19-year-old FBI video surfaced, aired by HBO, in which Sharpton allegedly recorded incriminating conversations with the Genovese and Gambino crime families about selling narcotics. No charges were brought against him. He still maintains he didn’t break the law, but others argue he was more than a confidential informant.

In 1989, Sharpton was charged with 67 felony counts of tax evasion, larceny, and fraud. Whatever deal he made was undisclosed; he was acquitted on all counts and only pled guilty to a misdemeanor for not filing his 1986 state income tax.

In 2001, he was sentenced to 90 days in jail for trespassing on U.S. Navy property during an alleged “protest” against military training activities in Puerto Rico.

In 2003, a New York City travel agency sued him for allegedly using fake credit card information.

In 2004, the Federal Election Commission ordered him to repay $100,000 in public matching funds he received for his 2004 presidential run.

In 2008, he was convicted on two counts of disorderly conduct resulting from being arrested for allegedly “protesting.”

In 2013, while still married to his second wife, Kathy Jordan, he unashamedly flaunted his 35-year-old girlfriend, Aisha McShaw, in New York City.

In November 2014, The New York Times exposed his fraudulent life, writing, “As Al Sharpton rose, so did his unpaid taxes.” The article lists a rap sheet of unpaid taxes, rent, and other bills, highlighting that Sharpton and his business owe more than $4.5 million in taxes. He refutes their article.

It’s no wonder, then, that Sharpton would defend young people who continue to break the law, even while on parole.

Or why he remains silent about hate crimes committed by black groups against individual veterans and students, or teens punched to death in knock out games. Or why he has offered no solutions to reduce illegal drug and gun violence in black communities.

Sharpton has had his entire life to provide young men without fathers, like himself, with the basic Biblical principles of self-control, patience, kindness, honoring their parents, respecting authority, being responsible, working hard, doing what is right, causing no harm, or at a minimum, the six out of ten commandments on which US civil law and moral codes are based.

Many black men are addressing the problems within the black community:

Sharpton’s life doesn’t reflect Christianity because he knows not Christ.

But he does have time to know the Gospel and genuine zeal expressed by many ministers.

And time to heed the warning in the New Testament book of Acts. A demon asks a false teacher, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?”

As one minister wisely said, “To be unknown in hell as a minister is a great disgrace.”

NAACP and Sharpton – Why They Deny Reality

Monday, December 8th, 2014

NAACP, Sharpton, Jackson, Holder and Obama

Why they won’t focus on the need to build solid family values

The answer to the question? Too much money to be had by the race hustlers, most especially the naacp ….  They like things just the way they are!  That is exactly the reason that blacks will never (at least certainly not in OUR grandchildren’s lifetimes) rise above the sub-culture environ in which so many of them today exist. The people and organizations that are purportedly there to help are only concerned with their own personal self-serving interests.

Frankly, and sadly, the majority of the blacks in this nation are too damned ignorant to even begin to comprehend these harsh true realities. They mindlessly follow the leader like tribal lemings. They exist within a complex system of bondage and oppression of their own making, but as per the race-baiter’s agendas, they blame that which is most profitable to the race-baiter cause, not to themselves. Talk about slavery?   NAACP, Al, Jessie, Eric and Obama are the most successful, prolific slave masters in America.

Georgetown student feels sympathy for his mugger

Sunday, November 30th, 2014
By Carol Brown
November 30, 2014

Oliver Friedfeld is a senior in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. I will leave it to readers to determine how else he may be described as I will stick to serving up the facts and only the facts.

A couple of weeks ago Friedfeld and a friend of his were mugged. At gunpoint.

Friedfeld was compelled to write about the experience in the university newspaper, The Hoya.

… when a reporter asked whether I was surprised that this happened in Georgetown, I immediately answered: “Not at all.” It was so clear to me that we live in the most privileged neighborhood within a city that has historically been, and continues to be, harshly unequal. While we aren’t often confronted by this stark reality west of Rock Creek Park, the economic inequality is very real

Friedfeld apparently felt the mugging was an opportunity for him to pontificate on “economic inequality.” Sounds kind of like the president saying the anger in Ferguson is understandable.

Anyway, Friedfeld, didn’t stop there. It got worse. (Doesn’t it always with progressives?)

What has been most startling to me, even more so than the incident itself, have been the reactions I’ve gotten. I kept hearing “thugs,” “criminals” and “bad people.” While I understand why one might jump to that conclusion, I don’t think this is fair.

Not once did I consider our attackers to be “bad people.” I trust that they weren’t trying to hurt me. In fact, if they knew me, I bet they’d think I was okay. They wanted my stuff, not me. While I don’t know what exactly they needed the money for, I do know that I’ve never once had to think about going out on a Saturday night to mug people. I had never before seen a gun, let alone known where to get one. The fact that these two kids, who appeared younger than I, have even had to entertain these questions suggests their universes are light years away from mine.

Friedfeld thinks it’s unfair to call his attackers “thugs.” (Amazingly he is willing to call them “attackers,” but who knows if he has since awakened to that verbal injustice.)

I wonder if Friedfeld also thinks it’s unfair to call people who discover life-saving medical breakthroughs, extraordinary. Can we call ISIS, barbarians? What about people who torture animals? Can we call them psychopaths? Can the man who saved a child from drowning still be a hero?

Does Friedfeld not realize we have something called the English language and that we have names for things? Can we call his attackers “criminals?” (That is, after all, the legal name for them, something he also addressed in his piece.) Or in his twisted and mangled mental world are they “innocent victims?” Or, in keeping with Georgetown University’s heritage, maybe even “saints?”

And then there is Friedfeld’s conviction that if the attackers knew him, they’d think he was “okay.” I’m not sure if he’s suffering from Stockholm Syndrome or what, but the need to feel that the bad, thuggish, criminals (if he won’t say it, I feel compelled to make up the difference) who mugged him would think he was a good guy if they knew him was truly desperate. Not to mention irrelevant.

His assurance that the muggers only wanted his stuff and not him was also foolhardy. Apparently Friedfeld doesn’t realize that people often get killed during muggings, robberies, and so forth when the criminal appears interested in stealing other people’s things. But then plans change.

Piling on wrong-headed thinking was Friedfeld’s belief that the “kids” (the left is driven to paint thuggish criminals in a diminutive light) who attacked him must do so because of their life circumstance. He gives a pass for anyone who’s (presumably) poor to rob and steal because they are poor. If that’s the case, then we would have sheer mayhem on our hands in small towns and big cities across America every single day.

Oh, that’s right. Now we do.

Friedfeld thinks it’s not only understandable for folks to mug other people (abstract), he thinks it understandable to mug him (personal). Holy smokes! As Daniel Greenfield wrote in Front Page Magazine where I originally found the link to Friedfeld’s article:

To paraphrase Iriving Kristol, a liberal is simply a conservative who hasn’t been mugged by reality yet. But today, not only is a mugging not enough to drive some sense into a young progressive, it actually confirms his worldview about economic inequality. It confirms, not the armed robber’s guilt, but the victim’s guilt for (presumably) being better off. This is precisely the sort of “victim-blaming” that drives progressives into a rage when applied toward rape victims. But when it comes to “white privilege” and “income inequality,” moral equivalence rules, and reason flies out the window.

Quite right. But if you think Friedfeld reached the pinnacle (or shall I say pit) of his rant, he wasn’t quite done. Winding down his article, Friedfeld states:

Who am I to stand from my perch of privilege, surrounded by million-dollar homes and paying for a $60,000 education, to condemn these young men as “thugs?” It’s precisely this kind of “otherization” that fuels the problem.

Ah! “Otherization.” Let’s see. How about: “Hands up, don’t shoot. Otherization in process.” Or: “You racist otherizer!” Not sure, but I think there are some real possibilities there.

But I digress.

Mr. Friedfeld. You are free to crawl under a rock (they don’t cost a million bucks, or even $60,000, so you your new home can be guilt free) and feel apologetic for your blessings.

What’s that, Mr. Friedfeld? You’re not finished? Wow, ok. You have one more message to the world? All right. Let’s hear it.

… As young people, we need to devote real energy to solving what are collective challenges. Until we do so, we should get comfortable with sporadic muggings and break-ins ….

If Oliver Friedfeld is any indication of leftist thinking (and I believe he is a poster child for it), then I can only hope and pray the left has jumped the shark. Until that is confirmed, we must call out their insanity at every turn and replace it with reason. So have at it gentle readers.

Hat tip: Front Page Magazine

Oliver Friedfeld is a senior in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. I will leave it to readers to determine how else he may be described as I will stick to serving up the facts and only the facts.

A couple of weeks ago Friedfeld and a friend of his were mugged. At gunpoint.

Friedfeld was compelled to write about the experience in the university newspaper, The Hoya.

… when a reporter asked whether I was surprised that this happened in Georgetown, I immediately answered: “Not at all.” It was so clear to me that we live in the most privileged neighborhood within a city that has historically been, and continues to be, harshly unequal. While we aren’t often confronted by this stark reality west of Rock Creek Park, the economic inequality is very real

Friedfeld apparently felt the mugging was an opportunity for him to pontificate on “economic inequality.” Sounds kind of like the president saying the anger in Ferguson is understandable.

Anyway, Friedfeld, didn’t stop there. It got worse. (Doesn’t it always with progressives?)

What has been most startling to me, even more so than the incident itself, have been the reactions I’ve gotten. I kept hearing “thugs,” “criminals” and “bad people.” While I understand why one might jump to that conclusion, I don’t think this is fair.

Not once did I consider our attackers to be “bad people.” I trust that they weren’t trying to hurt me. In fact, if they knew me, I bet they’d think I was okay. They wanted my stuff, not me. While I don’t know what exactly they needed the money for, I do know that I’ve never once had to think about going out on a Saturday night to mug people. I had never before seen a gun, let alone known where to get one. The fact that these two kids, who appeared younger than I, have even had to entertain these questions suggests their universes are light years away from mine.

Friedfeld thinks it’s unfair to call his attackers “thugs.” (Amazingly he is willing to call them “attackers,” but who knows if he has since awakened to that verbal injustice.)

I wonder if Friedfeld also thinks it’s unfair to call people who discover life-saving medical breakthroughs, extraordinary. Can we call ISIS, barbarians? What about people who torture animals? Can we call them psychopaths? Can the man who saved a child from drowning still be a hero?

Does Friedfeld not realize we have something called the English language and that we have names for things? Can we call his attackers “criminals?” (That is, after all, the legal name for them, something he also addressed in his piece.) Or in his twisted and mangled mental world are they “innocent victims?” Or, in keeping with Georgetown University’s heritage, maybe even “saints?”

And then there is Friedfeld’s conviction that if the attackers knew him, they’d think he was “okay.” I’m not sure if he’s suffering from Stockholm Syndrome or what, but the need to feel that the bad, thuggish, criminals (if he won’t say it, I feel compelled to make up the difference) who mugged him would think he was a good guy if they knew him was truly desperate. Not to mention irrelevant.

His assurance that the muggers only wanted his stuff and not him was also foolhardy. Apparently Friedfeld doesn’t realize that people often get killed during muggings, robberies, and so forth when the criminal appears interested in stealing other people’s things. But then plans change.

Piling on wrong-headed thinking was Friedfeld’s belief that the “kids” (the left is driven to paint thuggish criminals in a diminutive light) who attacked him must do so because of their life circumstance. He gives a pass for anyone who’s (presumably) poor to rob and steal because they are poor. If that’s the case, then we would have sheer mayhem on our hands in small towns and big cities across America every single day.

Oh, that’s right. Now we do.

Friedfeld thinks it’s not only understandable for folks to mug other people (abstract), he thinks it understandable to mug him (personal). Holy smokes! As Daniel Greenfield wrote in Front Page Magazine where I originally found the link to Friedfeld’s article:

To paraphrase Iriving Kristol, a liberal is simply a conservative who hasn’t been mugged by reality yet. But today, not only is a mugging not enough to drive some sense into a young progressive, it actually confirms his worldview about economic inequality. It confirms, not the armed robber’s guilt, but the victim’s guilt for (presumably) being better off. This is precisely the sort of “victim-blaming” that drives progressives into a rage when applied toward rape victims. But when it comes to “white privilege” and “income inequality,” moral equivalence rules, and reason flies out the window.

Quite right. But if you think Friedfeld reached the pinnacle (or shall I say pit) of his rant, he wasn’t quite done. Winding down his article, Friedfeld states:

Who am I to stand from my perch of privilege, surrounded by million-dollar homes and paying for a $60,000 education, to condemn these young men as “thugs?” It’s precisely this kind of “otherization” that fuels the problem.

Ah! “Otherization.” Let’s see. How about: “Hands up, don’t shoot. Otherization in process.” Or: “You racist otherizer!” Not sure, but I think there are some real possibilities there.

But I digress.

Mr. Friedfeld. You are free to crawl under a rock (they don’t cost a million bucks, or even $60,000, so you your new home can be guilt free) and feel apologetic for your blessings.

What’s that, Mr. Friedfeld? You’re not finished? Wow, ok. You have one more message to the world? All right. Let’s hear it.

… As young people, we need to devote real energy to solving what are collective challenges. Until we do so, we should get comfortable with sporadic muggings and break-ins ….

If Oliver Friedfeld is any indication of leftist thinking (and I believe he is a poster child for it), then I can only hope and pray the left has jumped the shark. Until that is confirmed, we must call out their insanity at every turn and replace it with reason. So have at it gentle readers.

Hat tip: Front Page Magazine

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/11/the_georgetown_student_who_feels_sympathy_for_his_mugger.html#ixzz3KZNyO2mP
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Obama’s Ferguson Sellout

Saturday, November 29th, 2014

Obama’s Ferguson Sellout

The president’s irresponsible statements will make a bad situation worse.
25 November 2014

President Obama betrayed the nation last night. Even as he went on national television to respond to the grand jury’s decision not to indict Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson for fatally shooting 18-year-old Michael Brown in August, the vicious violence that would destroy businesses and livelihoods over the next several hours was underway. Obama had one job and one job only last night: to defend the workings of the criminal-justice system and the rule of law. Instead, he turned his talk into a primer on police racism and criminal-justice bias. In so doing, he perverted his role as the leader of all Americans and as the country’s most visible symbol of the primacy of the law.

Obama gestured wanly toward the need to respect the grand jury’s decision and to protest peacefully. “We are a nation built on the rule of law. And so we need to accept that this decision was the grand jury’s to make,” he said. But his tone of voice and body language unmistakably conveyed his disagreement, if not disgust, with that decision. “There are Americans who are deeply disappointed, even angry. It’s an understandable reaction,” he said. Understandable, so long as one ignores the evidence presented to the grand jury. The testimony of a half-dozen black observers at the scene demolished the early incendiary reports that Wilson attacked Brown in cold blood and shot Brown in his back when his hands were up. Those early witnesses who had claimed gratuitous brutality on Wilson’s part contradicted themselves and were in turn contradicted by the physical evidence and by other witnesses, who corroborated Wilson’s testimony that Brown had attacked him and had tried to grab his gun. (Minutes before, the nearly 300-pound Brown had thuggishly robbed a shopkeeper of a box of cigars; Wilson had received a report of that robbery and a description of Brown before stopping him.) Obama should have briefly reiterated the grounds for not indicting Wilson and applauded the decision as the product of a scrupulously thorough and fair process. He should have praised the jurors for their service and courage in following the evidence where it led them. And he should have concluded by noting that there is no fairer criminal justice system in the world than the one we have in the United States.

Instead, Obama reprimanded local police officers in advance for their presumed overreaction to the protests: “I also appeal to the law enforcement officials in Ferguson and the region to show care and restraint in managing peaceful protests that may occur. . . . They need to work with the community, not against the community, to distinguish the handful of people who may use the grand jury’s decision as an excuse for violence . . . from the vast majority who just want their voices heard around legitimate issues in terms of how communities and law enforcement interact.” Such skepticism about the ability of the police to maintain the peace appropriately was unwarranted at the time and even more so in retrospect; the forces of law and order didn’t fire a single shot last night. Nor did they inflict injury, despite having been fired at themselves. Missouri governor Jay Nixon has been under attack for days for having authorized a potential mobilization of the National Guard—as if the August rioting didn’t more than justify such a precaution. Any small business owner facing another wave of violence would have been desperate for such protection and more. Though Nixon didn’t actually call up the Guard last night, his prophylactic declaration of a state of emergency proved prescient.

Obama left no doubt that he believed the narrative of the mainstream media and race activists about Ferguson. That narrative held that the shooting of Brown was a symbol of nationwide police misbehavior and that the August riots were an “understandable” reaction to widespread societal injustice. “The situation in Ferguson speaks to broader challenges that we still face as a nation. The fact is in too many parts of this country a deep distrust exists between law enforcement and communities of color.” This distrust is justified, in Obama’s view. He reinvoked the “diversity” bromide about the racial composition of police forces, implying that white officers cannot fairly police black communities. In fact, some of the most criticized law-enforcement bodies in recent years have been majority black.

“We have made enormous progress in race relations,” Obama conceded. “But what is also true is that there are still problems and communities of color aren’t just making these problems up. . . . The law too often feels like it’s being applied in a discriminatory fashion . . . these are real issues. And we have to lift them up and not deny them or try to tamp them down.” To claim that the laws are applied in a discriminatory fashion is a calumny, unsupported by evidence. For the president of the United States to put his imprimatur on such propaganda is bad enough; to do so following a verdict in so incendiary a case is grossly irresponsible. But such partiality follows the pattern of this administration in Ferguson and elsewhere, with Attorney General Eric Holder prematurely declaring the Ferguson police force in need of wholesale change and President Obamainvoking Ferguson at the United Nations as a manifestation of America’s ethnic strife.

Last night’s wanton destruction was over-determined. For weeks, the press has been salivating at the potential for black violence. The New York Times has been running several stories a day, most on the front page, about such a prospect, building on its series earlier in the fall about racism in Ferguson. Press coverage of racial tension treats black violence as both expected and normal. By now, riots are regarded as virtually a black entitlement.

The press is dusting off hoary tropes about police stops and racism. Clearly we are reentering a period of heightened anti-law enforcement agitation, recalling the racial profiling crusade of the 1990s. The New York Times’s fall series selected various features of Ferguson almost at random and declared them racist, simply by virtue of their being associated with the city. A similar conceit has already emerged regarding the now-concluded grand jury investigation: innocent or admirable features of the prosecutor’s management of the case, such as the thoroughness of the evidence presented, are now blasted as the product of a flawed or deliberately tainted process, so desperate are the activists to discredit the grand jury’s decision.

This misinformation about the criminal-justice system and the police will increase hatred of the police. That hatred, in turn, will heighten the chances of more Michael Browns attacking officers and getting shot themselves. Police officers in the tensest areas may back off of assertive policing. Such de-policing will leave thousands of law-abiding minority residents who fervently support the police ever more vulnerable to thugs.

Obama couldn’t have stopped the violence last night with his address to the nation. But in casting his lot with those who speciously impugn our criminal-justice system, he has increased the likelihood of more such violence in the future.

Group At Center Of IRS Scandal Has Never Been Interviewed By FBI Investigators

Saturday, July 19th, 2014

Group At Center Of IRS Scandal Has Never Been Interviewed By FBI Investigators

By Larry O’Connor

No one from True The Vote, the highest profile organization targeted by the IRS in the scandal involving improper scrutiny of conservative-leaning non-profits, has been interviewed by the FBI or investigators from the Department of Justice, according to the group’s President, Catherine Engelbrecht.

This stunning revelation comes just days after Attorney General Eric Holder rebuffed the suggestion that an independent investigation is needed into the growing scandal. Holder told ABC News this weekend that a special investigation was unnecessary because “career people” and FBI agents were “doing a good, professional job” investigating the matter.

When I raised Holder’s assertion to Engelbrecht Monday morning during an interview on WMAL radio in Washington, DC, I asked her what her involvement and experience has been with the FBI and the DOJ, considering Holder’s claim that they were doing a “good and professional job” investigating the IRS scandal.

“That would be exactly ‘no.’ Zero. at no time have they approached us. Only when they are investigating us. Only when they are being adversarial towards us do we ever hear anything from the Department of Justice. There has been no outreach to try and get to the bottom of the scandal at any time. “

There is no doubt that for any serious and thorough investigation into the inappropriate and potentially illegal tactics used by the IRS in refusing to grant conservative groups a 501(c)4 non-profit status because of their perceived political leanings, Engelbrecht’s group would be one of the first to be interviewed.

True The Vote has been embroiled in much of the testimony and investigation in the House Oversight Committee, including an episode where Lois Lerner fed tax information to that committee’s ranking Democrat, Elijah Cummings’ office. In April, Townhall’s Katie Pavlich reported on the e-mail exchange:

New IRS emails released by the House Oversight Committee show staff working for Democratic Ranking Member Elijah Cummings communicated with the IRS multiple times between 2012 and 2013 about voter fraud prevention group True the Vote. True the Vote was targeted by the IRS after applying for tax exempt status more than two years ago. Further, information shows the IRS and Cummings’ staff asked for nearly identical information from True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht about her organization, indicating coordination and improper sharing of confidential taxpayer information.

Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, along with five Subcommittee Chairmen are demanding Cummings provide an explanation for the staff inquiries to the IRS about True the Vote and for his denial that his staff ever contacted the IRS about the group

“Although you have previously denied that your staff made inquiries to the IRS about conservative organization True the Vote that may have led to additional agency scrutiny, communication records between your staff and IRS officials – which you did not disclose to Majority Members or staff – indicates otherwise,” the letter to Cummings states. “As the Committee is scheduled to consider a resolution holding Ms. Lerner, a participant in responding to your communications that you failed to disclose, in contempt of Congress, you have an obligation to fully explain your staff’s undisclosed contacts with the IRS.

The revelation from Engelbrecht that her organization has not been interviewed or contacted by the DOJ at all in the 15 months since the IRS scandal first broke calls into question just how seriously Attorney General Holder is taking the investigation and will surely add to the growing number of voices calling for an independent investigation into the scandal that now includes missing e-mails, broken hard drives and a central figure pleading the 5th amendment.

A MILLION YEARS OF CLIMATE CHANGE WITHOUT HUMANS AND CO2

Friday, July 18th, 2014

A MILLION YEARS OF CLIMATE CHANGE WITHOUT HUMANS AND CO2

IAN RUTHERFORD PLIMER

Where Does the Carbon Dioxide Really Come From?

 Ian Rutherford Plimer is an Australian geologist, professor emeritus of earth sciences at the University of Melbourne, professor of mining geology at the University of Adelaide, and the director of multiple mineral exploration and mining companies.   He has published 130 scientific papers, six books and edited the Encyclopedia of Geology.

PLIMER: “Okay, here’s the bombshell.   The volcanic eruption in Iceland , since its first spewing of volcanic ash has, in just FOUR DAYS, NEGATED EVERY SINGLE EFFORT you have made in the past five years to control CO2 emissions on our planet – all of you.

Of course, you know about this evil carbon dioxide that we are trying to suppress – it’s that vital chemical compound that every plant requires to live and grow and to synthesize into oxygen for us humans and all animal life.
I know….it’s very disheartening to realize that all of the carbon emission savings you have accomplished while suffering the inconvenience and expense of driving Prius hybrids, buying fabric grocery bags, sitting up till midnight to finish your kids’  “The Green Revolution” science project, throwing out all of your non-green cleaning supplies, using only two squares of toilet paper, putting a brick in your toilet tank reservoir, selling your SUV and speedboat, vacationing at home instead of abroad, nearly getting hit every day on your bicycle, replacing all of your 50 cent light bulbs with $10.00 light bulbs…..well, all of those things you have done have all gone down the tubes in just four days.

The volcanic ash emitted into the Earth’s atmosphere in just four days – yes, FOUR DAYS – by that volcano in Iceland has totally erased every single effort you have made to reduce the evil beast, carbon.   And there are around 200 active volcanoes on the planet spewing out this crud at any one time – EVERY DAY.
I don’t really want to rain on your parade too much, but I should mention that when the volcano Mt. Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in 1991, it spewed out more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than the entire human race had emitted in all its years on earth. Yes, folks, Mt Pinatubo was active for over one year – think about it.

Of course, I shouldn’t spoil this ‘touchy-feely tree-hugging’ moment and mention the effect of solar and cosmic activity and the well-recognized 800-year global heating and cooling cycle, which keeps happening despite our completely insignificant efforts to affect climate change.

And I do wish I had a silver lining to this volcanic ash cloud, but the fact of the matter is that the bush fire season across the western USA and Australia this year alone will negate your efforts to reduce carbon in our world for the next two to three years.   And it happens every year.

Just remember that your government just tried to impose a whopping carbon tax on you, on the basis of the bogus ‘human-caused’ climate-change scenario. Hey, isn’t it interesting how they don’t mention ‘Global Warming’ anymore, but just ‘Climate Change’ –  you know why?

It’s because the planet has COOLED by 0.7 degrees in the past century and these global warming bull artists got caught with their pants down.
And, just keep in mind that you might yet have an Emissions Trading Scheme – that whopping new tax – imposed on you that will achieve absolutely nothing except make you poorer.

It won’t stop any volcanoes from erupting, that’s for sure.  But, hey, relax……give the world a hug and have a nice day!”

White House plots VA-scandal distractions

Sunday, June 8th, 2014

White House plots VA-scandal distractions:
Column – Richard Benedetto 12:06 p.m. EDT June 5, 2014

In the wake of the VA scandal, President Obama mounts a series of PR moves.

obama

President Obama on Memorial Day. (Photo: Pool photo by Drew Angerer)

An air of hubris — a sort of we-know-it-all quality — has permeated the Obama White House from the beginning. It worked as a for the better part of five years. But it seems to be breaking down now.

The sophisticated swagger and savoir faire projected by the President and his strategists — audacity with cool, if you will — captivated a major segment of the 2008 voting public, many of whom were tired of George W. Bush and believed Barack Obama could bring real change to Washington.

This somewhat-arrogant-and-sometimes-intimidating PR approach to governing had success. It helped him pass a $787 billion economic stimulus bill and browbeat fellow Democrats to enact a highly partisan health care plan that Republicans wanted no part of. It got him through a bruising re-election campaign despite a less-than-stellar record on the economy and still-lingering questions about his handling of the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.

But over the past 12 months, the vaunted Obama PR limousine, used to smoothing out bumps with ease, has been blowing tires as it tries to roll over a minefield of crises and scandals. Troubles began with allegations that the IRS targeted conservative groups for special scrutiny during an election year. They were followed by startling revelations about NSA domestic spying and the leaking of secrets by Edward Snowden. Obama ran into criticism for waffling on chemical weapons in Syria, appearing to go soft on Iran’s nuclear program and not standing up to Russian President Vladimir Putin over Crimea.

Then there was the disastrous rollout of Obamacare and the re-emergence of Benghazi through email revelations that the White House might have been involved in a cover-up, triggering a new set of hearings scheduled for summer.

Through it all, the Obama PR machine tried to spin all troubles away by staging feel-good events in schools and colleges and showcasing the president on the side of immigrants, poor kids and the little guy trying to earn a living. Despite all those efforts, Obama’s job-approval rating in the Gallup Poll has been below 50% for nearly a year.

Then a new crisis emerged — revelations that veterans seeking health care through the Veterans Administration were waiting months to be seen and that records were falsified to hide the facts.

Sensing correctly, if not a bit late, that this scandal could not only be seriously damaging to the president, but also to congressional Democrats running in the 2014 elections, the White House rolled out the PR limo. But after five-plus years of high mileage, it is running more like a rickety fire truck manned by the Keystone Kops.

First, Obama’s chief of staff went on TV to say the president was “madder than hell” about the scandal and would get to the bottom of it. Critics continued to howl. Five days later, on the Friday before the Memorial Day weekend, and attention on veterans saturating the news media, Obama held a news conference and vowed, “Anybody found to have manipulated or falsified records at VA facilities has to be held accountable.”

The next day, a Saturday, in an apparent effort to shift attention to something more positive with regard to veterans, Obama stepped into the Rose Garden to announce that the U.S. combat role in Afghanistan would end this year. Such announcements are rarely made on Saturdays, signaling White House worry about the VA scandal.

So the PR blitz continued. On Sunday, Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan where he was photographed surrounded by cheering American troops.

The next day, Memorial Day, the president used his traditional speech at Arlington Cemetery to reiterate that the war in Afghanistan is coming to an end. More photos in the midst of veterans and their families. A day later, he was off to West Point. And again, surrounded by uniformed military, Obama delivered a commencement speech that outlined his revised foreign policy. It was widely panned for being rambling and incoherent. Even with those frantic efforts, the VA scandal was not going away. Obama had to do something more. He fired VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.

He followed that up last Saturday with what the PR gurus must have thought was a stroke of genius. Obama announced, again in the Rose Garden, that he secured the freedom of the only U.S. soldier held by the Taliban in exchange for five high-level Taliban terrorists held at Guantanamo. With the soldier’s parents beside him, it made good first-day headlines and pictures. But questions were quickly raised about whether the soldier released was a deserter rather than a prisoner of war, and worries that the terrorists let go might plot once again to kill Americans. Moreover, members of Congress are angry about not being told in advance of the swap, prompting a White House apology.

So the VA problems continue. And the White House is learning the hard way that sometimes it takes more than smart guys and gals and slick PR to run a country. It takes governing.

Richard Benedetto is a retired USA Today White House correspondent and columnist. He now teaches at American University and in The Fund for American Studies program at George Mason University.

In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including our Board of Contributors. To read more columns like this, go to the opinion front page or follow us on twitter @USATopinion or Facebook.

A LETTER TO COCA COLA – SUPERBOWL COMMERCIAL NOT WELL RECEIVED

Saturday, March 22nd, 2014

A LETTER TO COCA COLA – NOT ALL WERE ENAMORED

I watched some of the commercials that were played during the Super Bowl.  I always enjoy the ones from Anheuser Busch.  They showed the “Welcome Home” celebration in Winter Park , Florida , for returning soldiers.  And who doesn’t love those Clydesdales?   I didn’t like the one from Coca Cola.  All those young women singing “America The Beautiful” dressed in ethnic garb and singing in a foreign language really pissed me off.  Americans sing in English to honor America ; not Farsi or Urdu.

I left a comment for Coke on YouTube under the video of that commercial.  I got a reply from them today, which you can read below, and then you can read my answer to them.  Maybe this time they’ll understand.

I received this from Coke:

Thank you for your email and your loyalty to Coca-Cola over the years.  We greatly value your business and appreciate hearing from you.

“It’s Beautiful” was created to celebrate Coke moments among all Americans who together enjoy ice cold, refreshing Coke.  For centuries America has opened its arms to people of many countries who have helped to build this great nation.  “It’s Beautiful” provides a snapshot of the real lives of Americans representing diverse ethnicities, religions, races and families, all found in the United States .  All those featured in the ad are Americans and “ America The Beautiful” was sung by bilingual American young women.

We believe “It’s Beautiful” is a great example of the magic that makes our country so special, and a powerful message that spreads optimism, promotes inclusion and celebrates humanity – values that are core to Coca-Cola.

You can find out more about our ad by going to Journey.  I really appreciate your feedback and hope this will keep you as a valued customer of ours.  We appreciate your interest in our Company.

Timothy
Industry and Consumer Affairs
The Coca-Cola Company

Please use the record number below should you have additional questions.

My Reply:

Where do you live, Timothy?  Since you’re with Coca Cola, it is likely Buckhead or one of Atlanta ’s other exclusive, executive, country club neighborhoods.  I lived in one for over two decades, in Hudson , Ohio .  I know what they’re like.   My youngest son lives in one near Atlanta , too, as he is a successful broker with E-Trade, in Alpharetta.  Those neighborhoods are not what most of this country is like, however.  Maybe you haven’t traveled much, or lived in many different states as I have.

America’s not so beautiful anymore, and it is full of immigrants that have no intention of assimilating into our society or becoming truly American.  They brought their own culture, keep their own culture, and never learn anything about ours, except to use it to their advantage.  They don’t even like Americans.  They make no effort to learn our language.  Ever been to Detroit ?  I’ll bet you never tried to enter the closed Muslim festival that takes place near Ann Arbor , because you’d probably be assaulted before you got a block away.  We Americans are not so proud of that kind of behavior, and they aren’t there to celebrate being American.

How about Collinsville , Ohio ?  That’s a part of Cleveland , and the Collinsville police once yelled at me to “get the hell out of this black neighborhood, lady, or we will be calling the meat wagon!” because I had gotten lost there.  Police there were barricaded behind locked doors, and one could not see a police officer, but were required, in the lobby of the station, to pick up a phone to talk to one.   A white woman in that black neighborhood was in great danger, they explained.  The slums of Cleveland , Detroit , Los Angeles , and especially Chicago , or any other major city are littered with filth and disease and the hatred of blacks toward whites.  It’s the same in the L.A. barrio, my friend, and they aren’t singing Kumbaya, either.  A recent mayor of L. A. declared he intended to take California back as Mexican territory.  Do you consider that a Kumbaya moment?  An “ America , The Beautiful” kind of moment?  They call themselves “Reconquista”, and they are there to do just that.  They murder and steal from Americans who live near the Mexican border in Arizona , but our government says Arizonans can’t protect themselves from the marauders.

Is the America where you find massive amounts of illegal drugs and thick lines of cocaine on glass -top coffee tables to be considered beautiful?  That’s what illegal aliens brought to our once beautiful America .  Is that meth lab in the house down the street beautiful?  Is the heroin epidemic now seizing the weak in America your idea of “ America , The Beautiful”?  Singing it to us in foreign languages is repugnant to us, and it makes us resentful.  Being sung by a young woman who is forced by her family to wear the clothing demanded by the oppression of her religion is also repulsive.

Do you have children?  Are they allowed to wear a symbol of our country on their clothing?  America ’s schools don’t allow American flags anywhere anymore.  Where are your children going to learn of a “beautiful” America ?  It won’t be at their school.   They are being taught how wonderful Islam is, and to celebrate Cinco de Mayo when their brother may be shot at by an Afghan terrorist or an alien illegally crossing our border to bring harm to our country in the form of theft, drugs, prostitution, or terrorism.   Watch the news; you’ll see how often there’s a squabble over such things, and how angry it is making real Americans.  You know, those folks that say the Pledge of Allegiance and mean it.  Probably like your mom and dad.  Those that came here to flee oppression and build an America they were also willing to die to defend.  Not the ones who want to “fundamentally change America ”.

How about Watts, or South Central Los Angeles ?   Boston , or New York , or Patterson , New Jersey ?  Do you ever have a desire to participate in or watch the Boston marathon again?  You think the Tsarnaov brothers are a part of beautiful America ?

Beautiful?  No, it isn’t.  Not anymore.  Huge numbers of Muslims that threaten the white residents of Wylie , Texas by moving into a new neighborhood and holding closed, secret meetings in the park, intimidating white children, and frightening the elderly don’t make this a beautiful America .

Illegal people from all over the world enter America through wide open borders and suffer no consequences.  Lovely people like MS 13 and other gangs, and terrorists from the Middle East .  Mexican, Central and South Americans serve as donkeys, as beasts of burden, bringing thousands of tons of illegal drugs into America , and you want to celebrate their heritage?  Why?  And you want me to celebrate their heritage with you?  Have you all lost your collective minds?

At least ten thousand people were brought into the New York City area as prostitutes to serve the football fans that came to see the Super Bowl.  Many of them were children.  The FBI has been busy rounding them up.  Some are only 13 years old.  Is that your America , of which you sing in a foreign voice?  Human trafficking in this country is rampant; do you suppose a kid was given an ice-cold Coke to enjoy after some sweaty, grunting Denver or Seattle fan finished his sex act with her?  I hope it makes you shudder and puke.  Those kids were mostly brought into our country from a foreign land.  Is that what you want them to know of America , and sing it in their language?  What about the adult women who were victimized in that group of ten thousand?   Know this – they do not come willingly.  They do not perform those acts willingly.  And they sure as hell don’t do it to be in the land of Coca Cola .   They hate us because we allow it to happen.  I hate to tell you what they would do to you with a bottle of Coke, and that I know of because I am an R. N. who witnessed such things in an emergency room.  That’s not “ America , The Beautiful”.

Well, Timothy, change for the better under liberals is just not going to happen, and the backlash I’m giving you is only a polite synopsis of the feelings millions of us have about those immigrants who speak different languages and come from cultures that we do not embrace, nor do we want our children or grandchildren exposed to them or their culture except from afar.  We do not want our grandchildren celebrating Cinco de Mayo and being told that they cannot display the American flag on their own home or a T-shirt.  It makes us angry, and where we once practiced tolerance and helped those who wish to assimilate, we now shun and cower in fright, or watch violent clashes between cultures on the nightly news.  And we arm ourselves against the invasion.

If Coca Cola is going to be politically correct and sing Kumbaya while hoping that we who are outside that closed executive neighborhood of yours enjoy a cold refreshing Coke and smile at your distinctly anti-American silly song, you’re badly mistaken.  You’re going to watch your sales plummet.  You’re going to watch others show real patriotism, like Anheuser Busch, and applaud the way they show appreciation to our soldiers who are killing the relatives of those Muslims in Detroit and Patterson who would spit on you, or worse, if you went to their neighborhoods.  And I’ll be at those Independence Day parades, applauding our troops and those who know the real America the way it is supposed to be and was before liberals took over and convoluted and ignored our laws, spat on our Constitution, and ruined our America .

I’m through supporting companies that support our enemies.  Bye-bye, Coke.  It used to be America ’s drink.  Now your company is America ’s poison.

Barbara Gilbert
Wife of a retired American military officer
Mother of  2 American military veterans
Grandmother of  3, or maybe 4 future military veterans, because they will be taught to serve a real America , for Americans.  All our grandchildren will be taught who the real friends of America really are, as we enjoy an ice cold cola from Grandma’s pretty red SodaStream machine from Israel .   (At least they’ll know who their real friends are.)