Posted on

USA Today Fact-Check Tweet Claims Trump Camp Shirts ‘Feature’ ‘Nazi Symbol’

Since early July, liberals on social media have seen pumping out claims that the Trump campaign was selling “America First Tee” shirts that featured the “Imperial Eagle” (an eagle holding a wreathed swastika), a common symbol in Nazi Germany. Even though images of an eagle holding something round was common imagery in American politics, the so-called fact-checkers over at USA Today put out a tweet Sunday that said they ruled the claim as “true.”
Showing a picture of the “Imperial Eagle” next to on of the campaign shirt (an eagle holding a round American flag, the USA Today Twitter account declared: “The claim: Trump campaign shirts feature imperial eagle, a Nazi symbol. Our ruling: True.”
The claim: Trump campaign shirts feature imperial eagle, a Nazi symbol
Our ruling: True https://t.co/3eCiYdgQvK
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) July 12, 2020
But over an hour and a half after their initial tweet, the paper had to issue this statement: “Clarification: The claim that Trump 2020 has put out a T-shirt with a symbol similar to a Nazi eagle and is being criticized for it is true. Worth noting, the eagle is a longtime US symbol, too.”
In response to the paper’s outlandish tweet, they were righty ridiculed with other images of eagles hold round objects such as the Marine Corps’ eagle, globe, and anchor, an Obama campaign logo, the official of Nancy Pelosi’s office (eagle and a globe), and stamps from the U.S. Postal Service.
Upon clicking on their “fact-check” article, it became clear that what they fact-checked wasn’t whether or not the campaign was selling a shirt with a Nazi symbol, but rather, they ridiculously fact-checked how the campaign was accused of such a thing.
Clarification: The claim that Trump 2020 has put out a T-shirt with a symbol similar to a Nazi eagle and is being criticized for it is true. Worth noting, the eagle is a longtime US symbol, too.
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) July 12, 2020
“President Donald Trump’s campaign website recently unveiled a T-shirt that has come under fire because of design similarities between its logo and a Nazi symbol,” fact-checker Will Peebles wrote. “The similarity was first noticed, according to Forward, by two Twitter accounts, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, described as a Jewish progressive group, and the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group formed by Republicans.”
Peebles noted that research into the shirt discovered the eagle was just a shock image, and he pointed out “key differences” in the designs of the two images. “In Trump’s, the eagle holds the American flag up near its chest; the Nazi symbol holds the swastika lower,” he said. “Trump’s design also features ‘Trump 2020’ below it. The American eagle is also a bald eagle, whereas the Nazi eagle is depicted as an all-black bird.”
The "fact-check" even noted a previously debunked Nazi imagery allegation leveled against then-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) back in 2017. “A BuzzFeed story notes that January, Twitter was abuzz with the idea that the speaker’s logo resembled a similar Nazi eagle and swastika,” he recalled. “But it also looks like the eagle-and-globe top of the silver mace of the House, ‘a symbol of the House’s authority,’ according to the House website.”
Despite later admitting “the eagle is a common symbol in American politics, and is included in the presidential seal of the U.S., as well as many federal departments,” Peebles concluded: “The claims that a Trump campaign T-shirt has come under criticism for using a symbol similar to a Nazi eagle is TRUE, based on our research.”
The paper wanted so desperately to have a “true” associated with a Trump/Nazi controversy that they “fact-checked” the existence of the controversy, not whether or not the image was Nazi related. Pathetic.

via NewsBusters – Exposing Liberal Media Bias

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.newsbusters.org/

Posted on

Trump Wears Mask, Looks Like a Badass, Media Melts Down


Whoops:

via Weasel Zippers

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.weaselzippers.us

Posted on

Thomas Sowell: ‘Systemic Racism’ Has ‘No Meaning’


Conservative African American economist Thomas Sowell says that the term “systemic racism,” which is central to the Black Lives Matter movement, has “no meaning.”

Sowell is set to appear on Fox News’ Life, Liberty and Levin on Sunday evening with host Mark Levin at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT).

According to Fox News:

You hear this phrase, ‘systemic racism’ [or] ‘systemic oppression’,” host Mark Levin told Sowell. “You hear it on our college campuses. You hear it from very wealthy and fabulously famous sports stars. What does that mean? And whatever it means, is it true?”

“It really has no meaning that can be specified and tested in the way that one tests hypotheses,” answered Sowell, who added that the currency of the phrase reminds him of the “propaganda tactics” of Nazi Germany, where Sowell claimed that if a lie was “repeated long enough and loud enough” it would be widely believed.

Sowell, who recently turned 90, was born poor in North Carolina, and grew up in Harlem before attending the Stuyvesant magnet school and moving on to the Ivy League and the University of Chicago.

Initially attracted to the left, Sowell eventually rejected socialism in favor of conservatism. He has written some of the most important critiques of left-win dogma.

In his 2005 book Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study, Sowell observed: “Despite sweeping claims made for affirmative action programs, an examination of their actual consequences makes it hard to support those claims, or even to say that these programs have been beneficial on net balance — unless one is prepared to say that any amount of social redress, however small, is worth any amount of costs and dangers, however large.”

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal in 2017, Sowell described President Donald Trump as “the first Republican who’s made any serious attempt to get the black vote by addressing problems that affect most blacks who are trying to do the right thing—such as education, which is such low-hanging fruit.”

On Life, Liberty, and Levin, Sowell added: “If the election goes to [Joe] Biden, there’s a good chance that the Democrats will control [Congress] and considering the kinds of things that they’re proposing, that could well be the point of no return for this country.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

via Breitbart News

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.breitbart.com

Posted on

California Gov. Gavin Newsom Poised to Release 8,000 ‘Most Dangerous’ Prisoners to Prevent Virus Spread


California Gov. Gavin Newsom has already released thousands of prisoners into communities across the state and now he is poised to release as many as 8,000 more by end of July, a move said to be necessary to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

This development, which the state announced on Friday, comes after the head of medical services for the state’s prison system was replaced following an inmate infection spike after more than 100 prisoners where transferred from the California Institution for Men in Chino from San Quentin.

“These actions are taken to provide for the health and safety of the incarcerated population and staff,” corrections Secretary Ralph Diaz said in a written statement. “We aim to implement these decompression measures in a way that aligns both public health and public safety.”

The Los Angeles Times reported on Newsom’s plan:

Initial prisoner releases would come from those with 180 days or less left to serve on their sentence. No one serving time for a crime defined in state law as violent or involving domestic violence would be set free, officials said. Those required to register as sex offenders or who are assessed as being a high risk for violence would also be ineligible for early release.

The second group of prisoners who could be released would have no more than one year left to serve. The releases are aimed at reducing the populations at eight state prisons identified as higher risk for coronavirus transmissions. The same eligibility rules as the first group of released prisoners would apply in these releases.

In all cases, prison officials said, priority will be given to those who are 30 or older. Prisoners under the age of 30 will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

“This is serious stuff and requires a seriousness of purpose,” Newsom said in the Times report. “People are just saying just release thousands and thousands of people.”

“Each and every one of these cases are sobering, challenging, and there’s a deep responsibility that comes with this job, but a sense of deep urgency as well to decompress the system in a judicious and thoughtful way,” Newsom said.

At least one official has expressed concern about the threat to public safety.

Vern Pierson, the D.A. in Northern California’s El Dorado County, called it “concerning” for public safety, and said the criteria being used to decide which inmates to release is unclear. 

“The Newsom administration also has not made clear whether crime victims and prosecutors will be given notice when an inmate is released or if they will be able to file objections, said Pierson, who serves as president of the California District Attorneys Assn,” the Times reported.

“We don’t know what the actual impact of this is going to be. We do know that it’s a high likelihood there will be significant increases in crime,” said Pierson, who added that earlier releases of non-violent prisoners means that those still incarcerated represent the most serious offenders.

“It’s inescapable that it’s the most dangerous people that are the people that are left in prison,” Pierson said.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that, as of Wednesday, an estimated 104,725 individuals are imprisoned in California’s 35 institutions. Nearly 20,000 inmates would need to be released just to reach 100 percent capacity in the system.

Follow Penny Starr on Twitter

via Breitbart News

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.breitbart.com

Posted on

The Sinking Titanic’s Great Pumps Finally Fail

The Sinking Titanic’s Great Pumps Finally Fail

Tyler Durden

Sun, 07/12/2020 – 13:35

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

The greater fools still partying in the first-class lounge are in denial that even the greatest, most technologically advanced ship can sink.

On April 14, 1912, the liner Titanic, considered unsinkable due to its watertight compartments and other features, struck a glancing blow against a massive iceberg on that moonless, weirdly calm night. In the early hours of April 15, the great ship broke in half and sank, ending the lives of the majority of its passengers and crew.

The usual analogy drawn between the Titanic and our financial meltdown stems from the initial complacency of the passengers after the collision. Some passengers went on deck to play with the ice scraped off the berg, while most returned to the festivities still working their magic as midnight approached.

The class structure of Edwardian Britain soon came into play, however; as the situation grew visibly threatening, the First Class passengers were herded into the few lifeboats while the steerage/Third Class passengers–many of them immigrants–were mostly kept below decks, sealing their doom.

But there are even more compelling analogies than initial complacency turning to panic. Consider this diagram of the great ship:

The large black rectangles on the lower deck represent the coal bunkers; they were located adjacent to the boilers which powered the engines. Though the ship only scraped against the iceberg, as Titanic explorer Robert Ballard explains, that was enough to pop rivets and open hull plates:

The glancing blow that ruptured the Titanic’s hull over a distance of roughly 250 feet (out of a full length of 882 feet) and admitted water into six of her compartments sealed her fate.

Considerable hullabaloo attended the attempt in the summer of 1996 to raise a piece of the hull from the debris field, but far more interesting was the ultrasound investigation of the area of the bow damaged by the iceberg. These images revealed six small tears or openings affecting the first six compartments. Just as we had surmised in 1986, the great gash was a myth and the actual openings into the ship seem to have been the result of rivets popping and hull plates separating.

This offers a very powerful analogy to the fatal damage inflicted on our financial system by an apparently "glancing blow" with the pandemic shutdown. Just as the Titanic was mortally wounded not by great tears in its hull but by the buckling of steel hull plates, so the U.S. (and thus global) financial system is sinking from similarly "glancing" blows.

The actual damage could have been contained–do you sense another analogy about to surface?– had the fifth watertight bulwark–shall we call it "the bulwark against systemic failure"?– extended a few decks higher. But inexplicably, this watertight barrier did not extend as high as the other watertight bulkheads.

Though the water gushing through a three-foot gash in the forward engine room was held back by the ship’s great pumps, as the bow sank lower then water seeped over the fifth watertight bulkhead and gushed into the boiler room, extinguishing the fires that powered the pumps.

This generated a feedback loop: the higher the water rose, the more boilers were extinguished and the less power was available to the pumps.

And so against all "rational odds," the ship’s apparently minor structural design flaw led to its inevitable loss as the mighty pumps lost their battle against the rising water.

To all the "experts," the risk of collision with an iceberg were considered low, while the risk of catastrophic damage were considered essentially zero. Hmm, does that remind you of our financial system circa September 2019, just as the great U.S. economy’s hull was buckling?

Now we have the Great Pumps of Federal Reserve money-printing and Stimulus, which in a close analogy are pumping trillions of dollars into the sinking U.S. economy. But just as the engines of the Titanic lost power as the water extinguished the boilers supplying steam to the engines, so the stimulus is only keeping the rising water temporarily at bay– it is not actually saving the "engines" of the economy from sputtering.

And what are those engines?

1. Debt, which must increase to fuel spending, income and thus taxes

2. Rising assets, which provide the basis for ever-more borrowing

3. Government borrowing, which enables government spending to keep rising without regard to actual tax revenues or the health of those being taxed

4. Rising employment as vast borrowing and spending creates new jobs

The ice-cold water is splashing into each of these engines. As assets fall then there is simply no foundation (collateral) to support more borrowing. As debt is paid down rather than expanded, then spending falls. As spending falls, so do revenues, profits and employment, all of which crimp tax revenues.

The last engine is government borrowing. To those still standing on the sloping deck, cheering the "good news" of Big Tech’s meteoric ascent to the heavens of bubble overvaluation, this seems like the engine which can never be extinguished. Through thick and thin the Federal government and the state and local governments (via muni bonds) have been able to borrow and spend stupendous sums seemingly without consequence.

The demise of this last great engine will surprise as many as the sinking of the Titanic did, but it is as inevitable as the sinking of the great ship. The pumps can only hold the water back for a while, but the Stimulus magic will expire sooner than anyone imagines.

As the government scrambles to find buyers for endless trillions in new U.S. bonds (and trillions more in new corporate debt, new mortgages, new consumer debt, student loans, new muni debt, etc.) then interest rates will rise and the great engine of ever-greater debt will hiss and sigh as the water rises and then go silent and cold.

The first-class passengers have already been ushered to their lifeboats. They’ve sold to the euphoric passengers buying Big Tech’s parabolic ascent and the greater fools still partying in the first-class lounge who are in denial that even the greatest, most technologically advanced ship can sink, taking everyone in denial down with it.

The sinking is not a possibility, it is an inevitability.

*  *  *

My recent books:

Will You Be Richer or Poorer?: Profit, Power, and AI in a Traumatized World ($13)

(Kindle $6.95, print $11.95) Read the first section for free (PDF).

Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic ($6.95 (Kindle), $12 (print), $13.08 ( audiobook): Read the first section for free (PDF).

The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher: The Disappearance of Drake $1.29 (Kindle), $8.95 (print); read the first chapters for free (PDF)

Money and Work Unchained $6.95 (Kindle), $15 (print) Read the first section for free (PDF).

*  *  *

If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

via ZeroHedge News

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.zerohedge.com/fullrss2.xml

Posted on

VIDEO: Protesters Attempt to Throw Caribou Heart at GOP Senator

Liberal protesters rushed Sen. Dan Sullivan (R., Alaska) with a bloody animal heart and smeared blood on his campaign signs Saturday night.

Video captured a woman approaching Sullivan and his wife Julie during a campaign event in a hangar at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Sullivan campaign manager Matt Shuckerow noticed and rushed forward before he was blocked by another woman, whom Shuckerow threw to the ground before he reached the podium to intervene, the Alaska Landmine reported.

As she was escorted out of the event, the first woman took what looked like a moose or caribou heart out of her bag but was prevented from throwing it. Some disjointed chants of "throw it" broke out as she was brought outside, presumably referring to the heart. A third woman rushed the stage with a banner but was quickly thwarted and also escorted out.

As they left, the protesters smeared what appeared to be blood on some of Sullivan’s signs. The Landmine reported that the women claimed to Anchorage police that they were assaulted.

Sullivan is up for reelection to a second term in November.

MustReadAlaska reported Sullivan had been tipped off that some of Democratic opponent Al Gross’s supporters would try to disrupt the meet-and-greet.

The post VIDEO: Protesters Attempt to Throw Caribou Heart at GOP Senator appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

via Washington Free Beacon

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://freebeacon.com

Posted on

Chicago Suffers Another Weekend Of Violence, Including Rush Hour Shooting On Major Highway

Chicago, in the midst of a dramatic spike in shootings and homicides, has once again had a record-setting weekend of violence, this time involving a rush-hour shootout on a crowded major highway.

“So far this weekend, 47 people have been shot, seven fatally in violence across the city,” ABC 7 Chicago reported Sunday. The latest victim, yet again, was a minor — this time, a 15-year-old boy who was killed in a hail of gunfire on the city’s southwest side.

“The teen, identified as Terrance Malden by family, was in the street when a light-colored vehicle pulled up and someone inside fired shots, Chicago police said,” according to ABC 7. “Malden was shot in the back. He was transported to the University of Chicago Hospital in critical condition, and later pronounced dead, Chicago police said.”

A 14-year-old boy was also shot this weekend, on the city’s west side. He was hit in the abdomen and remains in serious condition.

The violence caps off a weeks-long spike in violence in Chicago, which began just before Memorial Day and has continued unabated, despite the city’s increased efforts at controlling violence. Each Monday morning, Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot delivers a press conference on the state of the city, and the conferences have lately become a grim announcement of that weekend’s deadly toll.

In July, to date, 32 people have been shot and killed in the city and more than 180 shot and wounded. A number of minors are among the dead, including a 20-month-old boy shot while driving home from the laundromat with his mother.

This weekend’s violence kicked off with a shocking incident — a reported gang-related shooting on the city’s crowded Dan Ryan Expressway during rush hour Friday.

Following an altercation, a “29-year-old man crashed his vehicle near 79th Street on the Dan Ryan Expressway after he was shot while driving in the first block of East 99th Street,” the Chicago Tribune reported Friday. “The shooting happened about 3 p.m. Thursday in the 100 block of East 99th Street. The man heard shots and felt pain. He then proceeded to enter the expressway and crashed around 79th Street, police said.”

After crashing his car, the man, holding his wounds, ran through traffic towards a subway station adjacent to the highway. He was eventually apprehended and taken to the University of Chicago hospital.

Police closed two highways to conduct an investigation.

So far, this weekend, Chicago’s mayor and police chief have been silent on incidents of gun violence. Last week, the mayor, unable to articulate a concrete reason for the spike, blamed lax gun control laws and the coronavirus pandemic. This week, the city has been focused on cracking down on businesses to prevent the spread of the virus and made no announcement about an increase in police presence in targeted neighborhoods.

Chicago, of course, is far from the only city suffering a sudden spike in deadly shootings. Minneapolis, Baltimore, and several other cities are experiencing their own violence spikes.

 

via The Daily Wire

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.dailywire.com

Posted on

House Dems Trying To Undo Trump Economy with Obama-Era Reg That Cost Thousands of Jobs

An Obama-era regulation that one study said cost the nation more than 300,000 jobs is being brought out of mothballs by House Democrats. The 2015 regulation, which made parent companies liable for labor violations that franchisees or contractors committed, was killed off by the Trump administration when the National Labor Relations Board and the Department…

The post House Dems Trying To Undo Trump Economy with Obama-Era Reg That Cost Thousands of Jobs appeared first on The Western Journal.

via The Western Journal

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.westernjournal.com

Posted on

New Zealand To Quarantine People In Isolation ‘For Months, Maybe Years,’ Epidemiologist Says

Back in early June, reports swirled that New Zealand had beaten back the COVID-19 pandemic.

“New Zealand Hits Zero Active Coronavirus Cases,” U.S. News & World Report wrote June 8.

“Today, for the first time since February 28, New Zealand has no active cases of COVID-19. According to our modeling, it is now very likely (well above a 95% chance) New Zealand has completely eliminated the virus,” wrote Michael Baker and Nick Wilson, described as “two of the key epidemiologists who worked on New Zealand’s elimination strategy.”

On Sunday, the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering said the island nation had had just 1,544 confirmed cases and 22 deaths.

But it turns out there’s something else going on in New Zealand.

“A leading epidemiologist says ‘thousands of people’ will be quarantined in isolation facilities for months — and possibly years — into the future,” reported NewsHub, a New Zealand news site.

“We’re going to have thousands of people sitting in these facilities, quarantined in isolation facilities for months, maybe years ahead. Sensible risk management says when a mistake happens you figure out what went wrong, and you improve the system,” he told the site.

Baker’s remarks come amid reports that New Zealanders are breaking out of their facilities.

The latest escapee, a person in their 60s, broke the window of the Waipuna Hotel in Auckland on Friday and climbed out of the building. They then scaled the fence and began to knock on the doors of neighbouring homes.

Their escape is the fourth since last Saturday, when a woman scaled two fences to escape from Auckland’s Pullman Hotel. She was out of isolation for more than an hour.  On Tuesday, a 32-year-old man snuck through a gap in the Stamford Plaza fencing and visited an inner-city supermarket. The following day he tested positive for COVID-19.

The third person to have allegedly escaped from managed isolation was Martin James McVicar. He allegedly absconded from the Distinction Hotel in Hamilton on Thursday evening before entering a nearby liquor store and reportedly buying a four-pack of Leffe Blonde and a bottle of pinot noir.

All people entering New Zealand must stay remain in isolation or quarantine for at least 14 days after their arrival and test negative for coronavirus before they are allowed to return to public venues.

“In April, the country said it had ‘eliminated’ the virus as case numbers stayed in single figures, and in June, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that almost all domestic coronavirus restrictions would be lifted,” CNN reported on Friday. “New Zealand has seen several cases since.”

In mid-June, New Zealand announced its military would step in to oversee the country’s quarantine facilities and strengthen border requirements following a slip-up that allowed two people with COVID-19 to move around the country.

Alex Berenson, a former New York Times reporter turned COVID-19 watchdog, took to Twitter to highlight the reality in New Zealand.

“Don’t think developed nations with a tradition of respecting individual rights will trash them for #COVID? I have two words for you: New Zealand. Where indefinite confinement is already real, and PEOPLE IN ISOLATION ARE DESPERATELY TRYING TO BREAK FREE. Welcome to the occupation,” he wrote.

The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.

 

 

via The Daily Wire

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.dailywire.com

Posted on

USA Today Ratio’d Into Oblivion After ‘Fact Check’ Deems American Eagle A Nazi Symbol

USA Today Ratio’d Into Oblivion After ‘Fact Check’ Deems American Eagle A Nazi Symbol

Tyler Durden

Sun, 07/12/2020 – 12:45

USA Today is the latest MSM outlet whose ‘woke’ progressive staff is so anti-Trump that they deemed the American eagle a ‘nazi’ symbol, after the Trump campaign rolled out t-shirts featuring the iconic bird.

The ‘fact check’, brought to us by USA Today‘s Will Peebles, takes its direction from anti-Trump GOP operatives at the Lincoln Project as well as Jewish progressive group, Bend the Arc – the latter of which tweeted on July 1: "The President of the United States is campaigning for reelection with a Nazi symbol. Again"

USA Today took the bait, publishing a fact-check which was heavily ‘ratio’d’ on Twitter – meaning, more people are slamming the outlet than ‘liking’ or ‘retweeting’ their post. 

After their initial tweet came under fire, the outlet issued a lame ‘clarification’ noting "the eagle is a longtime US symbol, too."

Oh…

Reactions have been hilarious, with many pointing out that it’s the icon used by the Speaker of the House:

via ZeroHedge News

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.zerohedge.com/fullrss2.xml