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Economy Links from other news sources. Reprints from others.

Biden telling tall tales. Again.

Biden telling tall tales. Again. Thanks to Gateway Pundit and Fox for the background.

 

Former Reagan administration economist Larry Kudlow destroyed President Joe Biden’s claims Wednesday that Bidenomics is “working” and superior to Reaganomics.

In a speech in Chicago, Biden said, “I knew we couldn’t go back to the same failed policies when I ran, so I came into office determined to change the economic direction of this country, to move from trickle-down economics to what everyone on Wall Street Journal and Financial Times began to call ‘Bidenomics.’”

Trickle-down economics” is the derisive term leftists use to try to dismiss the economic boom the nation experienced under President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, when the economy grew an entire third larger, adding over 16 million jobs.

“And guess what? Bidenomics is working,” the president claimed. “When I took office, the pandemic was raging and our economy was reeling, supply chains were broken, millions of people unemployed, hundreds of thousands of small businesses on the verge of closing after so many had already closed — literally, hundreds of thousands on the verge of closing.

“Today, the U.S. has the highest economic growth rate, leading the world economies since the pandemic. The highest in the world.”

It’s not clear exactly what criteria Biden was using, but according to Statista, India’s GDP growth rate in 2022 was 6.8 percent, Canada’s was 3.4 percent and China’s was 2.99 percent, while in the U.S. it was 2.1 percent.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the GDP growth rate for the first quarter of 2023 was 2 percent. So Biden appears to be prevaricating again.

He also claimed that his administration has created 13.4 million jobs since taking office. “More jobs in two years than any president has ever made in four — in two,” the president said Wednesday.

The GOP-controlled House Budget Committee and other fact-checkers have pointed out Biden’s characterization of new jobs his administration created is misleading because most were simply jobs added back following the pandemic.

“Nearly 72 percent of all job gains since 2021 were simply jobs that were being recovered from the pandemic, not new job creation. In fact, when looking at today’s economy compared to pre-pandemic levels, employment is up only by 3.7 million,” the committee said.

“On the other hand, prior to the pandemic, job creation under President [Donald] Trump was 6.7 million — 3 million more jobs than the current President,” it said.

In fact, when Biden took office in January 2021, the unemployment rate had already dropped from a pandemic high of 14.7 percent in April 2020 to 6.3 percent. It is now 3.7 percent.

So the economy was not “reeling” but well on the way to recovery when Biden became president, with Trump’s pro-growth policies still in place.

Kudlow, who was Trump’s top economist in addition to working for Reagan, noted on his Fox Business program Wednesday the “reeling” GDP growth rate when Trump left office was 6.5 percent. CNBC reported it at 6.3 percent during the first quarter of 2021 before Biden’s policies began to kick in.

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America's Heartland Biden Pandemic Corruption COVID Faked news

The Amish Died of COVID at a Rate 90 Times LOWER Than the Rest of America

 

FROM THE VIGILANT FOX

“I did the calculation,” testified Steve Kirsch in front of the Pennsylvania State Senate.

Given that five Amish people died in Lancaster County, PA, “the Amish died at a rate 90 times lower than the infection fatality rate of the United States of America.”

“Now, how is that possible?” Steve Kirsch asked. “It’s possible because the Amish aren’t vaccinated. And because the Amish didn’t follow a single guideline of the CDC,” he answered.

“They did not lock down. They did not mask. They did not social distance. They did not vaccinate, and there were no mandates in the Amish community to get vaccinated. They basically ignored every single guideline that the CDC gave us. Ignoring those guidelines meant a death rate 90 times lower than the rest of America.”

 

Here’s the video transcript for those who want to read more:

Let’s talk about the Amish. Yesterday, I drove to Lancaster County (Pennsylvania). I drove to Amish country. I drove from house to house to house. I actually went to the house of a relative of Gideon King. He’s the one person, the only known person in the Amish community who supposedly died from COVID — that I’m aware of.

Now, they say there may be up to five people in Lancaster County who died from COVID, but I was unable to get the names of five people. I offered a $2,500 reward on Twitter. Hey, give me the names of more than five people in Lancaster County who died from COVID. Not a single person was able to name more than one person. They all named Gideon King. One guy.

So, I actually went to the house of Sam King, who’s a relative of Gideon King. And I talked to Sam. He doesn’t know if Gideon actually died from COVID or not. He died in the hospital. They think it was COVID, but maybe he died from the COVID hospital protocols. Okay.

So, you look at the Amish. I did the calculation. Let’s say there were five Amish people — because people say, I think there were maybe a few, or maybe there were five Amish people. And then I asked them, okay, can you name them? And nobody can name them.

But let’s say that we could name them — and there were five Amish people who died. That means the Amish died at a rate 90 times lower than the infection fatality rate of the United States of America. The Amish died at 90 times lower rate from COVID than America — than the rest of America.

Now, how is that possible? It’s possible because the Amish aren’t vaccinated. And because the Amish didn’t follow a single guideline of the CDC. They did not lock down. They did not mask. They did not social distance, They did not vaccinate, and there were no mandates in the Amish community to get vaccinated. They basically ignored every single guideline that the CDC gave us. Ignoring those guidelines meant a death rate 90 times lower than the rest of America.

So you talk about taking guidance from the WHO? Why don’t we copy what works? In fact, wouldn’t it be great to say in the next pandemic that Pennsylvania will take guidance from the Amish instead of the WHO? And you will be much, much better off.

Steve Kirsch breaks down the numbers in more detail on his Substack page:
Steve Kirsch’s newsletter
BREAKING: The US COVID mitigation measures resulted in 90X higher COVID deaths
Executive summary On May 22, 2023, I offered a $2,500 reward for anyone to give me the names of more than 5 Amish people in Lancaster, PA (which is the world’s largest single community of Amish people with over 45,000 people) who died from COVID. Nobody could do that. I got a few names. And nobody could name anyone under 50 years old who was suspected of…
Read more

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The Courts

But, but you mean the black folk are now going to have to learn the three R’s?

But, but you mean the black folk are now going to have to learn the three R’s? Some may never get to graduate from high school let alone get into college. I guess that’s the way it has to be.

The Supreme Court today told the countries schools that a free pass is over for those who refuse to learn. By a 6-3 vote. Colleges were actually playing one race against another. Orientals you study and learn. You are not accepted. Blacks you want to play sports, riot, and reject learning. You are what we’re looking for.

Well my brothers and sisters are now going to have to do something that they’re not used to. study.

Categories
Biden Cartel Corruption Links from other news sources. Reprints from others.

Are the walls closing in on ol’ Joe?

Article first was posted on The Spectator.

Are the walls closing in on ol’ Joe?

Confronted with devastating evidence of Biden family grifting, the president’s advocates are abandoning their old defenses and trying some new ones.

Some are attempting to change the subject. Nancy Pelosi offers a sterling example. Asked about the latest evidence connecting Joe Biden with Hunter’s corrupt schemes, she replied that she was too busy defending women’s reproductive rights. Not exactly a full-throated defense of the president. Still others are repeating the familiar refrain, “But Trump is worse.” (More on that in a minute.)

Finally, a shrinking band of Biden supporters are sticking with their old line: you may have caught everyone who shares Joe’s DNA, but you haven’t caught ol’ Joe himself. That’s true, but the evidence of the president’s involvement is mounting and the allegations are detailed. The charges are so obvious and the evidence so serious that even mainstream reporters are asking about them. The president’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, stands mute. So does her more competent stand-in, John Kirby. KJP not only told the press she knows nothing, she told them she would not privately ask the president about the charges so she could respond to press inquiries.

What Joe’s defenders are increasingly reluctant to say is, “He had absolutely nothing to do with the vast sums raked in by his son, brother, daughter-in-law and minor grandchildren. He knew nothing. He had no knowledge of the intricate web of shell companies his family used to move money around and hide its sources and recipients. He doesn’t know any honest business people who have used these covert methods. He did nothing to help his son, Hunter, his brother, James, or other family members. The president is completely ignorant of anything they did and did nothing to help them.” That’s his story.

 

 

Many of Joe’s defenders have backed away from a straightforward declaration that “he’s innocent,” and instead render the Scottish verdict, “Not proven.” So far, they are right — the case isn’t proven yet. But the walls are closing in, both on Joe himself and on his defenders at the Department of Justice, IRS and FBI.

As the evidence builds, so does the stench surrounding Hunter’s sweetheart deal with the US Attorney for Delaware, David Weiss. The charges Weiss filed could have been made after a month’s investigation, not the five years it took as the statutes of limitation ran out on various, more serious charges. The proposed deal looks less like justice and more like insider favoritism. The deal comes before a federal judge on July 26, and she may have the same questions. She has the authority to reject the deal.

The Biden family’s problems go beyond this deal and beyond the latest revelation: Hunter’s threatening WhatsApp message to his Chinese business partner, which states that Joe was in the room with Hunter and joined in the threat. We now know that the message itself was real, but we don’t know if Joe was really sitting beside Hunter or participating in the transaction, as Hunter claimed. We do know the threat worked. The business partner, who is closely tied to senior members of the Chinese Communist Party, quickly sent another Hunter another $5.1 million.

The larger problem for Joe Biden is that two whistleblowers from the IRS have made extremely detailed charges that political influence was used to delay and suppress the investigation of Hunter Biden and to prohibit any investigation that would touch Joe Biden himself. The whistleblower allegations are not vague suspicions; they are specific charges that can be investigated by House Republicans, using their subpoena power.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has denied all those allegations, both in press conferences and in sworn testimony before Congress. US Attorney Weiss also denied the allegations in a letter to Congress. Garland has said Weiss can speak publicly about this and testify, if needed. Some testimony and congressional inquiry are needed because the charges are serious and the responses by Garland and Weiss flatly contract the whistleblowers’ statements.

 

 

If the DoJ, FBI and IRS stonewall the investigation, the House could launch an impeachment inquiry against Garland. The immediate goal would not be to remove Garland but to breach the stone wall. Courts have ruled that, when Congress launches an impeachment inquiry, it has a right to all the Executive Branch’s relevant information for that inquiry. The disadvantage for Republicans is that voters want Congress to deal with issues that affect them directly — the economy, immigration, crime, inflation, and more — not launch more partisan investigations.

Joe Biden’s vulnerability here goes beyond the evidence turned up by the House Ways and Means and Oversight Committees, and by Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson. It’s that the lower Joe Biden sinks in the polls and the weaker he looks for reelection, the less other Democrats will want to support him in the corruption inquiries.

Still, Joe’s defenders do have one last line of defense, and it’s a familiar one. “What about Trump? Isn’t he worse?” As evidence of corruption, they point to Jared Kushner’s extremely lucrative deals in the Middle East, made after Trump left office. They have support from at least one articulate Republican, with a lot of prosecutorial experience, Chris Christie. He jailed Jared’s father years ago and has said the son’s deals are another sign of corrupt, insider politics.

Whether Christie is right or not, the allegations that both Biden and Trump are corrupt makes false comparisons and misses the larger point.

Take the Kushner deals. Jared wasn’t simply a nameplate, as Hunter was. Jared was a senior White House advisor and played a central role in facilitating the Abraham Accords (a term the Biden administration will not even utter). Second, after the Trump administration ended and Kushner got his deal, it was clear Jared was no longer inside Trump’s political circle and was out of favor with the former president. Third, Trump himself made his money not by monetizing his public position, but by inheritance, real estate projects, and television fame. In fact, holding public office probably cost Trump money, which was only partially offset by people staying at his Washington hotel. By contrast, public office was the real source of Biden family wealth.

There is a larger point here. The most damning allegations against Donald Trump are very different from those against Joe Biden. They are that Trump sought to undermine our constitutional democracy by refusing to accept the outcome of a legitimate presidential election.

 

 

Those charges are true; what’s still unproven is whether he did anything illegal in the process. Trump did refuse to accept the 2020 outcome and still refuses, as he made clear in a recent interview with Bret Baier on Fox News. Whether that refusal involved illegal acts is the heart of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s inquiries about “fake electors” and encouraging January 6 rioters. (Those are separate from the charges about holding classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and lying about returning them.)

The allegations against Joe Biden are that he was the centerpiece of a family enrichment operation, monetized his public position, that he was well aware of his son and brother’s activities, and that his allies in the DoJ and IRS blocked inquiries in this tangle of corruption.

Edited.

 

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Links from other news sources. Progressive Racism Reprints from others. Uncategorized WOKE

Rachel Bush, wife of Bills’ Jordan Poyer, says charity golf event was nixed ‘due to the arrogance of others’.

Rachel Bush, wife of Bills’ Jordan Poyer, says charity golf event was nixed ‘due to the arrogance of others’.

Rachel Bush, the wife of Buffalo Bills safety Jordan Poyer, spoke out Sunday after the NFL star’s celebrity charity golf tournament was canceled when the beneficiary pulled out due to the location of the event.

The event was supposed to be held next week at Trump National Doral. However, Poyer’s representatives, Avalon Sports, said “we were sadly surprised by negative comments by some individuals to make this a political battle and continue to divide our community.”

 

Jordan Poyer in Buffalo

Jordan Poyer, #21 of the Buffalo Bills, warms up prior to a game against the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Divisional Playoff game at Highmark Stadium on Jan. 22, 2023 in Orchard Park, New York. (Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Images)

Poyer said the ECMC Foundation “decided they didn’t want to take part in my tournament in which they took part in last year because of where it’s at, at Trump National Doral in South Florida.”

Bush explained further on her Twitter page.

“Let’s be very clear. Jordan did not cancel his event,” she wrote. “We will always stand proudly with our beliefs and hold true to them. Publicly. And we can easily spend our own money to fund the tournament. It wasn’t about that. Tournament will be at same spot next year. Trump’s course.

Jordan Poyer in Arizona

Rachel Bush and Jordan Poyer attend Shaq’s Fun House Big Game Weekend at Talking Stick Resort on Feb. 10, 2023 in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

“The event was cancelled due to the arrogance of others, and then backing out last minute leaving us in a difficult spot to make everything happen properly. Especially while we are on a family vacation.. We want it to be great and next year it will be outstanding! Thank you!

“And huge thank you to Trump & all the amazing sponsors (literally so many!!) that offered to sponsor the tournament. We appreciate you all! As well as the fans and supporters! Right left whatever hopefully next year we can all come together for a good cause! Location aside..love!”

Rachel Bush and Jordan Poyer in Scottsdale

Rachel Bush and Jordan Poyer attend Tao X Maxim Big Game Party:  An unKommon events Production at Southwest Jet Center on Feb. 11, 2023 in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Jerritt Clark/Getty Images for unKommon events)

Bush and Poyer have been married since 2018.

Poyer has been with the Bills since 2017. He signed a two-year extension with Buffalo in the offseason. He was an All-Pro first team selection in 2021 and a Pro Bowler in 2022. Last season, he had 63 tackles and four interceptions.

Categories
Child Abuse Emotional abuse How sick is this? Links from other news sources.

This is what white progressives call normal.

This is what white progressives call normal. In Seattle, fully naked men exposed themselves to children at a pride parade in Seattle, Washington on Sunday while riding bicycles. In Toronto, nudists with hats marched in the parade. Fox News revealed several children walked past the group of men with their families.

Nuff Said.

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Economy Links from other news sources. Reprints from others.

Lordstown Motors files bankruptcy, sues Foxconn

Lordstown Motors files bankruptcy, sues Foxconn

NEW YORK, June 27 (Reuters) – Lordstown Motors (RIDE.O) filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday and put itself up for sale after the U.S. electric truck manufacturer failed to resolve a dispute over a promised investment from Taiwan’s Foxconn.

Shares of Lordstown tumbled 35.6% in trading before the bell.

The automaker, named after the Ohio town where it is based, filed for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware and simultaneously took legal action against Foxconn.

In a complaint filed in bankruptcy court, Lordstown accused the electronics company of fraudulent conduct and a series of broken promises in failing to abide by an agreement to invest up to $170 million in the electric-vehicle manufacturer.

Foxconn previously invested about $52.7 million in Lordstown as part of the agreement, and currently holds an almost 8.4% stake in the EV maker. Lordstown contends Foxconn is balking at purchasing additional shares of its stock as promised and misled the EV maker about collaborating on vehicle development plans.

Foxconn, formally called Hon Hai Precision Industry (2317.TW)(2317.TW) and best known for assembling Apple’s (AAPL.O) iPhones, has said Lordstown breached the investment agreement when the automaker’s stock fell below $1 per share. Foxconn did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The twin filings set up an international business clash that could intensify scrutiny of Foxconn’s EV ambitions and partnerships, not only with Lordstown but also other automakers.

The lawsuit portrays Foxconn as consistently shifting goal posts in its collaboration with Lordstown on the automaker’s future vehicles, which included failing to meet funding commitments and refusing to engage with the company on initiatives Foxconn allegedly directed and purported to support.

Lordstown, a startup launched in 2018, said in a regulatory filing earlier this month that it had planned to sue Foxconn after receiving a letter from the company that led Lordstown to believe Foxconn was unlikely to make its additional expected investment.

Lordstown accused Foxconn in that regulatory filing of engaging in a “pattern of bad faith” that caused “material and irreparable harm” to the company. Even in May, Lordstown warned it might be forced to file for bankruptcy amid uncertainty over the Foxconn investment.

The automaker’s main product is the Endurance electric pickup truck, which is built at a former General Motors small-car factory in Lordstown, Ohio, for commercial customers such as local governments. Lordstown sold the plant to Foxconn in 2022.

Lordstown paused production of the Endurance earlier this year and since April has resumed building the trucks at a low rate after resolving quality issues with suppliers. The automaker’s shares have plunged since February and currently trade under $3.

Should Lordstown fail to find a rescuer willing to re-start full production of the Endurance, the Ohio factory now owned by Foxconn could be a draw for overseas automakers looking for a quick way to build vehicles in the United States.

Lordstown filed for bankruptcy with plans to seek a buyer. It does not have an initial offer in hand, known in bankruptcy parlance as a stalking-horse bidder, which sets a minimum price other suitors can top in an auction.

Lordstown Chief Executive Edward Hightower told Reuters the Endurance business could prove attractive to another automaker looking for a fast entry into the EV market at a time the Biden administration’s policies are attempting to move away from gasoline-powered cars.

Lordstown’s bankruptcy is not the first among the crop of EV startups that went public during the pandemic-era SPAC boom. But Lordstown was a high-profile member of that class because it was challenging the core of the legacy Detroit automakers’ business of high-margin pickup trucks, and because of its location.

The Lordstown factory in Northeast Ohio was formerly a GM (GM.N) small-car factory that GM decided to close in November 2018. Then-U.S. President Donald Trump and other Ohio political leaders put pressure on GM CEO Mary Barra to reverse the decision, or find a buyer. GM agreed to sell the plant to a newly-formed entity called Lordstown Motors founded by the former top executive at an electric truck maker called Workhorse Group.

Lordstown went public in October 2020 through a reverse merger with special purpose acquisition company DiamondPeak Holdings, joining a flock of EV startups that went public through such deals in that period.

Like several others, including truck maker Nikola (NKLA.O), Lordstown has struggled to live up to the high expectations of early investors. In 2021, its chief executive and founder, Stephen Burns, resigned after the automaker acknowledged it had overstated pre-orders for its electric trucks.

Lordstown’s finance chief at the time also resigned. Burns has since sold his entire stake in Lordstown, according to a June regulatory filing.

As Lordstown wrestled during 2021 and 2022 with investigations by regulators and the U.S. Justice Department, Ford Motor (F.N) was launching its electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck, aiming at commercial customers.

EV startup Rivian (RIVN.O) launched its luxury electric pickup in 2022. GM and Stellantis have announced plans for electric pickups. Elon Musk’s Tesla (TSLA.O) has promised it will begin producing its Cybertruck late this year.

Lordstown struggled to ramp up production of its Endurance trucks over the past several months amid the dispute with Foxconn, challenging market conditions and the cost-intensive nature of its business, the company has said.

The few trucks that the company assembled had material costs that were “substantially higher than our selling price,” Lordstown said in a May regulatory filing.

Reporting by Mike Spector in New York, Joseph White in Detroit and Dietrich Knauth in New York Editing by Nick Zieminski and Dhanya Ann Thoppil

 

Categories
Biden Cartel Corruption Links from other news sources. The Courts

Winning. Judge Rules Witness List in Trump Case Can’t Be Secret.

Winning. Judge Rules Witness List in Trump Case Can’t Be Secret. Special prosecutor Smith tried to hide his witness list. Claims 84 witnesses but wanted to keep those secret. Well the judge said NO.

Judge Cannon rejected the request made by special counsel Jack Smith to keep a list of 84 potential witnesses confidential. “The Government’s Motion does not explain why filing the list with the Court is necessary; it does not offer a particularized basis to justify sealing the list from public view; it does not explain why partial sealing, redaction, or means other than sealing are unavailable or unsatisfactory; and it does not specify the duration of any proposed seal,” Judge Aileen Cannon wrote

 

Categories
Corruption Faked news Politics Reprints from others.

How to Spot a Bogus “News” Site

You should ask questions before believing that enraging story and posting it on social media.

With stories, as with hot dogs, you may want to ask what’s inside and where it comes from. (Nati Harnik/AP)

[Note: the original article is from Margaret Sullivan, a former columnist for WAPO, so of course, all the “bad actors” she cites are “Republican” or “conservative.” Naturally, the left never does any of this, do they Media Matters for America?]

Vetting news sources has never been more difficult than in today’s most complex information environment.

With no shortage of websites and social media accounts claiming to be credible—often propagated by bad-faith actors—how can you tell what’s legit from what’s not? The crisis of local news outlets shutting down across the country has only exacerbated this problem, making it easier for nefarious forces to fill the void with “pink slime” sites with misleading names.

[“Pink slime” refers to processed lean beef trimmings, and is a cheap filler used to “beef up” many meat products. It is made by salvaging the meat that gets trimmed off cuts of beef along with fat. The the salvaged meat is squeezed through a pipe and sprayed with ammonia to kill bacteria, after which it is dyed pink, packaged into bricks, frozen and shipped to meat packing plants. — TPR]

In 2020, the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at the Columbia Journalism School identified at least 1,200 such sites.

It’s always tempting to share the news that comes across our social media feeds when it not only seems outrageous but also confirms our biases, fears, or suspicions.

“See?!” we seem to say as we retweet or post; this latest exciting development is just what we knew could happen all along!

But there’s a question we need to ask these days before sharing one of these scintillating stories with friends and followers: Is it true?

Increasingly, “articles” that look like news may be something entirely different — false or misleading information grounded not in evidence but in partisan politics, produced not by reporters for a local newspaper but by inexperienced writers who are paid, in essence, to spread propaganda.

Last [year] provided a case in point when what looked like a legitimate news story went viral.

Published in the “West Cook News,” the story purported to reveal that a suburban Chicago school would soon be giving students different grades depending on their race. It started like this:

“Oak Park and River Forest High School administrators will require teachers next school year to adjust their classroom grading scales to account for the skin color or ethnicity of its students. … In an effort to equalize test scores among racial groups, OPRF will order its teachers to exclude from their grading assessments variables it says disproportionally hurt the grades of black students. They can no longer be docked for missing class, misbehaving in school or failing to turn in their assignments, according to the plan.”

There was a big problem, though: It wasn’t true.

It found a ready audience. “But of course,” tweeted the conservative author Andrew Sullivan, as he shared the story to his hundreds of thousands of followers.

He was far from alone in promoting the story. There was a big problem, though: It wasn’t true.

The school issued an unequivocal statement denying the story. While school board members have considered all sorts of research about grading practices — the bogus story relied on out-of-context material presented in a meeting for discussion — the school “does not, nor has it ever had a plan to, grade any students differently based on race.” Georgetown professor Donald Moynihan debunked the story point by point: “The piece has failed the most basic journalistic standard: it has not provided evidence either for the sensationalistic headline or its core claims.”

Some of those who shared it later expressed regret or deleted their original posts, as Sullivan did, but, of course, it’s impossible to put the viral genie back in the bottle.

This single incident was bad enough; what’s worse is what it shows us about our poisoned news environment. While fact-based, accountable local newspapers are struggling to survive — many of them facing budget cuts or closure — what’s known as “pink slime” sites are sneakily trying to fill the void. They traffic in falsehood and exaggeration, paid for by political groups.

“These sites are insidious,” said Alan Miller, founder, and CEO of the News Literacy Project, the D.C.-based nonprofit organization that works to make students and the public smarter news consumers and better citizens.

Named after a meat-processing byproduct used as filler — in other words, it looks like meat but isn’t — pink slime news sites are often funded through secret and politically motivated “dark money” contributions. And they are growing fast. In 2020, the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at the Columbia Journalism School identified at least 1,200 such sites.

With names such as the Des Moines Sun and Illinois Valley Times, they leverage the trust that people have for local newspapers, built up over many decades, to boost their own dubious credibility. Their content is “rooted in deception, eschewing hallmarks of news reporting like fairness and transparency,” according to a New York Times investigation that referred to them as “Pay-for-Play” outlets. Most of them, for example, don’t disclose the funding they get from advocacy groups. Davey Alba, one of the reporters who co-wrote the Times investigation, noted that the “West Cook News” is part of a network of local sites run by Republican operatives.

Meanwhile, of course, local newspapers are shrinking or dying. Between 2005 and the start of the pandemic, about 2,100 newspapers were closed, as I detailed in my book, “Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy.” And although many legitimate and admirable news sites have sprung up to help fill the gap, it isn’t always easy for news consumers to know the difference.

I asked Miller for his advice to news consumers.

First, he said, take a pause when you see a story that gets your blood pressure jumping: “Don’t let your emotions take over. If something makes us angry, anxious or excited, that’s when we are most vulnerable to being manipulated.”

Then, he suggested, spend a minute doing your own research. Glance at the comments to see whether anyone has done a fact-check or has credibly challenged the findings. Use a search engine to see whether any other news outlets have covered this story. Try to find the original source of the story or ask the person who shared the post for evidence supporting the claim. Ask yourself whether it seems too good to be true.

You don’t need to take all of these steps, he noted, acknowledging that this is more work than most people will probably undertake. But “doing any of them will be beneficial.”

The News Literacy Project has managed to reach tens of thousands of educators and, through them, potentially millions of students. Because older people are most likely to share false information, according to research published in 2019 in the journal Science Advances, the News Literacy Project is working with an affiliate of AARP and hopes to expand the partnership. [Meaning they can think for themselves — well, some of them, anyway. Ageism by the left: how shocking! — TPR]

There’s really only one solution, after all: skeptical awareness.

News consumers must cultivate their own ability to know the difference between journalistic meat and fraudulent filler.

And, whatever their politics may be, those who care about truth need to slow down — way down — before sharing content that appeals to their emotions or preconceived ideas. It’s increasingly likely that it may be nothing but slime.


[Although trying to pin all these “pink slime” sites on the political opposition, Sullivan does make valid points about how to view “news” items that might not be as objective — or even truthful (#RIPJeremy Renner was a hoax, yet trended on Twitter just the other day) — as we want our news to be. —TPR]

Categories
Child Abuse Emotional abuse Links from other news sources. Medicine Science

If a so called scientist says Transgender is the norm, they’re practicing junk science.

If a so called scientist says Transgender is the norm, they’re practicing junk science. Sadly the folks making the loudest noise are white progressives who’s education barely goes past the eight grade.

There is a male and a female. Not male who thinks they’re female and vice versa. Also the numbers are small. How small?  A staggering 99%-plus of the population does not have the physical traits that cause someone to become transgender. People with gender dysphoria — a condition that causes extreme distress — deserve empathy and respect. But only a miniscule 0.6% of the adult population has it, says the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, an LGBTQ think tank.

So why would you teach this to normal children? More children claim to be transgender, but isn’t that because you have adults who have their attention ( Teachers ) 6-8 hours a day? And adults who tell the children to keep this hid from their parents.

Normal, no. It is a rare condition. Most gender dysphoria manifests in early childhood, according to a 2020 study at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, so guidance counselors and teachers should be trained to offer families help. But there’s no reason to incorporate it into the curriculum, inviting children to choose their pronouns and confusing the 99% who don’t have the condition.

Can normalcy win this? The US Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled last year that an Ohio public university could not force a professor to address transgender students using their chosen pronouns contrary to the professor’s Christian beliefs. This month, Shawnee State University agreed to pay the professor $400,000 to settle his suit.