Every journalism student should have to read The Copycat Effect.
Archive for 2016
June 12, 2016
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Man Walks Around Without A Heart For 17 Months.
IMAM SPEAKING IN ORLANDO SAID GAYS MUST BE KILLED OUT OF ‘COMPASSION.’
WHATEVER WE DO, LET’S NOT CONFUSE THE NARRATIVE: Politico: Tension over LGBT angle to Orlando massacre.
ON AMAZON STREAMING VIDEO: 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Not Getting Any? Blame Netflix.
MAN WITH WEAPONS AND POSSIBLE EXPLOSIVES ARRESTED, SAID HE WAS GOING TO L.A. GAY PRIDE PARADE, LA Times reports.
Related: “Cops with long guns stationed at Stonewall Inn and other prominent lgbt locations,” Erin Durkin of the New York Daily News tweets.
UPDATE: Southern California NBC affiliate contradicts the L.A. Times’ report: “Despite an earlier report from Santa Monica’s police chief, the man did not indicate he was targeting LA’s PRIDE festivities, only that he intended to go to the event.”
ORLANDO NIGHT CLUB ATTACK BY ‘KNOWN WOLF’ TERRORIST PREVIOUSLY INVESTIGATED BY FBI:
Omar Mateen of Port Saint Lucie, Florida, came to the attention of federal authorities twice prior to being identified as the gunman in the Orlando nightclub mass shooting, a senior law enforcement source told The Daily Beast.
Mateen 53 people and shot more than 100 in total at the Pulse gay nightclub early Sunday morning, in the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.
The senior law enforcement source reports that Mateen became a person of interest in 2013 and again in 2014. The Federal Bureau of Investigation at one point opened an investigation into Mateen but subsequently closed the case when it produced nothing that appeared to warrant further investigation.
“He’s a known quantity,” the source said. “He’s been on the radar before.”
Mateen was a U.S. citizen; his parents are from Afghanistan, CBS News reports.
“The FBI is already circling the wagons that Marteen was just ‘one of hundreds’ of ISIS,’ Patrick Poole adds. “This is not the first time that the gay community has been targeted by would-be jihadists. In fact, an imam speaking in Orlando in April said that killing gays according to Islamic law should be done ‘out of compassion.’”
Read the whole thing.
Related: “This appears to be the voter data on the terrorist (yes, he’s a registered Democrat).”
More: Ex-wife of suspected Orlando shooter: “He was not a stable person. He beat me. He would just come home and start beating me up because the laundry wasn’t finished or something like that.”
IT’S A SPECIAL FORM OF DEMENTIA THAT AFFECTS GUILTY POLITICIANS: Elizabeth Warren & Joe Biden’s Memory Problems.
OMAR MATEEN, THE FLORIDA CLUB SHOOTER, was a registered Democrat, Howie Carr reports. Democrats need to purge themselves of this anti-gay hate.
UPDATE NEWSPEAK DICTIONARIES ACCORDINGLY: In our brave, new world, the proper use of English is now a microagression.
But isn’t bitching about being micro-aggressed itself a micro-aggression?
NEWS YOU CAN USE: What Do You Do When Your Home’s Sewer Line Collapses? “Ultimately, it was discovered that we had a major breakdown of Orangeburg piping, which is a product used for sewer lines on many homes from the mid 1940’s through the 1970’s. It originated as a fiber conduit pipe that became commonly known as Orangeburg, after the synonymous New York based company that supplied much of the East Coast in that period. Its spread was necessitated by the shortage of iron and harder materials of World War II’s manufacturing needs but continued after the war because it was inexpensive. According to Arizona infrastructure expert and historian Jon Schladweiler, fiber conduit pipe is made from wood pulp that is centrifugally spin and formed into the shape of a pipe, dried, and then sealed with a hot, liquefied coal-tar pitch. Schladweiler joked over the phone that it is essentially a ‘coal tar impregnated toilet paper tube.’”
TERROR ATTACK AT ORLANDO GAY BAR KILLS 50 OR MORE: “The quick acknowledgement that this was a terrorist attack leads one to believe that the gunman is a ‘known wolf’ terrorist. Indeed, it’s being reported that the unnamed gunman had made terrorist threats before,” Rick Moran writes at PJM.
The London Daily Mail adds, “The gunman, who was born to Afghan parents, was carrying a suspicious device, possibly a suicide vest, when he opened fire on the dance floor inside [the Orlando club called] Pulse in the early hours of this morning…The FBI believe the gunman, who was shot dead by officers, may have ‘leanings to radical Islamic terrorism.’”
USA Today describes the incident as the deadliest shooting in US history.
“Mir Seddique, Mateen’s father told NBC News, ‘this has nothing to do with religion.’ Seddique said his son got angry when he saw two men kissing in Miami a couple of months ago and thinks that may be related to the shooting. ‘We are saying we are apologizing for the whole incident. We weren’t aware of any action he is taking. We are in shock like the whole country,’ Seddique said.”
At Hot Air, Jazz Shaw responds to the above quote by Seddique:
If you’ll forgive a bit of skepticism on my part, that sounds unlikely. I’m not saying that Seddiqui couldn’t have been anti-gay. (Islamic terrorists aren’t exactly known for taking part in pride parades, after all.) But that’s a pretty violent reaction for having “seen two men kissing.” The guy lives in northern Florida and this is the first time in almost thirty years he’s run across two gay guys engaging in a PDA?
“What bears noting is the timing, occurring in the holy month of Ramadan, which has historically been when ISIS & al-Qaeda ramp up attacks,” one of the co-bloggers at Ace of Spades adds.
“House Homeland Security Chair McCaul: ‘This appears to be the worst terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11.'”
Damian Paletta of the Wall Street Journal tweets, “Rep. [Adam] Schiff, [D-CA] who is always cautious, says Dept. of Homeland Security told him Orlando shooter made pledge of allegiance to Islamic State.”
IN THE MAIL: From Dana Loesch, Flyover Nation: You Can’t Run a Country You’ve Never Been To.
Plus, today only at Amazon: Little Giant 22-Foot Velocity Multi-Use Ladder, 300-Pound Duty Rating, $196.99 (34% off).
And, also today only: Goal Zero 23000 Yeti 400 Solar Generator, $300 (35% off). There are also 150 watt and 1250 watt models, also on sale.
Plus, Vanguard 10×42 Spirit ED Binocular, $149.99 (47% off).
TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1130.
GREAT MOMENTS IN POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: “U.S. citizen or not, Texas valedictorians should make us proud,” says Dallas Morning News intern (and 2016 University of Austin graduate) Mac McCann:
McKinney Boyd High School valedictorian Larissa Martinez had a 4.95 GPA and took 17 AP classes. Soon, she’s heading to Yale on a full scholarship. In her graduation speech, Larissa declared, “I am one of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the shadows of the United States.” Her speech received a well-deserved standing ovation.
Down in Austin, Mayte Lara Ibarra recently graduated from Crockett High School. She was the valedictorian, with a 4.5 GPA, and graduated with 13 cords and medals. At her graduation June 3, before giving her valedictorian speech, she introduced the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem. Soon, she’ll be headed to my alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin, on a full-ride scholarship
The accomplishments and bright future of Larissa and Mayte should make all Texans, all Americans proud. Instead, they riled up a hornet’s nest.
CTRL-F “Illegal Immigrant:” Zero returns. Or as Twitchy notes, regarding Martinez’s tweeting about her not being an American citizen, “This is all you need to see in order to realize there is a problem in America regarding illegal immigrants. It is now, unbelievably, socially acceptable to brag about abusing hard working middle class Americans’ taxes.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Colleges Need Skin In The Game.
Republicans and Democrats have offered two distinct approaches to the student loan crisis. GOP lawmakers have proposed introducing more competition in the higher education sector by breaking the federal monopoly on college accreditation, with the idea that this could shake up the market and lower costs. Democrats have focused on expanding federal subsidies, either by forgiving and refinancing loans, or, in the case of Bernie Sanders, by eliminating tuition altogether.
We generally think the GOP approach is closer to the mark. Colleges really are saddled with regulatory costs, and the cartel-like accreditation process blocks innovative new higher education models from emerging. Meanwhile, further greasing the student loan spigot is likely to drive up tuition even further, and give more relief to upper-middle class students than to poor ones.
But Democrats and Republicans alike ought to be able to agree on a third approach to reducing student loan default rates: Forcing colleges to take on some of the risk associated with their students’ borrowing. . . .
To be sure, a number of specifics need to be hammered out—most importantly, the share of student loan debt colleges would be accountable for. But it’s easy to see how a version of this proposal could win backers on both sides of the aisle. For Democrats, the policy gives debt relief to students in default. For Republicans, it would help slow the growth of tuition without draining federal coffers. . . .
Thanks to misguided federal loan and accreditation policies, low-quality colleges have increasingly been able to get fat at the federal government’s expense without giving students the skills they need to make their education worth it. Time to force colleges to put some of their own money down on this risky operation.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
UNLESS HE SELLS IT: Will Bernie Sanders Give Away His Supporters’ Data?
AT AMAZON, fresh deals on bestselling products, updated every hour.
Also, coupons galore in Grocery & Gourmet Food.
Plus, Kindle Daily Deals.
And, Today’s Featured Digital Deal. The deals are brand new every day, so browse and save!
BEING INVESTIGATED AS AN ACT OF TERROR: About 20 slain at gay dance club in Orlando.
Also: “FBI says there are indications Orlando nightclub shooter may have had ‘leanings toward’ Islamic terrorism.” Seems like he did more than lean. It’s rare for them to say anything like this so soon. But stay tuned, as early reports often turn out to be wrong.
MORE: CBS News: Orlando shooter ID’d as Omar Mateen, U.S. citizen from Port St. Lucie, FL. (Bumped).
FLASHBACK: Hillary faces voters’ wrath for alleged ethnic slur:
Hillary Clinton is fighting a rearguard action to avoid further damage to her standing with the crucial Jewish vote in her campaign for a Senate seat after a claim that she once used an ethnic insult against one of Bill Clinton’s aides.
A book out today claims that 26 years ago she called Paul Fray, her husband’s campaign manager at the time, a “fucking Jew bastard”.
Mrs Clinton denied the allegation and pressed the president into supporting her, but the author, Jerry Oppenheimer, said: “Three witnesses have now publicly acknowledged that she said it.”
Perhaps the ghosts of Eleanor Roosevelt and Gandhi made her say it.
“DAYS OF RAGE” REVISITED. Days of Rage: America’s Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence by Bryan Burrough is reviewed by Scott Johnson of Power Line:
The groups whose story Burrough tells conducted a campaign that included thousands of bombings and many horrible murders, yet most have been entirely forgotten. Why? In his epilogue, Burrough gives the penultimate word to Joseph Connor. On his ninth birthday Connor lost his father in the 1975 bombing of the Fraunces Tavern by the FALN in New York City. Burrough notes that “[W]hat truly drives [Connor] ‘mental’ is the notion that modern terrorism on U.S. soil dates only far aback as the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. ‘That gets me every time,’ he says. ‘To think that America thinks none of this ever happened, that it’s not ever remembered, it’s astounding to me. You know, I blame the media. The media was more than happy to let all this go. These were not the kinds of terrorists the liberal media wanted us to remember, because they share a lot of the same values. They were terrorists. They were just the wrong brand. My father was murdered by the wrong politics. So they were let off the hook. That what we’re left with today, a soft view of these people, when they were as hardened as anybody. They were just terrorists. Flat-out terrorists.’”
Burrough also notes that Bill Clinton pardoned 16 of the 18 FALN terrorists convicted in the group’s two bombing campaigns; the other two convicted FALN members rejected Clinton’s offer of pardon. Debra Burlingame condemned these “terror pardons” in a superb 2008 Wall Street Journal column. Kudos to Bryan Burrough for remembering these events in a book that makes it more difficult for us to forget again.
Read the whole thing.
ASHE SCHOW: You’ve heard of Trump University — but what about ‘Clinton University?’
Move over Trump University, because Hillary Clinton has her own fraud scandal involving higher education.
While there has been much focus on Trump University and the lawsuit against it (and Donald Trump’s despicable comments about the judge handling the case), very little has been written about Laureate Education and its ties to the Clintons.
Laureate is a for-profit online college that received an unusually large amount of money from the U.S. State Department. This happened while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state and after her husband Bill was named “honorary chancellor,” a position that paid him $16.5 million over five years. His role included giving speeches around the world and lending his name to attract prospective students.
During the time, when Bill was acting as honorary chancellor, the U.S. State Department, under Secretary Clinton, gave Laureate Education a whopping $55 million in grants. . . .
Like Trump University, Laureate Education has also been sued for fraud. Its Walden University Online subsidiary allegedly “worked like a scam designed to bilk students of tens of thousands of dollars for degrees,” according to liberal professor Jonathan Turley, who recently documented the organization’s ties to the Clintons. “Students alleged that they were repeatedly delayed and given added costs as they tried to secure degrees, leaving them deeply in debt. Sound familiar?
Yep.
CNN HEADLINE FAIL IN DEADLY TEL AVIV TERRORIST ATTACK: “Top tier news outlets including CNN, the BBC, and the Independent covered the deadly Palestinian terror attack in Tel Aviv in questionable ways,” not least of which was several “news” “sources” putting the word “terrorists” in scare quotes in their headlines.
Related: How Anti-Semitism Became Respectable Again.
It’s long been just under the surface – and often above it – at CNN.
ARE DEMOCRATS HAPPY TO BE A PARTY OF GOONS?, asks Scott McKay of the American Spectator:
The mayor of San Jose is a Democrat. Sam Liccardo, who prior to last week was known mostly for the fact that he’s in his mid-40s and white and actually got elected to something as a Democrat, gave us a great example of how atrocious his party actually is.
Donald Trump may have his problems, and Trump’s supporters may have theirs, but Trump held a rally in Liccardo’s city — as is his right as a presidential candidate — and Liccardo’s police department provided grotesquely inadequate security given the relatively open effort by political activists sharing his party denomination to fill the streets outside the Trump rally venue with violent thugs.
This was anything but an unknown. Craigslist was full of advertisements looking for protesters willing to disrupt Trump’s rally in San Jose, and it’s hard to believe Liccardo’s police department wasn’t aware of what was coming. And it isn’t like Liccardo, and the rest of the Democrat establishment, don’t know about the effort to disrupt Trump rallies nationwide.
* * * * * * * *
Here’s a bit of advice for Remsin, and Liccardo for that matter: watch out what you wish for. You might find a few takers to bust up a rally here and there, but the vitriol and anger you think you’re entitled to is nothing compared to what you’re stoking in the people your paid thugs are brutalizing at those rallies. And if you keep it up, while deluding yourself that your rent-a-riots are justified, those people are going to respond.
And when they do, it won’t just be San Jose that looks like Weimar Germany. It’ll be the whole country. And it’ll be your fault.
As a former resident, the Bay Area seemed like Weimar for a long time. Which can be lots of fun, until it inevitably starts reaching late-stage Weimar. Or as Iowahawk would say:
But in answer to McKay’s query, as Michael Walsh would say, just think of the Democratic Party “as what it really is: a criminal organization masquerading as a political party,” and you won’t go far wrong.
Related: Vox Editor Who Advocated For Inciting Riots At Trump Rallies Got A Paid Week Off.