An Epidemic of Rape Fakery

There’s a very good reason why Democrats are working so hard to convince the country that we’re in the throes of a sexual assault epidemic. Identity politics, with its demonization of imaginary villains and scare tactics are all that the Democrats have left. The Democrats’ reliance upon grievance theater is a confession that they really have exhausted legitimate reasons to convince Americans to vote for them.

The Democrats’ economic theories are in ruins. Six years ago, at the depths of the recession, 39.7 million Americans lived below the poverty line. Today, the Democrats face the challenge of convincing America that 47.2 million living in poverty qualifies as prosperity. Under Obama, the very rich have gotten richer and the rest of us have gotten poorer. If not for its tragic consequences, Obama’s foreign policy would serve as the butt of jokes.

So Democrats have defaulted to their old standby of divisive, identity politics. Identity politics requires villains and victims. And for it to work to the Democrats’ advantage, they have to portray themselves as Dudley Doorights, riding to the rescue.

The latest desperate grasp by Democrats to paint themselves as knights in shining armor revolves around the narrative that American women are endangered by an epidemic of rape and sexual assault, especially on college campuses. According to this myth, this supposed plague has gotten so bad that the typical college campus has degenerated into an unsafe, intolerably hostile environment for women. Indeed, the gravity of the situation requires that centuries of due process law should be scrapped and replaced with a legal process that the Salem Witch Trial prosecutors would find familiar. The burden of proof now rests largely upon the accused. He must prove his innocence.

By stretching Title IX powers beyond anything imagined by the law’s authors, the Obama administration has demanded colleges and universities supplant the criminal justice system with a leftist axe grinder who serves as judge, jury and executioner.

For decades now, radical feminists have insisted a woman’s word was unquestionable should she lodge a claim of sexual assault. They insisted that women simply do not lie about such things. Although the radical feminists suspended that rule for a time when ex-president Bill Clinton faced multiple accusations of sexual assault and sexual harassment. And in retrospect, considering who the vice president was, America should be thankful.

By the way, I checked MS Magazine and was not surprised to learn that the rule was back in force.

And recent events show us just how hard it is to prove innocence to liberals. In 2006, Duke University’s lacrosse team was accused of gang raping a stripper hired to perform at a team party. Even though the accuser’s partner disputed her friend’s account of events, and forensic evidence disproved the accusations that emerged, the team was still found guilty by the media, the school’s intelligentsia, Al Sharpton, and everybody else who matters in liberaldom.  Only when the mountain of exculpatory evidence crushed the local prosecutor were the men exonerated.

A similar story unfolded at the University of Virginia, when a young lady convinced a Rolling Stone magazine reporter that she had suffered a gang rape as part of a fraternity initiation. The feminists and the university’s administration condemned the entire Greek system as guilty, until investigators for The Daily Caller and The Washington Post committed brazen acts of old school journalism and interviewed the principles in the story. What they discovered was that the story was likely a hoax.

Even so, the university’s administration has been reluctant to lift sanctions against the Greek system.

As it turns out, the whole sexual assault epidemic is a hoax. The Democrats claim that one in five women will suffer sexual assault in college. The real number is well below 1%. And data from the Department of Justice reveal that the number of reported rapes in the United States declined by two-thirds in the last 20 years. And when one considers that the population has grown and that victims are less likely to experience stigmatization, the real rate is probably much lower.

And young women who are enrolled in college are less likely to suffer an assault than women who are not enrolled.

And if college were such a hostile environment, why would the rate of women enrolling in college be soaring?

It’s all a fraud. Once again Democrats are saving America from boogeymen that live mostly in their own fevered imaginations.

The Super Rich Reward Those Who Helped Them Get That Way

Mega-rich flooded the Democrats' coffers in 2014. 

Out of the $128 million spent by the top 10 individual donors to outside groups, Democrats hauled in $91 million or 71% of donations.

“Among groups that funneled more than $100,000 to allies, the top of the list tilted overwhelmingly toward Democrats—a group favoring the GOP doesn’t appear on the list until No. 14,” reports the AP.

Democrats also enjoyed a 3-to-1 cash advantage when it came to the 183 groups stroking checks of $100,000 or more. The liberal National Education Association (NEA) topped the list of big money donors at $22 million. The top ten list contained zero Republican-leaning groups.

Top Ten Democrat Lies of 2014

The Tawana Brawleyization of the Democratic Party

If there is a message in the Democrats’ choices of martyrs these days, it is that they have become Al Sharpton. 

“There is another class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.” Booker T. Washington.

Reading the words of Booker T. Washington, or Martin Luther King for that matter, and comparing them to modern day race hustlers reminds us just how far the civil rights movement has deteriorated since the Democratic Party embraced identity politics as their path to power.

US Attorney General Eric Holder ingratiated himself to the American people by calling the United States a “nation of cowards” for its refusal to have an honest conversation on the issue of race. What we’ve learned since then is that he and his party cannot even honestly recite facts. To put it mildly, the Democratic Party has remade itself in the image of Al Sharpton. 

About two decades ago, political gurus from the news media and academia gleefully predicted that the Democratic Party stood on the brink of establishing themselves as a permanent majority. These prognosticators based their predictions on the anticipated growth of demographics that traditionally voted Democrat. The proportion of the population that blacks and Hispanics comprise would grow to the point that their overwhelming support of Democrats would present Republicans with an insurmountable obstacle.

The Democrats took this to heart and made themselves into the party of racial grievance, real and imagined. By 2011, none other than the New York Times told us that the Democrats had decided to, “explicitly abandon the white working class.”

Aside from the rotting cynicism exposed by this tactical shift, the problem is that, for it to work, the Democrats have to convince their constituencies that America has not changed since the 1950s. And if it is to keep them in perpetual power, they need to maintain their constituencies as a permanent underclass. 

The Democrats choices of heroes and their distortion of facts tells us much about their desperation. During the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, men like Medgar Evers served as its martyrs. Today, they have to manufacture narratives that allow them to canonize delinquents such as Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. And in order to make these young men heroic victims, they had to manufacture narratives that stand in stark contrast with the facts. 

Al Sharpton rose to prominence within the Democratic Party by manufacturing just such narratives. Twenty-seven years ago, Sharpton championed the case of Tawana Brawley, a 15 year old girl whom he claimed had been gang raped by six men, including a New York City policeman and district attorney. It was all a lie. But it was the start of something big for Al Sharpton. 

This month marks the 19th anniversary of the Freddy’s Fashion Mart massacre. After the United House of Prayer, an African American church in Harlem, raised its rent, Freddy’s Fashion Mart, a Jewish-owned clothing store, passed on a share of the rate increase to its subtenant, a black-owned record store. A landlord-tenant dispute resulted. Al Sharpton racialized and inflamed the situation to the point that one of his followers torched Freddy’s Fashion Mart, resulting in seven deaths. 

After a black child was struck and killed by a car in the Crown Heights neighborhood of New York City, Al Sharpton once again seized the opportunity to turn the incident into a black versus Jew conflict. As a result, one of those who took inspiration from Sharpton stabbed and killed a rabbinical student from Australia. 

None of these, or any other of his race-baiting has done Sharpton any harm. Instead, they have elevated his standing within the Democratic Party to the point that he is often described as Barack Obama’s “go-to guy” on issues of race. 

And the Democrats have adopted Sharpton’s tactic of falsified racial hate crimes. 

All forensic evidence supported George Zimmerman’s claim that he was attacked and beaten by Trayvon Martin. Ditto for Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson. But Democrats have Sharptonized the narrative and widened this country’s racial gulf.

Kim Jong Un Owns Hollywood

Kim Jong Un's Death Scene

This is what the North Koreans don't want you to see. 

Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Al Sharpton and the Rise of Barbarism

Liberal Sacrifices to their Vengeful God

“The more laws, the less justice.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero.

“Before, we had crimes that oppressed us; Now, we have laws that oppress us.” – Tacitus. (56 B.C.)

Racism didn’t kill Eric Garner. Liberalism did.

Eric Garner was the New York City “loosie man” who perished shortly after he was subdued for resisting arrest. After a grand jury declined to indict the policeman who wrestled Garner to the ground, protests erupted around the country, inspired by the false narrative that his arrest and death were racially motivated.

That reaction was undoubtedly primed by the Ferguson, Missouri grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown.

In both cases, irresponsible and inaccurate reporting served a narrative that was dramatically at odds with freely available facts. For example, that now famous video of Garner being subdued on the sidewalk clearly shows that the policeman did not place Eric Garner in a “choke hold.”  Garner’s airway was in no way obstructed.

And the police who confronted Eric Garner were not just walking the streets trolling for black men, as the racial arsonists of the world would have us believe. They were part of a dedicated unit of the NYPD that was tasked with making the world safe from men who sell individual cigarettes on New York City’s streets.

Thanks to the voracious appetite of the state and the totalitarian instincts of New York’s previous mayor, Michael Bloomberg and it’s current mayor, Bill DeBlasio, a pack of smokes sells for between $12 and $14 per pack. This created a fertile ground for a black market that the loosie men exploit.

The New York Times, in 2011, published a lengthy article on the underground economy that serves New York’s nicotine addicts. A loosie man can make between $120 - $150 dollars per day selling unpackaged cigarettes (loosies). The story profiled one particular loosie man named Lonnie Warner. His customers know him as “Lonnie Loosie.” The police call him, “Fish.’ He gained his police nickname in recognition for how frequently he is caught selling loose cigarettes.

Lonnie Loosie views his frequent citations as part of the cost of doing business. After  

all, the same silly laws that he frequently violates created the environment that provides him with his livelihood: “The tax went up, and we started selling 10 times as much,” Warner said. “Bloomberg thinks he’s stopping people from smoking. He’s just turning them onto loosies.”

Under Bloomberg’s direction, the NYPD created a dedicated, plainclothes police division devoted to pursuing loosie men. And just two weeks before Eric Garner’s fatal confrontation with this unit, Philip Banks, New York’s highest-ranking uniformed policeman, ordered more aggressive enforcement of the city’s anti-loosie laws.

Like Lonnie Loosie, Garner was also a frequent target of the anti-loosie police.  Like Lonnie Loosie, he probably viewed the law as both opportunity and nuisance. All he wanted to do was feed his family without overfeeding the leviathan state. But the increased enforcement exhausted his patience and when he dared to resist, the police responded with the strong-arm takedown that ended his life.

He had to be wondering if the police had nothing better to do than harass loosie men. And statistics show that such concerns are justified. FiveThirtyEight.com analyzed policing in New York City and found that Garner’s precinct issued a disproportionate number of citations for minor violations.

There is no reason to suspect racism or any intent to injure or kill on the part of the police. Contrary to the media narrative, Officer Daniel Pantaleo did not apply a “choke hold.” The coroner’s report pointed to advanced heart disease and asthma as the causes of death and not asphyxiation. Choking leaves a wealth of forensic evidence that any pathologist could recognize.

And while Officer Pantaleo has assembled a troubling record, including two lawsuits for civil rights violations, during this incident he was under the direct supervision of his sergeant, Kizzy Adoni, an African-American woman. It’s hard to imagine a scenario in which Officer Pantaleo could be prosecuted on state charges of murder or manslaughter, or for a racially motivated, federal civil rights violation without his sergeant as a co-defendant. Awkward!

But for the left, it’s not the facts, but the narrative that matters. To the left, the narrative is so sacred that it’s treated as if it were a vengeful god who requires the periodic sacrifice of a white guy. 

When Democrats Shut Government Down, It's a Principled Revolt

Not at all like when shutdowns are blamed on Republicans.

In 2013, Obama shut down the government and the media blamed it on Republicans. That was terrorism.

Former Vice President Al Gore blamed Republicans for the impending government shutdown on Friday, which he called “despicable” and “political terrorism.”

Gore also took a gratuitous shot at Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

“I think the only phrase that describes it is political terrorism,” Gore said at the Brookings Institute Center for Effective Public Management, where he was scheduled to speak about global warming. ”Nice global you got there. Be a shame if we had to destroy it. We have a list of demands. If you don’t meet them all by our deadline, we’ll blow up the global economy.”

Today, Elizabeth Warren and Nancy Pelosi want to shut down the government. And it's called a "revolt."

Senator Elizabeth Warren led a liberal revolt Wednesday against an effort that she says weakens financial regulations, casting uncertainty over whether Congress would approve a yearlong bill to fund the government before lawmakers adjourn for the year.

A shutdown, though unlikely, remained a possibility, as funding for the government runs out Thursday.

A College Campus is Safer Than the Real World

For all the ruckus raised about sexual assault on college campuses, Department of Justice data show that young women are safer in college than elsewhere. 

The rate of rape and sexual assault was 1.2 times higher for nonstudents (7.6 per 1,000) than for students (6.1 per 1,000).

Democrat Rape Fantasies

Hillary Clinton Country Music Video

Up With Hillary, 1960's Redux Video

Now This Video Might Provoke a Muslim Riot.

This makes me want to riot. 

Lame-Ass White Rappers for Hillary

Gun Free Zones, Wal-Mart Free Zones and Marijuana Free Zones

This should work out just about as well as a gun-free zone, or a Wal-Mart free zone.

Smoking pot is not a good idea. Study after study has revealed that regular marijuana use depresses brain activity, sometimes permanently. A marijuana user is less likely to attain a college degree and can expect a lower net income than an abstainer. Marijuana users are more likely to spend time on the unemployment and, not coincidentally, are more likely to rely upon welfare. Dopers are less likely to find satisfactory personal relationships and are generally less satisfied with their lives than are non-users.

But those arguments have not dissuaded a great many pot smokers. And why should that surprise anyone? Despite a clear link between tobacco consumption and a prolonged, agonizing, lingering death from lung cancer or emphysema, tens of millions of Americans persist in smoking cigarettes or begin smoking cigarettes.

And there’s clear evidence that Washington’s decriminalization of marijuana has increased consumption. In the year before the implementation of Washington’s Initiative 502, just over 18% of blood tests taken from suspected impaired drivers in Washington revealed evidence of marijuana consumption. During the first year after the law took effect, that number rose to 25%, indicating a significant increase in usage.

I am going to grant the Clarkston City Council the benefit of the doubt and give its members credit for having taken all of these factors into account when they voted to forbid the sale of legal marijuana within the city limits.

But even if they did, their vote represents a fine example of a fool’s errand.

Back during the prosperous days of the Bush Administration, when everybody had jobs and city coffers were overflowing with tax revenues, the Moscow City Council snobocracy decided that they didn’t want a Wal-Mart super store operating within its pristine city limits. Wal-Mart already had one of its smaller stores conducting business in town, but the company sought to replace it with one of its much larger stores. The snobs said, “no.”

So Latah County stepped forward and said that they’d be happy to collect the tax revenues that a big box store would generate and quickly approved construction right on the Moscow City limits.

It never happened, but the episode showed the futility of Moscow’s action.

Something similar occurred in Chicago, IL. When Wal-Mart asked permission to build a superstore within the city limits, the Board of Aldermen bowed to the unions and said, “no.” So Wal-Mart built its store six inches outside the city limits.

Chicago has the distinction of demonstrating the futility of Wal-Mart free zones and gun free zones.

And so no one should be surprised to learn that another jurisdiction is stepping forward to fill the void created by the Clarkston City Council. Nature tolerates vacuums far better than free markets.

Only days after the Clarkston councilors voted to keep I-502, the initiative that decriminalized marijuana, out of town, the Asotin County commissioners decided to pursue legal marijuana sales just outside Clarkston’s city limits. And should they succeed, Asotin will collect a share of the millions of dollars in tax revenue that legalized pot is predicted to generate.

And those marijuana users who wish to make their purchases legally will simply drive into the county to make their buys.

By banning legal pot sales, Clarkston has done as much to reduce marijuana consumption with its jurisdiction as gun free zone signs have done to keep armed sociopaths out of public schools and movie theaters. We know how that worked out.

Illegal marijuana sales, which will probably make up the lion’s share of marijuana consumption (it’s cheaper I’m told), will continue unabated within the Clarkston city limits. It’s highly unlikely that the council’s vote will reduce marijuana consumption by even one gram. The sole, substantive effect of the Clarkston City Council’s vote is that the city will be left out when the tax pie is sliced.

And so Clarkston will continue to suffer all of the social and economic maladies that marijuana consumption brings, and will just have to do without the tax revenue that could be used to ameliorate those ills.

As I said earlier, I’m going to grant the Clarkston city councilors the benefit of the doubt and assume that their votes were informed by the same data that I presented above and that their vote wasn’t simply bigotry. But they still deserve an “F” for economic illiteracy.