All posts by thenewbostonteaparty

DEMOCRATS HANG WITH FARRAKHAN

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Liberal leaders called out for ties to Nation of Islam chief

More than a week after Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan delivered a blistering speech in Chicago in which he said “powerful Jews are my enemy” and “white folks are going down,” calls are growing louder for Democratic leaders and Women’s March founders with ties to denounce him or step down.

Among those in the line of fire are several members of Congress and Women’s March co-chairwoman Tamika Mallory, who attended the Nation of Islam’s national convention late last month, There, Farrakhan delivered the controversial address and Mallory, who has expressed admiration for him in the past, posted Instagram photos from the Chicago event.

“Here’s the problem: Farrakhan does have an audience and still has widespread popularity among his devoted followers,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote in a blog published on Thursday. “Because of Farrakhan’s reach and influence and his broad name recognition and something like celebrity status, some public officials, politicians and hip-hop entertainers are still willing to meet with him, still willing to have their pictures taken with him.

“They seemingly have a blind spot when it comes to his anti-Semitism,” he added.

Journalist who took pic of then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in 2005 at a Congressional Black Caucus meeting says he didn't make it public because he believes it would have impacted Obama's political future.Video

Obama with Farrakhan in 2005: The hidden pic

President Obama was recently criticized when a photograph of him with Farrakhan, taken before his 2008 election, surfaced. The photographer said he buried the picture on orders from tthe Congressional Black Caucus, which believed it would hurt Obama’s election chances.

Seven members of the Congressional Black Caucus have had ties with Farrakhan, according to The Daily Caller, which said it had reviewed videos and witness accounts to create the tally.

WHY DOES GOVERNMENT ALLOW BODEGA TYPE CONVENIENCE STORES TO ACCEPT SNAP?

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Trust certain Ghanaians to take their ‘shenaniganism’ to the backyards of whoever opens his country for them and while at it, they are sure to make global headlines with their ‘get rich schemes.’
A Ghanaian based in Worcester, USA has pleaded guilty to $3.6 million fraud after she was busted for screwing the United States food stamp benefit system, which is to help support people of low income.

She attended Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana from 1991-1994, according to her LinkedIn page. She enrolled in Quinsigamond Community College between 2003-2005 in Worcester where she studied electronics.

In 2011 her community college bragged about her and called her a “success story.”

CONVENIENCE STORE FRAUDSTER TAKES $3.6 MILLION FROM THE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS

Convenience store owner Vida Ofori Causey out of Worcester, Mass. was charged in federal court Monday after pleading guilty to $3.6 million worth of food stamp fraud.

According to authorities, Causey abused the program between 2010 and 2014. Food stamps, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), is run by local and federal agencies. It is overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). She was able to scam the program by buying food stamp benefits from receipts for half the actual value.

“Causey purchased the benefits at a discounted value of approximately fifty cents for every SNAP dollar,” a press release from Department of Justice stated. “By so doing, Causey caused the USDA to electronically deposit into a bank account controlled by her the full face value of the SNAP benefits fraudulently obtained.”

As a result, recipients had cash on hand to buy restricted items. The restricted items could include alcohol, cigarettes and even drugs. The program is supposed to be used to provide food to low-come individuals and families. In total, Causey defrauded the USDA for approximately $3,638,900.

SNAP is the nation’s largest food-assistance program. According to a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the program has increased from 17 million participants in 2000 to nearly 47 million in 2014.

JUST A LITTLE MORE INFORMATION ON IMMIGATION FROM GHANA TO WORCESTER, MASS:

The demographics of the City of Worcester underwent a considerable change between 2000 and 2010, according to a new report from the Worcester Regional Research Bureau.
In “Worcester’s Demographic Trends: 2010 Census,” the Research Bureau found that the city’s African American population increased by 77 percent during the first decade of the 21st Century. During the same period, the Latino population grew by 45 percent and the Asian population grew by 31 percent as well.

Meanwhile, the number of residents identifying as white decreased by more than 5 percent, even as the city’s overall population grew by almost 5 percent to 181,045.

Since bottoming out in 1980, Worcester’s population has grown by nearly 20,000 residents, an increase of almost 12 percent over three decades.

Surprising Demographic Shifts

“I think the most surprising was where people are coming from,” said Roberta Schaefer, president and CEO of the Research Bureau.

As of the 2010 Census, 3,401 residents, or 9.63 percent of the city’s foreign-born population, immigrated from Brazil, earning the South American country the top spot on the list.

With 3,356 foreign-born residents, or 9.51 percent of the immigrant population, originating from Vietnam, the country came in a close second. Ghana rounded out the top three as the home country for 3,049 residents, or 8.64 percent of the foreign-born population in Worcester.

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FOOD STAMP PARASITES EATING YOUR LUNCH

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3 IN 4 REFUGEES ON FOOD STAMPS, MANY USING OTHER FORMS OF PUBLIC ASSISTANCE

The Office of Refugee Resettlement’s Annual Report to Congress for FY2013 reveals that nearly 3 in 4 refugees were on food stamps.

Additionally, nearly half were on some form of cash assistance and more than a half were on medical assistance. More than 20 percent were on Supplemental Security Income, more than 22 percent were in public housing and nearly 20 percent were on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

The report noted that many households received more than one type of assistance and the data dealt with refugees who arrived in the U.S. between March 1, 2008 to February 28, 2013.

Click here for the full article from Breitbart. Become familiar with the SNAP program. How to qualify, click here.

ARE YOU KIDDING

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Muslims on food stamps make demands that will cost taxpayers another $150,000. Click here for the story.

THE WELFARE STATE EXPLAINED – GROWING NUMBER OF PARASITES

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Welfare: Who’s on It, Who’s Not?

F. Roger Devlin and Henry Wolff, American Renaissance, October 14, 2015

FoodStamps
The numbers are even worse than we thought.

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) has published a new report called “Welfare Use by Immigrant and Native Households.” The report’s principle finding is that fully 51 percent of immigrant households receive some form of welfare, compared to an already worrisomely high 30 percent of American native households. The new study is based on the most accurate data available, the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). It also reports stark racial differences in the use of welfare programs.

Previous studies of welfare use have been based on the less accurate but more easily accessible data available from the Current Population Survey; this led to less alarming figures of 39 percent of immigrant households using welfare and 24 percent of native households. CIS’s Steve Camarota took the trouble to work with the SIPP data, which cover a larger number of welfare programs. His results have been independently verified by Decision Demographics, a company specializing in analysis of Census Bureau data.

The programs covered in Mr. Camarota’s study include Supplemental Security Income, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (what used to be most commonly called “welfare”), the Women, Infants and Children food program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“food stamps”), free and subsidized school lunches, Medicaid, and public housing and rent subsidies.

Needless to say, the percentage of immigrants using some form of welfare varies enormously according to the part of the world from which they come. Rates are highest for households from Central America and Mexico (73 percent), the Caribbean (51 percent), and Africa (48 percent). Those from East Asia (32 percent), Europe (26 percent), and South Asia (17 percent) have the lowest rates.

An appendix to the report includes some startling information on welfare use by race and ethnicity. In 2012, the most recent year for which figures are available, the percentages of each group that used at least one welfare program were as follow:

WelfareUseNativeHouseholds

A majority of native black and Hispanic households are on some form of means-tested welfare, compared to just 23 percent of native white households.

A disproportionate share of welfare is directed to households with children. For this group, the corresponding numbers for 2012 are even higher:

WelfareUseHouseholdsWithChildren

A striking 82 percent of black households with children receive welfare–double the white rate. Hispanic families are not far behind blacks.

Of course, different welfare programs are used at different rates. What follow are sets of charts showing, first, the welfare rates for all US households, and second, welfare rates only for households with children. The percentages for Hispanic and black immigrants include both legal and illegal immigrants.

CashAssistanceAllHouseholds

CashAssistanceHouseholdsChildren

Among natives, blacks receive cash handouts at more than three times the white rate; Hispanics at more than twice the white rate. Rates for black and Hispanic immigrants are relatively lower due to often-ignored restrictions on immigrant use of these programs.

FoodAidAllHouseholds

FoodAidHouseholdsChildren

Among all households, native blacks and Hispanics receive food handouts at three times the white rate; for Hispanic immigrants, the figure is four times the white rate. Among households with children, nearly all immigrant Hispanics–86 percent–get food aid. Native blacks and Hispanics aren’t far behind, with rates of 75 and 72 percent, respectively.

MedicaidAllHouseholds

MedicaidHouseholdsChildren

It’s clear, too, that non-whites benefit disproportionately from Medicaid, which helps explain why red states have opted out of Medicaid expansion.

HousingAllHouseholds

HousingHouseholdsChildren

Native Hispanics and blacks, especially, are also heavy users of housing assistance. Among households with children, native Hispanics use these programs at nearly four times the white rate and blacks at seven times the white rate. Some effort is made to limit the access of illegal immigrants to subsidized housing, which helps explain why Hispanic immigrants get housing handouts at less than half the rate for native Hispanics. Amnesty for illegals would mean a sharp rise in the percentage of Hispanics in public or subsidized housing.

Spreading the wealth around

For each of the four welfare categories presented above, the black and Hispanic rates are at least double the white rates. Native Asians appear to use welfare at slightly lower rates than whites, but their SIPP sample size is too small to be certain. Asian immigrants, who are not included in the charts above, exceed native white welfare rates by about 25 percent (see table A3 in the CIS report). The US has three times as many immigrant Asian households as native Asian households.

What little public discussion there is of disproportionate welfare use by blacks and Hispanics is inevitably muddied by the claim that the majority of those receiving welfare are white. This ignores the fact that there are five times as many whites as blacks and four times as many whites as Hispanics in the United States; what matter are differences in the rates at which each group uses welfare. Furthermore, at least in terms of households, this claim is no longer be true.

According to data in the CIS report, there are 39.88 million households in the US receiving some sort of means-tested welfare. Of those households, just 19.66 million–or 49 percent–are either native or immigrant whites (Middle Eastern immigrants are classified as “whites”). That means the majority of US households on welfare are now non-white.

As mass Third-World immigration continues, the US will have an ever-burgeoning dependent class of non-whites. Black voters will be joined by increasing number of Hispanic voters in their support for more handouts. When they vote in 2016, a majority of black and Hispanic households are likely to be on welfare–just as they were in 2012. Arguments about freedom and limited government will mean nothing to them. Obamacare is just the beginning.

Whites must decide if this is the future they want for their children and grandchildren. If they don’t take action soon, blacks and Hispanics will decide for them.

Time has come for a full accounting and audit of all government handout programs. Interviews of SS disability, Welfare, Medicaid and other free programs by an independent Accounting firm from the Big Four. Our bet is that 50% will be unqualified to collect any benefit from the government. Additionally, the child care credit collected by illegal aliens who defraud the IRS is a high priority.

PUERTO RICO – THANKS MARIA FOR EXPOSING THE WELFARE ISLAND

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Who’s to Blame for the Mess in Puerto Rico?

American Renaissance

Alex Witoslawski, American Renaissance, October 4, 2017

Not Donald Trump.

Puerto Ricans are blaming President Trump for the fact that two weeks after Hurricane Maria, their island is still a mess: power outages, flooding, fuel shortages, spotty cell service, washed out bridges, roads blocked by fallen trees. But who is really to blame for the island’s paralysis?

Consider this: Puerto Rico has a population of only 3.4 million but their elected government has run up a debt of over $70 billion and pension obligations of $50 billion. That’s more than $35,294 per resident and over 100 percent of GDP. Puerto Rico has already defaultedon a $58 million bond payment in 2016, due to its already-high taxes and unwillingness to cut government spending. It fell into crushing debt despite the $21 billion annually the island receives in aid from the United States, much of it spent on welfare programs such as Head Start, public housing, and food stamps. That’s over $6,000 per capita in federal welfare that the islanders consume. And due to the special status of the island, Puerto Ricans do not even pay federal income tax.

Borrowing and US handouts sustained the welfare habits of the people, but Puerto Rico left its infrastructure embarrassingly outdated. According to the Los Angeles Times, Puerto Rico’s electrical grid is so starved of physical and human capital that it suffers from power outages four-to-five times the average—even in good weather. Puerto Rico also failed to invest in infrastructure to protect against flooding. The island has few floodwalls and dangerously weak dams—a dam on the island cracked following the hurricane, forcing the evacuation of more than 70,000 people.

These problems were foreseeable and preventable, but liberals and Puerto Rican officials are blaming Donald Trump. Perhaps he is being too nice. Puerto Rico created its own problems; why should we be on the hook for them?

(Credit Image: © Erik Mcgregor/Pacific Press via ZUMA Wire)

After acquisition by the United States following the Spanish-American War in 1898, the island’s residents never integrated with Americans culturally, linguistically, or racially. Puerto Ricans are culturally Hispanic, racially a mix of Spanish colonists, African slaves and Taino natives, and most of them don’t speak any English. They may technically be United States citizens but they share little common history or ancestry with Americans and are clearly a nation that developed separately from our own. And what could indicate a clearer sense of alienation from the United States than the fact that Puerto Rico has its own Olympic team?

Puerto Ricans, meanwhile, have many gripes with what they perceive as their American overlords. For example, even before this latest hurricane-induced crisis, a major problem for Puerto Rico was their inability to conduct trade independently. According to U.S. law, goods must travel between Puerto Rican and mainland American ports on American-made vessels before they are exported or imported. This weakens Puerto Rico’s economy.

The best solution would be to let Puerto Rico become an independent country, free to make its own decisions and responsible for its own problems. This could be done amicably and generously. Since we pay the island tens of billions of dollars every year in welfare payments, we could easily pay off their debt and give them post-hurricane humanitarian aid as incentives to independence.

We could also offer remigration cash incentives for Puerto Ricans living in America who are willing to give up their U.S. citizenship and move to the island. This would not only be an opportunity for the Puerto Rican diaspora in the United States to reunite with their people, but also a great way to reverse the brain-drain. Over the past century, many of the more intelligent and hard-working Puerto Ricans moved to the mainland for better opportunities. The 2010 U.S. Census counted the number of Puerto Ricans living in America at 4.6 million, making it America’s second-largest Hispanic group after Mexicans. This represents a tremendous loss in cultural, economic, and human capital for the island.

Finally, we could offer military protection and economic advice for a couple decades. Chile took economic advice from free-market economists from the University of Chicago and the economy boomed. With the right advice and incentives, Puerto Rico could experience a similar economic rebound.

Separation would come with an expensive up-front price tag for us, but it would save Americans money in the long run and would give Puerto Rico full control over its culture and destiny.

CLICK HERE – Trump tweets that “federal aid won’t last forever.”

MUELLER BRANCHING OUT

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Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team is now purportedly looking into whether the United Arab Emirates, with perhaps help from a top adviser, tried to gain political influence by putting money into Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign — a tack that would indicate Mueller’s investigation continues to expand beyond whether campaign officials colluded with Russia.

Mueller’s investigators in recent weeks have questioned the adviser, Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, and asked witnesses for information about whether the UAE tried to buy political influence by giving money to the Trump campaign, according to The New York Times.

Nader has been a frequent visitor to the Trump White House. And the president has praised the UAE for the Persian Gulf nation’s efforts to work with the United States on economic issues and squashing terrorism in the region, thanking Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed for his efforts just last week, according to the White House.

Nader has purportedly been an adviser to the crown prince. Axios first reported that Mueller investigators were talking to Nader.

Mueller took over the Justice Department investigation in May 2017. And in recent weeks, he has made several moves that suggest his probe has expanded beyond possible collusion, including charging former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort with alleged tax and bank fraud and indicting 13 Russians in connection with trying to sow political discord during the 2016 elections.

Nader was purportedly close to top Trump political strategist Steve Bannon, who in in August 2017 was forced from the White House.

In this Feb. 28, 2018 photo, President Donald Trump pauses during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, in Washington, with members of congress to discuss school and community safety. A White House official says President Donald Trump plans to announce Thursday whether he'll impose tariffs or quotas on steel and aluminum imports. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

 (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

The Times story also states Mueller’s team is interested in how much influence Nader might have — or had — on White House policymaking and whether foreign money has recently flowed into the U.S. to impact Washington policy.

The Times also reports that it has a copy of a memo that Nader received about a private Oval Office meeting between Trump and Elliott Broidy, who purportedly has millions worth of private-security contracts with the UAE.

AL GORE SAYS “TO STICK IT” WHEN IT CAME TO FOREIGN INTERFERENCE

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Remember ‘No Controlling Legal Authority’?

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The CIA probe shows once more that the law does not control this attorney general.

It was a dozen years ago when Eric Holder began his first tour of duty at the Justice Department, as deputy attorney general. At the time, DOJ had a major hot potato on its hands: Al Gore, the vice president of the United States, had engaged in a clear, black-and-white felony violation of campaign-finance laws.

Gore made phone calls soliciting campaign contributions from his White House office. As Charles Krauthammer wrote at the time, “Section 607 of Title 18 of the U.S. Criminal Code states very clearly there is to be no solicitation of campaign funds in federal government offices. Gore broke the law as written, as understood and as practiced.” Violations of Section 607 called for a penalty of up to three years in prison.

 

 Gore had no real defense, so he trotted out a phony one: There was, he infamously claimed, “no controlling legal authority.” What he meant was that there weren’t many court decisions interpreting the meaning of Section 607. It was laughable. The rule of thumb for judges, as for the rest of us, is that laws are construed to mean what they say, the ordinary, everyday understanding of the words. Most statutes are not 1,000 pages of health-care arcana. When they are succinct and clear, we don’t need judicial opinions to divine their meaning. No solicitation of campaign funds in federal government offices means: No solicitation of campaign funds in federal government offices.

Al Gore and the Temple of Cash

It took more than a year of prodding to get the Justice Department interested in how the White House and the Democratic National Committee financed the 1996 campaign, but the indictments are flowing now. Maria Hsia is charged with laundering over $55,000 from the Buddhist temple luncheon for Vice President Al Gore on April 29, 1996. A Senate committee’s charge that Ms. Hsia was a Chinese intelligence agent during an eight-year period when she worked closely with Mr. Gore and the D.N.C. has yet to be proved, but the tale of those years is too important to be lost amid war talk and sex scandals.

One fascinating aspect is the way in which Mr. Gore’s memories of the temple event have evolved — to use the politest possible term — as more information has emerged. During the 1996 campaign, Mr. Gore said his appearance at the Hsi Lai Temple was a ”community outreach” event. Four months later, he remembered it was ”finance related.” Indeed, it was. According to a report by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, a witness recalled fund-raising announcements from the podium. The committee also found a memo from Harold Ickes to Mr. Gore telling him that the event would raise $250,000 and would be organized by John Huang, the D.N.C. official who circulated among the donors during lunch.

If Mr. Gore was not aware that the presence of Mr. Huang and Ms. Hsia at the temple luncheon in 1996 proved that money was being raised, we are dealing with obliviousness of a rare order. Those two joined with the Clinton Administration’s wealthiest Asian supporter, the Riady family of Indonesia, to form a fund-raising group, the Pacific Leadership Council. In 1989, Ms. Hsia helped arrange a P.L.C. fund-raiser for then-Senator Gore that was attended by several monks and nuns from the Hsi Lai temple. Mr. Gore wrote Ms. Hsia a letter thanking her for helping finance his 1990 senatorial campaign. He also traveled to Taiwan on a trip she arranged.

Others who helped arrange that trip were Mr. Huang, later to emerge as the D.N.C.’s main collector of tainted Asian money, and James Riady, whose family lobbied the White House to put Mr. Huang at the D.N.C. While the Huang-Riady-Hsia team was in close contact with Mr. Gore, Ms. Hsia was developing a remarkable talent for getting nuns and monks to give to the Democrats. The Republicans believe that over $100,000 was laundered through Hsi Lai Temple monastics in 1996 alone. The Justice Department charges specifically that Ms. Hsia helped solicit $55,000 for which individual donors were illegally reimbursed with temple funds.

Justice’s formal charges and the related, but more serious Republican allegations will be proved or disproved over time. Meanwhile, the pattern that emerges is provocative. In Mr. Clinton’s friend Charlie Trie and Mr. Gore’s associate Maria Hsia, people with clear Administration ties are being indicted at a smart clip. Finally, the Justice Department is moving. What we do not know is whether it is curious enough to follow the trail wherever, and however high, it leads.

WHITE TODAY IS THE JEW OF GERMANY PAST

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South African parliament has voted to remove White South African farmers from their land without any compensation and give it to Black South Africans.

The country’s constitution is now likely to be amended to allow for the confiscation of white-owned land without compensation, following a motion brought by radical Marxist opposition leader Julius Malema.

It passed by 241 votes for to 83 against after a vote on Tuesday, and the policy was a key factor in new president Cyril Ramaphosa’s platform after he took over from Jacob Zuma in February.

Mr. Malema said the time for ‘reconciliation is over’. ‘Now is the time for justice,’ News24 reported.

CLICK HERE TO UNDERSTAND THE RADICALISM OF EX-PRESIDENT OBAMA. Listen to the first few out-takes of a few of Obama’s speeches. These are not taken out of context but manifest the Radical Ideologue of Obama. There is no doubt that Obama was impacted by the likes of previous race baiting radicals, for example Frank Marshall Davis and Malcolm “X” Little. American’s never believed in the narrative, but swallowed the fish, hook, line and sinker.

Obama never lost the biological IMPREGNATION of Africa passed down by his Kenyan relatives – his inner self was never sanguine, but fuming inside over the treatment of Blacks, no matter where they lived. However, we set the record straight. White America was never responsible for the murders, killings, thefts that occurred and continue to deluge various nations in Africa.

Make no mistake about it that the cause of grief, poverty and social havoc in Africa is not to be blamed solely on the African Black, but the primordial reason for their current condition is caused by the CRIMINAL GOVERNMENTS that rule the nations of Africa. Listening to the Hannity interviews of Obama’s brothers reveal that they are well spoken and educated. This, we believe, is not unique.

The sad saga of white South Africa should be a wake-up call to all European settler nations. White South Africans, with their mixed heritage of Dutch, Huguenot French, German, Portuguese, English, and Greek heritage, bear far more similarities with the whites of the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Every one of these countries are currently experiencing the rise of anti-white vitriol, including popular celebrations of declining white birth rates. South African Boers are facing much worse, and indeed their plight shows us what could happen in the event of white minority status. – Thermidor

The truth is that when the first Dutch people landed on the Cape of Good Hope, the only natives to South Africa were the Khoikhoi people, more often known as “Bushmen.” The Zulu and other Bantu tribes did not start migrating to eastern South Africa until the 19th century. By that point, white South Africans, commonly called “Boers,” had been farming the land for over two hundred years.

CLICK HERE FOR A OBAMA IMPERSONATOR

 

CHINA RAMPS UP IN AI – MORE THAN A CAUSE OF CONCERN

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China’s Authoritarian State Has an Edge in Artificial Intelligence Development

A wealthy repressive state can press ahead with tech innovation unimpeded by privacy concerns

Artificial intelligence researchers say that while the Chinese may not have political freedom, they have the economic freedom to chart their own course—and Beijing doesn’t throw up roadblocks to the technology on privacy grounds, as occurs in the West.
Artificial intelligence researchers say that while the Chinese may not have political freedom, they have the economic freedom to chart their own course—and Beijing doesn’t throw up roadblocks to the technology on privacy grounds, as occurs in the West. PHOTO: WANG GANG/ZUMA PRESS
By

Bob Davis

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China made enormous economic strides in the past quarter-century by manufacturing everything from toys to tires inexpensively and exporting them overseas. To become a truly wealthy nation, it must move beyond its role as a low-cost manufacturer and become an economic innovator itself.

Can a repressive state, led by a central government specializing in five-year plans and surveillance of its own people, make such a leap? The odds against success look steep. Economic history includes few examples of authoritarian states becoming innovative business leaders. But China aims to make that jump in artificial intelligence—or high-level machine learning—with an unusual approach that can’t be dismissed.

Beijing is bankrolling a big effort in AI, in part, to keep better track of homegrown individuals it considers criminals and dissidents, and to intimidate would-be opponents. That work involves fundamental research in image recognition, data collection and sorting that could have commercial spinoffs in the software used to run complex systems. A city with millions of self-driving cars, for instance, would need data analysis and the ability to recognize, say, that a ball bouncing across the street might be followed by a child chasing it.

“What gives China an edge is there is more of a sense of urgency,” says Paul Triolo, a technology research manager at Eurasia Group.

Last summer, China’s central government published a comprehensive plan for artificial intelligence development that aims to make the nation “the world’s primary AI innovation center” by 2030.

In China such plans aren’t simply blueprints, but indications of central government priorities, which work down to localities, state-owned firms and entrepreneurs. So far, local governments, looking to turn themselves into software centers, have pledged about $7 billion in funding for AI development, estimates a congressional panel that focuses on China.

Mix that with genuine enthusiasm for the technology among Chinese scientists and companies—and world-class talent—and you have a formidable force, say U.S. researchers who have studied China’s AI program.

“There’s an enthusiasm for AI and culture of dynamism that we don’t see as much in the U.S., at least outside of Silicon Valley,” says Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher Erik Brynjolfsson.

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Among the most innovative—and threatening—of the Chinese research involves surveillance. The Wall Street Journal has detailed how Beijing has turned its western Xinjiang regioninto a warren of facial scanners to track millions of Uighur minorities. Police there use hand-held devices to search smartphones for encrypted chat apps. A new twist: mobile facial-recognition units mounted on eyeglasses that police use to search crowds for fugitives, among other uses.

Artificial intelligence works by the collection of vast amounts of data used to “train” computer software to recognize patterns and reach conclusions, precisely the kind of skills needed to track a small number of dissidents among a sea of Chinese faces.

“A repressive state can be an engine of innovation,” says Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a tech policy center.

In the past, Chinese efforts to innovate have stumbled over the state’s desire to centralize control, denying researchers and companies the freedom to follow their own ideas. China, for instance, has tried to jump-start its semiconductor industry with projects dating as far back as the Cultural Revolution, but still hasn’t produced a company that can compete with global leaders like Intel or Samsung. Beijing is trying once again in computer chips, putting together a massive government fund, but the U.S. government so far has blocked China’s efforts to acquired advanced Western technology.

AI may be different, say U.S. technology researchers. China’s AI effort is being joined by globally competitive internet powerhouses including Tencent Holdings Ltd. , which is focused on medical imaging, and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. , which wants to help create smart cities that use sensors, cameras and computers to manage traffic. So far, the government is following their lead in technology development, AI researchers say, whatever the goals laid out in the government plan.

Chinese researchers may not have political freedom, they say, but they have the economic freedom to chart their own course. And the Chinese government doesn’t throw up roadblocks to the technology on the grounds of privacy, as occurs in the West.

“Freedom is very important,” says Mr. Brynjolfsson. “But there is more freedom in China to do startups than most people realize.”

Becoming an innovator in high technology and making a business success of those innovations in international markets is something that only a few countries have done, says Loren Graham, an emeritus MIT science historian.

“All of them—so far—are open, democratic societies in which government companies do not dominate,” he said.

He says China’s push in AI represents a great economic experiment.

“Can a country like China with lots of money combine repression, creativity and economic success based on that creativity? If the answer is yes, then we will have to rethink everything.”

Write to Bob Davis at bob.davis@wsj.com

Appeared in the February 26, 2018, print edition as ‘Authoritarianism Is China’s Edge in AI.’

TIME TO TAKE ERDOGAN OUT FOR BOMBING OUR TROOPS – TRUMP SHOULD GIVE THE ORDER TO KILL ON SIGHT

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Dozens of pro-Syrian forces killed in Turkish airstrikes

By Reuters

March 3, 2018 | 8:24am

BEIRUT – Turkish warplanes struck pro-Syrian government forces in the northwestern Afrin region of Syria on Saturday, killing at least 36 of them, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

It said this was the third time in 48 hours that Turkish warplanes had struck pro-government forces that entered Afrin last week in support of the Kurdish YPG militia as it fights to stave off an offensive by Turkey and allied Syrian militias.

Afrin offensive: 36 pro-Syrian government soldiers ‘killed in Turkish air strike’BBC News.svg

At least 36 pro-Syrian government troops have been killed by a Turkish air strike in the region of Afrin, a monitoring group says.

The strike targeted a camp at Kafr Jina in the northern Syrian region, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.

The pro-government troops entered Afrin two weeks ago to back Kurdish forces.

They are fighting a Turkish military offensive that was launched to clear Kurdish groups from Afrin.

Turkey considers the Kurdish militiamen there terrorists.

The Syrian government has denounced the offensive as a “blatant attack” on its sovereignty and, according to state media, forces were sent in to support the Kurds.

The air strike followed one of the bloodiest days for Turkish troops since they began the offensive in January.

Eight Turkish soldiers were killed and another 13 were injured on Thursday in fighting in Afrin.

Five “heroic comrades fell as martyrs and seven were wounded”, an initial statement from Turkey’s military said. A second statement announced three more soldiers had been killed and six more wounded.

No official details of the clashes were given but the private Dogan news agency said Kurdish fighters used tunnels to ambush Turkish special forces in the Keltepe district.

A Turkish helicopter sent in to rescue the wounded was hit and had to turn back, the report added.

Thousands of civilians in Afrin have fled their homes since Turkey’s offensive began.

A map of Syria showing who controls the different areas

The Turkish government says the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia is an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has fought for Kurdish autonomy in south-eastern Turkey for three decades.

The YPG denies any direct organisational links to the PKK.

Neither side has released much information about fatalities, making the death toll in Afrin difficult to gauge.

The UK-based SOHR says more than 141 civilians have died but Turkey denies this, saying only combatants are targeted.

Last month, Amnesty International said indiscriminate shelling had killed scores of civilians in Afrin.

Presentational grey line

Yet another new flashpoint?

Analysis by Sebastian Usher, BBC Arab Affairs Editor

When pro-government militia forces edged into Afrin last month, it wasn’t clear what their strategic purpose would be.

Videos showed a small group of militiamen being welcomed to Afrin city by Kurds there as their saviours. But it didn’t seem likely that they would play much more than a symbolic role, allowing the Syrian government to vaunt a new territorial initiative but at no major risk.

In fact, it seemed that it might be a way of de-escalating the latest conflict in Syria after Turkey launched its operation against Kurdish fighters there.

A deal to allow the Syrian government to take over much of the control of the area might suit many of the parties involved. It might even be a less bad option for Turkey, allowing it to turn down the intensity of its offensive.

But if the reports are true that pro-government forces have been badly hit by Turkish airstrikes, that would appear to undercut this interpretation, raising the prospect of yet another new flashpoint in Syria.

  •  

    Moscow: 20 US bases set up in Kurdish areas of Syria

     

    Secretary of the Russian Security Council Alexander Venediktov told Ria Novosti. “The return of peace and stability to Syria is hampered by continued external interference in the Syrian crisis. For example, in the territory controlled by the people’s self-defense units of Kurdistan, some 20 US military bases have been created,” the official said. According to the Russian official, US interference in the Syria conflict “provoked Turkey’s military operation” targeting Kurdish militias in Afrin. DEBKAfile:  The 20 US bases in Syria were first reported on Jan. 11. The rerun of the report supports Moscow’s campaign against the US military presence in Syria, which claims that it  is illegal, whereas the Russian military was invited by the “legitimate” Assad regime.

SWEDEN SWIRLING DOWN THE TOILET BOWL

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100PERCENTFEDUP.COMImage may contain: 3 people, people smiling, people standing and outdoor

This is us! This is America if we don’t value our sovereignty. Have you ever listened to or read something and a light bulb goes off in your head? This is exactly what’s happening to America right now! Sweden is the rape capital of the world now that they’ve become so “multicultural” and full of refugees…this will be us if we don’t stop the huge influx of illegals and refugees NOW!!!Wizard title page.jpg

Editor’s note: The following is the transcript of a speech given by Ingrid Carlqvist, author and founder of Sweden’s Free Press Society, at the 2012 International Conference for Free Speech and Human Rights held in Brussels on July 9th. Text of the speech was originally posted at the website of the Swedish Free Press Society.

Ladies and gentlemen. My name is Ingrid Carlqvist and I was born in Sweden in 1960, when the Social Democrats were gonna rule forever and ever and our country was the nicest and safest and most progressed in the world. Now I live in Absurdistan – a country that has the highest figure of reported rapes in the world, hundreds of so called “exclusion areas” where people live outside the Swedish society and with newspapers that hide all these horrible facts [from] the people.

I feel just like Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz – a tornado came and blew me miles and miles away from home and dumped me in a country I don’t know.

“Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Sweden anymore.”

Like Dorothy I’m searching for a way to find my home, but on my path I only meet lions without courage, scarecrows without brains and tin men without hearts.

When I grew up our prime minister was Tage Erlander, a Social Democrat. In 1965 he said in parliament, after violent race riots in America:

“We Swedes live in a so infinitely happier situation. The population in our country is homogeneous, not just according to race but also in many other aspects.”

Now I live in a nation that is not homogenous in any respect. Olof Palme that came after him decided that homogeneous was a bad thing and opened up our borders for people from all over the world. And from right to left the politicians told us that there was no such thing as a Swedish culture, no Swedish traditions worth mentioning and that we Swedes should be grateful that so many people with REAL culture and REAL traditions came to us.

Mona Sahlin, a later leader of the Social Democrats, said in an interview [in] 2002 with the magazine Euroturk, when asked what Swedish culture is:

I’ve often had that question, but I can’t think of what Swedish culture is. I think that is what makes us Swedes so envious of immigrants. You have a culture, an identity, something that ties you together. What do we have? We have Midsummer’s Eve and such corny things.

She also said: The Swedes must integrate into the new Sweden. The old Sweden is not coming back.

In this New Sweden we have more reported rapes than any other country in the European Union, according to a study by professor Liz Kelly from England. More than 5 000 rapes or attempted rapes were reported in 2008 (last year it was more than 6 000). In 2010 another study reported that just one country in the world has more rapes than Sweden, and that is Lesotho in South Africa. For every 100,000 inhabitants Lesotho has 92 reported rapes, Sweden has 53, The United States 29, Norway 20 and Denmark 7.

In 1990 the authorities counted 3 exclusion areas in Sweden, suburbs where mostly immigrants live, where very few have a job to go to, almost all of them live by welfare and the children don’t pass their exams. In 2002 they counted 128 exclusion areas. In 2006 we had 156 and then they stopped counting. In some cities, like Malmö where I live, a third of all inhabitants live in an exclusion area.

What did Tage Erlander mean when he said that the Swedish population was homogeneous, not just according to race but also in many other aspects? I think he meant things like norms, values, culture and traditions. A feeling of fellowship. That we all, in the Old Sweden, had a similar view of what a good society is and how we solve conflicts. He KNEW what the Swedish culture was all about, in contrast to Mona Sahlin.

In the New Sweden we need armed police officers at our hospitals because rivalling families fight each other in the hospital rooms. They gun each other down in open streets and they rob and beat old people up. The crime rate grows by the minute, but the Swedish politicians and journalists tell us that it has absolutely nothing to do with immigration. The fact that our prisons are full of foreign people is just a coincidence or is explained by socio-economic factors.

For many years I was a journalist in the mainstream media. But I was always a bit of a troublemaker, always suspicious of what people said was THE TRUTH. When everybody ran in one direction, I turned around in the other direction to see what was there.

In January 2011 something happened to make me loose my last hope about Swedish journalists. I was the vice chairman of The Society of Publicists in Malmö and had invited the Danish journalist Mikael Jalving to talk about his coming book “Absolute Sweden – a Journey in the Country of Silence.” One day the chairman phoned me and said: We must cancel Mikael Jalving because he is going to talk at a meeting arranged by a newspaper called National Today.

It didn’t matter to him, or to anyone else on the board of this society for journalists that Jalving was going to talk about his book. If he went to that meeting he would be infected by nationalist ideas and probably he would become a Nazi.

You see, everyone with a different opinion in Sweden really IS a Nazi!

That’s the way it works in the New Sweden, the country I call Absurdistan. The country of silence.

I was furious and left the board of that society. That led to my being invited to The Danish Free Press Society to talk about the strange country of Sweden and that led to my founding of The Swedish Free Press Society.

That is how Lars Hedegaard and I found each other. But we didn’t settle for running one Free Press Society each; since we both have a solid background as journalists we decided to start a newspaper. A good old, old-fashioned printed newspaper. We decided to call it Dispatch International because our vision is that this newspaper will become worldwide one day. But first we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin. Or rather – first we take Scandinavia and then we take the world!

Dispatch will be printed in two versions – one Danish and one Swedish – but all the stories are the same. And on the internet you will be able to read our stories in English and German as well. We will write about politics in our countries and in the world. We will write about all those things that mainstream media have been hiding for so many years now. We will distinguish between news stories and commentaries and the tone will be subdued. We will let the facts talk, the facts that mainstream journalists hide from people.

The situation in Sweden is far worse than in Denmark. In Sweden NOBODY talks about immigration problems, the death of the multiculti project or the Islamisation/Arabisation of Europe. If you do, you will immediately be called a racist, an Islamophobe or a Nazi. That is what I have been called since I founded the Free Press Society in Sweden. My name has been dragged through the dirt in big newspapers like Sydsvenskan, Svenska Dagbladet and even my own union paper, The Journalist.

So now I need you all to be my Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, and help me find my home again! I don’t think it will work to tap the heels of my ruby slippers together three times as Dorothy did to wake up in her bedroom in Kansas. But if you support Dispatch by taking a subscription or become a shareholder or just donate money to us, you will take me one step closer to home. To the Sweden that once was, the Sweden I want back.

Via: Frontpage Magazine

LOCK HER UP – THE MAYOR OF OAKLAND

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LOCK HER UP

 

BORDER SECURITY

Violent criminals among illegal immigrants caught in California raid derailed by Dem mayor

A sweep of Northern California by federal immigration officials this week, which was partly thwarted when the Oakland mayor sounded the alarm, nabbed a number of illegal immigrants convicted of a variety of serious and violent crimes.

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials announced this week that the four-day raid led to the arrest of 232 illegal immigrants in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Of those 232, 180 “were either convicted criminals, had been issued a final order of removal and failed to depart the United States, or had been previously removed” from the country and had come back illegally.

Another 115 “had prior felony convictions for serious or violent offenses.”

The numbers might have been greater, but for the intervention of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who tweeted out a warning of the impending raid, tipping off others who might have been caught.

Acting ICE Director Tom Homan said on “Fox & Friends” that Schaaf’s warning meant that there are roughly 800 illegal immigrants they were unable to locate.

“What she did is no better than a gang lookout yelling ‘police’ when a police cruiser comes in the neighborhood, except she did it to a whole community. This is beyond the pale,” he said.

An ICE spokesperson gave Fox News a list of the types of crimes for which those arrested in the rad had been convicted. They cover a range of bad behavior: aggravated assault, murder, hit-run, lewd acts with a minor, burglary, cruelty toward a child, indecent exposure, domestic violence, drug trafficking, battery, sex offenses and false imprisonment.

ICE pointed, in particular, to the case of Armando Nunez-Salgado, a Mexican gang member who had been deported four times and had convictions including assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, hit-and-run causing injury and evasion of a police officer.

ICE ARRESTS 232 PEOPLE IN FOUR-DAY RAID OF CALIFORNIA’S BAY AREA 

Another deportee was a Mexican gang member with convictions for, among other things, possession of a dangerous weapon, spousal abuse, burglary and battery on a police officer.

On 'Fox & Friends,' acting ICE director says the Oakland, California mayor is intentionally putting law enforcement officers at risk by warning illegal immigrants.Video

Acting ICE Director Tom Homan: We’re not going away

Officials were furious with the Oakland mayor’s actions to diminish the effectiveness of the raid.

In a statement, ICE also said that recent legislation has hurt the agency’s ability to enforce immigration laws.

“Recent legislation has negatively impacted ICE operations in California by nearly eliminating all cooperation and communication with our law enforcement partners in the state by prohibiting local law enforcement from contracting with the federal government to house detainees,” the statement.

“Ultimately, efforts by local politicians have shielded removable criminal aliens from immigration enforcement and created another magnet for more illegal immigration, all at the expense of the safety and security of the very people it purports to protect,” it said.

The White House called Mayor Schaaf’s actions “outrageous” and said the Department of Justice was conducting a review.

“I think it’s outrageous that a mayor would circumvent federal authorities and certainly put them in danger by making a move such as that,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Thursday

But Schaaf was unapologetic.

“I did what I believe was right for my community as well as to protect public safety,” Schaaf said Friday, according to NBC Bay Area. “People should be able to live without fear or panic and know their rights and responsibilities as well as their recourses.”

Fox News’ Nicole Darrah contributed to this report.

OBAMA’S JEW HATER FRIEND FARRAKHAN IN BED WITH WOMEN’S MARCH LEADERS – SARSOUR, PEREZ AND MALLORY

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WOMEN’S MARCH LEADERS REFUSE TO CONDEMN FARRAKHAN AFTER ANTISEMITIC SPEECH

In recent years, Farrakhan has embarked on a wide-ranging, anti-Jewish campaign, which has featured some of the most hateful speeches of his career.

BY DANIEL J. ROTH
 MARCH 3, 2018 01:09

 

  

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan addresses the audience at the metropolitan African Methodist

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan addresses the audience at the metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in in Washington June 24, 2015.. (photo credit: REUTERS)

NEW YORK – High-profile leaders of the popular Women’s March movement are refusing to condemn an antisemitic speech delivered by Louis Farrakhan last week.

Women’s March Co-President Tamika Mallory, Treasurer Carmen Perez and Assistant Treasurer Linda Sarsour have all failed to speak out against the Nation of Islam leader after he described the Jewish community as his “enemy” during an address at the 2018 Saviour’s Day event in Chicago, according to The Anti-Defamation League. 

“In the audience at last weekend’s conference was… Mallory, one of the leaders of the Women’s March, who got a special shout-out from Farrakhan and who regularly posts laudatory pictures of him on her Instagram account  —  as does Carmen Perez, another leader of the March,” ADL President Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement.

“Linda Sarsour, another March organizer, spoke and participated at a Nation of Islam event in 2015. Her most notable response to his incendiary remarks this year was a glowing post on Perez’s Facebook page to praise Farrakhan’s youthful demeanor.”

Activist Linda Sarsour addresses attendees at a vigil for Nabra Hassanen, a 17 year old teenage Muslim girl killed by a bat-wielding motorist near a Virginia mosque, Manhattan, New York, U.S., June 20, 2017. / REUTERS/AMR ALFIKY Activist Linda Sarsour addresses attendees at a vigil for Nabra Hassanen, a 17 year old teenage Muslim girl killed by a bat-wielding motorist near a Virginia mosque, Manhattan, New York, U.S., June 20, 2017. / REUTERS/AMR ALFIKY 

In response to the 84-year-old’s comments, Perez refused to denounce his antisemitism and instead retorted “there are no perfect leaders.”

Mallory and Sarsour did not respond to a request for comment by The Jerusalem Post.

The Women’s March describes itself as a grassroots movement that aims to harness the political power of diverse women and their communities to create transformative social change, a statement on the group’s website explains.

“Women’s March is committed to dismantling systems of oppression through nonviolent resistance and building inclusive structures guided by self-determination, dignity and respect,” it adds.

Amanda Berman, head of the New York City branch of the progressive Zioness Movement, said she was dismayed that an organization devoted to social justice and tolerance had failed to speak out against such blatant bigotry.

“No one expects progressive leaders — who are humans — to be perfect. We expect them to be inherently good, as opposed to profoundly racist. It would be absolutely unacceptable to Mallory, Perez and Sarsour if any other leader made heinous, bigoted comments like this about their respective communities, and therefore ironic and hypocritical beyond words that they continue to align themselves with someone with such deeply held, hateful worldviews,” Berman said.

“Either the Women’s March leaders endorse the vilification of the Jewish people or they don’t — and if they don’t, why do they so vehemently refuse to unequivocally condemn it? This episode only reaffirms the Zioness Movement’s commitment to activating and empowering new leaders in the feminist movement who show up to fight for the civil and human rights of all people, not just some people,” she added.

In an apparent response to the controversy, Mallory posted to Twitter on Friday evening: “Family… thank you for loving me and for knowing the truth about who I am. My work speaks for itself…my words have been clear… my love for people is deep. Whatever else they say about me is a LIE. Thank you for continuing to hold me up. I stand on my reputation!”

Family…thank you for loving me and for knowing the truth about who I am. My work speaks for itself…my words have been clear…my love for people is deep. Whatever else they say about me is a LIE. Thank you for continuing to hold me up. I stand on my reputation!

 

Funny how folks interpreted my mention of one having enemies the same as Jesus, as me describing a certain group of people. That’s your own stuff. My point…Jesus had a number of enemies as do all black leaders. Period point blank.

Speaking to thousands of followers, Farrakhan also railed against the Jewish community’s supposed influence over the media, an antisemitic trope that has been a popular talking point for the 84-year-old black nationalist leader.

 In one part of the address, Farrakhan said that the “Jews were responsible for all of this filth and degenerate behavior that Hollywood is putting out turning men into women and women into men.”

“White folks are going down. And Satan is going down. And Farrakhan, by God’s grace, has pulled the cover off of that Satanic Jew and I’m here to say your time is up, your world is through,” Farrahkan added.

Saviors’ Day is a holiday of the Nation of Islam commemorating the birth of its founder, Master Wallace Fard Muhammad.

Other notable remarks made by Farrakhan during the his speech in Chicago included the notion that Jews are part of “the Synagogue of Satan;” that the “white people running Mexico” are Mexican-Jews; that Jews control various countries including Ukraine, France, Poland and Germany, where they take advantage of the money, the culture and the business; that Jesus called Jews ‘The children of the devil’; and “when you want something in this world, the Jew holds the door.”

He also claimed Jews control the government and the FBI, and that they use marijuana to feminize black men.

 

The ADL noted that in recent years, Farrakhan has embarked on a wide-ranging anti-Jewish campaign, which has featured some of the most hateful speeches of his career.

“He has repeatedly alleged that the Jewish people were responsible for the slave trade as well as the 9/11 attacks, and that they continue conspire to control the government, the media, Hollywood, and various Black individuals and organizations,” the organization said.

Despite Farrakhan’s disposition towards the Jewish community, the New York native has been able to garner support from well known politicians and public officials over the years.

US Rep. Danny Davis (D-Illinois) recently praised Farrakhan as “an outstanding human being.” He later told the ADL that he was misquoted and insisted he rejects antisemitism in all forms.

US Reps. Maxine Waters and Barbara Lee of California, Al Green of Texas and William Jefferson of Louisiana have also been captured embracing Farrakhan, with a video posted to YouTube in 2009 showing them coordinating a response to Hurricane Katrina. 

“At a time when antisemitism indisputably is on the rise and our society seems more divided, the inability of public figures to denounce the words and leadership of Farrakhan is a problem  —  not only for Jews, many of whom are and want to continue to be active partners in the fight against hate in this country  —  but also for all those who believe in equal justice and dignity for all,” Greenblatt said.

"Where Revolution is the Solution" Taking back the Empire