by | BLOG
The BBC is one of the largest media organizations in the world, reaching hundreds of millions of readers per week. However, their articles covering the Israel-Hamas war have contained blatant violations of honest reporting as well as their own editorial guidelines. These are not isolated incidents; abuses have occurred over 1,500 times in their coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
Research conducted by lawyer Trevor Asserson found substantial evidence of bias against Israel, including a tendency to associate Israel with genocide – despite the fact that Israel has never by word or deed, expressed any intention of eliminating Palestine or its people, and Hamas has expressed openly and consistently their desire to eliminate Israel and its Jews from the face of the Earth (genocide). The report also raises concerns about BBC Arabic’s coverage, noting instances where journalists reportedly showed support for Hamas.
In response, the BBC questioned the report’s methodology, particularly the use of AI for analysis. However, dismissing the report based on AI is disingenuous, since they don’t contest the validity of the findings. AI is a powerful tool for analyzing large volumes of text efficiently and objectively, enabling researchers to identify patterns and biases that might be missed by human reviewers. Its application does not undermine the report; instead, it enhances the analysis by providing a comprehensive view of the content. Additionally, the research was conducted by a team of legal experts and data scientists, meaning that AI analysis complemented, rather than replaced, human oversight and contextual understanding.
The BBC’s insistence on questioning the methodology is clearly just a smokescreen since they don’t even deny the bias and shoddiness of their reporting. Historical evidence shows that media outlets can exhibit bias, and previous studies validate the effectiveness of AI tools in uncovering such biases across various contexts. As a public service broadcaster, the BBC has a responsibility to uphold transparency and accountability. Given these findings, there are serious questions about its suitability for continued public funding.
by | BLOG
People have been asking about the reasons for the recent stock market decline. But the real question is: why has there been this run up recently in the first place?
The Biden-Harris administration has benefitted from the situation that since before the pandemic, job openings in the US have far exceeded the total number of unemployed people. Markets have been buoyed by the fact that as people lost their jobs, they were able to replace them with those that had been previously unfillable. In addition, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been giving a significant additional boost to the economy.
For these reasons, the terrible Biden-Harris economic policies have been pushed into the background, which include:
1) severely increased regulation — including restrictions on mergers and acquisitions, SEC burdens, NLRB restrictive labor policies, etc.; 2) substantial tariffs; 3) threats of, and implementation of, higher taxes; and 4) legislation directing the use of wasteful and inefficient green energy policies
But they could only be lucky for so long. Now that the excess jobs in the economy have mostly been filled, leading to increasing unemployment rates and weakening of the GDP, the terrible Biden-Harris economic policies are beginning to be felt. And there is no end in sight. Should Kamala Harris win the election in November, and these policies continue, I believe there could be a severe recession. The market realizes that there is no reason for companies to invest, and prospects for the future have turned quite gloomy.
Even with Trump winning in November, unless he is able to materially reduce regulation, keep taxes low, and avoid his debilitating tariffs, there could still be a recession ahead.
The lesson we have learned is clear: high regulation, along with the threat of higher taxes, can only be severely detrimental to the economy.
by | BLOG
President Biden’s college debt forgiveness programs are not only illegal, but morally and ethically wrong, and economically stupid. It certainly has appeal to those whose debt is forgiven – after all, that is the payment for their votes. But to no one else.
College loan forgiveness is, at its core, a wealth transfer. Despite what the left would have you believe, it simply takes from those who have little and gives to those who have much. The Biden administration estimates that 27.6 million borrowers (around 64% of all borrowers) will have some or all of their debt forgiven. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (UBS), college graduates make on average $67,860 per year compared to $38,800 per year for non-graduates, which is a 65% gap. Biden’s plan necessitates taking from those in society who are already in the lowest income bracket to give to the college graduates of the country.
So, not only is it morally and ethically wrong, it’s also just bad policy from an economic perspective. It sends the wrong message to borrowers who willingly took out loans to finance their education. When individuals take on debt, they have a responsibility to repay it. Forgiving student loans undermines personal accountability and discipline, creating a moral hazard by encouraging future students to borrow more, assuming their debts will also be forgiven someday. This would fuel inflation in higher education costs and perpetuate a cycle of debt and forgiveness. And it is also a slap in the face to those who have already paid their debts,
It is also illegal. President Biden does not have statutory authority to forgive debt, except by direction of laws passed by Congress (as the Constitution makes perfectly clear). “Justification” for his forgiveness is to claim as his authority laws that were clearly never intended for that purpose.
Forgiveness also does not deal with the root cause of spiraling costs, which are directly linked to the Federal government guaranteeing student loans, without a single thought given to the loan recipients ability to repay like any private entity would do. A study published by the New York Federal Reserve Bank found a direct connection between federal student aid and tuition increases, every dollar of subsidized student loans, increased tuition by about 65 cents.
Student loan forgiveness is not a solution but a short-sighted and lazy attempt to buy votes. It is an illegal action which fails to address the root causes of rising education costs and unfairly shifts the burden on taxpayers who did not benefit from higher education loans.
by | BLOG
A few years back when Kamala was chosen as the VP candidate, I compiled a list of Kamala foibles; now that she’s the Democrat candidate for President, I decided to dust it off. It’s important to know that she had committed some rather egregious trespasses as a prosecutor. Just as disturbing is her fluctuating policy positions, calling into serious question her attempt to presently appear as a criminal justice reformer. Instead, Harris should be known for 1) her criminality and very poor judgment as a prosecutor 2) her hypocrisy, and 3) her opportunism.
One of the biggest areas of concern is her prosecutorial misconduct. In many instances, she basically acted as a rogue prosecutor who should have possibly been charged criminally for her own actions in some of the following incidents:
*During a case in 2015 in which a prosecutor concocted a confession from the defendant, thereby leading to the case being dismissed, Harris’s Attorney General’s office appealed the dismissal.
*During a case in 2015 in which a prosecutor in his case fabricated information to a jury relating to compensation to an informant, Harris’s Attorney General’s office fought the defendant’s appeal.
*During a case in which the entire Orange County DAs office was removed from the trial for failure to turn over evidence, Harris sought to block the removal.
*During a case in which a man was wrongfully imprisoned for 13 years, Harris’s office attempted to keep him locked up.
*After a crime lab technician purposefully tainted evidence in a vast amount of cases, Harris hid his actions while acting as a San Francisco DA.
Furthermore, Kamala Harris has worked on rebranding herself from previously being tough on crime to more sympathetic to justice warriors. For instance:
* Until 2014, Harris was against the legalization of marijuana while acting as the Attorney General of California.
* Harris declined to support criminal justice sentencing reforms that were on the ballot in California in 2012 and 2014.
* Harris’s office opposed an order to lessen the amount of prisoners in California, while supporting the use of prisoners as laborers due to the low cost.
* During her time serving as the Attorney General in California, Harris supported the dubious practice of civil asset forfeiture under the guise of going after drug operations.
Additionally, Harris was eager to be in the spotlight while moving up the political chain in California; two ridiculous incidents in particular come to mind.
*While running for US Senate, Harris’s office arrested the owners of Backpage, a site for classified sex workers, after publicly declaring that they “were protected from prosecution under federal speech law.” The case was promptly thrown out by a judge.
*While running for US Senate, Harris’s office went after for-profit colleges in California as part of an Obama initiative, while subsequently refusing to release any buyer of potential future liability– meaning anyone purchasing would be under constant threat of a lawsuit. Subsequently, no buyer would accept the terms. The Corinthian college system therefore shuttered 23 schools, putting people out of work and education.
Kamala Harris has repeatedly shown to have no moral compass. Her actions as a prosecutor should be alarming, as well as her hypocritical flip-flopping of positions. Kamala has shown to be a mercurial political opportunist who merely parrots Biden’s egregious fiscal and foreign policies, and she has no business being a Presidential candidate.
by | BLOG
Kamala Harris first came on my radar in 2015, when she partnered with the Department of Education to close some for-profit colleges in California when she was the Attorney General. In an earlier post on the subject, I noted that Harris worked in conjunction with the Department of Education specifically targeting the Corinthian College system. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Last summer the Education Department began to drive Corinthian out of business by choking off federal student aid for supposedly stonewalling exhaustive document requests. The Department claimed to be investigating whether Corinthian misrepresented job placement rates as California Attorney General Kamala Harris alleged in a lawsuit.”
Corinthian agreed to turn over their education centers to other non-profits, but Kamala Harris refused to release any buyer of potential future liability, meaning anyone purchasing would be under constant threat of a lawsuit. That November, “the nonprofit Education Credit Management Corporation (ECMC) “agreed to buy more than 50 Corinthian campuses for $24 million plus $17.25 million in protection money to the feds for a release from liability. But ECMC passed up Corinthian’s 23 schools in California because Ms. Harris wouldn’t quit.” The alternative to having no buyer for these particular schools would ultimately be to shut them down.
It was in April 2015 that Corinthian was slapped with the $30 million fine, which effectively drove the final nail in the coffin of the remaining schools because no one in their right mind would shoulder the liability. As for the hefty penalty, “The Department assessed the maximum fine of $35,000 per regulatory violation, which its bureaucrats count as each student that was improperly counted.” By the end of the month, all the rest of the schools indeed closed, throwing out of employment and school, thousands of people.
What makes this whole affair particularly odious is that that “the federal government [didn’t] specify how for-profits calculate their job placement rates. States and accrediting agencies have disparate and often vague rules, which notably don’t apply to nonprofit and public colleges.” Thus, Corinthian Colleges was really just a part of the larger assault on for-profit colleges by the Obama Administration, all tied to his “Gainful Employment” rules.
Part of the new regulation change dealt with colleges and federal aid, and Corinthian was a ripe target. What’s more, the Department of Education found a ready and willing partner in Kamala Harris, who, at the time, just happened to be running for a very important Senate seat in California at the time, the seat of retiring Barbara Boxer. She was elected a year later. Harris demonstrated her willingness to play along to get along. Even now, nearly a decade later, some things haven’t changed.
by | BLOG
I get email from all sorts of groups, but this one caught my eye earlier today. “Jews United for Democracy and Justice” invited Andrew Weissmann as a speaker for a talk entitled, “THE QUEST FOR ACCOUNTABILITY: An Expert’s Analysis of Trump’s Liabilities” to be given on Wednesday, 6/26. The fact that Andrew Weissmann is speaking on accountability is hypocrisy in its purest forms, given his history of despicable lawyer practices.
During the Colombo crime cases in the 1990s, Weissmann withheld exculpatory evidence and was reprimanded for doing so by a judge in the Eastern district of New York. Several years later during his tenure as head of the task force investigating Enron, he intimidated witnesses and made repeated threats, resulting in his abrupt resignation in the midst of jury deliberations. Similarly, Andrew Weissmann persecuted and prosecuted Jim Brown, a Merrill-Lynch executive, for a deal with Enron during which Weissmann concocted evidence and hid Brady material, and then repeatedly lied to the court about having such material. Initially, Jim Brown was found guilty and sent to prison, but the fraud and conspiracy charges were later overturned for him and three other Merrill Lynch executives.
Likewise, Andrew Weissmann brought an indictment against the Arthur Andersen firm as an entity arguing that it covered up for Enron. No indictment against a company for the action of one person had never been done before — or ever since. But in the end, no crime was actually ever committed, as determined later by a unanimous 9-0 Supreme Court decision. During the oral argument, the Court viciously ridiculed the theory that Weissmann used in order to charge the crime in the first place. Unfortunately, that exoneration came too late: Weissmann had destroyed an 89-year-old accounting institution and eliminated 85,000 jobs by distorting the law, denying the defendants a fair trial, and taking intent out of the jury instructions.
In 2013, Weissmann faced ethical charges before the First Judicial Department Disciplinary Committee in NY for his outrageous behavior, including hiding evidence and lying to the court, during the Enron trial. But the Committee passed the disbarment issue on to the Eric Holder DOJ in DC, who buried the charges.
Having Weissmann give a talk about credibility is utterly laughable. For all the people they could have invited to talk about Trump, he is the absolute worst. Weissmann does anything to win, including violating all moral and ethical principles. Weissmann should have been disbarred years ago; having him as any speaker anywhere whatsoever denigrates the organization that invites him.
by | ECONOMY
My utility provider, Con Edison, recently announced yet another increase in utility prices and many of my neighbors are incensed. According to their website, “New York City residential customers may see an 11% increase in summer bills due to higher delivery charges. For the same reason, Westchester residential customers may see a 12% increase.” This is on top of continuous increases over the past few years.
But their anger is misplaced. Instead of blaming Con Ed, they should be outraged at the state and local legislators who have irrationally pushed wind and solar projects to the detriment of the utility consumer.
NY residents have been subjected to the closure of nuclear power plants, the closure of extraordinarily efficient, natural gas plants, and the construction of extraordinary, wasteful, wind, and solar projects. Several of these have monumentally failed — but these huge financial losses are now built into our utility cost base!
It is now commonly understood that the wind and solar projects that have been imposed upon us in recent years will have virtually no effect on the climate. But what it has done is add tens of millions of dollars of increased wasted costs that are now built into our utility cost base for the consumer to bear through increased prices, like the ones announced by Con Ed last week.
The most distressing part about this is not what our government has done to us, but that the media, the newspapers, and mostly the elected officials absolutely ignore this reality.
As a tax accountant, a significant portion of my work is now moving people out of New York, because of huge living costs as well as huge taxes. I myself expect to be leaving New York, mostly for these reasons. For a constituency that’s supposed to be intelligent, it is extraordinarily disappointing that we continue to elect these people. We should all be ashamed.
by | BLOG, Israel
It is simply outrageous that the French government recently banned Israeli exhibitors from participating in a defense industry trade show after pro-Palestinians protested their participation. Nevermind the fact that the show, the Eurosatory, is the biggest international show for land and air-land defense and security held every other year in Paris. As Israel has always been a major military presence, it is a vital contributor, with 74 exhibitors scheduled to attend before the prohibition.
What’s even more egregious is that a French court, in deference to Palestinians, subsequently voted to ban any Israeli company from outright attending merely three days before the start of the exhibition. So not only were Israelis shut out from exhibiting, France further decided that they cannot even send representatives or employees to meet with or contact any of the exhibitors.
It has come to my attention that in early June, when the French announced the initial exhibitor ban, Representative Ogles (R-TN) introduced an NDAA amendment on this that passed by voice. It urged that the DOD and its agencies not participate in the Eurosatory this year if Israeli firms were also banned from participating. This is as far as it ever got in Congress and with the Eurosatory now underway this year, nothing more can be done.
It is heinous that the French used such a ban as a way to deter Israel from defending itself, and that our Congress knew about it and did nothing.
Congress and/or the administration MUST act to exact real consequences on France for these actions.
