John Barleycorn

https://summit.news/category/politics/

One point missed by the media in all of this political mess we have,is the massive intelligence apparatus we have at the federal level is not doing the job they are tasked with. Keeping Americans safe.
We have drugs pouring over the border, that are killing hundreds of thousands of Americans. We have illegal aliens committing crimes on Americans. We have foreigners shooting up our military personnel on our own bases.The list goes on and on.
They tell us that the deep state security apparatus is here to keep us safe and we don’t need to worry about protecting ourselves and families. The federal,deep state, agencies have all been politicized into spying on and prosecuting political enemies. This we know from the facts that are leaking out ever so slowly.
We need to reassess the need for all of these alphabet agencies since they seem to run amok and appear to be unmanageable. The average taxpayer dies not want their money wasted on such endeavors.

Greta & Mother Living Lavishly?

The latest rumor running around Europe is based on this photo of Greta Thunberg and her mother living above normal European standards of living, sitting in posh or elegant and stylishly luxurious chairs. Greta’s speeches appear to be written by Jennifer Morgan of Greenpeace. They had Greta further their Marxist agenda saying:

“Our biosphere is being sacrificed so that rich people in countries like mine can live in luxury. It is the sufferings of the many which pay for the luxuries of the few.”

Greta was an adviser to We Don’t Have Time and it was alleged to have been a covert partnership with Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project, 350.org. Ingmar Rentzhog’s We Don’t Have Time was alleged to have used Greta’s image to gain funds for his firm, according to Climate Change Dispatch. Greta’s family denied being aware that she would be used to raise money for Mr. Rentzhog’s organisation and is said to have cut her ties with that organization.

Greta’s travel to Alberta inflamed serious passions from both sides of the climate change agenda. She appeared to have been accompanied by her parents. She claims her mother gave up her career because she had to fly often, which harmed the climate, but they had no problem hopping on a plane to Canada.

What is clear is that Al Gore and Jennifer Morgan of Greenpeace do collaborate together and it has been Morgan who accompanies Greta even to Davos. Some argue that Al Gore is taking care of Greta and her family through Greepeace. That remains speculation right now unless you can get a court to order Greta & her family’s financial records to see how they are earning a living when her mother quit her career to save the planet because she had to travel for work.

Swedish journalist Henrik Alexandersson also claimed that Miss Thunberg’s much-reported speech delivered at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland in December 2018 was delivered to an empty room. Nobody has any photos to confirm or deny that allegation. It has been argued that Greta’s school strike coincided with the launch of a book about climate change written by her mother, who is the well known opera singer Malena Ernman, according to Swiss magazine Die Weltwoche.

You may have seen a cute illustration on social media.

It depicts a happy man named Bob and a happy woman named Sally.

And the idea is: even though Bob voted Republican and Sally voted Democrat, they can still be friends. They do not need to destroy each other.

Here’s what some, let’s say, left-leaning folks are spreading instead:

Imagine living in a world where you think the average Republican voter, for all his faults, wants to put “many” of your friends into concentration camps.

If that’s their intention they’re doing a fairly poor job of it.

I remember reading apparently serious people warning that if Hillary lost, LBGT people would wind up in concentration camps. Imagine being that tone deaf.

Likewise, imagine thinking that the Republican Party, again for all its faults, is an instrument of “white supremacy.”

Is the Republican Party trying to repeal affirmative action? No. That wouldn’t be white supremacy even if they were, and most Republicans would die a thousand deaths rather than try.

Is the Republican Party trying to repeal antidiscrimination laws? No. And that, too, wouldn’t be white supremacy.

Is the Republican Party advocating laws on a racial basis that would give artificial advantages to the majority group over minorities, as in employment and education — of the kind we absolutely do see happening in other countries, as I’ve noted in this newsletter before? No.

Yet this is how a substantial chunk of America thinks.

Which is why we should be talking radical solutions, of which decentralization and secession are the tamer ones (full-blown anarcho-capitalism being my preference).

In the meantime:

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Turkey: Murder of Women Reaches Epidemic Proportions
by Uzay Bulut
December 11, 2019 at 4:00 am

The murder of women by male relatives — particularly spouses or former spouses — has become a dangerous trend in Turkey. 652 women were killed in Turkey by men in the year-and-a-half period prior to November 2018, according to the Turkish women’s-rights platform, “We Will Stop Femicide.” (Image source: iStock)

On November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, thousands of Turkish women took part in demonstrations at Istanbul’s Taksim Square. The women were protesting the increasing number of murders in the country committed by men against female family members. After reading a statement to the press, the demonstrators were attacked by police with tear gas and plastic bullets.

The murder of women by male relatives — particularly spouses or former spouses — has become a dangerous trend in Turkey. The brutal murder, on August 18, of 38-year-old Emine Bulut by her ex-husband — in front of their 10-year-old daughter — is one particularly noteworthy case.

Bulut was stabbed multiple times in the neck at a café in the city of Kirikkale, where she had gone to meet the man from whom she had been divorced for several years. In a video of the attack, which went viral on social media, Bulut is seen covered in blood, shouting, “I don’t want to die,” as her terrified child screams along with her.

In response to the attack, women across Turkey held demonstrations to condemn the killing and called on the government to guarantee their protection.

Bulut’s gruesome murder, however, was only one of many attacks against women in Turkey at the hands of the men in their lives. The following examples, from the month of August alone, illustrate the gravity of the situation:

On August 22, a woman was stabbed to death by her abusive husband. Four days prior to her murder, she had taken out a restraining order.
On August 24, a woman who had just given birth was beaten and stabbed by her husband in her hospital bed. The woman had filed for divorce due to domestic violence.
Also on August 24, a man murdered his wife and daughter.
On August 25, the body of a woman, who had been shot in the head, was found near her home. Her husband was arrested as a suspect.
Also on August 25, a woman was shot by her husband after asking him for a divorce.
On August 27, a woman seeking a divorce was stabbed and severely injured by her husband in front of their 4-year-old daughter.
Also on August 27, a man strangled his wife to death with her headscarf.
According to the Turkish women’s-rights platform, “We Will Stop Femicide,” 652 women were killed by men in the year-and-a-half period prior to November 2018 — 36 of whom were murdered in October of that year.

The perpetrators of 37% of the above cases have not been identified, but the rest were found to be husbands, boyfriends, ex-boyfriends, brothers, fathers or other male relatives. The cause of 50% of the killings was not determined, but 16% of the women were killed because they wanted to make decisions about their lives, such as wanting a divorce, rejecting offers of reconciliation or even for not answering the phone when called by their men. 13% of the women were killed for “economic reasons.”

The Central Women’s Committee of Turkey’s Human Rights Association (HRA) released a statement on August 26, titled “Violence against women is a result of discriminatory policies,” which reads, in part:

“Protecting women from male violence can only be realized through state policies focusing on gender equality. One of the reasons why such a large number of women fall victim to violence is the reluctance and even prevention of relevant institutions to implement current laws.

“The provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which Turkey ratified in 1985 and put into effect, are not being implemented. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women’s General Recommendation No. 35 on gender-based violence against women significantly states in its 16th paragraph the following: ‘Gender-based violence against women, may amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in certain circumstances, including in cases of rape, domestic violence or harmful practices, among others.’

“The Istanbul Convention was signed and ratified by Turkey on 11 May 2011 and 14 March 2012 respectively. The purposes of the convention are to protect women against all forms of violence, and prevent, prosecute and eliminate violence against women and domestic violence; contribute to the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and promote substantive equality between women and men, including by empowering women; design a comprehensive framework, policies and measures for the protection of and assistance to all victims of violence against women and domestic violence; promote international co-operation with a view to eliminating violence against women and domestic violence; provide support and assistance to organizations and law enforcement agencies to effectively co-operate in order to adopt and integrated approach to eliminating violence against women and domestic violence. The incidents, however, reveal the ways in which these provisions are not being implemented, how its articles are not complied with, and how they have not been institutionalized.

“Moreover, if the authorities had even enabled the sufficient implementation of the Constitution and Law No. 6284 violence against women would have been prevented.”

The lack of law enforcement, however, is only part of the problem, according to the HRA, which says that the media and the country’s chief religious institution both share culpability:

“…Violence is normalized in various programs and shows on TV. 16,000 complaints have been lodged before the Radio and Television Supreme Council’s communication center within the last 8 months due to violent content on TV, but not a single one was discussed at the council’s meetings, according to İlhan Taşcı, CHP [Republican People’s Party] deputy and Radio and Television Supreme Council Member. Deputy Taşcı has expressed the horrifying truth about violence against women by saying, ‘There was no finger left unbroken, no women left unbeaten for the last two seasons of a show aired on a pro-government TV channel…’

“The statement by Diyanet [Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs] on violence against women is indeed an explicit expression of the mindset that forms the basis of violence. The president of Diyanet, Ali Erbaş, said: ‘In our religion, the life, dignity and rights of women are untouchable and entrusted [to men].’ By saying so, he declares that all the rights of women are entrusted to men; he thus objectified women. But we women are not entrusted to men or the government that represents male [supremacy].”

By saying that women’s life, dignity and rights are “entrusted to men,” Erbaş effectively stated that women do not have the right or ability to make their own life choices, independent of men’s approval or permission. He thus appears to see women as “men’s objects,” implying that it is men who are in charge of the implementation of women’s rights, including the right to life. Erbaş — like many other Islamist state authorities in Turkey — fails to understand that women’s rights are women’s fundamental, natural, inalienable rights and women are entitled to these rights.

The HRA listed a set of demands to rectify the intolerable situation. These include:

The number of women’s shelters should be increased and protected employment opportunities should be offered.
Effective investigations should be initiated into those engaging in violent acts against women; impunity policies should be dropped; reduced sentences should be handed out, for instance, for good conduct, and those based on judges’ personal opinions should be put to an end.
Agencies based on gender equality should be established and these should not be male-dominant, but based on women.
The structure of the law enforcement and the judiciary should be revised, focusing on protecting individuals, not the family; officers should be trained within this scope.
Broadcasts and published material that legitimize violence against women should be discontinued without delay.
Misogynistic statements by some government authorities demonstrating their opposition to gender equality; law enforcement and judiciary officials who fail or refuse to apply laws that would protect women; the extremely violent TV content targeting women; and religious teachings that promote violence against women all appear to lead to widespread murders and abuse of women in Turkey.

Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.

We’re Told Americans Have No Free Time, Yet We’re Watching More than Four Hours of TV Per Day
We are repeatedly told that basic human rituals are falling by the wayside. Why don’t we all sit down to dinner as a family anymore? Why don’t we spend time with each other anymore? Why are we all sleep deprived?

Sometimes these problems are blamed on people spending too much time devoted to kids’ intramural activities or other types of school- and recreation-based activities. Some analysts note people can’t tear themselves away from their smart phones in order to go to bed at a decent hour.

But very often, we’re told, this lack of time comes down to too much work. The articles covering these topics are full of anecdotal evidence of people with multiple jobs, long commutes, and crushing work responsibilities.

These problems no doubt afflict many people. They’re certainly an issue for people at that state of life where couples have school-age children, and have a host of bills from many responsibilities that comes with raising a family.

But, the anecdotal evidence is contradicted by years of data showing people aren’t nearly as hard pressed for a few free moments as is supposed.

Specifically, consider the 2019 Q1 data provided on media consumption by the Neilsen Company. According to their extensive sampling of TV, smart phone, and video game console users, American adults spend an average of four-and-a-half hours per day watching television. The spend an additional 54 minutes using TV-connected devices such as DVD players and video game consoles.

neilsen2.PNG
People over fifty watch the most television and generally consume the most screen-based media. People in the 50-64 age bracket watched nearly six hours of television, and spend an additional two hours and forty-seven minutes on smart phones. People in the over-65 category watched even more television than that.

Not surprisingly, people in the 18-34 age group consumed the least media overall, and also used televisions the least. Those people have younger children — which makes TV viewing harder — and may be spending more time outside the house with friends. In this group, people watched on average one hour and fifty-four minutes of television, but were on phone apps for three-and-a-half hours.

Across age groups, media consumption ranged from nine hours to nearly thirteen hours. Per day.

But to err on the conservative side, let’s remove radio time — which could just be part of the daily commute — and “internet on a computer,” which could be chores and work time. Even if we do this, we find Americans are on average watching videos, playing video games, and consuming media seven or eight hours per day.

And yet, media outlets and pundits are often telling us that ordinary people absolutely don’t have time to prepare a meal or maintain friendships. Given the data here, I’m skeptical of these assertions.

Now, these are averages, so it may be that people are very squeezed for time during the week, but then consume enormous amounts of media on the weekends. Certainly, there are people out there who consume live sports programming virtually all day on Sunday during football seasons. But then that would imply these people at least have time to spend with friends and family on weekends.

neilsen1.PNG
But if people have more than seven hours per day on average to watch re-runs of Friends, watch in-depth analysis of NBA games, and fire up the Playstation, why can’t they manage to get eight hours of sleep?

If this data is correct, then the anecdotal evidence just doesn’t add up, and it’s simply not the case that people don’t have time to do anything other than work, eat some fast food, and then do it all over again.

This isn’t to say that poverty doesn’t exist or that everyone is more or less average. We’ve all encountered people who at least sometimes work multiple jobs or are pushed to their limits by family obligations, work, and medical problems.

But the statistical data on media consumption suggests this isn’t the typical experience.

Crime Stays
Taki November 23, 2019
Crime Stays
photo credit: Bigstock
NEW YORK—Things are heating up, in both London and Nueva York, as this place should correctly be called. Two flunkies writing in the N.Y. Times announced to the fools that read the most anti-white and anti-male newspaper on record that Boris is committing gaffes and could, like Trump, be a dead man walking. It’s wishful thinking and the premature celebration confirms that the media can no longer be trusted, certainly not here in the land of the depraved. (The flunkies seek quotes from obscure British left-wing academics and loftily present them as “the people.” Their detachment from the workaday world is hilarious.)

In the meantime, here in the Bagel a drug pusher facing 100 years behind bars is photographed walking free and saluting Governor Cuomo for his bail-reform law. “Cuomo for president,” crows Jose Jorge in Spanish, leaving a Manhattan court without plunking down a penny for bail. Cuomo’s bail-reform bill is to help courts avoid a logjam, and has set around 900 dangerous criminals free. (Jorge was an innovative drug dealer. He mixed fentanyl with heroin for an extra kick, killing lots of his clients.) Never mind, the law is the law, and we all know that there are no criminals, only oppressors. According to the honchos who rule us, we need more tolerance for public disorder and for the city’s worst instincts. Ditto in London, I am told, where the present great mayor oversees knife crime last seen in Carthage after the Roman arrival.

Who’s gonna fix this mess? Certainly not the fuzz. The coppers are under siege here, having water poured over them, also milk, and overseeing marches spewing vile anti-NYPD invective taking place every weekend. I watched a cop car full of fuzz doing absolutely nothing as bikers rode on sidewalks dispersing shoppers on Madison Avenue. And sympathized with them. Law-abiding citizens are now a minority, so why should a copper enforce a law that’s not so important? And guns are making a comeback, not that they ever went away. Illegal gun seizures are at their lowest rate in five years, and that’s because the NYPD shuns seizing guns after the mayor and the police commissioner fired a totally innocent officer for applying a legal chokehold on a 400-pound man who died. The broken windows theory has flown out the window.

“When the zeitgeist says that the only thing worse than crime is locking up those who commit it, it’s party time for the bad guys.”
Yep, the city is in serious decline, public disorder is rampant, and the will to combat it is nil. Of course, you’ll never read this in the Times, only in the Post and the WSJ. I sometimes wonder why a newspaper like the Times chooses an onslaught of insanity and masquerades it as fairness and compassion. The paper almost celebrates criminals, although in my book being convicted of a serious crime does not make one a hero, especially when everything else has been decriminalized. Living in well-guarded buildings, as I do, in exclusive sections of the Bagel, as most people who work for the Times do, helps. They read about crime firsthand in the Post.

Law and Order, the symbol that Giuliani rode to victory and the rebirth of the Bagel thirty years ago, is now perceived as fascist, and a racist plot by the minority, the law-abiding folk. And at times it turns funny, as when the present mayor uses tax money to hand out gifts to those who show up for court dates. Rob a store, mug an oldie, and get a free baseball ticket for eventually showing up as you walk free without having to post bail.

Mind you, as I said, I don’t see much of this mess on the Upper East Side. But when I recently crossed the bridge to Brooklyn for a party, I did witness a small march of about 500 to 1,000 with a large yellow banner that read: “Punch a Cop.” This was on the border of Queens and Brooklyn, where my nice but totally lost cabdriver had taken me. I asked him what he thought about the calls for violence against the police. His English was limited—he was from Ghana—yet he did say no good, no good; but then he was a hardworking cabbie with no time to protest against fascism, racism, sexism, and the rest of the isms.

The Bagel is in flux. More than half of its 8 million residents are foreign-born—4.5 million, to be exact. The majority of the foreign-born are under 35 and did not live under the halcyon days of Giuliani. The gangs are mostly Hispanics, with Dominicans among the most violent and brutal, and there’s not a damn thing that anyone can do about them. They deal in drugs and murder, and the lousiest mayor ever, Bill de Blasio, makes sure the cops do not cross the line and step on the poor darlings’ civil rights.

Am I painting too bleak a picture? Not if one lives in Queens, the Bronx, or certain parts of Brooklyn. As in London, here in New York the rich are protected, almost by osmosis. The gangs know where the weak live, where the poor are. And now when the zeitgeist says that the only thing worse than crime is locking up those who commit it, it’s party time for the bad guys. The set-’em-free mindset means bad days ahead for those who least deserve it. My problem is I can’t make up my mind whether it’s better to be knifed in London or shot in Nueva York.

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