bonginoreport--2020-11-15--Gavin Wax: The Whistleblowers Against Electoral Fraud are Emerging

Even though the media has already anointed Joe Biden the president-elect , the legal battles are just beginning , and sworn affidavits from whistleblowers are emerging that provide a coherent narrative of nationwide fraud concentrated in urban areas in crucial battleground states .
One whistleblower has attested to the fact that tens of thousands of ballots came into the absentee voter processing board in Detroit at the dead of night following the election .
Poll challengers were unable to do their jobs because the ballots took over seven hours to arrive after they had to be legally turned in under @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of poll challengers showed up , many of them were ejected from the vote-counting center , with Democrat operatives literally covering up the process , while every vote counted allegedly went to Biden .
Other ballots were said to be marked with the birthdate of 1/1/1900 as they were frantically tabulated .
In another sworn affidavit , a Nevada poll worker attested to seeing illegal ballot-manipulating behavior outside of the Clark County Elections Department .
The whistleblower attested to seeing Democrat operatives outside of the office manipulating mail-in ballots .
They allege that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fudged , with confirmation hearings to confirm their residence scheduled months after the vote was already to be decided .
When the Democrat operatives understood they were being observed , they formed a human wall to obscure their illicit behavior .
Similar stories have emerged from other battleground states .
Georgia Republican Party chair David Shafer noted that Fulton County officials reported that the tabulation center was shut down at 10:30 P.M. on election night but continued to count ballots in secret until 1 A.M. after observers left the facility .
Ten Republican @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Court to reverse the inexplicable decision to allow mail-in ballots to arrive after the election ended and be approved even if they were not postmarked in Pennsylvania .
Republicans in Wisconsin are calling for an investigation into thousands of Wisconsin voters who allegedly skirted mandatory voter ID laws while voting .
This is just a small taste of the fraud that has occurred on a widespread scale , not even counting the mysterious glitches that have reportedly occurred due to the use of extremely dubious software in the electoral process .
When all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ delivered to the public , the evidence for fraud will be incredibly overwhelming .
The only problem is our political class , and their propagandized minions will deliberately obscure the evidence and never accept it under any circumstances .
They have conditioned the public with the Russian collusion hoax that President Trump is an illegitimate president , and that propaganda is ingrained into the brains of millions of Americans .
They , not QAnon or white militiamen , are the sleeper cells who will be activated for chaos and destruction if the vote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ already leading a doxxing campaign against lawyers in Pennsylvania fighting for electoral accountability , and there will be much more of this type of behavior to come .
Expect whistleblowers to be demonized , legitimate journalists to be discredited , lawyers to be threatened , and political officials to be blackmailed .
Commentators like Michael Anton of the Claremont Institute and Darren Beattie of Revolver News gave away the plot with their coverage of what they called a color revolution coup in the lead-up to the election .
The ANTIFA and Black Lives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what is planned .
America may burn like a funeral pyre if Trump can claim his rightful second term , with institutional support behind the mayhem that we can not currently fathom .
There is a masterclass of gaslighting that is occurring by the liberal establishment right now , and it is effective among the pliable masses .
Many leaders on the Right have already surrendered or are conditioning their followers to capitulate at an opportune moment .
Rep. Dan Crenshaw ( R-TX ) has led the charge , declaring that Republicans should @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's ring if officials deem Trump has lost an election that he has already won .
Neoconservative pundit Ben Shapiro called President Trump `` deeply irresponsible '' for pointing out he was the rightful winner , preferring for him to fall on the sword like McCain and Romney did as they handed the country over to the Democrats .
The ostensibly conservative network that I was formerly honored to appear on , Fox News , has wholly joined the dark side , going to war with the Trump administration , and earning the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Even Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu , who President Trump worked so hard to keep in power during his trials in recent years , bowed to Biden following the media 's pronouncement he was the winner .
The fact is nobody will be working to protect these whistleblowers who are putting their safety at significant risk .
They are laying it all on the line to speak truth to power during this pivotal moment in our Republic .
We owe it to them to venerate their testimony in public , on social media @ @ @ @ @ @ @ work colleagues , and everyone in between .
It may be inconvenient or tense to speak about what is happening , it may strain our long-standing relationships , but it is our patriotic duty to do so with our nation at its crossroads .
This could be the final stand for human freedom , and we must leave it all on the line during these crucial moments .
Otherwise , we will not be able to face our posterity telling them we let their future slip away on our watch .

Even though the media has already anointed Joe Biden the president-elect, the legal battles are just beginning, and sworn affidavits from whistleblowers are emerging that provide a coherent narrative of nationwide fraud concentrated in urban areas in crucial battleground states.
One whistleblower has attested to the fact that tens of thousands of ballots came into the absentee voter processing board in Detroit at the dead of night following the election. Poll challengers were unable to do their jobs because the ballots took over seven hours to arrive after they had to be legally turned in under Michigan law. When the next round of poll challengers showed up, many of them were ejected from the vote-counting center, with Democrat operatives literally covering up the process, while every vote counted allegedly went to Biden. Other ballots were said to be marked with the birthdate of 1/1/1900 as they were frantically tabulated.
In another sworn affidavit, a Nevada poll worker attested to seeing illegal ballot-manipulating behavior outside of the Clark County Elections Department. The whistleblower attested to seeing Democrat operatives outside of the office manipulating mail-in ballots. They allege that the proof of residence data was being fudged, with confirmation hearings to confirm their residence scheduled months after the vote was already to be decided. When the Democrat operatives understood they were being observed, they formed a human wall to obscure their illicit behavior.
Similar stories have emerged from other battleground states. Georgia Republican Party chair David Shafer noted that Fulton County officials reported that the tabulation center was shut down at 10:30 P.M. on election night but continued to count ballots in secret until 1 A.M. after observers left the facility. Ten Republican attorney generals have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the inexplicable decision to allow mail-in ballots to arrive after the election ended and be approved even if they were not postmarked in Pennsylvania. Republicans in Wisconsin are calling for an investigation into thousands of Wisconsin voters who allegedly skirted mandatory voter ID laws while voting.
This is just a small taste of the fraud that has occurred on a widespread scale, not even counting the mysterious glitches that have reportedly occurred due to the use of extremely dubious software in the electoral process. When all of the sworn affidavits are processed and delivered to the public, the evidence for fraud will be incredibly overwhelming. The only problem is our political class, and their propagandized minions will deliberately obscure the evidence and never accept it under any circumstances. They have conditioned the public with the Russian collusion hoax that President Trump is an illegitimate president, and that propaganda is ingrained into the brains of millions of Americans. They, not QAnon or white militiamen, are the sleeper cells who will be activated for chaos and destruction if the vote steal is overturned.
Democrat operatives are already leading a doxxing campaign against lawyers in Pennsylvania fighting for electoral accountability, and there will be much more of this type of behavior to come. Expect whistleblowers to be demonized, legitimate journalists to be discredited, lawyers to be threatened, and political officials to be blackmailed. Commentators like Michael Anton of the Claremont Institute and Darren Beattie of Revolver News gave away the plot with their coverage of what they called a color revolution coup in the lead-up to the election. The ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter uprising was just a test-run for what is planned. America may burn like a funeral pyre if Trump can claim his rightful second term, with institutional support behind the mayhem that we cannot currently fathom. There is a masterclass of gaslighting that is occurring by the liberal establishment right now, and it is effective among the pliable masses.
Many leaders on the Right have already surrendered or are conditioning their followers to capitulate at an opportune moment. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) has led the charge, declaring that Republicans should accept extreme voter fraud and kiss Biden's ring if officials deem Trump has lost an election that he has already won. Neoconservative pundit Ben Shapiro called President Trump "deeply irresponsible" for pointing out he was the rightful winner, preferring for him to fall on the sword like McCain and Romney did as they handed the country over to the Democrats. The ostensibly conservative network that I was formerly honored to appear on, Fox News, has wholly joined the dark side, going to war with the Trump administration, and earning the ire of their top-rated primetime star. Even Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, who President Trump worked so hard to keep in power during his trials in recent years, bowed to Biden following the media's pronouncement he was the winner.
The fact is nobody will be working to protect these whistleblowers who are putting their safety at significant risk. They are laying it all on the line to speak truth to power during this pivotal moment in our Republic. We owe it to them to venerate their testimony in public, on social media, to friends and family, to work colleagues, and everyone in between. It may be inconvenient or tense to speak about what is happening, it may strain our long-standing relationships, but it is our patriotic duty to do so with our nation at its crossroads. This could be the final stand for human freedom, and we must leave it all on the line during these crucial moments. Otherwise, we will not be able to face our posterity telling them we let their future slip away on our watch.


bonginoreport--2020-11-16--Suspect Filmed Assaulting Numerous Trump Supporters Identified as Brittany McAlister

The Post Millennial has identified a Black Lives Matter protester and journalist filmed assaulting Trump-supporters after the “ Million MAGA March ” on Saturday in Washington , DC Brittany S. McAlister , 29 , of Washington , DC , was caught on viral video assaulting at least two individuals .
She is a third-year journalism student at Howard University and works as a freelance journalist .
In the first assault caught on video later retweeted by President Trump , McAlister kicked an unconscious man on the ground after he was sucker-punched by Kenneth Wayne DeBerry , who was arrested and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the time .
Soon after , she sprinted up behind a woman carrying an American flag and punched her in the head before running away .
Earlier in the day , far-left group Refuse Fascism had profiled the D.C. social-justice activist in a now-deleted tweet .
McAlister gave a speech against Trump and his followers at Black Lives Matter Plaza .
McAlister was active on social media but has deactivated and deleted all her known accounts after videos of the assaults went viral .
She also removed her personal website where she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ journalist ” who runs the magazine , Pawzels .
She has yet to be arrested .
The Metropolitan Police Department did release a photo of McAlister , soliciting tips from the public to identify her .
The “ Million MAGA March ” was peaceful and attended by thousands of attendees .
But violence erupted in the late afternoon and evening as rally attendees dispersed the event and returned to their hotels .

The Post Millennial has identified a Black Lives Matter protester and journalist filmed assaulting Trump-supporters after the “Million MAGA March” on Saturday in Washington, DC
Brittany S. McAlister, 29, of Washington, DC, was caught on viral video assaulting at least two individuals. She is a third-year journalism student at Howard University and works as a freelance journalist.
Brittany S. McAlister, 29, of Washington D.C.
In the first assault caught on video later retweeted by President Trump, McAlister kicked an unconscious man on the ground after he was sucker-punched by Kenneth Wayne DeBerry, who was arrested and charged. She was holding a camera at the time.
Soon after, she sprinted up behind a woman carrying an American flag and punched her in the head before running away.
A protester rushes up and punches a Trump supporter from behind as they chase her away from Black Lives Matter Plaza #DCProtests #MarchForTrump #BLM pic.twitter.com/UywPGPbO05 — Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) November 14, 2020
Earlier in the day, far-left group Refuse Fascism had profiled the D.C. social-justice activist in a now-deleted tweet. McAlister gave a speech against Trump and his followers at Black Lives Matter Plaza.
A now-deleted tweet by Refuse Fascism showed video of Brittany McAlister giving a speech earlier in the day
McAlister was active on social media but has deactivated and deleted all her known accounts after videos of the assaults went viral. She also removed her personal website where she described herself as a “freelance backpack journalist” who runs the magazine, Pawzels.
She has yet to be arrested. The Metropolitan Police Department did release a photo of McAlister, soliciting tips from the public to identify her.
MPD announces arrests have been made in an Aggravated Assault offense that occurred on 11/14/20 in the 1700 b/o I Street, Northwest.
This case remains under investigation.
Have info? Call (202) 727-9099/text 50411
Release: https://t.co/qkBautzlhy pic.twitter.com/Q7cXt9R4fA — DC Police Department (@DCPoliceDept) November 15, 2020
The “Million MAGA March” was peaceful and attended by thousands of attendees. But violence erupted in the late afternoon and evening as rally attendees dispersed the event and returned to their hotels.


bonginoreport--2020-11-16--The Violent Intolerant Left

The Violent Intolerant Left

eftist blacklists are all about tolerance , don ’ t you know ?
Let us at last reject the trope that the Left is the party of love and tolerance .
After the predictable media coronation of Joe Biden as 46th president of the United States , leftist vitriol and hatred spilled out on the internet , corporate media , and into the streets .
Washington , D.C. endured an entire summer marred by rioting , violence , vandalism , and arson .
Like many urban centers , the District prepared for election day by boarding up our office buildings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Everyone with common sense knew that the threat emanated from violent leftists .
No one worried about right-wing militias or anarchists harming people if Joe Biden were to win .
It says a lot that in a city that voted 93 % for Joe Biden , and governed by a city council without a single Republican elected leader , the town folk and elected officials feared their own political allies .
And with good reason , having endured this summer ’ s wave of political violence .
In 2016 , he made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of tax policy , national sovereignty , government regulation , trade , religious liberty , life issues , second amendment rights , environmental protections , use of American military force , and immigration .
He also added issues like criminal justice reform , which may be responsible for his 2020 gains with the African American community .
And Trump fulfilled his promises on each of these issues , surprising long-time swamp-watchers with his level of commitment he was and how much he was able to accomplish .
In contrast , Joe Biden campaigned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s accomplishments , even pledging to use again the crushing power of our federal government to harass nuns for failing to violate their uncontroversial religious beliefs under Obamacare regulations that the Trump administration reversed .
His running-mate , Kamala Harris , tweeted a video praising the use of government to create equal outcomes for Americans , rather than equal opportunities .
How might one accomplish equal outcomes , one might ask ?
By government force .
Welcome to the police state .
Are we safe with the power of government in the hands @ @ @ @ @ @ @ let nuns serve the elderly poor without conscripting them into the sexual revolution in violation of their conscience ?
That brings us to the Leftist response to the media coronation of Mr. Biden .
First , they are crowdsourcing a blacklist of everyone who worked for the Trump administration , supported Mr. Trump , or received a nomination from Mr. Trump .
Their creepy Stalinist double-speak for this effort is the Trump Accountability Project .
Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez — part of the Venezuelan socialist wing of the Democrat party — supported the effort .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ same people who hammered Mr. Trump and his supporters for the last four years on their supposed lack of tolerance , diversity , “ norm ” violations , and threats to democracy .
So it takes a breathtaking amount of chutzpah to advocate blacklisting political opponents .
Can there be anything less tolerant , less diverse , and more of a threat to our system of government than winning an election and then calling for the professional annihilation of your adversaries ?
Steve Bannon , exiled to internet Siberia , will never recover @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Wray deserve their heads on pikes , while Kathy Griffin gleefully reposted images of her with Donald Trump ’ s severed and bloodied head .
From the same people aghast at chants of “ Lock her up ” at Trump rallies , Slate wants Trump advisor Stephen Miller imprisoned for “ spreading his pestilence , ” a textbook anti-Semitic slur .
From ground zero in Washington , D.C. , shopkeepers are removing the boards from their windows while the Left compiles enemy lists .
For a party that bleats on about their love @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than their words .

L
eftist blacklists are all about tolerance, don’t you know? Let us at last reject the trope that the Left is the party of love and tolerance.
After the predictable media coronation of Joe Biden as 46th president of the United States, leftist vitriol and hatred spilled out on the internet, corporate media, and into the streets.
Washington, D.C. endured an entire summer marred by rioting, violence, vandalism, and arson. Like many urban centers, the District prepared for election day by boarding up our office buildings, government locations, and retail stores.
Everyone with common sense knew that the threat emanated from violent leftists. No one worried about right-wing militias or anarchists harming people if Joe Biden were to win.
It says a lot that in a city that voted 93% for Joe Biden, and governed by a city council without a single Republican elected leader, the town folk and elected officials feared their own political allies. And with good reason, having endured this summer’s wave of political violence.
Unlike violent deconstructionists, President Trump is a builder. He has kept his promises to the American people.
In 2016, he made centrist Republican campaign promises in the areas of tax policy, national sovereignty, government regulation, trade, religious liberty, life issues, second amendment rights, environmental protections, use of American military force, and immigration.
He also added issues like criminal justice reform, which may be responsible for his 2020 gains with the African American community.
And Trump fulfilled his promises on each of these issues, surprising long-time swamp-watchers with his level of commitment he was and how much he was able to accomplish.
In contrast, Joe Biden campaigned on dismantling each of Mr. Trump’s accomplishments, even pledging to use again the crushing power of our federal government to harass nuns for failing to violate their uncontroversial religious beliefs under Obamacare regulations that the Trump administration reversed.
Mr. Biden vowed to hike tax rates to punish job-creators.
His running-mate, Kamala Harris, tweeted a video praising the use of government to create equal outcomes for Americans, rather than equal opportunities. How might one accomplish equal outcomes, one might ask? By government force. Welcome to the police state.
Are we safe with the power of government in the hands of those who won’t even let nuns serve the elderly poor without conscripting them into the sexual revolution in violation of their conscience?
That brings us to the Leftist response to the media coronation of Mr. Biden.
First, they are crowdsourcing a blacklist of everyone who worked for the Trump administration, supported Mr. Trump, or received a nomination from Mr. Trump.
Their creepy Stalinist double-speak for this effort is the Trump Accountability Project. Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez — part of the Venezuelan socialist wing of the Democrat party — supported the effort.
Mind you, these are the very same people who hammered Mr. Trump and his supporters for the last four years on their supposed lack of tolerance, diversity, “norm” violations, and threats to democracy.
So it takes a breathtaking amount of chutzpah to advocate blacklisting political opponents.
Can there be anything less tolerant, less diverse, and more of a threat to our system of government than winning an election and then calling for the professional annihilation of your adversaries?
Steve Bannon, exiled to internet Siberia, will never recover from suggesting that Anthony Fauci and Christoper Wray deserve their heads on pikes, while Kathy Griffin gleefully reposted images of her with Donald Trump’s severed and bloodied head.
From the same people aghast at chants of “Lock her up” at Trump rallies, Slate wants Trump advisor Stephen Miller imprisoned for “spreading his pestilence,” a textbook anti-Semitic slur.
From ground zero in Washington, D.C., shopkeepers are removing the boards from their windows while the Left compiles enemy lists.
For a party that bleats on about their love and tolerance, their actions speak louder than their words.


bonginoreport--2020-11-16--BLM Activist Filmed Sucker Punching Trump Supporter Arrested – Records Reveal He’s a Child Sex Offen

BLM Activist Filmed Sucker Punching Trump Supporter Arrested – Records Reveal He’s a Child Sex Offender

A Black Lives Matter activist and registered child sex offender was arrested for allegedly sucker-punching a man and leaving him bloody in the streets after the “ Million MAGA March ” in the capital on Saturday .
39-year-old Kenneth Wayne DeBerry , of Washington , DC , was charged with aggravated assault , disorderly conduct through inciting violence , and being a felon in possession of a gun .
When the Metropolitan Police Department took DeBerry into custody , officers found a handgun on him .
DeBerry was filmed in viral videos running up from behind an unidentified man and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the ground unconscious while another anti-Trump protester kicked him .
Another protester then stole his mobile phone .
The attack followed scuffles in the street between the victim and a large group of Black Lives Matter protesters .
DeBerry has a long criminal history .
In 2008 , he was convicted of second-degree child sexual abuse in the state of Virginia .
He is a registered child sex offender and was released from federal prison earlier this year .
His social media is filled with comments showing support for BLM and he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during the assault .
The pro-Trump rally earlier in the day was peaceful and attended by thousands of attendees .
But scenes of violence erupted in the late afternoon and evening as rally attendees dispersed the event .
Three other suspects were also apprehended and charged by police .
Bobby Smalls , 29 , of DC , was arrested for disorderly conduct through inciting violence and carrying a dangerous weapon .
He was armed with a knife .
Dashawna Gause , 28 , of DC , was arrested for disorderly conduct through inciting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
She had a taser .
Alexus Doris Owens , 24 , unknown address , was arrested for simple assault and was arrested for disorderly conduct through inciting violence .
President Trump brought attention to the assault in a tweet , writing : “ Human Radical Left garbage did this .
Being arrested now !
” Metro Police are still seeking three additional suspects and are asking the public ’ s help in identifying them .

A Black Lives Matter activist and registered child sex offender was arrested for allegedly sucker-punching a man and leaving him bloody in the streets after the “Million MAGA March” in the capital on Saturday.
39-year-old Kenneth Wayne DeBerry, of Washington, DC, was charged with aggravated assault, disorderly conduct through inciting violence, and being a felon in possession of a gun. When the Metropolitan Police Department took DeBerry into custody, officers found a handgun on him.
DeBerry was filmed in viral videos running up from behind an unidentified man and sucker punching him. The man collapsed on the ground unconscious while another anti-Trump protester kicked him. Another protester then stole his mobile phone.
Brutal assault by a violent armed group who was later arrested for assault and illegal weapon (firearms and concealed knives) charges. pic.twitter.com/vuj2Hn6hj5 — Kalen From Scriberr (@FromKalen) November 14, 2020
The attack followed scuffles in the street between the victim and a large group of Black Lives Matter protesters.
DeBerry has a long criminal history. In 2008, he was convicted of second-degree child sexual abuse in the state of Virginia. He is a registered child sex offender and was released from federal prison earlier this year.
His social media is filled with comments showing support for BLM and he was holding a sign for Refuse Fascism during the assault.
The pro-Trump rally earlier in the day was peaceful and attended by thousands of attendees. But scenes of violence erupted in the late afternoon and evening as rally attendees dispersed the event. Three other suspects were also apprehended and charged by police.
The footage of the brutal assault was captured by myself and @FromKalen. We gave the footage to authorities and they arrested the 5 individuals who were responsible for the attack. #MillionMAGAMarch pic.twitter.com/SF8FiboCcg — Jorge Ventura Media (@VenturaReport) November 15, 2020
Bobby Smalls, 29, of DC, was arrested for disorderly conduct through inciting violence and carrying a dangerous weapon. He was armed with a knife.
Dashawna Gause, 28, of DC, was arrested for disorderly conduct through inciting violence and possession of a prohibited weapon. She had a taser.
Alexus Doris Owens, 24, unknown address, was arrested for simple assault and was arrested for disorderly conduct through inciting violence.
President Trump brought attention to the assault in a tweet, writing: “Human Radical Left garbage did this. Being arrested now!”
Metro Police are still seeking three additional suspects and are asking the public’s help in identifying them.


bonginoreport--2020-11-16--Crazy Ilhan Calls Trump Rallies “Klan Rallies”

Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar spoke to the Washington Post , saying that Trump rallies were nothing more than Klan rallies .
`` To speak about me at every single rally , did n't really matter where he was , sometimes multiple times in a day , as he had held his Klan rallies throughout the country , '' Omar said .
In the full interview , Omar said that black women and young people were responsible for the rebuke of President Trump in the recent election , and that they showed up `` to say we want a future that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ brought . ''
In trying to explain how the Democrats lost six seats in the House of Representatives , she said that `` elections are nuanced . ''
`` For alot of my colleagues who 've lost , they 've expressed how there was alot of concentration , whether it was the volunteers , the nation 's attention was on sending Trump packing .
And for alot of us , that win in itself was the victory we were after . ''
She blamed the pandemic for the losses , saying `` Campaigning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that alot of people were prepared for .
I had to fight to establish a ground game , to hire a canvassing team , and go out and door knocking in Minnesota .
`` I know alot of my colleagues did not do that , and so there are alot of challenges that happen when you are not having that one-on-one face-to-face conversation with constituents .
When Republicans are continuing to expand their ground game , Democrats did not . ''
Trump has routinely slammed Omar , saying that `` She does n't @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I do n't like people that do n't love our country . ''
In June , he said of Omar : `` Omar is going to be very much involved in a Biden government .
They will put this hate-filled , America-bashing socialist front and centre in deciding the fate of your family and deciding the fate of your country .
I don ’ t think so .
`` She would like to make the government of our country just like the country from where she came—Somalia .
No government , no safety @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just anarchy .
And now , she 's telling us how to run our country .
No , thank you . ''

Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar spoke to the Washington Post, saying that Trump rallies were nothing more than Klan rallies.
"To speak about me at every single rally, didn't really matter where he was, sometimes multiple times in a day, as he had held his Klan rallies throughout the country," Omar said.
In the full interview, Omar said that black women and young people were responsible for the rebuke of President Trump in the recent election, and that they showed up "to say we want a future that is brighter than the darkness you have brought."
In trying to explain how the Democrats lost six seats in the House of Representatives, she said that "elections are nuanced."
"For alot of my colleagues who've lost, they've expressed how there was alot of concentration, whether it was the volunteers, the nation's attention was on sending Trump packing. And for alot of us, that win in itself was the victory we were after."
She blamed the pandemic for the losses, saying "Campaigning during a pandemic really wasn't something that alot of people were prepared for. I had to fight to establish a ground game, to hire a canvassing team, and go out and door knocking in Minnesota.
"I know alot of my colleagues did not do that, and so there are alot of challenges that happen when you are not having that one-on-one face-to-face conversation with constituents. When Republicans are continuing to expand their ground game, Democrats did not."
Trump has routinely slammed Omar, saying that "She doesn't love our country, you know? I don't like people that don't love our country."
In June, he said of Omar: "Omar is going to be very much involved in a Biden government. They will put this hate-filled, America-bashing socialist front and centre in deciding the fate of your family and deciding the fate of your country. I don’t think so.
"She would like to make the government of our country just like the country from where she came—Somalia. No government, no safety, no police, no nothing, just anarchy. And now, she's telling us how to run our country. No, thank you."


bonginoreport--2020-11-16--President Trump Readying Massive Crackdown on China

A new report from Axios has revealed that President Trump is planning a massive crackdown on China .
This move is to allegedly prevent a Biden administration from changing course on China .
According to the report , `` Trump officials plan to sanction or restrict trade with more Chinese companies , government entities and officials for alleged complicity in human rights violations in Xinjiang and Hong Kong , or threatening U.S. national security . ''
They are also planning on cracking down against human rights violations beyond just the Xinjiang forced labor camps .
National Security Council spokesperson John @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reverses course and becomes a responsible player on the global stage , future U.S. presidents will find it politically suicidal to reverse President Trump ’ s historic actions . ''
Trump officials are also looking to promote hawkish China experts into senior roles across the government .
This may potentially explain some of the last minute shake ups from the Trump administration .
Senior administration officials are also discussing expanding a Defense Department list of Chinese companies deemed to have ties to the Chinese military .
A recent executive order already includes 31 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on growing this list .
The Biden team has declined to comment on this new report .

A new report from Axios has revealed that President Trump is planning a massive crackdown on China. This move is to allegedly prevent a Biden administration from changing course on China.
According to the report, "Trump officials plan to sanction or restrict trade with more Chinese companies, government entities and officials for alleged complicity in human rights violations in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, or threatening U.S. national security."
They are also planning on cracking down against human rights violations beyond just the Xinjiang forced labor camps.
National Security Council spokesperson John Ullyot told Axios, "Unless Beijing reverses course and becomes a responsible player on the global stage, future U.S. presidents will find it politically suicidal to reverse President Trump’s historic actions."
Trump officials are also looking to promote hawkish China experts into senior roles across the government. This may potentially explain some of the last minute shake ups from the Trump administration.
Senior administration officials are also discussing expanding a Defense Department list of Chinese companies deemed to have ties to the Chinese military. A recent executive order already includes 31 companies, but they are allegedly planning on growing this list.
The Biden team has declined to comment on this new report.


bonginoreport--2020-11-16--Profiles in Self-Awareness: Gov. Cuomo Says Leaders Need to Take Responsibility for Their Mistakes

Hypocritical Gov .
Andrew Cuomo says strong leaders 'admit your mistakes ' — though he wo n't admit his Cuomo @ @ @ @ @ failures during the coronavirus pandemic

The New York Republican Party and several pundits and commentators lambasted New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo after he gave a speech over the weekend criticizing the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic and saying that strong leaders admit their mistakes.
Plugging his new book on leadership during the pandemic at Riverside Church in Morningside Heights in Manhattan Sunday, Cuomo said that a strong leader shouldn't be defensive when he's made mistakes.
"The key is to be strong and secure enough to admit your mistakes and admit your shortcomings, don't get defensive," Cuomo said. "Denying the mistake only assures repeating the mistake."
The New York GOP responded to a video of Cuomo's remarks, blasting the governor and accusing him of dodging responsibility for his numerous mistakes.
After the onset of the pandemic at the beginning of the year, Cuomo infamously issued an executive directive on March 25 requiring nursing home facilities to accept patients diagnosed with COVID-19 from hospitals. The purpose of the order was to free up hospital bed space for an expected overwhelming influx of virus patients. The result of this extraordinary mistake was to house sick coronavirus patients with elderly populations that proved to be extremely susceptible to contracting the disease, resulting in the deaths of about 6,720 New Yorkers in nursing homes, according to estimates from the state Health Department.
Cuomo has never accepted responsibility for this mistake. In fact, the governor has defensively accused his critics of lying and blamed state Republicans and the New York Post for the controversy over his administration's disastrous policy.
In the speech, Cuomo also discussed progress on a coronavirus vaccine, accusing the federal government under President Donald Trump's leadership of politicizing vaccine progress and undermining the American people's confidence in the government.
"We have a vaccine on the way, truly great news," Cuomo said. "But polls say 50% of the American people say they would not take the vaccine if it were available today because they don't trust the way this federal government has politicized the process."
Cuomo added that his administration and independent medical experts will review any vaccine supplied by the Trump administration before distributing it to New Yorkers to increase confidence in the vaccine. He did not mention that in October he said he himself was "not that confident" in the Food and Drug Administration's approval process for a potential vaccine, adding that the American people "should be" "very skeptical."
President Trump on Friday held a press conference updating the nation on Operation Warp Speed and the progress pharmaceutical companies partnered with the federal government have made toward creating and distributing a coronavirus vaccine. The Trump administration announced that they expect to be able to vaccinate 20 million Americans in December and another 25 to 30 million Americans per month on an ongoing basis from there.
In his remarks, Trump called out Cuomo's vaccine skepticism and said the federal government will not be able to deliver a vaccine to New York until Cuomo's reviewers give it approval. In response, Cuomo on Sunday threatened to sue the Trump administration.
"I tell you today, if the Trump administration does not change this plan and does not provide an equitable vaccine process … we will bring legal action to protect New Yorkers," he vowed.
"President Trump must learn the lesson: Stop the abuse. Stop the division. Stop the anger. Stop the hatred. Stop the narcissism. And spend your last months trying to help people and repair the damage you have done," Cuomo said.
Commentators noted Cuomo's jarring hypocrisy. Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean called Cuomo "a real piece of work." Dean's husband's parents were both residents of New York assisted living facilities or nursing homes before they contracted COVID-19 and died.
Others mocked Cuomo for his seeming lack of self-awareness.
Or just criticized his attempt to gaslight New York and the rest of the nation.
In August at the Democratic National Convention, Cuomo declared that "our way succeeded," claiming his policies lowered the spread of coronavirus in New York and attacking Republicans for failing to control the pandemic, even as tens of thousands of New Yorkers died of the virus and the state's economy was crippled by his policies.
Now, Cuomo's comments on Sunday and his new book on lessons learned from the pandemic come as New York faces a new spike of coronavirus cases and an increase in hospitalizations. In response to this second wave of the pandemic, Cuomo days ago announced a new series of coronavirus restrictions, limiting private gatherings in New York to just 10 people indoors with Thanksgiving around the corner.
"Rhetoric only goes so far, we don't want to hear any more," Cuomo said Sunday. "We want actions, because it is results that matter at the end of the day."


bonginoreport--2020-11-16--Bitcoin Price Eyes Prior Record

Bitcoin Price Eyes Prior Record

Three years ago , Bitcoin ’ s historic surge dominated Thanksgiving dinner conversations .
This year , the cryptocurrency is @ @ @ @ @ notable rally and yet almost no one ’ s talking about it .
How fevered @ @ @ @ @ leg higher been ?
With the coin trading around US $ 16,300 , it ’ @ @ @ @ @ only eight other instances in the past decade , Bloomberg data show .
Almost all @ @ @ @ @ 1,375 per cent surge in 2017 that saw it reach close to US $ 20,000 @ @ @ @ @ out 70 per cent over the next year .
The world ’ s largest cryptocurrency @ @ @ @ @ through a boom and bust and a second boom since its frenzied heydays in 2017 @ @ @ @ @ in the years since , and crypto enthusiasts argue digital coins have gone through a @ @ @ @ @ mania that surrounded digital currencies back then is largely absent , despite Bitcoin being about @ @ @ @ @ its vaunted record highs .

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Bitcoin is gunning for a record and no one is talking about it With Bitcoin at US$16,000, many fans are once again eyeing the US$20,000 level as the next barrier to breach Photo by Dado Ruvic/Reuters files
Article content Three years ago, Bitcoin’s historic surge dominated Thanksgiving dinner conversations. This year, the cryptocurrency is in the midst of another notable rally and yet almost no one’s talking about it. How fevered has Bitcoin’s latest leg higher been? With the coin trading around US$16,300, it’s been more expensive in only eight other instances in the past decade, Bloomberg data show. Almost all of those came during the 1,375 per cent surge in 2017 that saw it reach close to US$20,000 before a spectacular plunge wiped out 70 per cent over the next year. We apologize, but this video has failed to load.
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Article content The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value has been through a boom and bust and a second boom since its frenzied heydays in 2017. A lot has changed in the years since, and crypto enthusiasts argue digital coins have gone through a maturing process. But the mania that surrounded digital currencies back then is largely absent, despite Bitcoin being about 15 per cent shy of its vaunted record highs.
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Article content By all accounts, Bitcoin has had a great year, despite a crash at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic that saw it lose 25 per cent in March. It’s more than doubled since December and many fans are once again eyeing the US$20,000 level as the next barrier to breach. Developments in recent months have helped fuel this year’s rally. Fidelity Investments launched a Bitcoin fund, adding its star power and legacy brand to the space. Some prominent Wall Street names bought in. Public companies Square Inc. and MicroStrategy Inc. recently invested in the coin. And one of the most notable events for fans was PayPal Holding Inc.’s October decision to allow customers to access cryptocurrencies. But market watchers say more pressing issues have grabbed this month’s headlines. “It’s kind of in the shadows right now,” said Bryce Doty, portfolio manager at Sit Fixed Income Advisors. “Bitcoin gets attention when it looks like the world is coming to an end, it’s the anti-vaccine trade. As stocks and everything else have done better and people have forgotten about trade wars and things have been eclipsed by the pandemic, Bitcoin has taken a back seat to all of that.”
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Article content Bitcoin gets attention when it looks like the world is coming to an end, it's the anti-vaccine trade Bryce Doty, portfolio manager at Sit Fixed Income Advisors Matt Maley at Miller Tabak + Co. says institutional investors might be paying more attention to the crypto space — he’s fielded some calls about it in recent weeks. But individual investors — many of whom suffered through Bitcoin’s 2018 crash — might have their sights set on other issues. This year has been a torturous and many are worried about the pandemic and the economic downturn, says the firm’s chief market strategist. “The individuals — a lot of those people got burned badly — they’re less excited about it now,” he said. “It’s certainly not the huge hoopla we had back in 2017 — that could change if it breaks above the 2017 highs.” Guy Hirsch, managing director for U.S. at multi-asset brokerage eToro, is tracking a slightly non-traditional gauge of sentiment: the total number of Tweets that mention Bitcoin on a daily basis. At the height of the crypto boom, he was seeing around 120,000 Bitcoin-related tweets a day. That number now oscillates between 30,000 and 60,000, according to data from eToro and The Tie. “This rally is clearly different in a number of ways,” Hirsch said by phone. It is less speculative, he said, and even though recent developments have been advancing at “a snail’s movement, it’s in the right direction. Generally speaking, we’re very bullish on what’s happening.”
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Article content Greg King, chief executive officer of Osprey Funds, a subsidiary of REX Shares that runs a Bitcoin trust, says the excitement’s there “but I think it’s a more grounded excitement.” He added: “The longer that Bitcoin persists and the more on-ramps that get built and the more that interest increases, I think it’s becoming more and more real in investor’s minds — everyone has progressed three years further down the adoption curve.” King says he’s not getting nearly as many inquiries from distant relatives about Bitcoin’s performance as he did a few years back. But he urges perspective: its price went from US$1,000 at the start of 2017 to more than US$19,000 later that year. “Here, we haven’t even hit the previous high,” he said. “Yes, it’s back up to US$16,000 but people at the dinner table will be talking about it when it hits US$50,000 or US$100,000 — then Thanksgiving will get very exciting and I’ll start hearing from those relatives again,” he said. “That’s when I think it really makes people’s radar.” Bloomberg.com
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bonginoreport--2020-11-17--Todd Starnes: It’s Easy to Conquer Countries Where the Army Is Wearing Evening Gowns and High Heels

Harry Styles , the former boy band singer , is making national headlines in the fashion world .
The first man to grace the cover of Vogue .
He was also wearing a dress .
Mr. Styles says society should dismiss the idea that there are clothes for men and clothes for women .
He went on to say that wearing ladies ’ garments is `` amazing . ''
Vogue prides itself in being the industry leader when it comes to fashion and style – and if they have their say – hairy-legged men with burly chests will be painting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ matching handbags .
I wrote about this bizarre cultural quagmire in my book , `` Culture Jihad : How to Stop the Left from Killing a Nation . ''
It 's a direct assault on cultural norms - this idea of gender fluidity .
The Left wants you to believe there 's no such thing as male or female .
They want you to believe that you actually exist on some sort of spectrum .
They want to create a society where it 's perfectly acceptable for Doris and Sally to wear jock @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cousin Leroy meanders through Walmart wearing ladies unmentionables .
I conducted an informal survey on my Facebook page asking women about the characteristics they look for in a man .
They overwhelmingly said they wanted a man who could provide for their family and carry them out of a burning building .
By and large , most American women do n't want to be in a situation where their children ask , `` Mommy , why is daddy wearing a dress ? ''
Candance Owens , the conservative commentator , said Vogue ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ manhood .
`` There is no society that can survive without strong men , '' she wrote on Twitter .
She also warned that it ’ s no coincidence that the attack on manhood is happening while the nation embraces Marxism .
`` The East knows this .
In the west , the steady feminization of our men at the same time that Marxism is being taught to our children is not a coincidence .
It is an outright attack , '' Owens said .
She makes a very good point .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ army to conquer a nation whose warriors are decked out in evening wear and high heels .

Harry Styles, the former boy band singer, is making national headlines in the fashion world. The first man to grace the cover of Vogue. He was also wearing a dress.
Mr. Styles says society should dismiss the idea that there are clothes for men and clothes for women. He went on to say that wearing ladies’ garments is "amazing."
Vogue prides itself in being the industry leader when it comes to fashion and style – and if they have their say – hairy-legged men with burly chests will be painting the town red in Gucci gowns with matching handbags.
I wrote about this bizarre cultural quagmire in my book, "Culture Jihad: How to Stop the Left from Killing a Nation."
It's a direct assault on cultural norms - this idea of gender fluidity. The Left wants you to believe there's no such thing as male or female. They want you to believe that you actually exist on some sort of spectrum.
They want to create a society where it's perfectly acceptable for Doris and Sally to wear jock straps. And we should celebrate if Cousin Leroy meanders through Walmart wearing ladies unmentionables.
I conducted an informal survey on my Facebook page asking women about the characteristics they look for in a man. They overwhelmingly said they wanted a man who could provide for their family and carry them out of a burning building.
By and large, most American women don't want to be in a situation where their children ask, "Mommy, why is daddy wearing a dress?"
Candance Owens, the conservative commentator, said Vogue’s cover is a direct attack on manhood.
"There is no society that can survive without strong men," she wrote on Twitter.
She also warned that it’s no coincidence that the attack on manhood is happening while the nation embraces Marxism.
"The East knows this. In the west, the steady feminization of our men at the same time that Marxism is being taught to our children is not a coincidence. It is an outright attack," Owens said.
She makes a very good point. It's a lot easier for an invading army to conquer a nation whose warriors are decked out in evening wear and high heels.
"Bring back manly men," she declared.
And trousers, too.


bonginoreport--2020-11-17--James B. Meigs: The Chump Effect

James B. Meigs: The Chump Effect

Faced with disaster , authorities often worry more about an unruly public than about the crisis at hand .

Last January, a small but telling exchange took place at an Elizabeth Warren campaign event in Grimes, Iowa. At the time, Warren was attracting support from the Democratic Party’s left flank, with her bulging portfolio of progressive proposals. “Warren Has a Plan for That” read her campaign T-shirts. The biggest buzz surrounded her $1.25 trillion plan to pay off student-loan debt for most Americans.
A man approached Warren with a question. “My daughter is getting out of school. I’ve saved all my money [so that] she doesn’t have any student loans. Am I going to get my money back?”
“Of course not,” Warren replied.
“So you’re going to pay for people who didn’t save any money, and those of us who did the right thing get screwed?”
A video of the exchange went viral. It summed up the frustration many feel over the way progressive policies so often benefit select groups, while subtly undermining others. Saving money to send your children to college used to be considered a hallmark of middle-class responsibility. By subsidizing people who run up large debts, Warren’s policy would penalize those who took that responsibility seriously. “You’re laughing at me,” the man said, when Warren seemed to wave off his concerns. “That’s exactly what you’re doing. We did the right thing and we get screwed.”
That father was expressing an emotion growing more common these days: he felt like a chump. Feeling like a chump doesn’t just mean being upset that your taxes are rising or annoyed that you’re missing out on some windfall. It’s more visceral than that. People feel like chumps when they believe that they’ve played a game by the rules, only to discover that the game is rigged. Not only are they losing, they realize, but their good sportsmanship is being exploited. The players flouting the rules are the ones who get the trophy. Like that Iowa dad, the chumps of modern America feel that the life choices they’re most proud of—working hard, taking care of their families, being good citizens—aren’t just undervalued, but scorned.
The word “chump” probably derives from an ancient Norse term for a stump or large chunk of wood. The modern word “blockhead” comes to mind, which—no coincidence—was Lucy’s favorite label for the too-trusting Charlie Brown in the Peanuts comic strip. Lucy never tired of snatching away the football; Charlie fell for it every time. We all know the feeling: when you’re inching forward in the freeway exit lane, say, and another driver flies past and swerves onto the ramp at the last second; when your child has to complete her college-entrance exams within a designated time period, but your neighbor’s child gets twice as long because of a suddenly diagnosed “learning disability”; when you pay extra to have your pet travel in the airplane’s cargo hold but the yipping poodle across the aisle, an “emotional-support animal,” gets to ride on its owner’s lap for free. You didn’t know that you could get an emotional-support card just by claiming an anxiety disorder and paying a fee to an online agency? What are you—a chump?
What makes these indignities so infuriating isn’t just that a few people game the system. It’s that their selfish gambits work only because the rest of us follow the rules. If every driver mobbed the freeway exit from the passing lanes, traffic would come to a halt. The student who fraudulently obtains extra test time gets a leg up only if most other students stick to the original time limit. And if every pet were designated an emotional-support animal, airplanes and restaurants would become full-time menageries. (Some airlines have begun tightening rules on support animals for just this reason.)
Thousands of norms, rules, and traditions make civilized life possible. Some, like paying taxes or not littering, are enshrined in law. Others are informal. Most of us take pride in adhering to basic standards of etiquette and fairness, to say nothing of following the law. And we have a deep emotional investment in having the people around us follow these norms as well. There’s a reason that we call selfish, disruptive, or criminal behavior “antisocial.” We know that if everyone stopped paying their taxes, or started running red lights and shoplifting, our society would be on its way to collapse.
It’s bad enough when some random jerk makes you feel like a chump; it’s much worse when government policies create entire classes of chumps. Warren fizzled as a presidential candidate, but her activist positions remain very much in play, promoted by far-left Democrats and party leaders. Many of these plans would penalize people who follow traditional norms and shower benefits on those who don’t. Joe Biden’s platform includes many similar proposals, including a scaled-down college-debt plan. And, across the country, progressive governors, mayors, and district attorneys are pushing local policies—including ultra-lenient treatment of lawbreakers—that turn responsible citizens into chumps, too. The economic and ideological disruptions brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests have only intensified this ongoing bifurcation of America. Call it the Chump Effect.
Chump-Effect policies take two main forms. The first involves bestowing some financial or other benefit on a favored group. Often, these groups are poor or considered victims of discrimination. To be clear, having a compassionate safety net for the poor does not, in itself, turn other people into chumps. The problem arises when antipoverty programs make it more attractive to stay on public assistance than to become self-reliant. When poorly structured incentives reward dependence and penalize work, strivers wonder: Why do I bother? Of course, not all benefit programs are aimed at the poor. Various farm subsidies cost U.S. taxpayers more than $20 billion a year. Most of that money goes to the largest and wealthiest producers. Meantime, most farmers—just like most businesspeople—somehow survive without tapping into a giant federal slush fund. Then there are various “pro-business” programs such as the Export Import Bank, which, as Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center documents, inevitably favor huge corporations such as Boeing. Businesses without armies of lobbyists must fend for themselves.
“Over time, policies that excuse lax behavior by the few will begin to influence the many, corroding standards.”
The other type of policy that turns regular folks into chumps is the failure to penalize—or sometimes even criticize—irresponsible or illegal behavior. This often reflects a well-meaning effort to avoid excessively punishing those who already face challenges in life. We see this in the decision not to prosecute most fare-beaters in New York subways, or the reluctance to remove some disruptive students from classrooms. But “defining deviancy down,” in the late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s famous phrase, doesn’t affect only the underclass. White-collar criminals sometimes benefit from the perception that their crimes are less serious than those of common thieves. Today, in Portland, Oregon, and other cities, organized provocateurs—many of them white and college-educated—nightly attack government buildings and law-enforcement officers with fireworks, lasers, and firebombs. But as long as the protesters are assumed to be on the left, the national press describes their actions as “mostly peaceful.”
Virtually all transit riders pay their fares. Most students are reasonably well behaved, even in the toughest schools. Most people protesting George Floyd’s killing really have been peaceful. But when authorities downplay or ignore violations of those norms, it sends an unmistakable message to the principled majority: we take you for granted; our sympathies are with the transgressors.
Both types of Chump-Effect policies—those that unfairly distribute benefits and those that normalize transgressive behavior—are dismissive of what many call bourgeois norms. Policies that selectively favor the needs, or tolerate the misdeeds, of certain groups often have the perverse corollary of undermining the norm followers. When disruptive students remain in the classroom, it’s their attentive classmates who suffer. If a big business games federal programs for an unfair advantage, smaller businesses and consumers pay the price. What’s particularly galling about such policies isn’t just that they reward norm violators—it’s that they’re predicated on the assumption that everyone else will continue adhering to the norms. That’s wishful thinking, of course. Over time, policies that excuse lax behavior by the few will begin to influence the many, corroding the standards that keep a society healthy.
To be clear, not everyone who benefits from Chump-Effect policies is a slacker or selfish rulebreaker. People in genuine need have every right to sign up for anti-poverty programs, just as farmers who receive federal aid are simply working within the existing system. Nor is it unethical for people to take advantage of arcane tax breaks, or for members of public-employee unions to enjoy their lavish pensions. When flawed programs make unemployment more lucrative than work, pay farmers to grow crops no one wants to buy, or create tax loopholes for favored industries, you can’t blame people for acting accordingly. And when government expands its role in distributing society’s resources, you can’t blame influential groups—farmers, unions, businesses—for lobbying in their own interests. But over time, the number of people and businesses dependent on subsidies and other targeted benefits will grow. So will their political influence. Meantime, the pool of people forced to get by without special carve-outs will shrink, even as its members pay the tab for everyone else. In the end, Chump Effect policies encourage Americans to see themselves, not as self-reliant individuals and families, but as members of competing groups, all jockeying for advantage. This is a recipe for political conflict and resentment.
No one likes being treated like a chump. Not even monkeys. In a famous 2003 experiment, researchers trained capuchin monkeys to perform small tasks in return for a treat, either a delicious grape or a less desirable chunk of cucumber. When the monkeys were alone, they would accept either grapes or cucumbers as their reward. But then the researchers put two female capuchins in adjacent cages. Each completed her task, and each received a treat. But one monkey got a grape, while the other got only cucumber. When the second monkey saw that she’d been shortchanged, she howled in protest and hurled the cucumber back at the researcher. When the task was repeated, and again poor capuchin #2 received a cucumber while her neighbor got a grape, she stood up and shook her enclosure in outrage and despair.
Who can’t relate? Studies involving humans show that this “social inequity aversion” can be found in cultures around the world. Even young children will protest being shortchanged in social settings. What’s more, children and adults also sometimes resist being given more than their fair share in these sorts of experiments. It seems that fairness is hardwired into human psychology. When we see others receive unearned benefits—or escape well-earned condemnation—it can trigger resentment. And we are willing to go to surprising lengths to make sure that others live up to our standards.
Victims of the May violence and looting in Minneapolis include Flora Westbrooks, who lost her hair salon business (DAVID PIERINI/NORTH NEWS)
In a 2002 study, Swiss researchers Ernst Fehr and Simon Gächter tried to discover the unwritten rules that enable cooperation between strangers. They recruited volunteers for a game-like experiment involving constantly changing groups of participants who never met face-to-face. Each player in a group of four would receive 20 “money unit” credits, which the players were told they could convert to real cash and take home at the end of the session. A player could hold on to his or her credits or choose to invest some or all of them in a joint pot. Money added to the pot would be partially matched with a contribution from the researchers. At the end of each round, the now-expanded pot would be divided evenly among the players, regardless of how much each contributed.
Obviously, the best strategy for the group as a whole would be for all the players to invest all their money in the pot; all would go home considerably richer. But since players weren’t allowed to communicate, they couldn’t be sure how much the other participants would contribute. For an individual player, therefore, the best strategy would be to hold on to the initial 20 credits and then share in whatever money the other players put into the pot. In this scenario, the least cooperative player would take home the most money. Nonetheless, at first, most players were willing to contribute substantial sums to the pot. But when the pots were divvied up after each round—and each player’s contribution revealed—it was obvious that the stingiest players were reaping the biggest benefits. Not surprisingly, with each successive round, players were less and less willing to contribute.
Economists call this the free-rider problem, and it has bedeviled cooperative economic systems since hunter-gatherer days. But Fehr and Gächter also conducted a different version of the money-pot game, one that addressed the free-rider issue. In this version, after the players’ contributions were revealed at the end of each round, the other players had the option of “punishing” the freeloaders by taking away some of their winnings. But doing so wasn’t cheap. In order to take away three credits from a “defector,” or a low-contributing player, the punishing player had to give up one credit. So individual players actually lost money each time they opted to punish another. And they didn’t even have the incentive of goading freeloaders to contribute more in future rounds. Since the makeup of the groups changed with each round, the players knew that they would never interact with a particular player again. Nonetheless, “punishment of defectors was harsh,” the researchers reported. And the more a particular player’s contributions fell short of the group average, the more severe the punishment.
Fehr and Gächter used the term “altruistic punishment” to describe this willingness to penalize another for violating a norm, even at cost to oneself. When the researchers asked the players why they were willing to do this, the answer was simple: they were mad as hell. On a scale of “negative emotions,” participants reported very high levels of animosity toward the defectors. Nobody likes a freeloader. But with the punishment option in place, the experiment changed dramatically. Even on the first round, players contributed more to the pot. And contributions rose with each successive round, as players grew more confident that other players would do their part. What’s fascinating here is how willing participants were to spend their own money punishing the free riders. They weren’t acting in self-interest; they were defending a social norm.
Everyone knows that resentment can be a powerful force in politics. But the money-pot game and similar experiments show just how primal the impulse to punish perceived free riders can be. Most forms of populism are based on the idea that some other group is getting an unfair leg up, while we are being taken advantage of. On the left, that sentiment leads to calls to punish “the 1 percent.” On the right, it can lead to distrust of “elites” and a backlash against immigration and free trade. Donald Trump’s aggrieved style of political speech ably mines this vein of discontent. So does Elizabeth Warren’s refrain that “the game is rigged.” Around the world, rising populist anger has erupted in the gilets jaunes protests in France and last year’s mass demonstrations in Chile. The initial targets of those protests seemed modest: in France, rural workers complained that climate policies unfairly burdened them with high fuel prices; in Chile, a small rise in transit fares was the ostensible spark. In both cases, though, the broader motivation was summed up in a graffito commonly scrawled on Santiago buildings: “Dignidad.”
Politicians ignore such primal forces at their peril. On the right, free-market advocates have long downplayed the social tensions caused by rising income inequality. Today, many young people, facing poor job prospects despite heavy education debts, see American society—and capitalism itself—as fundamentally unfair. That’s one reason the initial outrage over George Floyd’s death ballooned into a much broader protest movement. But policies promoted on the left can also lead to backlashes. Under Barack Obama, many heartland Americans believed that government policies were biased toward helping undocumented immigrants and educated elites, while undermining opportunities for the middle class. That frustration led to the Tea Party movement and, later, the stunning rise of Trump.
Today, progressives have cultural momentum. Ideas that would have seemed radical under Obama—defund the police, abolish ICE, ban fossil fuels—are now on the table. But that swing of the pendulum may be short-lived. The policies beloved by progressives are particularly prone to creating counterreactions among the citizens they turn into chumps. There are two main reasons for this. First, the social-justice worldview sees all people not as individuals but as members of intersecting categories of power or victimization, defined by class, race, gender, sexual orientation, and more. Since these categories are mostly immutable, individual choices don’t matter much; all life outcomes are the result of “structural inequities.” Thus, progressives necessarily downplay the importance of individual behavior. If people mention that bad personal choices might limit a person’s progress in life, they are, of course, blaming the victim. On the flip side, a person proud of achieving success is likely to be told some version of Barack Obama’s retort in the 2012 presidential campaign: “You didn’t build that.”
Second, the backlash produced by progressive policies isn’t just a matter of hurt feelings. Progressives believe that the primary role of government is to redistribute society’s resources: housing, jobs, education, and other benefits should all be preferentially allocated to certain groups. The sacrifices that an individual might have made, say, to invest in a small apartment building, or to excel in school, aren’t considered when officials determine who deserves discounted rent or should be admitted to a selective high school. It’s easy to assume that the beneficiaries of progressive policies are mostly the poor or minorities, but that’s often not the case. Many zoning rules, environmental programs, and government pension plans, for example, wind up hurting low-income groups while favoring those more affluent. By the same token, many progressives believe that, since certain groups are targets of discrimination, criminal behavior by members of those groups should be penalized less severely, or not at all. Here, too, the victims of the resulting increased crime are almost always members of those same communities.
Both types of progressive policies do tangible harm to the followers of traditional norms. “Pro-tenant” housing regulations can destroy an urban striver’s lifelong investment. In Chicago, New York, and other cities, sweeping bail reform and early-release programs to protect prisoners from Covid-19 returned thousands of criminals to their neighborhoods in 2020. Murder rates predictably skyrocketed. Many of those caught in the crossfire have been children. Progressive policies aim for “equity,” but in practice, many function more like the money-pot game or the capuchin experiment. Under proposals now on the table, wise technocrats would divvy up society’s rewards—doling out grapes to some, cucumber to others—while free riders would have broader license to game the system.
Next to the extremism of Warren or Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden struck many primary voters as the sensible, moderate choice. In reality, Biden and his advisors have embraced their party’s leftward lurch, even as the candidate retains his amiable Uncle Joe image. “He appears more centrist than he actually is,” Peter Beinart writes admiringly in The Atlantic. A delighted Noam Chomsky calls Biden’s policy positions “farther to the left than any Democratic candidate in memory.” And the party’s hardliners are planning to hold the presumptive president-elect to these promises. The Warren-aligned Progressive Change Campaign Committee is working with allied groups to pack a Biden executive branch with activists. “The goal is to have people throughout the federal government who know how to exercise power,” says PCCC cofounder Stephanie Taylor.
“Democrats believe we must embed environmental justice, economic justice, and climate justice at the heart of our policy and governing agenda,” the party platform states, using the coded jargon of the modern Left. In progressive circles, “justice” doesn’t mean fairness or evenhandedness; it describes a world in which every problem is the fault of some entrenched power group. Therefore, every solution should involve both special aid for the victims and some sort of punishment for those who created the problem.
“California shows how environmental programs can burden the poor and middle class while benefiting the affluent.”
The Democratic platform promises a root-and-branch overhaul of federal programs to ensure that they operate according to elaborate calculations of race, gender, sexual orientation, and other metrics. As the country struggles through the Covid recession, for example, the party promises that funds supporting small businesses will flow preferentially to companies owned by women and minorities and promises to “combat gentrification” and offer relief from “exorbitant” rents. (Under the “justice” paradigm, landlords are guilty until proven innocent.) A Biden Department of Education would bring back Obama-era rules forbidding “disparate disciplinary treatment” of students based on race. In practice, that means that students will be disciplined not based on the frequency of their misbehavior but according to racial quotas.
Even Biden’s $2 trillion climate plan seems designed more to spread wealth among favored groups than to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. You’d think anyone who believes that climate change is an existential threat would want to build green infrastructure as quickly and as cheaply as possible—the faster it’s deployed, the quicker emissions come down, right? But in announcing his plan, Biden said, “When I think about climate change, the word I think of is ‘jobs.’” His platform proposes obligating green contractors to hire union workers, which would drive up costs dramatically. “And we will do all this with an eye to equity, access, benefits, and ownership opportunities for frontline communities,” the platform says. In other words, expect every green project to be bogged down in endless reviews to ensure that contractors and workers represent the prescribed racial and gender mix. The plan is a recipe for high costs, slow progress—and sweetheart deals. Who pays for this? Ordinary consumers—the chumps—who will see their energy, food, and other expenses skyrocket, all for surprisingly little environmental benefit.
The platform offers sticks along with carrots. Some far-left climate advocates tend to focus more on their desire to drag energy companies into court than on the need to develop alternatives to fossil fuels. “These are criminals,” Bernie Sanders has said of fossil-fuel executives. Warren uses similar language. Biden’s platform also threatens legal action against companies that “put profit over people.” For these politicians, the top priority seems to be ensuring that the right villains are punished and the correct “frontline communities” get their subsidies. They are less interested in how much their policies will actually help the climate or how deeply they will disrupt the lives of ordinary Americans.
California is a test case in how environmental programs can wind up burdening the poor and middle class while benefiting the affluent. For example, people who purchase electric cars in California receive a state rebate of up to $4,500 per vehicle. Given that the most popular EV in California is the luxury Tesla, with an average price of over $50,000, we can assume that few lower-income people are cashing these checks. EV owners also get the right to drive—alone—in the coveted high-occupancy vehicle lanes on the state’s crowded freeways. The upshot: while working-class chumps stew in traffic, rich Tesla owners sail by in their own special “diamond lane,” serenely isolated from the gas-burning hoi polloi.
The incentives encouraging homeowners to install rooftop solar systems also amount to “subsidizing the rich,” according to an analysis by the American Enterprise Institute’s Benjamin Zycher. Meantime, as Joel Kotkin notes, strict environmental and business regulations have made California “the worst state in the U.S. when it comes to creating middle-class jobs.” While California’s tech boom mints billionaires, the state’s non-rich have seen their lives become “proletarianized,” he writes. This growing class divide was starkly illustrated during recent heat waves. Though the state has poured billions into wind and solar projects—and residents pay some of the nation’s highest electricity rates—that green infrastructure couldn’t keep up with demand. Rolling blackouts left residents sweltering in the dark—some of them, anyway. Among the state’s most affluent homeowners, $30,000 backup-generator systems are the new must-have.
In 2010, University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds made an offhand comment on his Instapundit blog. The government often tries to expand the middle class by subsidizing the things that middle-class people have, he observed:
If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we’ll have more middle-class people. But homeownership and college aren’t causes of middle-class status; they’re markers for possessing the kinds of traits—self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc.—that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class. Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them.
Since then, that insight has been cited so often that it’s become known as Reynolds’s Law. It’s based on a deep truth: success in life isn’t determined by owning things, or even having a high income. It is largely the result of certain habits that lead to lifelong advancement—what economists call “cultural capital.”
In his book Who Killed Civil Society, Manhattan Institute fellow Howard Husock explores how the academic establishment and social-welfare bureaucracy came to denigrate those habits, or bourgeois norms. In the twentieth century, the values of industriousness, good citizenship, and the like were reinforced by organizations including “settlement houses” for immigrants, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, and various adult civic groups. Husock has cited the influence of Karl Marx in redefining these values as exclusive privileges of the elite. In reality, Husock argues, “bourgeois norms [are] an inclusive set of norms.” They can benefit anyone who follows them. The mission of settlement houses and similar groups was formative, he says, not reformative—that is, they tried to encourage productive behaviors, rather than simply help people survive the consequences of poor life choices.
Sadly, the values that lifted generations of immigrants out of poverty have been under thoroughgoing attack for at least two generations. In an effort not to stigmatize the poor, social-welfare reformers overshot the target and also dismantled the stigmas against behaviors that keep people poor. It became considered unseemly to criticize unwed childbearing, drug use, or even petty crime. Under the social-justice paradigm, those behaviors were reframed—not as choices but as symptoms of an unjust social structure.
In a weird revival of racist stereotypes, today’s critical-race theorists see dysfunctional behaviors occasionally found among minority groups as being emblematic of those groups. In turn, traits that help people succeed—ones shared by cultures around the world—are stigmatized as typically “white.” Earlier this year, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture explained this bizarre framework on its website. A handy chart summarized some of those “Aspects & Assumptions of Whiteness,” including “self-reliance,” “the nuclear family,” and the idea that “hard work is the key to success.” Reliance on the scientific method, mathematics, and “rational linear thinking” were also identified as instruments of white dominance. If a secret arm of the KKK created a doctrine designed to undermine the advancement of minority communities, it could hardly do a better job than the Smithsonian’s woke theorists.
Chump-Effect policies don’t just undermine societal values; they also typically fail at their stated goals. One reason they so often backfire is that they rely on present-tense thinking. Lawmakers—and the voters they answer to—tend to look at issues in the current moment, rather than seeing them as evolving conditions. So they create policies to solve a problem for a particular group of people right now, without considering the perverse incentives that their program puts in place.
Rent control is a classic example: a ceiling on rent hikes certainly helps current tenants. But years pass; family incomes climb; children grow up. Decades later, a well-off widow might be paying minimal rent to stay in an apartment much bigger than she needs. With many people like her staying put in underutilized apartments, the price of unregulated units soars, making it hard, if not impossible, for the next generation of low-income families to find housing. Landlords, the chumps in this scenario, adjust by cutting back on maintenance, and sometimes by simply walking away from money-losing buildings. “Rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city,” writes Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck, “except for bombing.” Somehow, this reality always takes progressives by surprise. True to form, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez last year proposed a federal rent control law, and she has joined in the campaign to #CancelRent in the wake of the Covid crisis.
The failure to anticipate how incentives influence behavior also bedevils most tax-the-rich plans. For progressives, extremely high taxes on the rich serve two functions: they would supposedly yield inexhaustible funds for social programs; and, as an added bonus, they’d inflict some well-deserved pain on the people whom leftists hold responsible for inequality. But high-tax advocates fail to anticipate the dramatic ways people adjust their investments and lifestyles in the face of extreme taxes. The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, and David Bowie weren’t the only wealthy innovators who fled Britain’s confiscatory taxes in the 1970s. In late August, when many of New York’s richest residents still hadn’t returned from their Covid refuges, Mayor de Blasio pleaded with a voter, “Help me tax the wealthy. Help me redistribute wealth.” New York governor Andrew Cuomo, on the other hand, has been begging New York’s wealthiest to return, conceding that, despite the accusation that the rich don’t pay their fair share, nearly half the city’s income-tax revenues come from the top 1 percent of earners. Given threats of still-higher taxes, many probably won’t come back.
High earners have been leaving tax-heavy states like California and New York for years. That concern hasn’t stopped AOC and other lawmakers from supporting a new “billionaires’ tax” that would target not just the income but also the investment wealth of the richest New Yorkers. California lawmakers have also floated proposals for wealth taxes. Characteristically, Warren offers the most ambitious plan, a 2 percent federal tax on assets over $50 million and a higher rate for billionaires.
Warren claims that her tax would raise $2.75 trillion over a decade from under 0.1 percent of households. Many economists believe that’s naïve. People don’t become superrich by ignoring economic conditions. Clinton administration Treasury secretary Larry Summers and a colleague estimate that Warren’s tax plan would raise less than half the revenue she predicts. And all those efforts to avoid taxation carry hidden costs: less investment in new businesses, less innovation, less willingness to take risks. These costs are no less real for being diffuse: tepid growth, fewer jobs, and slower progress in pharmaceuticals and other life-improving innovations.
In early 2019, I swiped my MetroCard to enter the subway in New York’s Grand Central Terminal and noticed a man in his early thirties lingering by the security gate. He was well dressed, with a Jack Spade leather messenger bag tucked under his arm and his blond hair sharply styled. I was wondering why he didn’t swipe his card to enter when a knot of exiting commuters pushed through the gate. He caught the door before it swung shut—and walked through as though he owned the place.
Just a year earlier, Manhattan district attorney general Cy Vance, Jr. had announced that his office would no longer prosecute most people arrested for beating fares in the transit system. Enforcing laws against turnstile jumping, it was argued, unfairly targets the poor and minorities. Ocasio-Cortez lent her support on Twitter: “Arresting people who can’t afford a $2.75 fare makes no one safer and destabilizes our community,” she wrote. Of course, enforcing laws in the subway makes everyone safer, as fare-beaters are also far more likely to commit other crimes. And turnstile jumping is not a static phenomenon. People respond, again, to incentives—even people who can afford Jack Spade bags. In the months after the DA’s move, fare-beating climbed dramatically, costing the MTA an estimated $300 million in 2019.
“One of the most destructive crime waves in U.S. history is being met with a collective yawn from the media.”
Eliminating penalties for petty crimes is another example of present-tense thinking. Reduced penalties for “minor” offenses in several states have led to huge spikes in shoplifting and other crimes. In Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, and other cities, progressive DAs have cut back on prosecutions of many low-level crimes. The University of Chicago’s Charles Lipson calls the new policy “‘Go ahead, break our windows’ policing.” And, just as the Broken Windows theory would predict, the resulting upswing in lawbreaking goes beyond petty crime. According to the Wall Street Journal, homicides have spiked in 36 of the nation’s 50 largest cities.
Nonetheless, progressives see tolerance for transgressive behavior as a kind of moral duty. If the perpetrators are poor, or perceived as targets of injustice, the plight of their victims is a secondary concern. After all, the progressive project focuses on structural inequities—that is, the status of entire groups of people as being part of either oppressive or oppressed classes. If a particular crime—say, an unjustified police shooting of a minority suspect—seems to embody that power dynamic, it becomes the focus of national attention. There’s nothing wrong with that, in itself. Unjustified police shootings should merit calls for reform. But if crimes don’t fit the framework—say, gang-related killings, vastly more common—they get little notice. In the end, the large majority of people in poor communities who actually do follow the law are treated as chumps.
This selective focus has been on dramatic display during the months of protests following the Floyd killing. It’s true that only a small fraction of protests turned violent, but those incidents still added up to thousands of cases of looting and arson and dozens of shootings. Most didn’t make the national news. And, while the peaceful protesters have mostly returned to their lives, the violent minority is growing more emboldened.
Independent journalist Michael Tracey, who spent weeks touring overlooked riot zones in cities like Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Olympia, Washington, was shocked by the scale of the destruction. Minority and immigrant communities “bore the brunt of the damage,” he reports. Even as the violence has spread, calls to “defund the police”—even “abolish the police”—are being heeded in many cities. Budgets were being slashed even as riots continued. In Portland, the district attorney is declining to prosecute hundreds of protesters arrested for “nonviolent” crimes. (One such quickly released suspect allegedly stabbed two people to death a week later.) In short, one of the most destructive crime waves in U.S. history is being met with a collective yawn from the media and a mild scolding, at best, from some representatives of law enforcement. It wasn’t until polls started showing rising voter concern that Biden and other Democrats began cautiously criticizing the violence.
In North Minneapolis, Tracey talked with Flora Westbrooks, a black woman who had owned a hair salon there for 34 years. The business helped her earn enough to buy a house and send her son to law school. On May 29, arsonists burned it down. “Sometimes I’m like, OK, I gotta go to work,” she told Tracey. But then she remembers: “I don’t own anything anymore. Everything’s burned to the ground. I have nothing no more. Everything I worked for.” The tragedy of the Chump Effect is in stories like these. People devote their lives to making things better for themselves, their children, and their communities. They follow the bourgeois norms so disdained by the Left. Then, when our society stops defending those norms, they’re the ones who suffer.
Top Photo: Volunteers cleaning up a Minneapolis neighborhood ravaged by violence and looting in May. (JOHN AUTEY/MEDIANEWS GROUP/ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS/GETTY IMAGES)


bonginoreport--2020-11-17--David Harsanyi: When Talk of ‘Unity’ Just Means ‘Surrender’

The election ’ s not even over yet and already Joe Biden ’ s ...

Political unity is an ugly, authoritarian idea. No free nation has domestic political unity, nor should it aspire to it.
What “unity” really means is capitulation. America is once again being subjected to the inane brand of pseudo-patriotic sloganeering we saw during President Barack Obama’s tenure. Now, as then, the media will pretend that the moral fabric of the nation must be mended after GOP rule. It’s pretty transparent.
When Dems win the presidency, we are treated to solemn calls for national restoration; the opposition must embrace decorum and pass legislation it opposes. When Republicans win elections, grown women put on knitted hats depicting their reproductive organs and stomp around DC protesting, all to media adulation.
Time magazine helped erode trust in our electoral system with conspiratorial covers of the White House morphing into the Kremlin. Now it offers a commemorative cover featuring Joe Biden and Kamala Harris with the words, “A Time to Heal.”
Unlike some of our progressive friends, I don’t believe in enemies lists or censorship, so my healing process is simple: It involves playing whatever small part I can in extinguishing the political fortunes of those who want to weaken the Constitution. I’m not at all interested in finding accord with those who want to overturn the Hyde amendment, thereby making late-term abortion a state-funded practice, or with anyone who wants to “re-engage” without preconditions with Holocaust-denying Iran. Like many others, I find disunity quite therapeutic.
I suspect that, in a few weeks, “political polarization” will once again become an existential crisis of American governance. My favorite post-election headline came from the social scientists at Pew Research Center, who informed us that the “2020 election reveals two broad voting coalitions fundamentally at odds.” Two broad coalitions, you say? Fundamentally at odds? What are the chances?
Michelle Obama says we can overcome our divisions, but that Democrats must first remember “that tens of millions of people voted for the status quo, even when it meant supporting lies, hate, chaos and division.” She suggests that there is “a lot of work to do to reach out to these folks in the years ahead and connect with them on what unites us.” It’s difficult to process this level of obnoxious sanctimony. Here is a list of demands you divisive Republicans must embrace for the country to “unite.” Get on with it.
Anyhow, I reject this false choice in the name of patriotic disunity. Not one of those 72 million agents of chaos lied to millions of Americans to strip us of our health-care insurance plans. Not one of those voters has attempted to force nuns to buy contraception — or sued them when they refused. One day, I hope Michelle will stop defending the lies, hate and division that her husband inflicted on this great nation. Until then, though, we’ll have to agree to disagree.
We do that sort of thing in Washington. The liberal pivot from #Resistance to “unity” is as swift as it is dishonest. After four years of treating every unexceptional conservative policy victory as one of the Seven Seals of the Apocalypse, Washington Post columnists are already dusting off their columns about “obstructionism” and “minority rule.” After years of blanket opposition to Trump, we are being told that Joe Biden has a national “mandate.”
He does not. God willing, Washington is headed for more “gridlock” — a completely healthy, organic reflection of the geographical, ideological and theological differences of real people in contemporary America. Congress makes laws, and right now, that institution is narrowly divided and unlikely to be able to come together on any of the big-ticket items Biden promised. This is why federalism exists.
Unity is found in comity with your neighbors, in your churches and schools, in your everyday interactions with your community. Politics is not a place for unity. It is a place for airing grievances. And we’ve got plenty.
Twitter: @DavidHarsanyi