The Week’s Most Smoldering, Moldering, and Soldering Headlines

SMILE FOR THE KHMERA
Remember Jill Greenberg? Probably not by name, but perhaps by deed. In September 2008 it was totally cool for leftists to be hatin’ on John McCain. After all, the evil racist warmonger was running against literal Gandhi Jesus, Barack Obama. Obama would bring peace, Obama would bring prosperity, Obama would end racism! And that crusty old short-armed baby-killer McCain was standing in the way.

Eight years later, of course, a more racisty racist named Trump would bad-mouth McCain, so McCain suddenly became an untouchable, godlike figure. Then he died—best PR move imaginable—and behold a new Gandhi Jesus ascended to heaven.

But back in September 2008, it was all about bringing McPain to McCain.

Jill Greenberg, a far-left artsy pop photographer who often takes corporate gigs because that’s what Marxists do, was hired by The Atlantic to photograph McCain for a cover shoot. Unbeknownst to the magazine or the candidate, Greenberg purposely employed all of her photographic tricks to make the senator look older, uglier, sickly, and unappealing. She boasted about this after the pics were published. She bragged about “tricking” the old man into taking unflattering shots, and how she used Photoshop to mess with the guy’s teeth, eyes, and skin.

She told the New York Post that she engaged in this deception to try to influence the outcome of the election.

Funny to think that these days we live in a country in which people are arrested for “election interference” for merely sending out tweets. Indeed, the war against “interference” and “misinformation” is an unstoppable juggernaut of justice scooping up and locking away anyone accused of improperly influencing an election. Weird how Jill Greenberg got away with something that she herself described as an act of underhanded election interference. Even though the Atlantic editors denounced her scheme, since 2008 she has only grown in popularity and stature, winning numerous photography awards and working for some of the biggest celebrities and mega-corps on the planet.

And while you might not have been keeping track of her mounting successes, other photographers certainly have. Like Matt Loughrey. Loughrey is an Irish Photoshop wiz known for his “restoration” of old photographs. And dammit, he’s always been bothered by the fact that in historical pics of communist atrocities, the victims always seem to look so…glum. Surely these people, about to be executed by the forces of Stalin, Mao, or Pol Pot, should be happy, thankful even, that they’re giving their lives in the name of communist utopia!

So last week, when Loughrey was hired by VICE to “restore” historical photos of Khmer Rouge victims awaiting execution in a prison camp, he decided to “restore” them in a way that, while not “accurate” (or “ethical” or “decent”), perfectly conformed to the manner in which he believes those doomed Cambodians should’ve presented themselves to the camera.

Loughery manipulated the pics so that the soon-to-be-genocided victims have big, happy smiles on their faces!

“Yippee! We’re gonna die for the revolution! How lucky we are! Put one in the ol’ noggin and charge the cost of the bullet to my family!”

Be fair; this kind of deception only helped Jill Greenberg’s career. Why shouldn’t other photogs follow suit?

Sadly for Loughery, internet sleuths almost immediately noticed the manipulation, and VICE was forced to withdraw the piece and issue an apology. Oh, and the government of Cambodia weighed in too, demanding to know why no alarm bells went off when VICE editors saw the photos of Cambodians facing execution with giant toothy grins like some low-rent Chinese restaurant menu caricature: “Yum yum, you likey our lucky best dim sum!”

In fact, a small amount of vetting would’ve saved VICE much grief. Last year Loughery “restored” a series of photos from “Jim Crow America,” and if the VICE editors had taken the time to examine those photos, they’d have realized that there’s simply no possible way Emmett Till actually did a “roll safe” GIF before his death.

Also, regarding Loughery’s “restored” series of Holocaust photos, no, Anne Frank never did “duck face” at Belsen, and Eva Braun did not get into a shouting match with a white cat sitting at a dinner table.

Amazing how photos like that got past so many people without raising concerns about Loughery’s integrity.

CANDID KARMA
Hey, if you liked that previous story, let’s do it all over again, if only to demonstrate how, if the Democrat/media alliance scorns coherence, it loves symmetry.

Remember Scott Prouty? Probably not by name, but perhaps by deed. In September 2012 it was totally cool for leftists to be hatin’ on Mitt Romney. After all, the evil racist warmonger was running against literal Gandhi Jesus, Barack Obama. Long before Romney became recognized for what he actually is—an unprincipled, weak, craven, truckling pseudo-conservative putz—he enjoyed a brief career as Hitler. That was September 2012. That’s also when a bartender named Scott Prouty secretly recorded Romney at a private, closed-door fundraiser.

Prouty’s surreptitious recording, in which Romney spoke of the “47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what” because they’re “dependent upon government” and “believe that they are victims” and “the government has a responsibility to care for them,” almost certainly influenced the outcome of the 2012 election, at least to some degree. The “47 percent” comments were made infamous; every mainstream news network and paper harped on them nonstop for weeks.

Oddly, not a thought was given to whether this possibly illegal hidden-camera recording of a private event with the purpose of destroying a political campaign constituted “election interference.” Weird how no one cared about that stuff back then! In fact, Fox News was slammed by the other networks for not giving the incident the massive coverage it supposedly deserved. “Secret recording or not, illegal or not, a calculated attempt to sway an election or not, the people deserve to know!”

For his part, Prouty claimed that he was driven to action because of Romney’s nonchalant attitude toward Chinese factory workers. He told MSNBC that his main goal was to bring attention to “prison camps in Communist China.”

CNN was so fond of the “47 percent” “undercover video,” the network used it to slam Trump in December 2016, because Trump’s pick for commerce secretary had, back in 2012, defended Romney when the secret recording was released.

The lesson: Secret recordings are good, if they’re newsworthy they deserve a wide audience, it’s against the public interest to suppress them, using underhanded means to sway an election is not “interference,” and dangit them China concentration camps must be exposed!

How odd then that last week, CNN threw a hissy fit when one of its technical directors was caught on hidden camera boasting about how the network intentionally acted as an arm of the DNC to flood the airwaves during the 2020 election with misleading and factually incorrect negative coverage of Trump while crafting Soviet-style propaganda to make Biden look beatific. In a series of videos courtesy of James O’Keefe and Project Veritas, recorded when CNN apparatchik Charlie Chester thought he was on a date, the poor bastard rants on and on about his network’s underhanded attempts at election interference.

Worse still, he brags about how CNN purposely tries to inflame racial tensions by covering up black misdeeds while highlighting any negative crime stories about whites.

And wouldn’t you know it? As CNN and the rest of the mainstream media barked and howled about the evils of “undercover videos” and “surreptitious recordings,” Twitter banned James O’Keefe and Project Veritas from the platform.

So now, secret recordings are bad, if they’re newsworthy they deserve no audience, it’s in the public interest to suppress them, and using underhanded means to sway an election is not “interference,” but exposing the use of underhanded means to sway an election is.

Oh, and the suppression and censorship of the CNN story comes at a time when platforms like Twitter are also censoring content that displeases the Chinese Communist Party…like stories about “prison camps in Communist China.”

Not only is Prouty’s method all of a sudden abhorrent, but so is his supposed “cause.” Indeed, these days if the bartending shutterbug went on MSNBC to criticize “prison camps in Communist China,” if his remarks even made it to air, they’d likely be greeted by an angry tweet from LeBron James.

That CNN, where secret video has gone from heroic to horrific, where the execs rend their garments over the “invasion of privacy” incurred by their employee even as they literally doxxed a meme-maker in 2017, can present these two faces with both of them remaining straight is damn impressive in its audacity.

THE INVISIBLE KLAN
During the heyday of the Ku Klux Klan, the organization liked to refer to itself as the “invisible empire.” Turns out this was not intended to be figurative. The KKK has apparently mastered actual, literal invisibility, which, to be honest, is a pretty impressive feat, especially as it was accomplished in robes that hinder mobility and hoods that obscure vision.

Last week, the Invisible Klan struck twice.

In Michigan, students at Albion College were rocked by racist messages that were scrawled on walls in the Wesley Hall and Mitchell Towers residence halls. The messages were, to put it mildly, not subtle:

“KKK”
“KKK White Power!”
“Albion is racist we do exist KKK”
“Let’s kill all Niggers on campus”
“White lives matter!”
“Die Niggers please”

Say what you will about these Klansmen, but at least they’re polite; after all, they said “please.”

Another piece of graffiti featured a Star of David with “666” written in the middle.

Now, certain irritating contrarians in the right-wing press suggested that the over-the-top nature of the messages pointed to the likelihood that the entire matter was a hoax, possibly perpetrated by a black student, as KKK hoaxes so often are. College administrators, however, countered that it was highly unlikely that the culprit was one of the school’s black students because none of the words were misspelled.

Well, never underestimate the ability of a student who got into college based on race rather than smarts to rise to the occasion when circumstances demand. Yes, the racist messages had in fact been written by a black student after all. And he was promptly awarded extra credit for his peerless spelling. The university sent out a message to students informing them that even though the graffiti was imaginary Klan not actual Klan, the actual Klan is still to blame even though an actual black guy scrawled the messages:

We know the acts of racism that have occurred this week are not about one particular person or one particular incident. We know that there is a significant history of racial pain and trauma on campus and we are taking action to repair our community.

The “acts of racism” that were perpetrated by one person are not about one person, because that person turned out to be black. Rather, focus must be maintained on the unseeable Klansmen who are the real villains because by not existing they forced an innocent black kid to pretend they did.

Dastards!

Meanwhile, in upscale, conservative Huntington Beach, Calif., the Invisible Klan struck again. On Easter Sunday, a few crude “KKK” fliers were found on local lawns. Rumors, spread not by the Klan but by an equally insidious tri-lettered org—the ADL—claimed that on Sunday, April 11, the Klan would be holding a rally on the boardwalk. In response, barely functional journalistic Rain Men statewide smashed the pickle jars to free their stuck hands so they could pen hysterical warnings about the upcoming KKK rally.

In a stunning turn of events, the NAACP actually told its members not to turn out for a “counter-protest” because the rally was likely a hoax, and when the NAACP is the voice of reason in the room, you know how low the moron bar has sunk.

Still, hyped by the L.A. Times, the “KKK rally” attracted hundreds of BLM and Antifa counter-protesters, as dozens of cops had to waste their time keeping order for a Klan rally that was, in fact, exactly the hoax everyone with working synapses assumed it was. No Klan showed up.

“I’m at PCH & Main St. in Huntington Beach for today’s KKK Rally. Pretty quiet so far,” tweeted Times mouthbreather Priscella Vega, her hand still bleeding from the gashes incurred when she took a hammer to the pickle jar.

In the end, the Times was forced to admit that there was no known connection between the KKK fliers and the supposed rally. All the same, according to Huntington Beach resident Denise Wada, “regardless of whether it was fake, it demanded a loud response.”

“I can’t be quiet about that,” Wada said. “The point is it’s out there, and racial justice needs a louder noise.”

“It” being fliers that were likely a hoax and a rally that was demonstrably one.

Still, point taken. Invisible Klansmen are a genuine threat. Not the kind of threat that, you know, exists or causes harm, but the kind of threat that keeps cretinous journos and ADL tummlers busy justifying their paychecks.

SISTERS ARE PEW-PEW-PEWIN’ IT FOR THEMSELVES
Minnesota has a new hero: Officer Ditz! Yep, as the state sits on pins and needles awaiting the Derek Chauvin verdict, and as all sober people come to grips with the fact that no matter the outcome, riots will be the inevitable result (Chauvin convicted on most serious charge: “We riot cuz it ain’t about just one cop; you ain’t absolved, whitey!” Convicted of lesser charge: “We riot cuz you let him off the hook.” Acquitted: “Yellowstone caldera triggered; après noir le deluge”), it took one woman, one brave, doughty woman, to look at this powder keg of frazzled nerves and heightened tensions and say, “I think I can make it even worse!”

Yes, Officer Kim Potter, who, during the traffic stop of a 20-year-old black inveterate thug named Daunte Wright, accidentally pulled her gun instead of her Taser and fatally shot the [choose one: honor student/gentle giant/loving father of children he never sees] as he was nobly attempting to flee the scene, because expecting a black man with multiple warrants to submit to a traffic stop in 2021 is Jim Crow on steroids times a thousand multiplied by a million.

When Officer Potter’s mistaken discharge caused a kablammo rather than a zappity-zap, she can be heard on body-cam audio saying, “Holy shit, I just shot him.”

Errmahgerrrrrd, I am such a ditz!

Naturally, black people in Minnesota and in cities around the nation reacted to the incident with introspection and rationality, if by “introspection and rationality” one means looting stores and stealing stuff. And city officials in Brooklyn Center, Minn., reacted with the levelheaded wisdom expected of elected leaders…if by that one means they fired the city manager (who happens to be black) for stating that Officer Potter deserves due process under the law.

Due process? Please. Seriously, people, if we don’t bring back racially based lynching, we risk returning to the days of racially based lynching. Due process is Jim Crow on steroids pumped with hydrogen mutated to Godzilla size by atomic radiation and multiplied a billionfold by quantum multidimensional time-gates.

Potter’s “oopsie” is reminiscent of the real-life Three’s Company wacky misunderstanding from September 2018 when white Dallas PD officer Amber Guyger forgot that her apartment was on the third floor not the fourth, so she entered the home of a black gentleman, Botham Jean, and shot him to death because he was sitting in his living room eating ice cream. Officer Ditz strikes again; not only had she mistaken Jean’s apartment for her own, she’d mistaken a black man eating ice cream for an intruder needing a bunch of bullets in his belly to complement the Ben & Jerry’s.

These situations create unfortunate dilemmas for leftists. After all, negative portrayals of female cops as bungling, clumsy “Jerry Lewis meets Inspector Clouseau” caricatures don’t sit well with feminists. On the other hand, BLM activists don’t really care about the gender of white cops. “ACAB” carries no caveat, no asterisk. ACAB applies to Dirty Harry and Pepper Anderson alike.

Hopefully for all involved, the Daunte Wright ugliness will soon be forgotten as the Chauvin trial comes to an end and the nation braces for the one-year anniversary of an apneated angel’s final breath. Speaking of which, just a few days ago Chauvin’s defense team introduced speculative testimony that George Floyd might have asphyxiated via carbon monoxide gassing.

Forget the tensions between BLM and feminists regarding trigger-happy female cops. That’s nothing compared with the dilemma facing the ADL right now. On the one hand, there’s the desire to see a white cop put away for life.

But on the other hand, how can the esteemed Jewish org deny a gassing story? It would be sacrilegious.

Complicated times indeed.

NO TAXES FOR BLAXES
And speaking of the Holocaust…since 1952 the German government has given more than $70 billion in reparations payments to Holocaust survivors and their heirs. “Survivor” in this context is classified as any Jew who was in any way harmed or whose life was in any way disrupted by the Nazis. This can range from a Jew whose family was killed to a Jew whose freshly pressed pants were splattered with mud from a passing Nazi motorcade (“Oy, around the puddle they couldn’t have driven?”).

It’s a wide net.

Federal law dictates that Holocaust reparations to survivors and their heirs are 100% nontaxable (the payments also can’t be counted as income when determining eligibility for federal benefits or services). In 2010, that sweetheart deal was scheduled to sunset, but in 2002, in a bold preemptive move, in stepped Republican Rep. E. Clay Shaw from Florida, who made sure the regs were codified for all eternity, as indeed Germany will certainly be paying for all eternity. So it just makes sense.

“While no amount of money could ever begin to compensate for the suffering of Holocaust survivors, it would be an absolute injustice for these claims to be taxed—when something is stolen from you, you simply shouldn’t have to pay taxes when it’s returned. This bill would make sure that survivors and their heirs will receive full compensation for their suffering, not just for a limited amount of time—but for all time,” Shaw declared in a press release.

Germans who heard that “you’ll be paying for all time” thing shook their heads and were like “Man, we screwed with the wrong people, didn’t we? We shoulda stopped at the Gypsies.”

But at least the Germans were being contemplative. Less so were the Republicans, who never considered that the language used to promote the reparations exemption bill might one day be appropriated by a group whose historical “suffering” and “theft” occurred a little closer to home.

Well, surprise surprise surprise, Gomer! Turns out those who are seeking reparations for black slavery are finding inspiration in exactly those Holocaust reparations tax deals. Democrats have made reparations part of their official platform, with everyone from President “I used to support segregation” Biden to Shadow President “You think that’s bad, my family owned slaves” Harris on record supporting some kind of reparations scam.

One idea currently growing in popularity inside the Beltway is that perhaps the best way to implement a (*cough*) “equitable” reparations plan is to simply excuse black folks from paying taxes. As delineated by Dorothy Brown, a law professor at Emory, “My first choice for race-based reform would be a refundable tax credit…. Under this plan, Congress would assign a single fixed credit to all black taxpayers. A reparations credit is the final piece of closing the black-white wealth gap.”

Over at the Brookings Institution, senior fellow Janet Holtzblatt and research assistant Noah Zweifel—two people who, based on their names, are very likely getting those monthly Hitler checks—argue that using tax laws in the service of reparations is a jim-dandy idea, although they agree that blacks might not be satisfied with anything other than direct cash payments.

Kvetchberg and Schlemielenbaum don’t explain exactly why they think blacks will prefer cash over tax credits, but it almost certainly has to do with the disproportionately high number of black Americans who are non-filers. If you don’t file, things like rebates and credits become irrelevant. As it is, leftist institutions are currently struggling to make sure that the millions of black non-filers get their Covid checks, lest those who don’t pay in suffer the ignominy of not receiving a payout.

Ironically, for the past few decades the IRS has maintained a web page warning of slavery reparations tax scams:

The Service is aware that some taxpayers are attempting to reduce their federal income tax liability by taking the position that they are entitled to a “reparations tax credit” or other similarly named credit because they are a member of a group or class based on race, ancestry, ethnicity, gender or other classification. This position has no merit. Any claim that a taxpayer is entitled to a reparations tax credit or a refund or other tax benefit based on a reparations tax credit is frivolous. Persons who promote this scheme and those who assist taxpayers in claiming tax benefits based on this scheme also may face penalties (criminal prosecution under section 7206 for which the penalty is a fine of up to $100,000 and imprisonment for up to 3 years).

No one wants to be an IRS snitch, but agents might just find a few of those “scheme promoters” pretty close to their own HQ. Like, right up on Capitol Hill and in the White House. And even the most hardened anti-taxation activists probably wouldn’t mind seeing those fraudsters imprisoned or fined into poverty. It would be the first noble deed in the history of the IRS.