RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
July 7 to July13 When fire ravaged the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris last April, many Americans were surprised to hear about a wave of anti-Christian attacks in France, and that the blaze might be linked to it. They were relieved to find it wasn't - but a wave of prior anti-Christian attacks? That was shocking news to many. As Richard Bernstein reports for RealClearInvestigations, the violence is all too real and at record levels. And those raising alarms have to contend not just with what they call rising "Christianophobia"but the near-silence of politicians and major media outlets in the face of it. Reporting from southwestern France, Bernstein, a former Paris bureau chief for the New York Times, tells a story of anti-Christian bias, secular ambivalence, and more. It's a textured story of populism, evolving national identity and, not least, immigration making Christians a smaller majority in France. All those factors collide with the church's declining authority, shown not just by clerical sex scandals but empty pews. For the violence, the headline figures and trend lines are stark. Anti-Christian attacks have quadrupled since 2008: - The French police in 2018 recorded 129 thefts and 877 acts of vandalism at Catholic sites - mostly churches and cemeteries - and there has been no respite this year.
- The Conference of French Bishops reported 228 "violent anti-Christian acts" in France in the first three months of 2019 alone, taking place in every region of the country - 45 in the Southwest where Bernstein visited.
- The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians, based in Vienna, documented 275 anti-Christian incidents in Europe in 2017, up from 250 the year before.
Yet calling these attacks hate crimes, meaning crimes aimed at intimidating Christians, is problematic, Bernstein reports. Most seem more like acts of vandalism: - Few have been directed against individuals. About 60% of incidents involved graffiti - satanic inscriptions, anarchist symbols, swastikas, or nationalist or neo-Nazi slogans.
- While few perpetrators have been arrested, those who have are mostly teenagers, the homeless and mentally ill people unaffiliated with recognized hate groups.
Pierre Manent, a French political philosopher, told Bernstein the rise in attacks may be explained in part by a mundane fact: "Vandalism is drawn to Christian sites because they're less defended and present little risk." ButManentalso said the attacks reflect the Church's loss of moral authority and thus are part of a more generalized "crisis of the church." Read Full Article Who Will Clean Up America's Voter Rolls?
RealClearInvestigations
Los Angeles County has too many voters. An estimated 1.6 million, according to the latest calculations - which is roughly the population of Philadelphia. That's the difference between the number of people on the county's voter rolls and its totalnumber of voting-age residents. And as Mark Hemingway reports for RealClearInvestigations, the county is not alone: - Ten of California's 58 counties also have registration rates exceeding 100% of the voting age population.
- Thirty-eight states have counties where voter registration rates exceed 100%.
- Eight states, as well as the District of Columbia, have total voter registration tallies exceeding 100%.
- This echoes a 2012 Pew study that found that 24 million voter registrations in the United States, about one out of every eight, are "no longer valid or are significantly inaccurate" - a number greater than the current population of Florida or New York state.
Hemingway reports that inaccurate voter rolls are not only an invitation to fraud; they may also be a violation of federal laws that require states to maintain accurate voter rolls. And yet officials from both parties - in red and blue states, in urban and rural counties - are doing the bare minimum. Still, Democrats have been especially aggressive in resisting such efforts, casting them as "voter suppression." The Obama Justice Department did so little to enforce the law that that its inspector general investigated the matter. And Stacey Abrams maintains the 2018 governor's race in Georgia was stolen by her opponent, now Gov. Brian Kemp, because he removed more than a million inactive voters from the rolls while serving as Georgia's Secretary of State. The Trump Investigations: Top Articles 'Justice on Trial' Excerpt: Vignettes of Rage vs. Kavanaugh, New York Post
'American Carnage' Excerpt: Surviving the 'Access Hollywood' Tape, Politico
The True Origins of the Seth Rich Conspiracy Theory, Yahoo News
Justice Dept. Watchdog Preparing Verdict on Russia Probe, New York Times Other Noteworthy Articles and Series Jeffrey Epstein Scandal 2.0 Explodes
Various Publications
Jeffrey Epstein, connected rich guy and registered sex offender, has been arrested again on charges that he engaged in sex acts with dozens of vulnerable minors, some as young as 14, during naked massage sessions, and asked some of the girls to recruit other underage girls. Will this time be different? More important, will it be different because Donald Trump's opponents have a new cudgel to club him with? It seems so, at least for now. Trump Labor Secretary Alex Acosta was forced to resign Friday over a sweetheart plea deal for Epstein he approved in Florida a decade ago as a federal prosecutor there. (Actually, such deals may not be so unusual, as RealClearInvestigations has reported.) True to form, major media are playing up the president's decades-old connection to Epstein, less so the suggestion Trump might have dropped a dime on the financier. But other skeletons in the closet are rattling anew. Unfortunately for nervous Democrats, they are on the left side of said closet, suggesting that for them the Epstein scandal won't so easily go away during a presidential campaign infused with their gender-sensitive identity politics. Epstein had many powerful friends in elite liberal circles, including Vanity Fair's former editor, Graydon Carter, and the suddenly unloquacious former President Bill Clinton, who flew multiple times on Epstein's private plane, dubbed the "Lolita Express." Epstein has also been a big donor to Harvard University, which he never attended (and it seems he wasn't so rich after all). Prosecutors say they found "a vast trove of lewd photographs of young-looking women or girls" at his Manhattan townhouse. With more Epstein accusers coming forward this week, how many more will come to regret trips to his private fantasy retreats in the now diabolically named Virgin Islands? Joe Biden Used Tax-Code Loophole Obama Tried to Plug
Wall Street Journal
Millionaire Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden decided to take advantage of a tax loophole denounced by the Obama administration to substantially reduce his "fair share" of taxes. He and his wife Jill routed their book and speech income through S corporations, allowing them to avoid the 3.8% self-employment tax they would have paid had they been compensated directly instead of through the S corporations. That may not sound like a big deal, but theBidens' S corporations—CelticCapriCorp. andGiacoppaCorp.—reported more than $13 million in combined profits in 2017 and 2018 that weren't subject to the self-employment tax, saving them an estimated $500,000 in taxes. A half-billion here, a half-billion there and pretty soon you're paraphrasing that line that Senator Everett Dirksen probably never actually said. Sun, Sand, and British Virgin Isles' $1.5T Dark Offshore Economy
Bloomberg
They may not be "Pedophile Island," but the British Virgin Islands have their attractions to the rich and powerful. True, hens and roosters compete brazenly with cars on the capital's narrow, one-lane Main Street. Yet BVI is a hub of global commerce, home to more than 400,000 companies that hold $1.5 trillion in assets. Because the BVI doesn't have mail delivery, its businesses and 32,000 residents use post-office boxes as their addresses, which is why one P.O. box can be the nominal home to thousands of companies around the world. Hundreds of lawyers, accountants, and company agents work from buildings dotted around the main island of Tortola. But change is coming to the BVI, this article reports, though not if the politicians and businesspeople there can help it. After publication of the Panama Papers exposing how the wealthy hide money in places like the BVI, Britain's Parliament voted last year to force transparency on all British overseas territories. AIDS Epidemic: 'Children Raised by Children' in Zambia
Daily Mail
AIDS killed an entire generation of parents in Zambia, so the land-locked nation in sub-Saharan Africa includes 1 million orphans among its 17 million people. The crisis is only getting worse. More than 1.2 million Zambians live with HIV; new cases are 29 times as common as in the United States and 53 times the United Kingdom's rate. Sexual abuse is rampant; some tribes' cultures teach that sex with a virgin can cure AIDS, driving child rape and more HIV infections. In wrenching detail, this three-part series describes the devastation in a country where one in 13 residents will die beforeage5, and many of those who survive don't know parents or their own birthdays. It describes the grim reality of hundreds of thousands of children there sleeping in overcrowded one-room shacks or under plastic tarps. Tennessee: Nonprofit Hospital Makes Cash, Sues Poor
ProPublica/MLK50
Many nonprofit hospitals treat the poor - and then they sue them. From 2014 through 2018, Methodist University Hospital in Memphis filed more than 8,300 lawsuits for unpaid bills. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that more than 20,000 debt lawsuits filed by Virginia hospitals in 2017 alone. More than 9,300 garnishment cases occurred that year, and nonprofit hospitals were more likely to garnish wages. Nonprofit hospitals are generally exempt from local, state and federal taxes. In return, this article reports, the federal government expects them to provide a significant community benefit, including charity care and financial assistance. Methodist does provide some charity care — and pegs its community benefits as more than $226 million annually — but experts faulted it for also wielding the court as a hammer. Is Jazz Ax Legend Kenny Burrell Really in Dire Straits?
Washington Post
In May, the wife of88-year-oldjazz guitar legend Kenny Burrell launched a GoFundMe campaign, claiming that medical expenses, a case of identity theft and a dispute with the homeowner's association in their building made her fear they faced homelessness. So far,about 4,500 people have helped raise more than $244,000. This article raises questions about his finances: Burrell remains a professor at UCLA, where he has been on paid leave since 2017. And it quotes people who fear his wife may be isolating him. "Here he is, he hasn't been out of the house in two years, his wife is telling him that he's in danger if he sees somebody," says Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, the now-retired UCLA vice chancellor who last spoke with Burrell in April. Burrell's wife, Katherine Goodrich, has said in court papers: "My husband and I have severely compromised immune systems as a result of chronic health conditions. Mr. Burrell has a chronic brain hematoma that could progress if he develops an upper respiratory infection with a cough." She also says he has kidney cancer. Families Hire Coaches to Help Them Raise Phone-Free Children
New York Times
Alarmed by studies showing screen time is bad for kids, parents around the country are trying to wean their kids off smartphones. But these are modern parents, meaning they have a little common sense and a deep terror of being responsible for doing anything that might harm their kids. Enter the hired "experts." In the new screen-free-parenting coach economy, consultants come into homes, schools, churches and synagogues to remind parents how people parented before. Coaches in small cities and rural areas charge $80 an hour. In larger cities, rates range from $125 to $250. Parents typically sign up for eight to 12 sessions. "I try to really meet the parents where they are, and now often it is very simple: ‘Do you have a plain old piece of material that can be used as a cape?'"one expert explained. "‘Great!'" "‘Is there a ball somewhere?Throwthe ball,'" she said. "‘Kick the ball.'" |
