LeoHohmann.com | Investigative reporting on refugees, global migration, geopolitical trends, Christianity, Islam, Judaism and where politics, culture and religion intersect

LeoHohmann.com | Investigative reporting on refugees, global migration, geopolitical trends, Christianity, Islam, Judaism and where politics, culture and religion intersect
"The 32-year-old Afghan migrant who plowed his SUV into a sidewalk full of Christmas shoppers in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, has a lot in common with the more than 1,200 unwanted refugees Australia is sending to the U.S. under what President Trump has called a “dumb deal” negotiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama.
...Not only was the attacker Afghan (and, therefore, likely Muslim), but he has a history of mental health issues, said Australia’s chief of state police.
...What should be disconcerting to every American, and what’s not being reported by the establishment media, is that the U.S. has agreed to take up to 1,250 rejected Muslim asylum-seekers off of Australia’s hands...
...But here’s the bombshell.
The head of Human Rights Watch Australia, Elaine Pearson, recently admitted to the New York Times that the mental health of these American-bound refugees has in many cases deteriorated due to their prolonged incarceration on two remote islands, Manus and Nauru, offshore from Australia..."
Read on!

#1 This week 1967-----The Beatles - Hello, Goodbye

It was Armageddon when Trump passed GOP tax cut bill, but when liberals think it’s Bernie’s… LOL

It was Armageddon when Trump passed GOP tax cut bill, but when liberals think it’s Bernie’s… LOL
"The Republican tax bill isn’t polling well.
That’s what virtually every center-left talking head says, anyway, over and over, like clockwork.
But why?
Might the reason be the overwhelming negative media coverage, along with the fact that literally nothing out of Washington is actually “polling well” these days?
Of course, if you asked liberals what they think of a “tax plan” presented by their socialist hero Bernie Sanders, well, it would likely be a whole different matter – even if the details of the “tax plan” were exactly the same as the Republican one.
That’s just what conservative commentator Ami Horowitz did when he went to the overwhelmingly liberal East Village to find out how liberals felt about the “Bernie” tax plan, the details of which just happened to be the same as the just-passed GOP tax plan.
And shocker of shockers – they were yuge fans..."
Read on, this is great!

You ought to know!

Barack Obama used classified intelligence leaks for political gain - Washington Times

Barack Obama used classified intelligence leaks for political gain - Washington Times:

"For years, a clandestine U.S. intelligence team had tracked a man they knew was high in the leadership of al Qaeda — an operative some believed had a hand in plotting the gruesome 2009 suicide attack in Afghanistan that killed seven CIA officers."

The WaPo?!!-----Senate Democrats falsely claim GOP tax plan will raise taxes for most working-class families - The Washington Post

Senate Democrats falsely claim GOP tax plan will raise taxes for most working-class families - The Washington Post:
“On average, middle class families earning less than $86,000 would see a tax increase under the Republican ‘tax reform’ plan.”

— Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), in a tweet, Oct. 27

“The average tax increase on families nationwide earning up to $86,100 would be $794.00”
— Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-Pa.), in a tweet, Oct. 24

“Under GOP plan, U.S. families making ~$86k see avg tax increase of $794.”
— Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), in a tweet, Oct. 24

A reader asked whether Harris’s tweet was accurate. 
But when we looked into it, it turns out that many Democrats were tweeting the same talking point — that middle-class families would face an average tax increase under the GOP plan. Twitter Ads info and privacy

• The Facts

We traced the talking point to a document put out by the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, essentially the communications arm of Senate Democrats. That document laid out a series of statistics, tailored for each individual state, that purported to show how damaging the evolving Republican tax plan would be for middle-class Americans.

That document had this line on each state page: “The average tax increase on families nationwide earning up to $86,100 would be $794, a significant burden for middle-class families.”

This factoid in turn was sourced to a report by Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee. So we tracked that down.

That report had this line: “If enacted, the Republican tax reform proposal would saddle 8 million households that earn up to $86,100 with an average tax increase of $794 — a substantial expense for working families.”

Note the difference.
The original report referred to 8 million households receiving a $794 tax increase. Somehow, when it got communicated down the line, that nuance was lost and it was translated into a talking point referring to all working-class families...."
...

The Pinocchio Test

In their haste to condemn the GOP tax plan, Democrats have spread far and wide the false claim that families making less than $86,100 on average will face a hefty tax hike. Actually, it’s the opposite. Most families in that income range would get a tax cut. Any Democrat who spread this claim should delete their tweets and make clear they were in error. 

Four Pinocchios-

AM Fruitcake-Fake news!

History for December 24

History for December 24 - On-This-Day.com:
Benjamin Rush 174, Kit Carson 1809, James Joule 1818, Howard Hughes 1905



I.F. Stone 1907, Ava Gardner 1922, Ricky Martin 1971


1814 - The War of 1812 between the U.S. and Britain was ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium.


1818 - Franz Gruber of Oberndorf, Germany composed the music for "Silent Night" to words written by Josef Mohr.


1865 - Several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, TN, called the Ku Klux Klan.


1906 - Reginald A. Fessenden became the first person to broadcast a music program over radio, from Brant Rock, MA.


1914 - In World War I, the first air raid on Britain was made when a German airplane dropped a bomb on the grounds of a rectory in Dover.


1943 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces as part of Operation Overlord.


1968 - Three astronauts, James A. Lovell, William Anders and Frank Borman, reached the moon. They orbited the moon 10 times before coming back to Earth. Seven months later man first landed on the moon.


1979 - Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in support of the country's Marxist government.

Rand Paul Calls for Investigation of Obama Officials Colluding Against Trump: 'Worse than Watergate!'

Rand Paul Calls for Investigation of Obama Officials Colluding Against Trump: 'Worse than Watergate!':

"Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Thursday called for an investigation about “high ranking Obama government officials” who might have worked together to stop the election of President Trump.
“Time to investigate high ranking Obama government officials who might have colluded to prevent the election of @realDonaldTrump! This could be WORSE than Watergate!”"

Millions of moaners vindicated: Man flu is 'a thing', says researcher, and big TVs are cure • The Register

Millions of moaners vindicated: Man flu is 'a thing', says researcher, and big TVs are cure • The Register
"Moaning men complaining they have "man flu" – a much more serious and, if sufferers are to be believed, potentially deadly version of the common cold – may actually have a point.

Canadian academic Kyle Sue investigated whether men are wimps or just immunologically inferior, in an article published in the British Medical Journal.
...He found some evidence that adult men have a higher risk of hospital admission and have higher rates of influenza-associated deaths compared with women in the same age groups, regardless of underlying disease.
For many acute respiratory diseases, males are also more susceptible to complications and exhibit a higher mortality. 
And some evidence supports men suffering more from viral respiratory illness than women because they have a less robust immune system.
...But he concluded that the concept of man flu, as commonly defined, is unfair. 
"Men may not be exaggerating symptoms but have weaker immune responses to viral respiratory viruses, leading to greater morbidity and mortality than seen in women."...
Read on!

The way we were-----Janis Ian - At Seventeen (Live, 1976)

Boob-tube-----I Am Helen Reddy - If you don't know who I am, watch this.

Junk science newest scam-----Uncertain Inheritance: Epigenetics and the Poisoning of Michigan

Uncertain Inheritance: Epigenetics and the Poisoning of Michigan:
"...And yet, the science behind transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, as such a transfer of maladies would be known, remains highly controversial, and researchers have never been able to prove its existence in humans. 
That’s not for want of trying, however, and Michele Marcus, an epidemiologist at Emory University, believes the PBB mix-up in Michigan could prove crucial to that effort.
Her preliminary work investigating this macabre, natural experiment has already suggested that the children of exposed mothers have many health problems possibly linked to PBB exposure.
But the real question mark remains men like Hall, who were exposed to the chemical as children, grew up and married women who weren’t, and then had children themselves.
Could those offspring — who were never exposed to PBB in the 1970s, and who were never exposed to even residual PBB while developing in the wombs of exposed mothers — nonetheless experience health impacts linked to the chemical?
It’s a question with profound implications.
“If you look at it through the lens of environmental justice, it changes the debate,” Marcus said..."
Read on and educate yourself against the latest fake science!

REPORT: McCabe Supposedly Contradicts Himself In Testimony; Unable To Cite Examples Of Verified Dossier Allegations | Daily Wire

REPORT: McCabe Supposedly Contradicts Himself In Testimony; Unable To Cite Examples Of Verified Dossier Allegations | Daily Wire:

"This looks an awful lot like motivation for launching an investigation into Trump in order to sink Trump as a hedge against Trump’s victory. The FBI’s investigation into Russian governmental interference in the election began in July 2016, just weeks before Strzok’s text message. And that means that there is now more of a smoking gun of FBI corruption against Trump than there is of Trump colluding with Russia."

Lewis Morris: Yes, the Debt Really Is a Problem — The Patriot Post

Lewis Morris: Yes, the Debt Really Is a Problem — The Patriot Post: 
"America is approaching a major fiscal crisis, one that could fundamentally change our way of life, and not for the better. 
That crisis, of course, is the growing national debt. 
Clocking in at $20.2 trillion at the end of fiscal 2017, which ended Sept. 30, the debt boggles the mind and confounds the imagination. Economists, certain members of the business community, and reasonable elected officials (what few still remain) are deeply concerned about this. 
And the public should be, too. 
Yet, far too many people are remarkably unconcerned about the current state of affairs.
Admittedly, it’s hard to wrap one’s head around such a staggering figure...
All this fun trivia aside, our national debt is frighteningly real. 
And few people in Washington, none of them Democrats, want to do anything about it..."
Read on!

Don’t Blame Big Cable. It’s Local Governments That Choke Broadband Competition | WIRED

Don’t Blame Big Cable. It’s Local Governments That Choke Broadband Competition | WIRED
"...But ‘open access’ really means promoting easy, inexpensive and open access to publicly owned rights-of-way. 
Because broadband competition can work — if localities would just get out of the way.
...This is the best kind of public-private partnership: By removing regulatory barriers, local governments can let the private sector deploy broadband. 
That’s far better than borrowing money (which taxpayers will eventually have to repay) to build lumbering public broadband utilities that have no incentive to keep costs down.
What if local governments lower barriers for some competitors — like Google or their own public utility service — but not others?
Furthermore, by granting open access to their rights-of-way, local governments can drive competition and innovation in broadband infrastructure overall.
...Local governments have become used to thinking of rights-of-way as revenue streams..."
Read on!

Lunch video-----Stossel: The Deadly-isms

Noon-toon

Barbra Streisand Says Trump Passed Tax Reform For 'Personal Gain.' Then Shapiro Reminds Her Of An Awkward Piece Of Her Own History. | Daily Wire

Barbra Streisand Says Trump Passed Tax Reform For 'Personal Gain.' Then Shapiro Reminds Her Of An Awkward Piece Of Her Own History. | Daily Wire:

"On Thursday, Barbra Streisand took to Twitter to sound off about the evils of other Americans keeping their money. She tweeted out a piece from Charles Blow of The New York Times calling the tax reform bill “The Great American Tax Heist,” and included her own commentary:"

Time for Trump Makeover of Lib NPR and PBS - Michelle Malkin

Time for Trump Makeover of Lib NPR and PBS - Michelle Malkin
"At the close of 2017, no less than seven prominent male hosts and editors of influential government-sponsored radio and television shows are out of work amid claims of sexual harassment.
According to their accusers, the alleged Malevolent Seven are powerful pervs and creeps who've been running wild at NPR and PBS for decades, sponsored and subsidized by taxpayers and corporate donors.

• In August, award-winning broadcast and radio host John Hockenberry departed from his public radio program "The Takeaway" on New York City's NPR affiliate, which garnered a peak audience of nearly 3 million weekly listeners on more than 270 stations. Female producers and interns accused him of harassment and bullying before and after he deployed his golden parachute...
• In October, NPR's former editorial director and senior vice president of news, Michael Oreskes, was ousted from his perch after several women claimed he forcibly kissed them in the 1990s while seeking jobs at his previous employer, The New York Times.
• That same month, NPR launched an investigation of veteran Minnesota Public Radio host Garrison Keillor, creator of "A Prairie Home Companion." The liberal icon penned a column defending fellow sexual harassment suspect Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., in late November; the next day, NPR fired him for inappropriate behavior involving at least one female co-worker...
• Also on the Thanksgiving holiday chopping block: PBS fixture and CBS morning news star Charlie Rose, who reportedly groped, grabbed, phone-harassed and exposed himself to upwards of eight female employees, interns and job applicants dating back to the 1990s.
• At the end of November, NPR canned Chief News Editor David Sweeney following an internal review after four of the public radio network's female employees lodged formal complaints involving unwanted kisses, attention and gifts.
• In mid-December, Boston-based Tom Ashbrook, host of NPR's "On Point" live morning show broadcast on 290 NPR affiliates stations for the past 16 years, was suspended after young women alleged he gave "creepy" sex talks, hugs and back rubs in the studio. Ashbrook says he was "stunned" to learn of the charges.
• And last week, PBS suspended weeknight host Tavis Smiley, whose interview show airs in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Southern California and nationwide -- with major corporate underwriting from Walmart. He also hosted a podcast on NPR. Smiley has waged an aggressive campaign defending himself against his employer's witch hunt "gone too far."

...This is a golden opportunity for President Donald Trump to drain the elitist media swamps and inject true intellectual diversity in the newsrooms of NPR and PBS. 
Liberal bias at these Beltway institutions is notorious -- from NPR legal analyst Nina Totenberg wishing AIDS upon Sen. Jesse Helms and his grandchildren as "retributive justice," to "Sesame Street's" Oscar the Grouch mocking Fox News on PBS, to top NPR executives slamming the tea party movement as "scary" and "racist" to the undercover journalists of Project Veritas.
...What better time, in the wake of liberal hypocrisy and sexual harassment self-implosions, to bring real balance to government-sponsored programming?...
Read it all!