CNN Legal Analyst Accuses Radio Show Host for Benefiting from White Privilege, Then Discovers He Is Black

During a live radio show, Areva Martin, a black female legal analyst for CNN, accused John Webb, host of the ‘Patriot’ radio show of being out of touch due to his “white privilege”. Webb then informed her he is a black male and scolded her for basing her opinions of false assumptions. He says that white privilege is another one of her false assumptions. -GEG

CNN analyst Areva Martin put herself into an awkward situation on Tuesday when she accused a black conservative radio host of operating with “white privilege.”

Sirius XM radio host and Fox News Contributor David Webb brought Martin onto his radio show to discuss diversity in media, and he noted that he has always considered his accomplishments to be more important than his skin color when applying to jobs.

“I’ve chosen to cross different parts of the media world, done the work so that I’m qualified to be in each one. I never considered my color to be the issue — I considered my qualifications to be the issue,” Webb explained.

Martin, apparently unaware that she was talking to a black man, said that Webb’s approach to media came from a place of white privilege.

David Web on Fox News/ YouTube

“That’s a whole other long conversation about white privilege, which assumes that you have the privilege of doing what people of color don’t have the privilege of,” Martin said.

“How do I have the privilege of white privilege?” Webb asked with an air of confusion.

“David, by virtue of being a white male, you have white privilege,” Martin replied.

Webb paused for a moment and then dropped a metaphorical bomb on Martin’s argument.

“Areva, I hate to break it to you, but you should’ve been better prepped. I am black,” Webb asserted. “You’re talking to a black man who started out in rock radio in Boston … that’s actually insulting.”

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Theresa May’s Brexit Deal Defeated by Record-breaking Margin in Parliament


The Prime Minister’s Brexit deal was crushed by a historic margin of 202 in favor to 432 against. This is the worst-ever defeat in the House of Parliament. Theresa May barely survived a no-confidence vote in parliament on the next day. President of the European Council Donald Tusk reacted with a thinly veiled opinion that the time has come for the EU simply to overturn the Brexit referendum. -GEG

Members of Parliament have thrown out Theresa May’s contentious Withdrawal Agreement with the European Union in the long-awaited “meaningful vote” on the deal.

The Prime Minister’s Brexit deal was crushed by a historic margin of 202 in favour to 432 against, paving the way for a vote of no-confidence in the Government by the Opposition, which Mrs May told MPs she would make time for on Wednesday, January 16th.

The first vote of the night was cast on an amendment to the Withdrawal Agreement by John Baron MP, which proposed inserting a right for Britain to leave the deal’s controversial “backstop” without needing to seek the EU’s permission — but this was also crushed, by 600 votes to 24.

 

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Poll Shows that 59% of Americans Support Raising Top Tax Rate to 70%

A recent poll found that 59% of registered voters in America agree with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ plan to increase taxes as income rises to as much as 70%. Many voters apparently believe that wealth inequality is inherently evil and should be prevented by taxes. This article explains how France tried a similar program in 2012 under Francois Hollande who imposed a 75% tax on those earning over a million euros per year. It caused creators of wealth to leave the country, and that crashed the economy. which hit workers the hardest. The tax quietly disappeared two years later. -GEG

Supported by socialists everywhere, the reform quickly prompted accusations of an anti-business agenda, sparked an exodus of high-profile personalities (France’s richest man, Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of luxury group LVMH, took out Belgian nationality, and the actor Gérard Depardieu also moved across the border to Belgium before obtaining Russian citizenship), sent local stocks tumbling as investors pulled out of France, and local real estate prices plunged.

While initially the supertax saw broad popular support, the resulting slump in the economy prompted a quick reversal in public opinion. “The reform clearly damaged France’s reputation and competitiveness,” said Jorg Stegemann, the head of the executive search firm Kennedy Executive. “It clearly has become harder to attract international senior managers to come to France than it was.”

Despite the backlash Hollande clung to the principle of the supertax even after it was dismissed by the country’s highest court, fearing a revolt by his leftwing allies. The tax was subsequently adjusted to a 50% rate payable by companies after the constitutional council ruling in December 2012. The final nail in the coffin came from the former investment banker who is now France’s president, Emmanuel Macron. A former economic adviser to Hollande, Macron described the supertax as “Cuba without the sun.”

Worse, it was the workers who were hit the hardest: tax lawyer Jean-Philippe Delsol, author on a book on tax exiles called Why I Am Going To Leave France, said that many high earners had agreed with their companies that salaries would be limited during the two years the tax rate applied, and they would “come to an arrangement afterwards.”

Worst of all, however, French finance ministry studies showed that despite all the publicity, the sums obtained from the supertax were meagre, standing at €260m in 2013 and €160m in 2014, and affecting 1,000 staff in 470 companies. Over the same period, the budget deficit soared to €84.7bn.

And so, two years after it was introduced, on January 1, 2015 the French 75% tax quietly disappeared into the history books.

We bring all this up because the next country where an almost identical experiment in socialist wealth redistribution may be attempted is… the United States of America.

While both Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her Republican critics have called AOC’s proposal to dramatically increase America’s highest tax rate “radical”, according to a new poll released Tuesday indicates that a majority of Americans agrees with the idea.

The latest The Hill-HarrisX survey conducted on Jan. 12 and 13 after the newly elected congresswoman called for the U.S. to raise its highest tax rate to 70%, shocking found that a sizable majority of registered voters, 59%, supports the idea.

While Ocasio-Cortez has not introduced any legislation – yet – to enact the concept, the survey shows that just like in France, a broad cross-section of Americans supports it at present (said majority probably needs to read up on what happened in France after an almost identical tax was implemented 6 years ago).

The “radical” proposal was popular with both sexes: women support the idea by a 62-38 percent margin, while a slightly smaller majority of men back it as well, 55 percent to 45 percent. What is maybe even more surprising is that the proposal is popular in all regions of the country with a majority of Southerners backing it by a 57 to 43 percent margin. Rural voters back it as well, 56 percent to 44 percent.

The surprises don’t end there: increasing the highest tax bracket to 70% has a surprising amount of support among Republican voters. In the Hill-HarrisX poll, 45 percent of GOP voters say they favor it while 55 percent are opposed to it. Independent voters also backed the tax idea by a 60 to 40 percent margin while Democrats were clearly the most in favor, supporting it 71 percent to 29 percent.

Ocasio-Cortez has spearheaded a group of progressive legislators – which includes Sen. Bernie Sanders – who have called for increasing federal income tax rates on wealthier Americans. The New York Democrat kicked off a debate within her party in a Jan. 6 interview with “60 Minutes” during which she said she would support setting the highest tax, which she said would kick in at individuals 10 millionth dollar of income, at 70%.

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Owners of Company That Makes Oxycontin Boasted the Drug Would Create a “Prescription Blizzard”

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey sued Purdue Pharma, its executives, and members of the Sackler family who own the company. They are accused of deceiving patients and doctors about the the risk of addiction to their opioid drugs and for pressuring doctors to keep their patients on the drugs indefinitely. The complaint alleges that Richard Sackler disregarded the health and lives of patients in favor of profits, especially if Oxycontin could be marketed as a “non-narcotic”. Richard bragged that “the launch of OxyContin tablets will be followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition. The prescription blizzard will be so deep, dense and white…” When deaths from overdosing on OxyContin could no longer to be ignored, Sackler devised a corporate strategy to blame the victims for misusing their unethical products. Purdue even announced that physical dependence on opioids is not dangerous and, instead, improves quality of life. Doctors were told that signs of addiction were ‘pseudoaddiction’ and should be treated by prescribing more of the drug. -GEG

AP:

A member of the family that owns OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma told people at the prescription opioid painkiller’s launch party in the 1990s that it would be “followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition,” according to court documents filed Tuesday.

The details were made public in a case brought by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey that accuses Purdue Pharma, its executives and members of the Sackler family of deceiving patients and doctors about the risks of opioids and pushing prescribers to keep patients on the drug longer. The documents provide information about former Purdue Pharma President Richard Sackler’s role in overseeing sales of OxyContin that hasn’t been public before.

[…]According to the filing, Richard Sackler, then senior vice president responsible for sales, told the audience at the launch party to imagine a series of natural disasters: an earthquake, volcanic eruption, hurricane and blizzard.

“The launch of OxyContin Tablets will be followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition. The prescription blizzard will be so deep, dense, and white,” he said, according to the documents.

“Over the next twenty years, the Sacklers made Richard’s boast come true,” lawyers in the attorney general’s office wrote. “They created a manmade disaster. Their blizzard of dangerous prescriptions buried children and parents and grandparents across Massachusetts, and the burials continue,” they wrote.

full filing
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