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When Donald Trump discussed human trafficking during his 2016 campaign, I wondered how serious a problem it was.
Surely, no one else talked about it.
Yes, we knew about Jeffrey Epstein, but he seemed to be an outlier.
Since then, we’ve had the NXIVM trial which, thankfully, resulted in prison sentences.
Donald Trump, who lived in New York City for most of his life knew what he was talking about — once again.
Jeffrey Epstein’s mysterious death made the headlines over the weekend. I wrote about it here and here.
At long last, people are beginning to wake up to the horrors of human, especially child, trafficking.
Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia, is one of them. He has pledged to start linking the dots surrounding this horrifying issue:
He wrote that thread before Epstein died:
The following day:
More power to his elbow in getting the job done!
Corey Lynn – Corey’s Digs has been investigating these issues for quite a while. She has more specifics on Epstein and his associates:
On Sunday, August 11, 2019, the day after Epstein’s death, Fox’s Life, Liberty & Levin featured South African film director and producer Jaco Booyens (pron. ‘Yaco Boyens’), whose recent film, 8 Days, is all about child trafficking. Mark Levin conducted a 32-minute interview with him. The original full length video link which I posted has been truncated to one second. I am grateful to one of my readers for letting me know. I found another video, but not of the full interview. A shorter — 9:50 — segment follows:
A second reader found the nub of the child sex trafficking stats in another interview clip here.
I urge everyone to take the time to watch that same video clip, which is not on YouTube, then read the summary of the full interview below.
It is very important in understanding the gravity of child trafficking.
Jaco Booyens, who now lives in the United States, also has a website about combatting human trafficking: SHAREtogether.org.
A summary of the interview follows.
Booyens made 8 Days because his sister Ilanka was trafficked when both were children in South Africa in 1994 or 1995. At the age of 13, Ilanka had just won a national song competition and was subsequently trafficked to a record company! She was trafficked for six years.
He said that the person who leaves or is abducted to be trafficked is never the same one who returns home. Fortunately, Ilanka now lives in Nashville.
Booyens has used aspects of his sister’s plight in the film.
Levin showed the trailer for 8 Days, which begins with a nice teenage girl who is enthralled because a classmate asks her out on a date. Her parents let her go. Unbeknownst to them, the boy, who is driving the two of them into town for the evening, pulls into a car park and stops the vehicle. Another vehicle pulls up, and a couple of people get out, abduct the girl and drive off. The next eight days are a living hell for the girl — and for her parents, who have no idea what has happened to their daughter.
Booyens said that statistics he has seen show that trafficked children normally die after seven years from drug abuse. Also, one imagines, the horrors they have been subjected to are another factor in premature death.
He came out with more statistics about child trafficking in the United States:
- Currently, most victims are girls (average age 12), although the number of boys — especially those who are prepubescent — is rising;
- The situation is now much worse than it was five years ago;
- A pimp can earn $250k tax free per year off from trafficking one child;
- 300k children are trafficked every day in the US; 76,000 are trafficked per day in Texas alone, despite Governor Abbott’s best efforts;
- There is ‘rampant abuse’ in the ‘foster care system’;
- The US has ‘more slaves today than ever in history’ and he lived through South Africa’s apartheid;
- All classes are involved at some level: the pimp makes most of his money from executives earning $100k per annum, but ‘a janitor’ can purchase a child’s services from time to time, too;
- Online recruitment is the norm. Procurers get to know a child and ask all the right questions;
- It is not unusual for trafficked children to live with their parents and attend school daily;
- Pimps advertise the children online: ‘You can order children the way you order pizza’.
Booyens says that the porn culture is to blame for child trafficking. Pornography is dehumanising and it objectifies not only women, but children, too.
He said that he has approached left-wing media networks for time to explain this dangerous trend, but they declined. He said that they apparently prefer to complain about Donald Trump, who, he said, has done the most of any US president to actively combat child trafficking. He said that could be a reason why the Left rails against him so much and goes on instead about his breaking up families at the border. On that subject, he said that as many as 30% of ‘families’ at the border aren’t family units at all — but traffickers and their victims. He gave credit to ICE and other law enforcement agencies, whom he said are ‘there to keep us safe’.
So far, only Fox News has agreed to have him on to explain the horrors of trafficking.
Child trafficking is a huge issue, and the Trump administration is doing everything it can to slow it down, then stop it.
All I ask is that people be aware of how destructive trafficking really is.
Booyens said that 8 Days (not to be confused with the sci-fi series) is available on Netflix and on DVD.
I will be returning to lighter subjects in my next post.
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Italy has been a popular tourist destinations for privileged Americans this week, including Democrats.
Google Camp was also there.
The privileged few flew in from thousands of miles away to discuss climate change.
As many have noted online, couldn’t they have conducted their business via Skype?
Remember, these are the same people who tell you and your family that you shouldn’t be flying … anywhere.
It’s another case of ‘for me, but not for thee’.
Veteran British journalist Andrew Neil tweeted:
His readers were not happy (language alert):
I remember the US winter of 1977 clearly. It was unpleasant.
Someone mentioned Prince Harry …
… and Greta:
Is little Greta going to row her way there?
Wouldn’t online technology have served them better?
Apparently not.
On July 30, the Daily Mail reported on the ancient Greek city Selinunte in Sicily and those attending. Brief excerpts follow, emphases mine. Check the link for photos and more. Note the use of cars and yachts, too, which are taboo for the rest of us. Errgh:
A select group of billionaire businessman, world famous pop stars, doyennes of design and Hollywood A-listers have once again descended upon the ancient Greek city of Selinunte for Google Camp.
The annual event is once again in full swing, with private planes and megayachts shuttling guests Harry Styles, Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom, Stella McCartney, Barry Diller and Diane Von Furstenberg, Gayle King, Leonardo DiCaprio and Bradley Cooper to the Verdura Resort in Sicily.
And as per tradition, guests on Monday enjoyed dinner and a concert under the stars in the ruins of the Temple of Hera on the island.
Cars could be seen taking guests to the bacchanal bash, where Google decided to disperse Jeff Koons’ orbs throughout the ancient archaeological ruins.
Independent journalist Paul Joseph Watson tweeted from London, noting that Obama was there, too:
He received these replies, among others:
It’s hardly a surprise that members of the general public views these people with ever increasing degrees of suspicion:
Private planes, jets, yachts and cars. Do these people really express legitimate concern about climate change?
No wonder people are ignoring Hollywood and other world famous celebrities.
The Earth is in God’s hands, not ours. Yes, let’s live responsibly but let us also avoid gullibility.
If people can travel across an ocean for a climate change conference and not think a thing about it except for the party that awaits them, what other resources do they personally waste? Clothes? Food? Water? I think we should be told.
We all know that Democrats are the voice of the people, right?
I’m being sarcastic, but that is the image they project:
Meanwhile, the once beautiful city of Baltimore, Maryland has been in the news over the past few days. The district’s congressman, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland), has been roundly criticised by residents, Republicans and President Trump for allowing it to deteriorate. He cannot take full blame, but he would do well to focus on his constituents rather than trying to impeach Trump.
This lady is a member of the Baltimore County Republican Central Committee:
While the controversy over Baltimore rages …
… Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and selected Democrat congresscritters stayed in Venice — yes, Italy — over the weekend in five-star accommodation at the Hotel Danieli (be sure to click on that link)!
Yes, Pelosi and the Democrats truly are of the people (not):
Over the weekend, various people, including Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida), thought that Rep. Elijah Cummings was among Pelosi’s delegation, but he was not:
The Washington Examiner reported (emphasis mine):
Pelosi was joined on the trip to by several other black Democrats, including Majority Whip James Clyburn, Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Karen Bass, Rep. Barbara Lee, Rep. Ilhan Omar, and Rep. John Lewis.
The Democratic delegation is visiting the U.S. Army Africa headquarters in Italy. They will also visit Ghana, a trip that coincides with the 400th anniversary of the first enslaved Africans landing in America. Pelosi will be the first speaker of House to address the Ghanaian Parliament.
One wonders how much this junket cost and how many family members accompanied them. The mind boggles.
Meanwhile, Baltimore and other Democrat-controlled US cities are in chaos.
Saturday, July 20, 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of Americans landing on the moon!
Marking this anniversary should have been the buzz (pun intended) of the Western world, right?
Instead, people tweeted a variety of negative remarks:
‘Who cares?’
‘This country stinks.’
‘That’s all in the past.’
‘Did it really happen?’
Even one of the commentators on ITV4 who mentioned it during the Tour de France coverage said:
Allegedly.
That’s a sad state of affairs for such a great achievement, one which I remember clearly as a schoolchild at the time. So does a Fox News correspondent:
Commemoration at the White House
I was delighted to see that President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump paid the great heroes their due. As Neil Armstrong has gone to his rest, his family were invited. Good call.
Mrs Trump knocks it out of the park with this one:
I will get to Hollywood and the moon landing further down in the post, but, for now, let us recall one of Astronaut Armstrong’s quotes. Who alive then could forget the ticker tape parade, televised nationwide?
Returning to the White House commemoration, Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin was thrilled:
Hollywood’s take: First Man
I have not seen this film, nor do I intend to do so.
First Man made its debut in August 2018.
As China is buying up much of Hollywood, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) asks a pertinent question, given the revisionist nature of the film:
Cotton was not alone.
Conservative columnist Don Surber also made his views known:
Hollywood made a movie about Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin going to the moon. It picked a Canadian actor to play Armstrong …
Then the movie omitted the planting of the AMERICAN FLAG on the moon.
That was the sole purpose of the mission.
This flick shows Hollywood is anti-American.
The House UnAmerican Activities Committee was correct. Communist[s] were taking over Hollywood for propaganda purposes …
This week, John McCain died. I remember that one of the things that kept him alive in Hanoi was the knowledge that we landed on the moon. OK, he thought it was seven months earlier than it was, but Hanoi fed him Fake News but let the truth slip that Apollo 8 made it to the dark side of the moon.
JFK inspired us: “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”
He Made America Great Again.
I was 9.
Reagan Made America Great Again.
Trump Made America Great Again.
Hollywood can go to China.
Speaking of Trump, Hollywood and First Man:
As Dinesh D’Souza pointed out, the movie seems to have airbrushed out the Cold War:
Breitbart had more on Gosling on September 1:
Explaining the decision to omit the American flag-planting scene, Canadian actor Ryan Gosling, who stars as astronaut Neil Armstrong, said that the landing “transcended countries and borders” and that it was a “human achievement” rather than an American one.
“I think this was widely regarded in the end as a human achievement [and] that’s how we chose to view it,” Gosling said. “I also think Neil was extremely humble, as were many of these astronauts, and time and time again he deferred the focus from himself to the 400,000 people who made the mission possible.”
On September 3, 2018, Breitbart reported:
Last week, [director Damien] Chazelle dismissed criticism that the omission of the American flag was meant to be a political statement. “To address the question of whether this was a political statement, the answer is no,” the First Man director said in an interview with Variety. “My goal with this movie was to share with audiences the unseen, unknown aspects of America’s mission to the moon–particularly Neil Armstrong’s personal saga and what he may have been thinking and feeling during those famous few hours.”
Buzz Aldrin, the most visible member of the crew today, wasted no time in tweeting the historic photo of the American flag:
He had saluted the flag on the moon (look for his ring finger and pinkie):
The portrayal of Neil Armstrong rankled many Americans. Returning to Breitbart‘s September 1 article, fellow astronauts Aldrin and Chuck Yeager were not happy:
Aldrin indicating disapproval of the film’s anti-American sentiment would provide further embarrassment for its director Damien Chazelle, who has reportedly portrayed frontman Neil Armstrong as a “liberal progressive,” “anti-Trump,” and “non-flag waver.” When asked his opinion about such a portrayal, legendary pilot Chuck Yeager said that it would not reflect the Neil Armstrong he knew.
Yeager tweeted:
What really happened
On the 50th anniversary of the day Apollo 11 launched, Aldrin tweeted:
Even though the text is in French, those who were not alive for the ground-breaking, historic moon landing will enjoy seeing the many photos at L’Internaute, which bring back many fond memories for me.
This 20-minute film by David Woods shows the complete descent that day. Compelling viewing:
A NASA webpage features the video and gives us the following information. Yes, there was drama, too:
Explanation: It had never been done before. But with the words “You’re Go for landing”, 50 years ago this Saturday, Apollo 11 astronauts Aldrin and Armstrong were cleared to make the first try. The next few minutes would contain more than a bit of drama, as an unexpected boulder field and an unacceptably sloping crater loomed below. With fuel dwindling, Armstrong coolly rocketed the lander above the lunar surface as he looked for a clear and flat place to land. With only seconds of fuel remaining, and with the help of Aldrin and mission control calling out data, Armstrong finally found a safe spot — and put the Eagle down. Many people on Earth listening to the live audio felt great relief on hearing “The Eagle has landed”, and great pride knowing that for the first time ever, human beings were on the Moon. Combined in the featured descent video are two audio feeds, a video feed similar to what the astronauts saw, captions of the dialog, and data including the tilt of the Eagle lander. The video concludes with the panorama of the lunar landscape visible outside the Eagle. A few hours later, hundreds of millions of people across planet Earth, drawn together as a single species, watched fellow humans walk on the Moon.
Relive — or find out more about — the moon landing on a special NASA page.
Here are a few front pages. The whole country was buzzing:
If this were fake, would Buzz Aldrin and others be tweeting about it?
Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin
It seems Buzz Aldrin wishes he were younger so that he could fly to Mars:
Here he is making a visit to the pilots on a Delta aircraft:
On a more serious note, Aldrin — a practising Presbyterian — took Communion on the Apollo 11 mission, but the general public did not know.
A 2012 Guardian article has more (emphases mine):
Before Armstrong and Aldrin stepped out of the lunar module on July 20, 1969, Aldrin unstowed a small plastic container of wine and some bread. He had brought them to the moon from Webster Presbyterian church near Houston, where he was an elder. Aldrin had received permission from the Presbyterian church’s general assembly to administer it to himself. In his book Magnificent Desolation he shares the message he then radioed to Nasa: “I would like to request a few moments of silence … and to invite each person listening in, wherever and whomever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours, and to give thanks in his or her own way.”
He then ate and drank the elements. The surreal ceremony is described in an article by Aldrin in a 1970 copy of Guideposts magazine: “I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup. It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the first food eaten there, were communion elements.”
Not only that, Aldrin also read from the Gospel of John.
The public never found out until years later. This was because of Madalyn Murray O’Hair‘s objection to the Apollo 8 crew reading from Genesis:
Aldrin had originally planned to share the event with the world over the radio. However, at the time Nasa was still reeling from a lawsuit filed by the firebrand atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair, resulting in the ceremony never being broadcast. The founder of American Atheists and self-titled “most hated woman in America” had taken on Nasa, as well as many other public organisation[s]. Most famously, she successfully fought mandatory school prayer and bible recitation in US public schools.
After the Apollo 8 crew had read out the Genesis creation account in orbit, O’Hair wanted a ban on Nasa astronauts practising religion on earth, in space or “around and about the moon” while on duty. She believed it violated the constitutional separation between church and state. In Magnificent Desolation, Aldrin explains how astronaut Deke Slayton, who ran the Apollo 11 flight crew operations, told him to tone down his lunar communiqué. “Go ahead and have communion, but keep your comments more general,” he advised. Looking back Aldrin writes that the communion was his way of thanking God for the success of the mission. Yet, later he hinted that he could have been more inclusive:
“Perhaps, if I had it to do over again, I would not choose to celebrate communion.
Although it was a deeply meaningful experience for me, it was a Christian sacrament, and we had come to the moon in the name of all mankind – be they Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, agnostics, or atheists.”
O’Hair’s case against Nasa eventually fizzled out, but it dramatically changed the tone of the Apollo 11 landing. Aldrin had originally intended a much more pioneering Christopher Columbus-style ceremony on the moon. That was never to be.
Apollo 8’s Genesis message was delivered on Christmas Day 1968, incidentally.
Back now to Apollo 11. Aldrin’s home church still commemorates his out of this world Holy Communion, which was a beautiful way to give thanks to God for His Son and the successful moon landing mission:
… at Webster Presbyterian church – the spiritual home of many astronauts – Aldrin’s communion service is still celebrated every July, known as Lunar Communion Sunday. Pastor Helen DeLeon told me how they replay the tape of Aldrin on the moon and recite Psalm eight, which he had quoted on his return trip to Earth (“… what is man that thou art mindful of him”). The church still holds the chalice that Aldrin brought back with him. Judy Allton, a geologist and historian of Webster Presbyterian church, produced a paper, presented at a Nasa conference, arguing that communion could be an essential part of future manned space travel. She claims that rituals such as Aldrin’s communion “reinforce the homelink”.
In 2002, Aldrin did not appreciate being poked with the Bible by an irreverent moon landing denier. Aldrin punched the man. Perth Now recapped what happened:
On September 9, 2002, Aldrin was accosted by conspiracy theorist Bart Sibrel and a film crew outside a Beverly Hills hotel he was lured to on the pretext of being interviewed for a Japanese children’s TV show.
The footage shows Sibrel confronting Aldrin and demanding he swear on the Bible he walked on the Moon, calling the former astronaut out for being a “thief, liar and coward”.
“You’re the one who said you walked on the Moon when you didn’t,” Sibrel says.
Aldrin is also reported to have been aggressively poked with the good book.
The 72-year-old lost his cool and punched the heckler in the jaw.
Pleading self-defence Aldrin was let off by police on the basis of an absence of visible injury and a lack of criminal record.
Believers sided with Aldrin after the regrettable affair, though it could be said his heated response to the heckling provided grist for conspiracy theorists’ mill.
On a lighter note, in 2017, Revolution magazine, which discusses machines of all types, interviewed Aldrin about the watches he and his fellow astronauts wore on the mission. It also covered watches worn by astronauts on other Apollo missions. The brand of choice? Omega:
The Tribute to Apollo 11 45th anniversary limited edition is another phenomenal demonstration of Omega’s ability to thoroughly modernize its design language while retaining a salient link to the past. The watch is configured to evoke the ref. 105.012 Speedmaster worn by Revolution UK14 cover star Buzz Aldrin when he stepped onto the Moon in 1969. While Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon, his Speedmaster was left behind in the Lunar Module whose electronic timer had failed. Meanwhile, according to Aldrin, “It was optional to wear the watch [outside of the spacecraft]. Few things are less necessary when walking around on the Moon than knowing what time it is in Houston, Texas. Nonetheless, being a watch guy, I decided to strap the Speedmaster onto my right wrist around the outside of my bulky spacesuit.”
That’s right, he made a conscious decision to strap his Omega onto his wrist because what kind of Space Cowboy would be complete without his most heroic of timepieces? This made his Speedmaster the first watch on the Moon.
Wow. I never gave the astronauts’ watches a thought, especially with regard to the moon landing.
Conclusion
May we never say the moon landing didn’t take place or that it was an unremarkable achievement.
America’s moon landing was indescribable. People all over the world who were alive at the time remember the excitement and awe they felt that day.
As I mentioned in my July 4 post, last Saturday — June 29, 2019 — journalist Andy Ngo was seriously injured in a melée in Portland, Oregon. He is suffering from a brain haemorrhage.
Incredibly, no one in mainstream media has said much about this attack. Andy Ngo’s ‘crime’ is that he is a gay conservative.
In a short video, Stefan Molyneux explains that Antifa, Ngo’s alleged attackers, fit in the Communist mould of ‘sociopathy’, whereby any political opponents must be destroyed. Molyneux points out that Communist regimes around the world have slaughtered 250 million people over the years:
Incredibly, he got quite a few sceptical comments and denials to his tweet.
However, he is correct.
Michelle Malkin has a long Twitter thread with photos from the day’s events in Portland. They are painful to view, so I’m only going to post a few. It is hard to believe that such things are going on a) in the United States and b) with police passivity. What these attackers are doing is criminal.
He was not the only one injured that day. So was this man:
Ngo writes for a number of publications and is an editor at Quillette, which is a free-thinking multi-media magazine. On June 30, his colleagues wrote an article about his attack, ‘Antifa’s Brutal Assault on Andy Ngo Is a Wake-Up Call — for Authorities and Journalists Alike’. I highly recommend it.
Excerpts follow, emphases mine.
The article’s first paragraph ends with a reference to Communism:
as Bolshevik theorist Nikolai Bukharin put it, “In revolution, he will be victorious who cracks the other’s skull.”
Quillette describes their colleague, pointing out the irony in the attack:
Andy Ngo is an elfin, soft-spoken man. He also happens to be the gay son of Vietnamese immigrants—salient details, given Antifa’s absurd slogans about smashing the heteronormative white supremacist patriarchy.
The article reminds readers that Antifa also forced Milo Yiannopoulos to cancel a talk at Berkeley in 2017. Milo is also gay. He is British and has a black boyfriend. Again, his crime is that he is a conservative gay.
The article explains:
the reason Antifa activists were so eager to beat up our colleague Andy Ngo, a Portland resident who has been relentless in exposing the true face of Antifa. They attacked him for the simple reason that he has challenged their ideological propaganda—an Antifa tactic that any true fascist would recognize and applaud.
It points out that media attention is focussed on ‘far right’ groups, but never those on the left, like Antifa:
But this attitude of vigilance must be broadened to include all radical groups. It shouldn’t require an actual fatality to goad Portland’s mayor and police into real action. Surely, a brain hemorrhage should be enough.
We also are hoping that our fellow journalists might awaken from the delusion that Antifa is a well-intentioned band of anti-fascists with a few bad apples sullying the cause. As Quillette reported last month, a simple statistical study serves to show that the journalists who cover Antifa most often and most energetically have turned their outlets into pro-Antifa propaganda organs. Indeed, this bias is so entrenched that some left-wing media responded to our report not with introspection, but with paranoid and maudlin claims that Quillette and its authors must be secretly in league with Antifa’s fascist enemies. One might hope that the brutality inflicted on one of Quillette’s editors will help disabuse them of such conspiracy theories.
Also:
These are the same people who would (rightly) respond with howls of outrage if a journalist were assaulted by right-wing protestors. And it is appalling that anyone in our industry would excuse violence against a journalist on the basis of political orientation.
The article concludes as follows:
We wish our colleague Andy Ngo a speedy recovery. For more details about the attack he endured, interested readers can follow him on Twitter at @MrAndyNgo. Although we lament his ordeal, we salute his journalistic courage in exposing a movement that seeks to crack skulls under cover of fighting fascism.
Amazingly, many of the 700+ comments defend not only Antifa but also violent crime against political opponents!
Fortunately, there are still some decent people in this world:
I pray that Andy makes a full recovery soon. I am still wrapping my head around the fact that such a vicious ‘milkshake’ assault even happened, let alone in the United States.
