Sick From Ze Bugs?
Globalists such as World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab, Hollywood actors such as Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie, and Robert Downey Jr., and other climate alarmist profiteers, are pushing for widespread consumption of insects as a ‘sustainable’ human food, even touting insects as a ‘superfood,’ because of high protein content.
One thing these policy pushers aren’t telling us is that there are significant health risks associated with eating insects. Human instincts, to be repulsed by the idea of eating insects, are not arbitrary or random, but are likely due to the threat to human health.
The Bible also instructs us in Leviticus 11: 20-23, not to eat insects, with the exception of orthopterans, specifically, locusts, crickets, and grasshoppers. Even so, permission to eat these is not instruction to do so, and there certainly isn’t reference to the Israelites making insect offerings, or of Jesus encouraging his disciples to eat them.
Eating these in a survival situation — like that of John The Baptist — is one thing, but to have insects discreetly added to our foods, or touted as the future of the human diet, as is happening in Europe, North America, and abroad, is a threat to our health, and is disgusting. Here I will discuss three types of toxicity from edible insects: allergy, contamination, and mechanical toxicity of parts of insect exoskeletons, arising from their shapes.
Contamination of Insect-based Foods
Bioaccumulation of poisonous heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, cadmium and others, and of pesticides including herbicides, has been documented to occur in insects used for food. This means that as insects grow and develop in a contaminated environment, or if they eat contaminated plant matter, toxic heavy metals or other toxins build up in their bodies over time. Therefore producers must carefully source insect feed, and ensure the rearing environment is free of contaminants.
I’ve designed, built, and managed commercial medical cannabis grow rooms, for which I required strict entry protocols for workers, and used special equipment and other measures, to prevent entry and proliferation of pests and plant diseases. If pests such as insects or mites make their way into such a controlled environment, they may multiply uninhibited by natural factors such as weather fluctuations and predators. For that reason, I installed high-powered air curtains at two separate doorways that had to be passed through consecutively to enter the grow rooms, kept a specialized mat containing a shallow pool of bleach solution to step in at the main entrance, used computer-monitored/controlled air conditioning and dehumidification, utilized sticky traps to monitor for pests, and released beneficial predatory insects, mites, and nematodes in grow rooms and hydroponic systems to prevent pest infestations.
Despite my preventative measures, I discovered an infestation of grain mites on plant leaves in two grow rooms, the likes of which is to date otherwise unreported in cannabis. By careful investigation, I identified the mites and determined that they came from grains used to feed Indian meal moth larvae. The Indian meal moth larvae were in turn used by a supplier to feed Hypoaspis miles predatory mites that I purchased and released in the grow rooms, to prevent infestations of fungus gnats. Fungus gnats were also problematic, as is common in indoor cannabis cultivation. The fungus gnats gained entry to the facility in bags of potting mix used to grow mother plants, prompting the purchase of a heat treatment machine for potting mix.
Indoor insect rearing faces similar challenges to indoor cannabis cultivation, including problems with invasive insects and mites, and insect pathogens. People may assume indoor rearing of insects could easily provide clean, pest-free and disease-free conditions, but this it not the case. Fungi such as Beauveria bassiana parasitize insects, necessitating control of environmental parameters as temperature and humidity, and pests including mites attack insects, even spreading insect viruses such as deformed wing virus, transmitted by Varroa mites. The potential difficulty of controlling such problems makes it likely that insect producers will resort to using miticides, species-specific insecticides, fungicides, etc, which may lack government regulations in various countries, and could contaminate edible insects, and must be considered for food safety implications.
Here’s a hypothetical scenario of how insecticide contamination could occur: Cockroaches could invade insect rearing or processing facilities, leading to insecticide use for controlling or preventing cockroach infestation, and potentiate insecticide contamination of food insects. For example, the insecticide Termidor (active ingredient fipronil), is labeled for use to control cockroaches and many other pests that invade buildings, such as silverfish, spiders, centipedes, millipedes, earwigs, and flies. Termidor is transferred multiple times by insect-to-insect contact. If used to control pests of an edible insect rearing facility, this kind of spread-by-contact action would be one example of how an insecticide, or insecticide degradation products sublethal to insects, could contaminate insects intended for food, and shows the need for further study and development of best management practices and reasonable regulations of rearing and processing facilities, which are lacking.
Mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) larvae, full of feces, and supposedly suitable to eat.
One of the most alarming potential problems of food insect production is pre-or-post-processing contamination by Aspergillus, a common fungus that releases the mycotoxin known as aflatoxin. Cooked and dried insects can reabsorb humidity, and could grow Aspergillus, as could pre-processed insects. Aflatoxin is heat stable and cannot be eliminated by cooking insects contaminated by Aspergillus. Mpuchane et al. (1996) identified aflatoxin in edible grasshoppers at a concentration of up to 50 micrograms/kg. The European Union [EU] allows a maximum of 15 micrograms of aflatoxin per kilogram in plant based foods***, but disturbingly, the EU does not have regulations for aflatoxin in animal based foods including insects. Aflatoxin is the one of the most carcinogenic chemicals known to man. This problem must be addressed, but unfortunately, anyone encouraging you to eat insects is not looking out for your health in the first place.
Allergies
Allergies can arise at an early age, or can be developed by repeated exposure to a substance. Therefore, there’s a risk of developing an allergic response to eating insects, even in people who’ve previously tolerated them well. While this could be said of many other foods, it’s particularly common for people to be allergic to shellfish crustaceans such as crabs, shrimp, and lobsters. Like these crustaceans, insects have an exoskeleton composed primarily of chitin. After cellulose, aka ‘fiber’ in dietary vernacular, which is the primary component of plant cell walls, chitin is the second most abundant biological polymer on Earth. Human bodies lack enzymes to breakdown cellulose during digestion; by contrast, humans do make enzymes that break down chitin, albeit chitin is widely considered undigestible, and like cellulose, may act as dietary fiber. Although some studies have indicated chitin activates inflammatory immune responses associated with allergic reactions, contradictory studies have found potential application for chitin in combating allergies.
A specific type of tropomyosin, not chitin, is the primary allergen in crustaceans, and very similar forms are also present in the exoskeletons of insects and mites. Wong et al. (2016) showed evidence that chronic exposure to dust mites primes humans to have a hypersensitive (allergic) response to crustaceans, due to the mutual presence of similar tropomyosins. Conversely, a study on an Icelandic population found that long term exposure to shrimp primed the population for an allergy to dust mites. This suggests that allergic reactions to insects, including hives, asthma, angioedema (swelling of the eyelids, tongue, larynx, etc), rhinitis, and dermatitis, may likewise be largely caused by exoskeleton tropomyosin.
Allergies are very similar to autoimmune diseases. The immune system is responsible for both, although different t-cell white blood cells are involved. Interestingly, Das and colleagues (1993) found that 95% of patients with ulcerative colitis, a type of autoimmune disease, had antibodies in their blood that were reactive to tropomyosin.
There are many different types of tropomyosin, including more than 40 types in mammals and fungi, so an important distinction is that the specific type associated with allergies to mites, shellfish, and insects doesn’t implicate all tropomyosins. By my assessment, exoskeleton-specific tropomyosin helps explain why someone with a shellfish, insect, or dust mite allergy may not be allergic to eating mushrooms, even though chitin is highly present in all of these.
A 2017 paper published in Clinical Toxicology presented evidence of histamine poisoning from insects, in three cases in Thailand, including an outbreak affecting 118 patients, and another incident involving 19 students. The paper focused on direct evidence in another case in which 28 out of a group of 227 students were sickened, and concluded the cause was histamines present in grasshoppers and silkworm pupae they ate at a seminar. The researchers analyzed the leftover foods, and what the 28 sickened and other 199 students ate, and alleged that the histamines were implicated, which like tropomyosins, are heat-stable (resistant to degradation by cooking). The sick students’ symptoms included hives, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and breathing problems (bronchospasm and dyspnea).
I doubt the validity of the researchers’ conclusions in the 2017 paper, because the cause of the reported symptoms is dubious. They believed the symptoms were caused by histamine poisoning, that resulted from poor storage of the insects leading to microbial degradation of histidine present in the grasshoppers and silkworm pupae, thereby converting the histidine to histamine. This is certainly possible, and known to occur in many foods such as tuna fish, but problematically for their conclusion, the human body produces histamines in response to allergenic substances such as tropomyosin, and also, importantly, in response to mechanical injury. And glaringly, the levels of histamine the researchers found in the leftover insects were about 8 mg and 10 mg per 100 g of grasshoppers and silkworm pupae, respectively, and this is only half the concentration of 20 mg histamine per 100 g food the EU allows in fresh fish. The hazardous level of histamine is considered to be 50 mg per 100 g of food, five times higher than was found in the insects. It is possible that a sensitive individual could react to such a low level of histamine as was found, but it’s very unlikely for 28 students to have the same sensitivity.
Also contradicting their conclusion, is that poisoning from histamines that are in food (ie as opposed to histamines produced in the body in response to allergens or injury) usually occurs within a few minutes after eating the tainted food. Contrastingly, the researchers reported the onset of symptoms in the 28 students occurred on average 4 hours after eating the insects. Furthermore, the symptoms of histamine poisoning resemble those of an allergic reaction to IgE antibody-mediated allergens such tropomyosin. The low level of histamine found in the leftover insects, combined with the delayed onset of symptoms, suggests another causative factor at least contributing to — if not almost solely responsible for — the sickness, such as allergens in the insects (possibly tropomyosin) or mechanical abrasion/damage to the digestive lining by insect parts.
This case is notable because the authors tried to place the blame on poor storage, which is a preventable factor, but if the cause was actually inherent in the insects, it rebuts the ‘eating insects is great’ narrative. However, even if their conclusions are wrong, the authors did nevertheless highlight an important storage concern for insects that should be considered. As they pointed out, a 2007 study found a concentration of histamine in silkworm pupae of 87.5 mg per 100 g, nearly double the hazardous level.
Mechanical Toxicity of Spurs, Spines, and Setae (Hairs)
I was prompted to write this article by widespread and well-justified backlash against the push for eating insects, and opponents’ assertions that exoskeleton chitin is toxic to humans. What particularly sparked my interest was that as a horticultural scientist, I knew from my associated study of mycology (fungi) and entomology (insects) that, like insects’ exoskeletons, the cell walls of fungi, including mushrooms, are also predominantly made of chitin. I love eating mushrooms and use several species of powdered mushrooms in my morning coffee for their tremendous health benefits. So, hearing my favorite newscaster/show host, Alex Jones, talk about the toxic effect of eating insect exoskeletons, and implicating chitin, compelled me to research the issue further.
Gastrointestinal upset recently sidelined NBA player Jimmy Butler, who told his teammates that he ate crickets in Mexico City prior to the sickness. Fans and others speculated that the crickets were the cause, although it could not be proven. The reported symptoms were not necessarily indicative of an allergic response however, unlike the aforementioned students with more classical allergy symptoms such as hives and breathing problems. Could there be another cause?
Mechanical toxicity may arise from irritation, abrasion, or other damage caused by the shape of chemical compounds present in foods. For example, plants in the Araceae family contain sharply-angled calcium oxalate crystals, that when ingested, can cause itching, numbing, burning, and sores, in the mouth, throat, and digestive tract, and could even be fatal. Monstera deliciosa (Araceae), an ornamental vine popularly grown on oak trees here in Central Florida, with large, ‘swiss-cheese,’ hole-adorned leaves, has a remarkable edible fruit that most people are unaware of. The fruit tastes like a combination of pineapples and bananas (or mangos), hence the species name deliciosa; but if eaten before fully ripened, the fruit contains calcium oxalate crystals that could cause digestive distress. Another plant in the same family, also containing calcium oxalate crystals, is the traditional Polynesian staple crop taro (Colocasia esculenta), used to make a soupy, mashed potato-like food called poi, eaten in Hawaiian luaus. Taro is toxic if eaten raw; boiling is required to breakdown the calcium oxalate crystals.
Monstera deliciosa foliage and fruit.
Taro (Colocasia esculenta) foliage
Calcium oxalate is also what kidney stones* are made of, the pain of which highlights the fact that the shape of chemical compounds can be deleterious. Another example of the shape of a chemical compound causing injury is uric acid crystals causing gout, a painful affliction** of the joints. Gout crystals are elongated and sharp, and thereby cause tissue damage and inflammation.
Sharp, gout-causing uric acid crystals in a (synovial fluid?) light microscope sample
Insect exoskeletons feature sharp protuberances made of chitin, including spines, spurs, and rigid ‘hairs’ called setae. As noted by Mézes (2018), the pointy shape of these protuberances may cause them to be mechanically toxic, by damaging the digestive tract. This is not the chitin per se causing toxicity; instead, it’s the shape of the structures formed by chitin leading to toxicity.
Spines are narrowly conical, rigid, fixed projections, found on grasshopper legs, for example. Spurs are similar to spines but are on a socket allowing movement. Setae are hair-like, and contain nerve endings for sensory perception. The hairs on the legs of a fly are an example of setae. All of these structures are very small, and impractical/ impossible to remove via processing, as can be seen in the electron micrograph below, for example, showing the breathing apparatus on the side of a cricket’s body, surrounded by numerous setae.
Another difference between the chitin in insects and the chitin in mushrooms is that adult insects’ exoskeletons are sclerotized. Sclerotization involves the cross-linking of chitin molecules with various proteins and other molecules, creating a harder, more rigid material than chitin alone. A caterpillar’s relatively soft body is mostly made of pure chitin, whereas the chitin in an adult insect’s exoskeleton is sclerotized (albeit caterpillars commonly feature sclerotized projections such as spines, and their mouthparts are sclerotized). This is analogous to cellulose in plants’ cell walls being fairly flexible, unless lignified (wood) or suberized (cork). Crustaceans such as crabs also have sclerotized chitin exoskeletons.
It also seems reasonable to surmise, and even hard to ignore, that chewing an insect exoskeleton would produce sharp fragments that could damage the lining of the esophagus, stomach, and intestines. Similarly, sharp particles could result from grinding insects during food processing.
Summary and Discussion
Possible contamination is a considerable safety hazard associated with eating insects. Producers should prevent contamination by heavy metals and chemicals such as herbicides and insecticides, by carefully scrutinizing the methods and feed used to rear insects.
Further research is needed to determine proper best management practices for rearing and processing insects, and to establish safety regulations. Aflatoxin contamination by ubiquitous Aspergillus fungi is a major threat that governing bodies should immediately set low limits for, and require testing to evaluate, in insect-based food batches.
Chitin is the primary structural component in mushrooms, and in arthropods including insects, mites, and crustacean shellfish. Inconclusive research has implicated chitin in allergic reactions, while also showing its potential for combating allergies. The pointy chitin-based protuberances of insect exoskeletons, and sharp exoskeleton fragments, may explain why insects can sicken people without causing classical allergic responses such as hives or swelling. These sharp structures may also be a clue in clarifying reasons for mixed findings regarding chitin allergies. It is important to recognize the primary role of exoskeleton-associated tropomyosins in allergic reactions to crustaceans and mites, as alike tropomyosins are common to the exoskeletons of insects. These combined facts help explain why mushroom chitin may be well-tolerated by people allergic to, or otherwise sickened by, crustacean shellfish and insects.
God had a reason to command us not to eat crustaceans and most insects. It’s misguided to believe that science is likely to fully elucidate the medical reasons for God’s instructions regarding food, especially considering the plethora of factors involved in human health that complicate dietary scientific analysis, and the sometimes-delayed health effects attributable to various factors. We should also trust our instincts. Even to this entomology enthusiast, the idea of eating insects is disgusting. The best thing to do is to refuse to heed World Economic Forum head Klaus Schwab’s exhortations to “Eat ze bugs.”
*Note: Apatite rock, made of calcium phosphate compounds, is a precursor for calcium oxalate crystals. Drinking sodas containing phosphoric acid may encourage kidney stones and kidney disease by generating calcium phosphate compounds.
**John Milton, author of the masterpiece Paradise Lost, died from complications from gout in 1674.
***Peanuts are commonly infected by Aspergillus, so never eat a rotten peanut (or other nut).
Watch Joe Bender’s appearance on The American Journal Friday:
Revealed: The Harmful Effects Of Eating Ze Bugs
Journalist Who Promoted Covid Vaccines to Millions Dies Suddenly at 43
Fully vaccinated and boosted mainstream media journalist Matt Driscoll has died suddenly after proudly getting vaccinated and promoting the shot to millions through his reporting in Washington State. He was 43 years old. Driscoll was […]
The post Journalist Who Promoted Covid Vaccines to Millions Dies Suddenly at 43 appeared first on The People’s Voice.
Biden and the Media’s ‘Anti-Disinformation’ Campaign
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
― George Orwell, 1984
For years the media, “fact-checkers,” and “anti-disinformation” initiatives told the public there was nothing wrong with Joe Biden. A few weeks ago, in the space of five minutes, they flipped. Rapid-onset dementia had struck the President and it was time for change.
The people who claim they can sort truth from fiction spent years lying despite the crippling obvious. What is more baffling is why so many people went along with it for so long. Was it fear? Complacency? Cowardice? An incredible level of discipline was enforced – that has thankfully now unraveled. Rather than debunking “misinformation,” Biden’s protectors often spread it.
In August 2020 the Aspen Institute coordinated a Hunter Biden laptop pre-bunk exercise that sought to suppress a true story to protect Biden’s wayward son and shield the President from major corruption allegations. A swathe of major media and Big Tech participated in that exercise, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Twitter, Facebook, and many more. Claire Wardle, former director of “anti-disinformation” NGO First Draft (now the Information Futures Lab at Brown University) also participated.
In a letter allegedly organised by Anthony Blinken, 51 former intelligence agents claimed the Hunter Biden laptop was a “Russian information operation” and Facebook, Twitter, and others suppressed the story on their platforms. Almost everyone now admits the laptop was real.
Or take Biden’s claim that “You’re not going to get Covid if you have these vaccinations.” PolitiFact thought that may have been an “exaggeration” but reassured us that cases of the vaccinated getting Covid are “rare.”
The Party told you to reject the evidence not just of your eyes and ears, but your whole body.
However, perhaps the biggest lie was the years-long campaign to “debunk” suggestions that Biden was growing incapable of commanding the highest office in the land. PolitiFact was very diligent in “fact-checking” “cheap fakes” and other stories that alleged Joe Biden was senile, reassuring us that everything was fine.
The term “cheap fake” was coined by Britt Paris and Hunter Biden laptop denialist Joan Donovan. Donavan has long been a darling of the “anti-disinformation” field.
In the words of Aspen Hunter Biden laptop pre-bunker Claire Wardle, the Biden cheap fakes are “the weaponization of context. It’s genuine content, but the context changes via minor edits. Anyone can be vulnerable with the right edit.” In fact, as recently as June 21 Wardle was carrying water for Biden. In a New York Times article that sought to debunk “misleading videos that play into and reinforce voters’ longstanding concerns about his [Biden’s] age and abilities,” Wardle explained that “This isn’t a new narrative, it builds on an existing one, which tends to be much more effective.” Yes, adding more true information to other true information tends to make an argument more convincing.
Or take Rebekah Tromble, Associate Professor of Media and Public Affairs and the director of the Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics at George Washington University. According to Tromble “Biden became a main target of deceptive edits.” “These clips draw on a common trope about President Biden that’s popular among his detractors: He’s old, bumbling, and senile, meaning he’s incompetent and incapable of doing this job.” His gaffes and inability to speak clearly are unrelated to his cognitive ability, and are instead because “Biden grew up stuttering.”
PolitiFact is a project of the Poynter Institute which coordinates the biggest network of fact-checkers in the world, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). IFCN is funded largely by Facebook but also by the “Craig Newmark Foundation, the Koch Foundation, the Knight Foundation, the Omidyar Network, the National Endowment for Democracy, Microsoft, and the Washington Post.” This is not a small fringe “fact-checking” outfit; it is one of the leading organizations in the sector.
Perhaps the name makes it clear – it is Politi(cised) Fact-checking.
Newsguard, a “disinformation” ranking service that can punish a news site’s advertising revenue through its rating system, has also been active. Power Line, a conservative online news outlet, alleges they were contacted by Newsguard in 2021 about their claims of Biden’s cognitive decline. In an email, Newsguard asked:
We’ve noticed that the site has repeatedly stated as fact in its article[s] that Joe Biden has dementia, both during the 2020 election cycle and since he became president. Why does the site make this claim without providing credible evidence that he has dementia?
Newsguard’s approach is particularly concerning because of its ability to impact the revenue of media outlets, and due to its strong links to the State Department and intelligence agencies – its board includes former CIA Director Michael Hayden.
If all that fails you can always blame the Russians. EUvsDisinfo, a European Union project to “forecast, address, and respond to the Russian Federation’s ongoing disinformation campaigns” claimed reports of Biden being “senile” are “false” and are part of “pro-Kremlin disinformation.”
Mainstream media have also been a critical part of the lying machine, claiming recent videos that show Biden wandering off at a G7 event were “misinformation” or “cheap fakes” and are part of a concerted effort to “hammer the narrative that Biden is too old to be president.” PolitiFact also “fact-checked” the story with the usual line.
The list could go on and on and on but Matt Orfalea’s amazing “sharp as a tack” compilation puts the nail in the coffin. More “out of context” clips and “cheap fakes” according to the “anti-disinformation” “experts” no doubt.
What is the lesson? On one hand, censorship and suppression only work for so long. Reality will eventually catch up with you. However, it also tells us that a lot of people can pretend the emperor does have clothes, even when he is stark naked and half the court is screaming and pointing at the top of their lungs – also known as “spreading misinformation.” It seems there is an endless supply of “fact-checking” and “anti-disinformation” sycophants ready to bow and scrape before the mad king.
Ultimately it tells us just how corrupt the “fact-checking” and “anti-disinformation” industries are. Whilst there are an increasing number of people on the outside speaking up, internally cowardice and the silencing of critics have allowed a prolific level of corruption to grow. This is an across-the-board problem in the liberal and progressive spheres where pious bullies have shut down dialogue. This corruption has led progressives and liberals down a disastrous dead end. Barring a miracle, Trump is coming.
If there is any justice a reckoning is also coming for the “fact-checkers” and “anti-disinformation” “experts.”
If Iran Is Blamed For Trump’s Assassination It Will Trigger WWIII— Is Netanyahu Setting Up Iran To Take The Blame If Trump Is Killed?
Biden’s Parting Deluge of Deceit Deserves Damning
In a mere 11 minutes on Wednesday night, President Biden settled any doubts about whether he was fit for another four years of the presidency. Uncle Joe wrestled with the teleprompter like a slacker high school boy blindsided by trigonometry questions on the math SAT test. By the end of the Biden’s brief spiel, most judges declared that the teleprompter had won by technical knockout.
A few weeks ago, Biden declared that it would take “the Lord Almighty” to get him to end his re-election campaign. Did the Lord make an unannounced visit to Biden’s Delaware vacation home?
When Biden threw in the towel on Wednesday night, everything was sacred – including the Oval Office (“this sacred space”), “the sacred cause of this country,” “the “sacred task of perfecting our Union,” and the “sacred idea” of America. Biden announced that “I revere this office” – a hint that viewers should revere him, too. Biden has worshiped political power his entire life – and so it was no surprise that religiosity suffused his valedictory address.
Biden asked: “Does character in public life still matter?” That signals that the coverups of his abuses and potential kickbacks will continue at least until January. No wonder Hunter Biden had a big smile as he sat just outside of the video sweep in the Oval Office. But will Biden finally permit his Attorney General Merrick Garland to release the audiotape of Biden’s bumbling interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur? Or is official Washington obliged to continue pretending that Biden has not been mentally AWOL for years?
Biden declared Wednesday night: “Nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy.” This was bad news for voters. So Democratic Party bosses had no choice but to nullify 15 million primary ballots cast for Biden and jam a replacement candidate down the nation’s throat. For years, the Democratic Party has equated Trump with saving democracy, justifying any tactic – fair or foul – to thwart Trump. Sending in the FBI to raid and potentially shoot people at Trump’s Florida home? Check. Ginning up bogus criminal charges to get Trump locked way from voters? Check. Using the FBI and other federal agencies to target anyone who is too enthusiastic on MAGA? Check.
There is no freedom or constitutional right that Team Biden would not destroy in the name of saving democracy. But barely a hundred days from the election, Biden got “Julius-Caesared” – knifed in the back – by his own party.
Biden exited as he entered, with a deluge of deceit. Biden reminded viewers of his “promise to always level with you, to tell you the truth.” Is Biden’s biggest lie his boast about always being honest with the American people? His falsehoods have been perpetually burnished with a sham idealism.
For at least 15 years, Biden has relied on a two-step routine – ruthlessly vilifying his opponents and then appealing to “our better angels,” a phrase recycled from Lincoln’s first inaugural address. Biden seeks to lull listeners into assuming that he is personally one of those “better angels” as he flails anyone in the way of his latest power grab or Democratic Party victories. From portraying any Republican who wanted to cut domestic spending as a “terrorist” in 2011, to claiming that Mitt Romney wanted to put black people back “in chains” in the 2012 presidential campaign, to endlessly misrepresenting the 2017 violence at a Charlottesville protest, Biden out-Nixoned Nixon while his media allies perpetually burnished his “nice guy” image.
Par for the course, it is difficult to tell when Biden is venal or when he is merely clueless. Biden boasted again about appointing the first black female Supreme Court Justice. But why should he be proud of a lifetime judicial appointment for a lady who openly fretted in a court hearing about the First Amendment “hamstringing” federal censorship schemes? The media has sainted Biden on civil rights despite his championing crime legislation in the Senate that vastly increased the number of black and Hispanic citizens sent to prison. In a 2019 piece headlined “Joe Biden and the Era of Mass Incarceration,” the New York Times hyped Biden’s favorite fix: “Lock the S.O.B.s up!”
Implicitly wagging a finger at Donald Trump, Biden declared that “presidents are not kings.” But how do we reconcile that with his endless boasting about how he scorns the Supreme Court ruling nullifying his illegal decrees abolishing federal student loan debt? Perhaps the media, grateful to Biden for abandoning his campaign, will resume pretending that he is the reincarnation of George Washington, a faultless president and the ultimate role model…
Biden promised that in his final months in office, “I’ll keep defending our personal freedoms and our civil rights.” This was shortly after he announced that he was supporting “Supreme Court reform” – i.e., adding new justices so that the court will no longer even attempt to curtail presidential demolitions of the Constitution. Maybe Biden and other Democrats can find enough judges to formally proclaim that presidents are sacred entities who deserve nothing but worship?
If Iran Is Blamed For Trump’s Assassination It Will Trigger WWIII— Is Netanyahu Setting Up Iran To Take The Blame If Trump Is Killed?
CBS Lies About Kamala Harris Helping Bail Out Murderer & Other Criminals
An X Community Notes fact-check called out CBS News Minnesota for posting a misleading story claiming Donald Trump accused Kamala Harris of “donating to” a fund that bailed out dangerous criminals.
The notice pointed out Harris promoted the Minnesota Freedom Fund on her Twitter account amid the 2020 George Floyd BLM riots.
Trump falsely accuses Harris of donating to Minnesota Freedom Fund, bailing out “dangerous criminals” https://t.co/5yrcEmZB8c
— WCCO | CBS News Minnesota (@WCCO) July 25, 2024
See Harris’ post below:
If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota. https://t.co/t8LXowKIbw
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 1, 2020
During a North Carolina rally on Wednesday, Donald Trump told his crowd, “One of the dangerous criminals Kamala helped bail out of jail was Shawn Michael Tillman. You know that name. A repeat offender who, with Harris’s help, was set free. He then went on to murder a man on a train platform in St. Paul, Minnesota, shooting him in cold blood six times, lying on the ground.”
While the CBS article and MFF both alleged Trump said Harris was “donating” to the fund, he actually just said she “helped” people get bailed out.
“It is not correct that then-Sen. Harris has donated to our organization. We have no relationship with Harris beyond a single four-year-old tweet,” MFF said.
Trump’s accusation is completely factual as even CBS admitted in its article,
“In June of 2020, just after George Floyd’s death, then-California Sen. Kamala Harris tweeted, ‘If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota.’”
A couple years after the Harris post, Shawn Michael Tillman was bailed out via MFF and went on to murder less than two weeks later.
CBS wrote,
“Nearly two years later, on April 25, 2022, Tillman was arrested in St. Paul on a gross misdemeanor indecent exposure charge. Bail is set at $2,000 dollars and he is put in jail. On May 3, 2022, the Minnesota Freedom Fund paid his $2,000 bail and he was released. On May 20, 2022, Tillman murdered a man at the light rail station in downtown St. Paul. He is now serving a life sentence for that crime.”
The fund Harris promoted also helped get other allegedly violent criminals released, as exposed this week by the Trump War Room X account:
Meet Donovan Boone.
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) July 23, 2024
Boone was charged with invading the home of his ex-girlfriend and strangling her.@KamalaHarris raised money to bail Boone out of jail.
Kamala Harris is radically liberal and dangerously incompetent. pic.twitter.com/3z73JvXPLR
Meet Christopher Boswell.
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) July 23, 2024
Boswell, a twice-convicted rapist, was charged with kidnapping, assault, and sexual assault in 2020.@KamalaHarris raised money to bail Boswell out of jail.
Kamala Harris is radically liberal and dangerously incompetent. pic.twitter.com/2lRPRyz44i
Meet Thomas Moseley.
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) July 23, 2024
Moseley was arrested for damaging a police station, drug charges, weapons charges, and rioting charges.@KamalaHarris raised money to bail Moseley out of jail twice.
Kamala Harris is radically liberal and dangerously incompetent. pic.twitter.com/G6NYhr8YMh
Meet Darnika Floyd.
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) July 23, 2024
In January 2020, Floyd was charged with second-degree murder after fatally stabbing a man who refused to have sex with her.@KamalaHarris raised money to bail Floyd out of jail.
Kamala Harris is radically liberal and dangerously incompetent. pic.twitter.com/g8QvfnINI3
Meet Shawn Tillman.@KamalaHarris raised money to bail Tillman out of jail.
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) July 23, 2024
Upon release, Tillman brutally murdered a passenger at a rail station in St. Paul, MN.
Kamala Harris is radically liberal and dangerously incompetent. pic.twitter.com/yopaaCRx60
The media is doing its job ahead of the 2024 presidential election by trying to clean up Kamala’s poor political record.
Student Loans Are the ‘Fudge Factor’ That Allows Institutional Profiteering
Imagine an American college or university president making the following public statement:
“I regret that my institution, along with many others, has contributed to burdensome federal student loan debt and to rising college tuition levels, allowing our institutions to profit from the existence of student loan monies. At the same time, we have failed to offer our students adequate skills and knowledge required to compete in today’s world.”
If collegiate presidents struggled with questions about antisemitism on their campuses — as they did during recent Congressional testimony — they would surely be unable to speak frankly on student loan burdens, high and rising tuition levels, institutional profiteering from student loans, and whether students benefit academically from attending college.
But if a president did actually volunteer the hypothetical statement above, how would fact-checkers respond?
Student loan burdens
The news is full of stories about student loan debt and President Joe Biden’s attempts to ignore both statutes and courts to “forgive” billions in loans. Both the debt itself and a U.S. president’s unlawful efforts to erase that debt are a national disgrace.
As I wrote previously on this site, the federal loan program has evolved since the guaranteed student loan program was created by the 1965 Higher Education Act. Guaranteed student loans relied on private bank loans, which the federal government guaranteed against default and paid the interest while students were enrolled in college. The program worked well, with few defaults or worrisome loan burdens, until 2010 when it was replaced by the current program in which the U.S. Department of Education lends directly to students.
Rising college tuition levels
With tuition increasing on average about 8% per year, roughly twice the general inflation rate, tuition levels double every nine years. Student financial aid, particularly loans, have contributed to these tuition increases.
The student admission and financial aid process unfolds as follows:
Some institutions have adopted variants of need-blind admission policies, meaning that admission is independent of an applicant’s ability to pay. Once admitted by the school’s admissions office on the basis of secondary school grades, test scores, teacher recommendations, and extracurricular activities, the school’s financial aid office may offer an eligible applicant a financial aid “package.”
Loans are often the fudge factor in these aid packages, filling any gap between attendance costs and available funding sources. Consider the following hypothetical example:
$50,000 annual college tuition, fees, room and board + $1,000 books and incidentals = $51,000 total annual student attendance costs.
$25,000 student and family resources + $11,000 institutional and other awards, merit or need-based + $15,000 federal student loan, the “fudge factor” = $51,000 total annual funding sources.
Note how loans can become the fudge factor to equate total expenses with total funding sources. If, for example, an institution increases its tuition, or if family resources or other aid declines, the loan portion of the “package” can increase commensurately to become the fudge factor. Such are the trade-offs made in the financial aid office on behalf of student applicants.
Once applicants accept admission and financial aid offers (typically in May before the upcoming academic year), the DOE will advance the student loan proceeds to the institution when students matriculate in the fall. The federal monies are then in the institution’s coffers to be applied to student attendance expenses.
That is, student loan proceeds have already been spent the moment the DOE advances the funds to the institution. Student loans are not like a home equity line of credit that offers homeowners a means to tap the equity in their property at their discretion to remodel or buy a car.
Since the student loan procedure offers institutions an opportunity to increase tuition commensurately with student loan awards, the existence of federal loan funding has raised tuition levels over time. This cause-and-effect relationship offers institutions an open invitation to increase tuition.
Institutions profiting from student loans and other federal awards
Institutions can apply the increased tuition revenue to budgetary expenditures of their choice. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni has shown that much of the increased tuition revenue has financed administrative bloat such as diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and other administrative bureaucracies such as student counseling rather than expanding educational offerings.
Student financial aid is, of course, not the only form of federal subsidy offered to collegiate institutions. Research universities have for many years accepted federal grants to conduct research projects on their campuses, a practice predating federal student funding.
But federal research awards and federal student aid funding differ significantly: federally sponsored research awards carry additional “indirect cost” funding intended to reimburse institutions for overhead expenses of providing campus space and services for grant-funded research. Indirect cost rates, which typically range from 35-50% of direct costs, are negotiated with federal grant-sponsoring agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, and numerous others that fund the research. Thus, for example, a federal research grant funded at $100,000 in direct costs is awarded a total $135,000-150,000 including indirect costs.
Federal student aid awards, on the other hand, do not carry any allowance for institutional overhead expenses. Instead, institutions can effectively “help themselves” to some of the federal student aid monies by setting tuition higher than they might otherwise have charged.
Students’ educational attainment
Observers of the higher education industry have long been concerned that institutions have failed to provide college students with the skills and knowledge to earn higher expected lifetime earnings. A 2011 study entitled “Academically Adrift” tracked a cohort of undergraduate students over four years in college, documenting the declining hours attending class and studying outside class. This work is considered an indictment of higher education’s curricular dilution and grade inflation. Students self-reported having a good time in college but graduated with little academic achievement or critical thinking ability.
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni regularly surveys the course catalogs of many institutions to determine their graduation requirements, assigning Ds and Fs to many institutions (even, or especially, many of the most elite) for lax requirements of core subjects such as literature, science, mathematics, and history.
Richard Vedder, economics professor emeritus at Ohio University, goes further to equate grade inflation with recent campus protests, noting that lack of academic rigor encourages “mindless, militant mediocrity.” Stated bluntly, college students are bored, have a lot of free time, and find little to challenge them academically.
Harvey Mansfield, long-time Harvard political scientist, stated in a recent interview that a majority of grades today at Harvard and other elite institutions are A or A˗. The fallout from this is, of course, that “when everybody is somebody, then no one’s anybody,” quoting W.S. Gilbert, raising questions about the value of academic credentials.
Looking ahead from collegiate presidents’ perspective
Today’s collegiate presidents have a tough row to hoe. Some remain in the job for only five or fewer years, the more fortunate for up to ten years. Some negotiate deferred compensation contracts that often pay millions to reward longevity. The previous president of my own alma mater, for example, negotiated such a contract that paid her $1.2 million. She began her tenure in 2006, the contract fully vested in 2015, and she retired in 2016.
Gone are the days when these collegiate leaders regularly lasted for twenty or thirty years while held in high regard by their constituencies. Today’s presidential salary levels, which include a certain component of hazardous duty pay, reflect this lack of longevity in what has become a high-risk occupation.
Looking past current campus conditions and concerns of collegiate presidents, the federal government’s role in higher education will probably evolve now that the Supreme Court has abandoned Chevron deference. The DOE has been one of the more assertive administrative agencies with its recent Title IX and student loan forgiveness regulations, which have invited lawsuits in response.
Some observers go further, believing that higher education would be more efficient, effective, and better for society without federal government subsidies. In other words, get the feds out of the higher education industry.
Investigation of these sweeping issues is a discussion for another day. In the meantime, where is the collegiate president who will speak the truth about federal student loans?
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