The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

NY Times Publishes Human-Interest Feature About Infamous Fraudster

Posted on | May 9, 2023 | 1 Comment

You remember Elizabeth Holmes, right? A Stanford University dropout, she raised $700 million in startup capital for a medical testing company, Theranos, and by 2014, when the company’s value had soared to $9 billion, Forbes magazine “recognized Holmes as the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire.” It was all a scam.

The scam involved a blood-testing machine, called “Edison,” that was supposed to revolutionize medical testing. In fact, Theranos was actually using equipment from other manufacturers to run blood tests. Holmes was widely celebrated as the face of “women in tech,” but her scam was exposed by the Wall Street Journal in 2015. She was indicted on federal fraud charges in 2018 and last year was sentenced to 11 years in prison. She is currently free pending appeal, and the New York Times did a feature story about her Sunday that pissed off nearly everybody. It’s easy to see why people are angry, with passages like this:

Ms. Holmes’s defenders, stretching back to childhood, said in letters to the court, and in conversations with me, that the feverish coverage of Ms. Holmes’s downfall felt like a witch trial, less rooted in what actually happened at Theranos, and more of a message to ambitious women everywhere. Don’t girl boss too close to the sun, or this could happen to you …
“There’s an unspoken lesson for female executives: you’re allowed to be successful but not too successful,” Jackie Lamping, a Kappa Alpha Theta sorority sister of Ms. Holmes at Stanford, wrote in a letter to Judge Davila, who oversaw the trial.
Ms. Holmes said she believed that making herself the poster girl for women in tech put a huge target on her back. . . .

Elizabeth Holmes was not “successful” in anything, except in scamming investors, which is why she’s going to prison. She’s a female Bernie Madoff, and if it weren’t for her status as the erstwhile “poster girl for women in tech,” nobody would be trying to gin up sympathy for her, least of all the New York Times. The chief science officer at Theranos, Ian Gibbons, committed suicide; his widow blames Holmes. But please, tell me again how Holmes is the real victim here.



 

 

Category: New York Times

In The Mailbox: 05.08.23

Posted on | May 8, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 05.08.23

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

Taylor Swift has thoughts on AI

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: I’m Shocked That A Criminal Would Ignore A Sign! also, How Bud Light Ended Up With Dylan M. & A Controversy
EBL: Kentucky Derby Day, Coronation Kate, and The Last Ship
Twitchy: Dem Strategist Draws Venn Diagram Of Men With Guns & Men Afraid To Take The Subway, David Hogg Begs For Money Ahead Of Impending Harvard Graduation – It Doesn’t Go Well, and Claire McCaskill Preaches Heresy
Louder With Crowder: America’s oldest brewery counters Bud Light with new patriotic beer cans to benefit our veterans, New video destroys media narrative about Jordan Neely’s death, and Chris Pratt quotes Bible in response to his anti-Christian haters, also tells them what to stick up their butt
Vox Popoli: Past as Prelude, Better Than Trump, AI Disemploys the Left, Clown World’s Fake King, and Now Wait a Minute
Stoic Observations: On Parental Consent

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Deconstructing Miles Mathis
American Conservative: The Return of the King, also, The ‘Cis-’ Slur and the War on Normality
American Greatness: Black Grievance Politics Is Destroying Civilization, The Impending Thermidor Reaction in Jacobin America, and Oklahoma Governor Axes PBS Funding Over ‘Really Problematic’ LGBTQ Content Targeting Children
American Power: Six Books About British Monarchs and Coronations, also, Demand for Property in Alys Beach, Planned Community on Florida’s Panhandle, Has Soared Over the Past Few Years
American Thinker: (Don’t) Take the F Train, Where Is the Missing Biden Witness, Gal Luft?, and Federal Government Burns the Whole House Down
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: On Karl Marx’s birthday, Cuba celebrates the failures and oppression of Marxism, Spain’s Meliá Hotels acquires three ‘historic’ hotels in Cuba, will also build new one in Havana, Cubans protesting in Caimanera, Guantanamo are hungry, and In communist Cuba, prostitution has become a method of survival
BattleSwarm: China’s Slacker City, also, Americans Reject Transexism Because It’s Anti-Reality
Behind The Black: Rocket Lab successfully launches two NASA hurricane monitoring cubesats, China’s X-37B copy lands successfully after 276 days in orbit, Sinuous ridge inside Martian canyon, and Webb takes infrared image of the disk of dust and debris surrounding Fomalhaut
Cafe Hayek: But Then Again, Washington DOES Endlessly Issue Commands, also,  Productivity Is Flat (Thus Explaining Flat Wages) While Productivity Is Rising (Thus Explaining Unjust Worker Exploitation)
CDR Salamander: From LCS To Missing Pay, The Wrong Mindset Remains
Chicago Boyz: Evil
Da Tech Guy: Five Interesting Things I Saw at Longhorn’s, What’s worse than the military recruiting crisis?, and The Question that Really Matters in Election 2024 wasn’t asked in the ABC Poll
Don Surber: Jeff Bezos’ Post Upset That Republican Does What Biden Did
First Street Journal: ‘Decarceration’ is deadly to black Americans, also, Danielle Outlaw will probably fire another good cop
Gates Of Vienna: What’s the Real Scoop on Nizhny Novgorod?, Santiago Abascal: A Message for CPAC Hungary, Viktor Orbán: “Progressive Foreign Policy Always Leads Us Into War”, and Hijab is Mandatory!
The Geller Report: Over 50% of Joe Biden’s Twitter Followers are Fake, According to Audit, Tucker’s First Speech After Fox: ‘Manufactured’ Media Lies Can End Democracy, and Biden Regime Still Largest Donor To Afghanistan As Taliban Persecutes Christians
Hogewash: The Hercules Galaxy Cluster, A National Anthem and a Restaurant, Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, and A Lenticular Seyfert Galaxy
Hollywood In Toto: The Tears of a Shock Jock Clown, Jaws 3-D Is Even Worse Without that Third Dimension, and Still Offers Haunting Look at Fame, Parkinson’s Disease
The Lid: RFK Jr.’s Popularity Reminds Us That Democrats Endorse Conspiracies, also, Why Are Hollywood Spin Doctors Helping DOE Spend Its $62 Billion Budget?
Legal Insurrection: Revisions in Jobs Report Show a Slower Jobs Market Than Portrayed by White House, Has the War on Coffee Begun?, “You may not be interested in culture war, but culture war is interested in you”, Highlight Reel About ‘Conspiracy Theory’ of Gas Stove Bans Shows How the Media Lies on Behalf of Democrats, and ‘Peaceful Protesters’ Block NYC Subway Cars On Tracks As Dems Stoke Racial Conflict Over Jordan Neely’s Death
Nebraska Energy Observer: Random Obs…and just for you, also, Cantate Sunday
Outkick: New York Radio Hosts Accuse Tampa Bay Rays Of Cheating Following Series Win Over New York Yankees, C.J. Stroud Bizarrely Claims Ohio State Recruiting Quinn Ewers Was Disrespectful, Riley Gaines Urges Female Athletes To Refuse To Compete Against Trans Athletes, Jalen Rose Blames South Florida Weather For New York Knicks Embarrassing Loss To Miami Heat…Indoors, Opposing Jockeys Help Mage Co-Owner In Wheelchair Celebrate Derby Win In Touching Moment Of Sportsmanship, and Winter Olympian Funding Her Olympic Dreams With OnlyFans Goes Topless In Cabo
Power Line: Slow Joe’s Meds Are Not Working, The Sotomayor exception, Will Democrats Die on the Trans Hill?, and Communists Love Free Enterprise
Shark Tank: Scott & Roy Introduce Bill To Make Bureaucrats At-Will Employees
Shot In The Dark: Meanwhile In St. Anthony Park, also, This Is Blue America
STUMP: Video: U.S. Mortality Trends 2020-2022 part 6: Heart Disease and Cancer, also, Sunday Sumo: Preparing for the May Tournament
The Political Hat: Let’s See How Abolishing The Police Is Working Out In West Hollywood
This Ain’t Hell: Navy Reservists anticipating retirement eligibility notified that they have another three years to go, Senator Fights for Vetting of Veteran-Owned Businesses, Ukraine uses American Patriot Defense System to knock a Russian hypersonic missile out of the sky, Buzz Aldrin gets his very own star, and US soldiers partying in Colombia drank spiked drinks
Transterrestrial Musings: The Question On Climate, From Nashville To San Bernardino, The Coronation, and The Trans Bubble
Victory Girls: Hillary Clinton Wants “Enforceable Code Of Ethics” For Supreme Court, Comer Claims To Have Biden Family Evidence, and Marcotte Irony – Republican Women Are Self-Loathing
Volokh Conspiracy: Will There Finally be Some Development on the Land Condemned in Kelo v. City of New London?, also, “Citizen Non-Cooperation and Police Non-Intervention as Causes of Justice Failure and Crime”
Watts Up With That: New York Gas Stove Ban – Beginning of the End or End of the Beginning?, FERC commissioners tell senators of major grid reliability challenges, with some blaming markets, and California’s Retail Electricity Price Highest in the Continental U.S. & More than Double the Western U.S. Average Price
Weasel Zippers: Biden Thinks He’s Smarter Than You, “We Can’t Let Obama” Win Again, NYC Catholic Church Displays “God Is Trans” Exhibit, House Dem Leader Hakeem Jeffries Claims Biden Has Done An “Incredible Job” On Economy, and House Dem Chair Pete Aguilar Blames Border Surge On “Climate Change”
The Federalist: Like Bud Light, The U.S. Navy Steps On A Rake With Drag Influencers, Elon Musk Couldn’t Fix Twitter Even If He Wanted To, Washington’s Ban On Popular Rifles Doesn’t Hold Up Under Any Level Of Scrutiny, Making Jordan Neely The New George Floyd Is The Next Step In The Left’s War On America, How Can Media Identify ‘White Supremacy’ In Hispanic Shooter But Not Trans Murderer’s Anti-Christian Hate?, and Not Even Junk Polls Can Hide The Public’s Cratering Trust In Media
Mark Steyn: Royal Pain – King Charles III and the Agony of Succession, Tal Bachman – Selves in the Balance, and Of Rain and Wrecks

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Category: Linkagery

Mauricio Garcia, Incel

Posted on | May 8, 2023 | Comments Off on Mauricio Garcia, Incel

When I wrote about the Allen outlet mall shooting yesterday, I noted that different mug shots of gunman were circulating via Twitter, but I wasn’t sure they were authentic. Turns out my doubts were justified. Somebody pointed out that the birthdate didn’t match, and so the Mauricio Garcia whose photo went viral Sunday was not the outlet mall shooter. The photo at top is the shooter, and it comes from a Russian-based website where Mauricio Garcia posted frequently. Jessica McBride at Heavy.com has all the details, including the fact that Garcia was an “incel” who admired Elliot Rodger. Of course, he also posted neo-Nazi stuff, which everyone in the mainstream media is feasting on, without evidently pausing to think: “What does that have to do with shooting people at a shopping mall?” If Garcia had attacked a synagogue, OK, yeah, we could see the neo-Nazi thing as an obvious motive, but just randomly shooting people at the mall? What’s so neo-Nazi about that?

And, of course, there’s the fact that Mauricio Garcia doesn’t exactly look like Heinrich Himmler’s ideal Aryan ubermensch. Garcia was a “white supremacist” in the same sense that Dylan Mulvaney is a “woman.” That is to say, it’s an identity chosen in the manner of someone choosing a cosplay character, or stealing someone else’s profile photo for a “catfishing” scheme, and so far I’ve seen zero evidence that Garcia ever engaged in any IRL association with other “white supremacists.” It was part of an online persona with no real-life relevance. What was much more relevant was that he was a chronically underemployed 30-something loser staying in a Budget Inn after he apparently got kicked out of his parents’ house, with no known friends, no romantic prospects and nothing better to do with his time than to plot an entirely senseless mass murder spree. Crazy People Are Dangerous.



 

 

Category: Crime, Texas

‘Smoking Gun’ on Biden Corruption?

Posted on | May 8, 2023 | Comments Off on ‘Smoking Gun’ on Biden Corruption?

Generally speaking, I don’t hold my breath waiting for some scandal to gain enough traction to bring down a Democrat, because the mainstream media are so biased in terms of what constitutes a “scandal” that Democrats are nearly bulletproof in this regard. Nevertheless, House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Kentucky) seems very confident that he’s now got ironclad proof that the Biden family were running a pay-for-play influence-peddling scheme:

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) joined Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.
During the interview, Rep. Comer announced that he will hold a press conference on Wednesday with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
Comer said he will disclose specific Biden family bank records in a press conference on Wednesday which could indicate alleged bribery from foreign adversaries.
“Senator Grassley and I received a tip on a whistleblower. Senator Grassley was the lead in this. We reviewed documents from the legally protected whistleblower, a highly credible whistleblower that would implicate Joe Biden in a pay-per-play scheme in trying to set up a deal to receive funds [for him] and his family in exchange for foreign policy decisions,” Comer told Bartiromo.
“Now that fits a pattern Maria, of what we’ve seen with these bank records. And on Wednesday we’re going to present to the American people all the information that we’ve received thus far pertaining to bank records. We’re going to disclose many of the different LLCs, many of the different transactions that all these different biden family members have gotten from our adversaries around the world.”
“Now, we don’t believe this was just a coincidence, that all these biden family members were receiving money from this web of LLCs into their personal bank account. We believe this was done in exchange for something that then vice president Biden and now President Biden would have done. So this whistleblower is going to provide some very crucial information to our investigation, and we’ve given the FBI until May 10th to produce this document,” Comer added. . . .
Rep. Comer sent a message to the DOJ during the interview, not to indict Hunter Biden before Wednesday.
“My message to the Department of Justice is very loud and clear,” said Comer. “Do not indict Hunter Biden before Wednesday when you had the opportunity to see the evidence that the House Oversight Committee will produce with respect to the web of LLCs, with respect to the number of adversarial countries that this family influence peddled in. This is not just about the President’s son. This is about the entire Biden family, including the president of the United States.”

This may just be too much for the mainstream media to ignore.



 

 

Category: Joe Biden, Scandal

Rule 5 Sunday: Late Night With Bri Teresi

Posted on | May 8, 2023 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Model and influencer Bri Teresi picked up her fifteen minutes of fame late last month by emulating Kid Rock and going full auto on several cases of Bud Light, Tampax tampons, and Honey Birdette lingerie after those brands decided to make their appeal more selective by hiring troons as spokes”women”. Here we see Bri in cowgirl drag, thanks to the UK Sun.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

NINETY MILES FROM TYRANNY: Hot Pick of the Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #2069, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule 5 Global Currency Friday and the Saturday Gingermageddon. 

EBL: Kentucky Derby Day, MAGA – Coronation Weekend, Lorde, The Coronation of Queen Sheena, Cinco de Mayo, May The 4th Be With You, The Windsors, Hilary Crowder, Jennie Kim, Kingston Trio, Cam, Black Widow Evelyn Dick, and Boudicca Sunday

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: A Big Legged Woman – Theresia Fischer, Fish Pic Friday – Fishin Mama, How to Fish and Make Money, Thursday Tattoos, It’s On!, The Wednesday Wetness, Queen of the World, Chesapeake Bay’s First Shark Attack Rediscovered, The Monday Morning Stimulus and Palm Sunday

FLAPPR: T.I.T.S, For 5/5

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Category: Rule 5

FMJRA 2.0: Deep Holy Water

Posted on | May 8, 2023 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Deep Holy Water

— compiled by Wombat-socho

SOTD is from Jason & The Scorchers’ most recent album, Halcyon Times, which is probably the best fusion of country and rock you’re going to hear. On a related topic, I picked up the eighth volume of Klaus Schulze’s La Vie Electronique, which is pretty good except for the four pieces “featuring” Arthur Brown, who Schulze was fond of for reasons not entirely clear to me.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Rule 5 Sunday: Paige Spiranac
Animal Magnetism
Ninety Miles From Tyranny
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

No Man Has Ever ‘Won’ an Argument With His Wife (Change My Mind)
EBL
357 Magnum

 

FMJRA 2.0: La Vie Secrete – Exercises Spirituelles
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Biden Administration Hiring 360 Armed IRS Agents Ready to Use ‘Deadly Force’
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Another Soros-Funded Disaster
The DaleyGator
EBL
357 Magnum

Illegal Aliens Murdering Illegal Aliens

EBL
357 Magnum
Flappr

In The Mailbox: 05.01.23
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

‘Everybody’s Dead’: Seven Bodies Found at Oklahoma Sex Offender’s Home
The DaleyGator
EBL
357 Magnum

Baby Mama Lawsuit Update
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Flappr

In The Mailbox: 05.02.23
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

News From Down Home
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 05.04.23 (Morning Edition)
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Crazy People Are Dangerous: Can You Guess Where ‘Defund the Police’ Leads?
EBL
357 Magnum

BREAKING: Soros-Funded Kim Gardner Will Resign as St. Louis Prosecutor
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 05.04.23 (Evening Edition)
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Why Is Ex-Fox Producer Abby Grossberg Trying to Encourage Anti-Semitism?
EBL

In The Mailbox: 05.05.23
EBL
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach

Top linkers for the week ending May 5:

  1. EBL (17)
  2. 357 Magnum (16)
  3. A View From The Beach (10)

Thanks to everyone for the links!

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Category: FMJRA Award

‘Right Wing Death Squad’? Bizarre Claims About Texas Outlet Mall Gunman

Posted on | May 7, 2023 | 1 Comment

When it was first reported that the gunman in the shooting at the Premium Outlets mall in Allen, Texas — about 30 miles north of Dallas — was named Mauricio Garcia, I thought, “Well, that’s weird.” It was also reported that police needed a translator to talk to the gunman’s family, which would suggest that they are recent immigrants. From such few tidbits of information, one could hardly draw any conclusion about the killer’s motive, but then it was reported that he was wearing a “RWDS” (Right Wing Death Squad) patch and that his social media postings included “neo-Nazi” stuff. This does not compute.

Garcia had once worked as a security guard, but it appears his license expired three years ago, and then there is this:

Garcia had been living in some form of transient lodging, according to the law enforcement source. Law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation told ABC News that preliminary information developed in the probe indicates that the shooter was in the U.S. Army in 2008 and was “removed due to mental health concerns.”

So, he was too crazy for the Army, had lost his security guard license and had apparently moved out of his parents’ home into “transient lodging.” These are more tidbits that could be interpreted to mean different things. I’ve seen two mug shots of this guy on Twitter, but don’t know if they’re verified. I’ve also seen people claiming the guy had gang tattoos, but can’t verify that, either. Probably none of this matters, in terms of the overall media narrative, which is mainly about blaming the guns.



 

 

Category: Crime, Texas

Fake Indian Syndrome

Posted on | May 6, 2023 | Comments Off on Fake Indian Syndrome

“Cultural appropriation” is now so frowned upon that the friendly face of the Land O’ Lakes maiden has been banished as racist, although it is far from clear how anyone was harmed by butter package labels. We’re not supposed to question the logic of these Crusades of the Anointed, but rather just accept the claims by some group of “activists” about what is offensive — rename the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians, banish Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben from the grocery shelves, do whatever the activists say, because to do otherwise is racist.

Much of the energy behind these revisionist crusades comes from the progressive hives of academia, where identity politics has been weaponized as the ultimate arbiter of power. To be white, male or heterosexual — or, God forbid, all three — is to partake of unjust privilege, according to scholars tutored in the power-matrix ideologies of Foucault, et al., who see the world as a conspiracy of oppression aimed at women, racial minorities and those on the LGBTQ spectrum of sexuality.

This paranoid obsession with identity has had the effect of incentivizing fraud, as in the notorious case of Elizabeth “Fauxcahontas” Warren, who spent years falsely claiming to be Native American in order to qualify as a “diversity” hire in academia’s affirmative action regime. Such cases are apparently common, as in the recent example of Kay LeClaire:

The University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW Madison) awarded a $5,000 residency to Kay LeClaire, a woman recently exposed for faking her Native American ancestry.
LeClaire is the latest “pretendian” who profits by providing art or expertise to universities, museums, or other institutions, all of which are pushing for inclusivity in curriculum, faculty makeup, and exhibitions.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that LeClaire served as “community leader in residence for the Center for Design and Material Culture,” a residency dedicated to “the development of a toolkit and curriculum around cultural appropriation.”
John Lucas with UW-Madison Communications told Campus Reform that “LeClaire is a prominent figure in the community,” and the university learned about her faked ancestry “through reports on social media and local media.”
“LeClaire’s campus residency was ending at the end of 2022,” he continued. “She resigned before the formal end date. It will not be renewed.”

(Hat-tip: Instapundit.) Among the weird details of Kay LeClaire’s story is that in 2019, she protested against a new Madison nightclub calling itself The Winnebago. This was a perfectly logical name, as the club’s address was 2262 Winnebago Street. In the wake of LeClaire’s protest, the club changed its name to The Burr Oak, but the street is still called Winnebago, so what exactly was the “social justice” benefit?

It is claimed that “Winnebago” has an etymology that is derogatory, and articles supportive of LeClaire’s protest made reference to the tribe “on whose stolen ancestral lands Madison sits,” to which any sensible person can only reply: “So?” Is there some proposal that all the white people should leave these “ancestral lands” so that they might be reclaimed by the tribe’s descendants? The current population of Madison is 269,840. The entire Ho-Chunk Nation (said to be the original occupants of this region) numbers less than 7,000. The city of Madison constitutes about 77 square miles of land. Between reservation and trust lands, the Ho-Chunk Nation controls about 16 square miles of land in Wisconsin, none of which seems to be near Madison. So how does the naming of a nightclub on Winnebago Street in Madison become controversial, with local media making noise about “stolen ancestral lands”?

Such controversies are fundamentally irrational, as the activists are not interested in anything other than inciting an emotional reaction, appealing to “progressive” sentiment about the historical injustices suffered by various victim groups, whose supposed grievances are leveraged to gain political advantage. Kay LeClaire started making a public spectacle of herself as an indigenous activist around 2017, claiming to have various ancestral claims to Native American identity, until some anonymous person on the Internet began researching her genealogy and determined that, in fact, LeClaire’s ancestry is German, Swedish and French Canadian. And, as I say, such “pretendians” are a proliferating phenomenon in academia, especially in Canada: Professor Carrie Bourassa (University of Saskatchewan), President Vianne Timmons (Memorial University of Newfoundland), and Gina Adams (Emily Carr University), among others, prompting a very obvious inquiry: “Why so many Canadians pretend to be indigenous.”

The demand for increased indigenous representation in Canadian universities is the main motive for the cases there, but the U.S. certainly has no shortage of such frauds:

An anthropology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, whose identity as Native American had been questioned for years apologized this week for falsely identifying as Indigenous, saying she is “a white person” who lived an identity based on family lore.
Elizabeth Hoover, associate professor of environmental science, policy and management, said in an apology posted Monday on her website that she claimed an identity as a woman of Mohawk and Mi’kmaq descent but never confirmed that identity with those communities or researched her ancestry until recently.
“I caused harm,” Hoover wrote. “I hurt Native people who have been my friends, colleagues, students, and family, both directly through fractured trust and through activating historical harms. This hurt has also interrupted student and faculty life and careers. I acknowledge that I could have prevented all of this hurt by investigating and confirming my family stories sooner. For this, I am deeply sorry.”
Hoover’s alleged Indigenous roots came into question in 2021 after her name appeared on an “Alleged Pretendian List.” The list compiled by Jacqueline Keeler, a Native American writer and activist, includes more than 200 names of people Keeler says are falsely claiming Native heritage.

Adrienne Keene has an exhaustive examination of Hoover’s fakery, complete with obituaries and census records about Hoover’s actual ancestors, the majority of whom came from upstate New York, north of Albany, and none of whom had any connection to the tribes from which Hoover claimed descent. Much like Liz Warren, Hoover used the claim of “family lore” to defend her appropriation of indigenous identity, but doesn’t it seem curious that an academic with proven abilities as a researcher would have never taken the time to investigate her own family tree? So much data is now available online that anyone can research their genealogy quite easily — not like the pre-Internet era, when you had to scroll through lots of microfilm of census records. This makes it difficult for someone like Hoover to defend herself by claiming she made an innocent mistake, basing her identity claims on “family lore” when it would be so easy to verify or disprove such tales of indigenous ancestry. No, it is entirely fair to assume that such deceptions are deliberate, and that academics like Hoover are trying to game the system, enhancing their career potential by adding extra “diversity” to their resumés.



 

 

Category: Education, Racism
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