Deported Immigrant Sex Offender Caught by Border Patrol in Texas
Posted on | October 25, 2018 | Comments Off on Deported Immigrant Sex Offender Caught by Border Patrol in Texas
Guarantee you won’t see this story reported on CNN:
U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the Eagle Pass Station arrested a convicted sex offender in Eagle Pass, Monday.
“Our agents are tasked with preserving our way of life and ensuring the integrity of our borders and the security of our communities,” said Del Rio Sector Acting Chief Patrol Agent Matthew J. Hudak. “Thanks to their hard work, another convicted felon, was prevented from entering the U.S. and is unable to do more harm.”
On Oct. 22, Eagle Pass agents arrested Mexican national Efren Arellano-Arreola, 35, after he illegally entered the United States. Records checks revealed he has a criminal history, including a conviction in February 2016 for Sexual Assault of a Child, in Dallas County. Arellano-Arreola was sentenced to serve five years in prison for that offense, and is registered as a sex-offender. Further checks also show that he was removed from the United States in January 2018.
As a convicted felon who has been previously removed from the United States, Arellano-Arreola faces a charge of 8 USC § 1326 — re-entry after deportation, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Bob Price reports at Breitbart:
A search of Dallas County court records by Breitbart News revealed that Arellano-Arreola confessed in open court to sexually penetrating the mouth of a girl under the age of 17 with his penis. Following his confession, the judge of the 203rd District Court sentenced him to spend five years in a Texas penitentiary. He would serve less than two years in state prison before being deported by immigration officers.
To quote President Trump, “they’re not sending their best.”
Bomb Hoaxes Achieve Goal of Inspiring Unsubstantiated Political Speculation
Posted on | October 25, 2018 | 1 Comment
Let’s start with the official FBI statement:
Between October 22 and 24, 2018, suspicious packages were received at multiple locations in the New York and Washington, D.C., areas and Florida. The packages are being sent for analysis at the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia.
“This investigation is of the highest priority for the FBI. We have committed the full strength of the FBI’s resources and, together with our partners on our Joint Terrorism Task Forces, we will continue to work to identify and arrest whoever is responsible for sending these packages,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “We ask anyone who may have information to contact the FBI. Do not hesitate to call; no piece of information is too small to help us in this investigation.”
The packages are similar in appearance . . . and contain potentially destructive devices.
The packages were mailed in manila envelopes with bubble wrap interior. The packages were affixed with computer-printed address labels and six Forever stamps. All packages had a return address of “DEBBIE WASSERMAN SHULTZ” [sic] in Florida. Packages identified to date were addressed to:
George Soros
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Former President Barack Obama
Former CIA Director John Brennan, care of CNN
Former Attorney General Eric Holder
The package addressed to former Attorney General Holder did not reach its intended destination, but was rerouted to the return address in Florida.
The FBI will continue to work with our federal law enforcement partners at the United States Secret Service, United States Postal Inspection Service, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as well as our state and local law enforcement partners, to identify and arrest the person or people responsible for sending these packages.
It is possible that additional packages were mailed to other locations. The FBI advises the public to remain vigilant and not touch, move or handle any suspicious or unknown packages.
If you have information about these packages, please contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or tips.fbi.gov. If you observe any suspicious activity that requires an immediate response, please call 911 or contact your local law enforcement.
Speculation ran wild that this was done by either (a) a right-wing kook inspired by President Trump’s rhetoric or (b) a left-wing kook trying to make right-wingers look guilty. There is abundant reason to believe (b), although we don’t know. My expectation is that the FBI will have a suspect in custody by Monday. They won’t get away with this, and they probably did it knowing full well they would get caught.
These were not actual bombs. There were no explosions. These “potentially destructive devices” were constructed to look dangerous, but obviously the person sending them did not want to kill their targets. This is in itself evidence of motive, pointing toward (b) and not (a).
As soon as these bomb scares made news Wednesday, conservatives on Twitter suggested it was (b), known as the “false flag” theory, and were immediately denounced by liberals for suggesting this. However, common sense is not paranoia, and there are lots of common sense reasons to lean toward the “false flag” theory of this crime:
- The hoaxer would have to be phenomenally stupid to imagine they could escape apprehension. In the age of video surveillance and advanced forensics, you can’t send bombs (or fake bomb-looking devices) to high-profile political targets and evade the Joint Terrorism Task Force. No, you’re going to be in handcuffs within 72 hours, I’d guess, and so we must ask: Who is stupid enough not to understand this?
- The return addresses misspelled the surname of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, and the package delivered to CNN misspelled the surname of John Brennan. If you hate these people so much that you’d want to kill them with bombs, wouldn’t you bother learning how to spell their names? Again, this looks like evidence of stupidity.
- Republicans are winning. Every political analyst is now saying that the GOP is almost certain to retain control of the Senate, and may even be able to turn back the Democrat “blue wave” in the House. Political terrorism is usually committed by losers, and since the Kavanaugh hearings, Republicans have been looking like winners, so why would a right-winger want to screw up that winning streak by sending bombs?
A non-lethal threat to big-name Democrats, perpetrated by someone so stupid they think they can escape a federal terrorism task force? Well, I can’t rule out that a right-wing dimwit committed this hoax — anything is possible — but it sure as heck reminds me of the fake “hate crime” hoaxes that plague university campuses every spring. This has become a predictable annual ritual. A racial slur or homophobic epithet is scrawled in a dorm hallway or whatever and, a couple weeks later, a liberal student is arrested for making a false police report:
Following President Trump’s election and inauguration, several universities have seen an increase in such reports.
One student at the University of Michigan faked an attack because of what she called a post-election “surge in hate crimes.” The UM student was fined $660 and is on a suspended 93-day jail sentence, pending probation adherence, for falsely reporting a hate crime. She admitted to having mental health issues when she pleaded guilty, but at the time, she told police she was targeted for wearing a solidarity pin.
She later admitted to scratching herself with her solidarity pin after becoming upset during a woman’s literature class at the University of Michigan, according to the Ann Arbor Police Department report. . . .
A note that used the N-word and threatened a black female student at St. Olaf College inspired a student-led protest against institutional racism at the school and the cancellation of classes.
Only problem? It “was not a genuine threat,” according to the school’s president. The author of the note confessed to fabricating it “to draw attention to concerns about the campus climate.”
Michelle Malkin has spent years chronicling campus hate hoaxes, and anyone who has paid attention to this phenomenon for the past 15 years or so must be skeptical of anything resembling this familiar pattern.
Wednesday, I sat here at my desk working while the TV in my home office was blaring out news about this bomb scare, and for several hours, I avoided the temptation to comment, while speculation ran wild on social media. We don’t know what we don’t know, and it’s foolish to rush into these things claiming to know something when you don’t. Better to wait for the FBI to arrest the suspect and then let the chips fall where they may. But this didn’t stop Democrats from blaming you-know-who:
On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” former Clinton aide Philippe Reines commented on the devices sent to various political and media figures and stated that “you have to ask how much Donald Trump is responsible for the climate that we’re in where things like this happen.”
Reines said, “These are very lucky people, in that the former first families have Secret Service protection with such robust protocols. But if you look at who they’ve targeted so far, it’s almost like they’re following Donald Trump’s Twitter feed. . . . I think you have to ask how much Donald Trump is responsible for the climate that we’re in where things like this happen.”
If Clinton aides can rush to blame Trump without any evidence whatsoever, the floor is open to speculation, and Wednesday night, I called my brother Kirby to talk theories. He’s pretty good at this stuff, and he made two very insightful suggestions I’ll share here:
- It was the Kavanaugh confirmation that inspired the bomb-hoaxer, so about three weeks went into the preparation of this hoax.
- If this is a left-winger trying to frame Trump supporters, the perpetrator probably scrubbed their social-media profiles recently, to remove evidence of their political affiliation. They may even have fabricated a phony right-wing online presence, so that when they’re apprehended, the media will find a bunch of pro-Trump messages on their Facebook page, etc.
Whatever the facts may be, the sooner the perpetrator is in custody, the better for everyone. Facts are always better than speculation.
Former bomb disposal officer weighs in on CNN’s ‘bomb’: ‘That thing is just silly looking’ https://t.co/WgSfvKGlnl via @twitchyteam
— Instapundit.com (@instapundit) October 24, 2018
Stamps aren’t cancelled…aka wasn’t mailed https://t.co/gDpFYztwYB
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) October 24, 2018
From article: Robert Stacy McCain isn't about to forgive his liberal brethren any time soon. "Well, you biased bastards, I have not forgotten the perfidious role you played here, & you will not escape blame for yr journalistic malpractice." https://t.co/gYBHL11TuU @PatriarchTree
— Sissy Willis (@SissyWillis) October 24, 2018
Late Night With In The Mailbox: 10.24.18
Posted on | October 25, 2018 | 2 Comments
— compiled by Wombat-socho
OVER THE TRANSOM
Ninety Miles From Tyranny: The 90 Miles Mystery Box, Episode #418
EBL: “Suspicious Devices” Found At Clinton, Obama Homes Similar To Soros’ Device?
Twitchy: Former Bomb Disposal Officer Weighs In On CNN “Bomb” – “That Thing Is Just Silly Looking”
Louder With Crowder: TOUGH LOVE – Should I Marry A Crazy Democrat?
RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: No Podcast Due To A Death Of The Family
American Power: Elon Musk’s Secret Tunnel, also, Is The Wave Of “Bomb Threats” A Far-Left “False Flag” Op?
American Thinker: The Ever More Delusional Left
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News
BattleSwarm: More Of That Texas Voting Fraud Democrats Swear Doesn’t Exist
Camp Of The Saints: Here, Endeth The Lesson
CDR Salamander: US Army On Discussing The Iraq War – “Can’t This Wait Until I PCS?”
Da Tech Guy: If Bruce Bartlett Is Right About Trump Being Hitler…, also, Justice O’Connor – It’s Vital To Understand Our Constitution
Don Surber: The Line Started 29 Hours Before The Trump Rally
Dustbury: Lord Of The Infield Flies
First Street Journal: Apparently The Special Snowflakes Have Been Psychologically Wounded
The Geller Report: Mailbombs Sent To CNN, Etc., Wrapped In ISIS Flag, also, Teenage Italian Girl Raped To Death By Migrants In Rome
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day, also, I’m Not Making This Up, You Know
JustOneMinute: We Will Dial Back The Madness Tomorrow
Legal Insurrection: Poll Confirms Fauxcahontas’ DNA Test Backfired On Her Bigly, also, Melania Invites Ellen Producer to Kindness Event After His Cynical Tweets
The PanAm Post: How Do You Say “Freedom” In Spanish? also, Don’t Like Bolsonaro Running Brazil For Four Years? Blame The Workers’ Party
Power Line: Stuck On Stuckey, also, 38% Of Americans Say They’re Better Off Financially Since 2016 Election
Shark Tank: Mucarsel-Powell Linked To Another Castro Sympathizer
Shot In The Dark: Bombs
STUMP: Public Pension Fund Governance – Who Are The Funds Being Managed For?
The Political Hat: Just As Long As The White Kid Suffers Too
This Ain’t Hell: Sen. Blumenthal’s FOIA Results, also, Here Are The 172 Veterans Running For Congress This Fall
Victory Girls: Early Voting – Don’t Get Complacent
Volokh Conspiracy: Party Like It’s 1799
Weasel Zippers: Trump Cites Clinton & Obama Remarks In Support Of Immigration Policy, also, NY Gov Cuomo Defends Allowing Sex Offenders Into Schools
Mark Steyn: The Man Who Put The Saud In Saudi Arabia, also, The People’s Queen
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A Dangerous Right-Wing Extremist
Posted on | October 24, 2018 | 1 Comment
The president I voted for said this:
“All Americans, not only in the States most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public service they use impose burdens on our taxpayers. That’s why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring, by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens. In the budget I will present to you, we will try to do more to speed the deportation of illegal aliens who are arrested for crimes, to better identify illegal aliens in the workplace . . . We are a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.”
Yes, I’m ashamed to admit that in 1992 I voted for . . . Bill Clinton.
(Hat-tip: Instapundit.)
Good News and Bad News
Posted on | October 24, 2018 | Comments Off on Good News and Bad News
The bad news is that I failed to win the MegaMillions jackpot last night, so my plan to become a billionaire philanthropist has been delayed, at least. The good news is there is now a website, StopSpeakerPelosi.com, where you can give money directly to help the most crucial 23 endangered House Republicans. This is a much-needed tool to help turn back the “blue wave,” and I endorse it enthusiastically. Take a look at the Real Clear Politics map of the key House races, and you realize that control of Congress will likely come down to a comparative handful of seats on Election Day. If you’re living in one of the districts that is a key battleground, obviously your vote will be crucial, but what if you’re living in a safe district? You can check with your county or state Republican Party to find out how to volunteer, but the main thing is money. Democrats this year are wallowing in cash like nobody’s ever seen.
The situation in Georgia is typical of what we’re seeing this year. Trump beat Hillary 50-46 in Georgia two years ago, but this year Democrats nominated a far-left candidate for governor, Stacey Abrams, who really shouldn’t stand a chance against the Republican, Brian Kemp. However, money is like magic for moonbats: “George Soros has given $1.25 million to Abrams’ political action committee, GeorgiaNEXT, since 2014. He also donated $1 million to the Georgia Democratic Party this year to support her campaign for governor.” And that means trouble up and down the ticket for every Republican candidate in the state, as Democrats are blanketing the airwaves with anti-GOP propaganda.
This is a nerve-jangling time to care about politics:
Monday morning, I made the mistake of switching the TV to CNN. As a journalist, sometimes I like to watch CNN just to see what’s happening in that alternative universe where a scion of the Cuomo dynasty is regarded as an impartial arbiter of news. But Monday morning was a bad time to check on CNN, because they were touting a new poll showing Democrat Andrew Gillum leading by 12 points in the Florida gubernatorial campaign.
“Twelve points!” I yelled, jumping off the sofa and heading upstairs to get a cup of coffee, wondering if the world had tilted off its axis overnight, grumbling to myself about this inexplicable poll number. “How the hell could that left-wing bozo be leading by 12 points? Have the people of Florida lost their minds?”
My panic over the Florida governor’s race was eventually resolved. After getting a cup of coffee and checking out Real Clear Politics, I learned that the CNN poll was badly out of line with other recent polls in the state. An examination of CNN’s sample numbers showed a preposterously high percentage of respondents (39%) identified as independent, and when I showed the CNN numbers to a friend in the polling business, he agreed: “No way the independents are that high.”
Still, even if the CNN poll was garbage, Gillum is surprisingly competitive in Florida, running slightly ahead of Republican Ron DeSantis in most polls, and this is cause for concern not only for Florida residents, but for GOP voters nationwide. The Democrats are pouring millions upon millions of dollars into the midterm campaign and, as the situation in Florida shows, Republicans are in the fight of their lives to stop the dreaded “blue wave.” . . .
Read the rest of my column at The American Spectator.
Late Night With In The Mailbox: 10.23.18
Posted on | October 24, 2018 | Comments Off on Late Night With In The Mailbox: 10.23.18
— compiled by Wombat-socho
OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Minnesota Democrats – Brother-Marrying Ilhan Omar & Girlfriend-Beating Keith Ellison
Twitchy: Inquiring Minds Want To Know – What’s The Democrat Position On The Migrant Caravan, Anyway?
Louder With Crowder: David Hogg Says Gun Control Should Have Been Addressed “Centuries Ago”
RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Feelings, Nothing More Than Feelings
American Power: President Trump Slams “Migrant Caravan” Ahead Of Midterm Elections, also, Tester’s In Trouble
American Thinker: The Dems’ October Surprise May Be On Them
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Fake Caravan News
BattleSwarm: Round Rock ISD Elections & Other Down-Ballot Races
CDR Salamander: No Nukes! also, Even Lockheed Goes Salamander On LCS
Da Tech Guy: Jamal Khashoggi – The Rest Of The Story, also, Who Started This Caravan?
Don Surber: Obama Takes Credit For Trump’s Magic Wand
Dustbury: Rules To Live By
The Geller Report: Ohio Muslim Mohammed Abdullahi Beat, Mutilated, & Burned To Death 23-Year-Old Woman, also, Judge Bars NH Proof Of Residency Requirement For New Voters
Hogewash: Still More TERF Wars Stuff, also, Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day
JustOneMinute: Don’t Bomb Anyone. Please.
Legal Insurrection: Is The End Finally Here For Former Farrakhan Activist Keith Ellison? also, Blue Sprinkle? More Republicans Showing Up In Early Voting Than Democrats
The PanAm Post: Is It Time For Spain To “Return The Favor” To Venezuela And Open Up Its Labor Market?
Power Line: Ellison Falls Behind Wardlow, also, Majority Leader’s Office Vandalized
Shark Tank: Palm Beach Post Rejects Anti-Gillum Ads
Shot In The Dark: Things I Never Thought I’d See
STUMP: Taxing Tuesday – Tax-Related Ballot Questions
The Political Hat: Mis-Gendering Robots
This Ain’t Hell: Tuesday Morning Feelgood Stories
Victory Girls: Five Reasons This “College Educated White Woman” Will Never Vote Democrat Again
Volokh Conspiracy: The Importance Of Making The Moral Case For Immigration
Weasel Zippers: SC Democrat Gubernatorial Candidate Blacklisted By VA After Selling His Disabled Vet Status, also, Creepy Porn Lawyer’s Bad Day
Megan McArdle: The Immigration Conversation We Need To Have – And Soon
Mark Steyn: Smiley’s People, also, My Ties To Tony Blair
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Cause and Effect: Cultural Decadence
Posted on | October 23, 2018 | 1 Comment
One of the Bad Ideas of recent years that bothers me most — because it is both widely believed among the elite and easily demonstrable as wrong — is Richard Florida’s theory of the “Creative Class”:
While I was in Massachusetts last fall for a book event hosted by Pete Da Tech Guy, we visited a Mexican restaurant in Worcester, a somewhat run-down city that was once a major manufacturing center. Picking up the local free alternative weekly Worcester Magazine, I was thumbing through it and noticed an ad proclaiming the city’s enthusiastic devotion to LGBT rights.
I doubt that anyone in America, asked to name a city notable for its vibrant homosexual community, would name Worcester, Mass., off the top of their head, but it was obvious the local Chamber of Commerce had bought into Richard Florida’s analysis, which uses “a gay index (ranking cities by the concentration of gay couples in the population)” as one metric of urban growth potential within his “creative class” theory . . .
The problem is that this is a reversal of cause and effect. Prosperity attracts artists and intellectuals to a city, but they are not the ones who create the basis of prosperity. Ancient Athens was famed for its architecture and philosophy, but its prosperity was due to the success of the Athenians in commerce and in war. Through the Aegean port of Piraeus, the ancient Athenians developed a vast merchant empire, establishing colonies throughout the region, as far as modern-day Turkey and Italy, and the wealth obtained by trade enabled the Athenians to equip a powerful army and navy. The Athenians were an adventurous, enterprising and warlike people, and it was these qualities that made their city wealthy, thus attracting the artists and philosophers. Richard Florida’s “creative class” theory gets this causation exactly backwards, confusing certain traits of wealthy places (especially tolerance of homosexuality) as the reason those places became wealthy.
The kind of thinking that produces those “Worcester Pride” ads — the idea that advertising their pro-LGBT sentiments will revive their rundown industrial city — is a cargo-cult mentality. What called this to mind was the report by a traveler to Sweden in September:
You’d think, walking around Stockholm (as I recently did), that Sweden’s national flag is rainbow gay. After all, it’s more ubiquitous here right now than the Scandinavian nation’s own beautiful emblem (a bold yellow cross on a royal blue field). Everywhere you look you see the queer colors: as a pennant on top of a hotel, a sign in front of a restaurant, and even flapping as ensigns from the ships in the harbor. The waitresses are sporting the colors on their suspenders, and the waiters have rainbow ties. Rainbow sunglasses, socks, and decals abound. Why, you ask, is Stockholm afflicted with such a bad case of homophilia these days?
Why, money, of course. The Nordic capital is hosting some kind of homosexual convention, and the flags are meant to show how “gay friendly” the city is. . . .
Gay pride marches, parades, festivals, and such advertise the power of the homosexual lobby to governments and institutions that are already predisposed to be sympathetic to them. They also serve to normalize such displays in the national consciousness so that future generations will be inured to such grotesquery.
You can read the rest of that. All this rainbow-pride celebration of gay life in Sweden obscures, but cannot completely conceal, the profound demographic crisis in Sweden, where 17 percent of the population is foreign-born, and three of the top five countries of origin are Iraq, Syria and Iran. Sweden is also home to many tens of thousands of immigrants from Somalia, Turkey and Afghanistan. With what result?
Gang-related gun murders, now mainly a phenomenon among men with immigrant backgrounds in the country’s parallel societies, increased from 4 per year in the early 1990s to around 40 last year. Because of this, Sweden has gone from being a low-crime country to having homicide rates significantly above the Western European average. Social unrest, with car torchings, attacks on first responders and even riots, is a recurring phenomenon.
Let’s talk cause-and-effect in a way that Richard Florida’s “creative class” theory ignores: Population growth is correlated with economic growth. A community that becomes more prosperous will attract new residents, but what happens if conditions of prosperity lead to a declining birth rate among the people who actually created this prosperity? And what if the new arrivals can’t sustain this prosperity? This is by no means an uncommon phenomenon in history. The decline of the Roman Empire was correlated with (if not caused by) decadence and luxury among the Roman upper classes, as the empire became increasingly dependent on foreign-born soldiers to man the imperial legions.
Swedes are finally waking up to their demographic problem:
Sweden held general parliamentary elections [Sept. 9], and preliminary results confirmed a big change in the political landscape from liberal ideals toward a more nationalist, populist agenda.
The Social Democratic party, Sweden’s largest party whose ideals have dominated Swedish politics for most of the last 100 years, got their weakest result since 1908. . . .
The biggest winner of this election were the Sweden Democrats, a populist party whose program has a strong focus on nationalism and social conservatism. They have been able to rally people who fear immigrant crime and oppose a change in the national fabric of Swedish society. . . .
The rise of Sweden Democrats has not been obvious to the establishment; otherwise, the phenomenon would have been taken more seriously. After all, the rise of populist parties is old news in Europe. There is one crucial difference with Sweden: Populism is rising despite of strong economic performance and good employment. . . .
According to the most recent official survey from 2005, foreign-born Swedes are more than twice as likely to be suspects in criminal investigations.
The thing is, as the population of Muslim immigrants grows, Sweden’s tolerance toward homosexuality is endangered, because the new immigrants come from notoriously intolerant cultures.
Liberals have tut-tutted the rise of right-wing populism in Europe, but whose fault is this phenomenon? Isn’t it true that the European elite have created this problem by encouraging cultural decadence? “If you don’t want the Third Reich, don’t welcome the Weimar Republic.”
RELATED:
- Oct. 21: Who Is Funding the Foreign Invasion?
- Oct. 19: ‘Lotus Fields of Multicultural Delusion’
- Sept. 10: American History 101: No, Emma Lazarus Did Not Write the U.S. Constitution
- Aug. 21: Violence Against Women Update: Illegal Alien Murdered College Girl, Police Say
New Must-Read Book: ‘Cult City’
Posted on | October 23, 2018 | Comments Off on New Must-Read Book: ‘Cult City’
Daniel J. Flynn and his new book, ‘Cult City.’
Daniel J. Flynn is one of my favorite authors. His 2008 book, A Conservative History of the American Left, is a classic, and now he’s published an important new history, Cult City: Jim Jones, Harvey Milk, and 10 Days That Shook San Francisco:
I toiled over my sixth book, off and on, for the last decade. . . .
The writing came mostly in my attic. The research primarily took place at the California Historical Society, San Francisco Public Library, and Library of Congress. I interviewed about 30 eyewitnesses to history, including one of three people still with us — and one of just nine total 40 years ago — in Jonestown when the killing began to live to tell the tale, Dan White’s chief of staff who detailed a startling confession of violence that his boss made to him, and former friends and rivals of Harvey Milk who shared his homosexuality but not always a fondness for him. It got really interesting for me. . . .
The basic theme is this: before the poor drank the Kool-Aid in South America, the powerful in San Francisco did. The same people who made Jim Jones unmade him, at least his associations with politicians, journalists, and celebrities. Many took pains to obscure the truth, which helps explain why this book comes out all these years later. The truth is never too late, and, for me at least, was never so interesting.
What was the connection between the Left in San Francisco, including gay-rights radicals like Harvey Milk, and the cult that died in Jonestown? Anyone who lived through the 1970s — I was a sophomore in college the year Jonestown happened — remembers the reckless hedonism of that era. Even though I was in the Deep South, and far from San Francisco, the carnival of drugs, sex and disco was really everywhere then. Count on Daniel Flynn to connect the dots in this cultural pattern.
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