Planned Parenthood: Special Olympics Funding Cuts Equals 'White Supremacy'

    This week, abortion provider Planned Parenthood helped promote the idea that cutting the federal government's support of the Special Olympics amounts to "white supremacy."

    Activist Wagatwe Wanjuki, who writes on "gender, race, and inequality," wrote on Twitter, "Betsy DeVos has been wildly effective at pushing our government's white supremacist goals. Ableism is a part of white supremacy. Defunding the Special Olympics is absolutely a part of that." 

    The Planned Parenthood Action Fund Twitter account soon retweeted the sentiment:

    The Trump administration's plan to cut funding for the Special Olympics has been met with derision by Democrats, and has even been widely panned even by Republicans and conservatives, albeit for different reasons. DeVos has cited budget concerns as the motivation for the cut, but Theodore Kupfer of National Review notes:

One problem with not taking deficits seriously is that when you propose unpopular spending cuts, then justify them by referring to “our current budget realities,” people aren’t likely to take your justification seriously.

    Republican senator Roy Blunt, chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee, issued a statement asserting that the cut would not be allowed to stand:

I’m a longtime supporter of the Special Olympics and proud that Missouri is home to the largest Special Olympics training facility in the world. I was just at the World Games and saw, as I have many times before, what a huge impact the organization has on athletes, their families, and their communities. Our Department of Education appropriations bill will not cut funding for the program.

    Financial statements for the Special Olympics for 2017 show that federal grants make up about 10 percent of the group's annual revenues. In that year, total revenues amounted to $148,726,084 including federal grants of $15,461,400.
    In 2018, Politico reported that Betsy DeVos pledged to personally donate a portion of her government salary of approximately $200,000 to the Special Olympics.  DeVos says she support the Special Olympics, but that the federal government cannot support all such worthy causes. In a press release from the Department of Education, DeVos wrote:

The Special Olympics is not a federal program. It's a private organization. I love its work, and I have personally supported its mission. Because of its important work, it is able to raise more than $100 million every year. There are dozens of worthy nonprofits that support students and adults with disabilities that don't get a dime of federal grant money. But given our current budget realities, the federal government cannot fund every worthy program, particularly ones that enjoy robust support from private donations.

Amazon Removes David Duke's Books After Inquiry By The Script [UPDATED with Amazon response]

UPDATE: An Amazon spokesperson eventually responded with "I can share that these books are no longer available. We do not comment on specific accounts."

----

    As of Monday morning, David Duke's books "Jewish Supremacism: My Awakening to the Jewish Question" and "My Awakening: A Path to Racial Understanding" are no longer available for purchase on Amazon. The books were available as of Sunday night as this cached version shows:




    However, the books were removed after The Script contacted Amazon regarding the continued availability of Duke's books after the discontinuation of Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam books as reported by The Script on Monday. The pages for both of Duke's books now return an error page:

    The Script also reported Monday on the removal of Farrakhan's Nation of Islam books from Amazon's site. Amazon did not reply to The Script's query about Duke's or Farrakhan's books.

Amazon Discontinues Sale of Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam Books

    Amazon recently discontinued sales of four of Louis Farrakhan's organization's books on the "contentious history of interactions of Blacks and Jews." Although the link for at least one of the books is still active, the page notes that "This title is not currently available for purchase."

Archived copies of the page show that both a Kindle and paperback version of the book were recently available for sale.

    Archives also show that several other books, including Volumes 2 and 3 of the Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews series and another book called Jews Selling Blacks, that were once sold by Amazon. These are no longer available either:

    The Nation of Islam Research Group published an article decrying the "ban" of the books, saying the "[t]he privatizing of the First Amendment and doling out its privileges to Jews alone are where this Satanic cabal is moving." The article begins:

The banning of four Nation of Islam Black history books by Amazon, the largest bookseller in the world, provides a perfect opportunity to examine the wickedly racist ways Jewish power is wielded in America. Amazon provided no warning, no reason, no hearing, and no opportunity to respond—it was a blatant mockery of Amazon founder Jeffrey Bezos’s own creed, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” 

    The article is similar in tone to one written on March 1 by Michael Hoffman, a man that the ADL and the Southern Poverty Law Center both call a "Holocaust denier." As The Script reported in February, Hoffman spoke at this year's Nation of Islam Saviours' Day event after meeting with Farrakhan at Farrakhan's home. Under the heading "Amazon Bans Black History Books during Black History Month," Hoffman wrote:

On Feb. 17 at the United Center in Chicago, before a cheering crowd of black Muslims numbered in the thousands — and who knows how many viewing around the world via webcast — this writer lauded the Nation of Islam’s three volume The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews as “magisterial revisionist history.”   

Nine days later, on February 26, after having been offered for sale on Amazon for several years, these three books were suddenly banned for “violating content guidelines,” an apparent euphemism for offending the Holy People. Coincidence?

    Amazon's move comes in the midst of the company's removal of a number of White Nationalist books as noted by several prominent White Nationalist websites. Amazon did not respond to a request for comment on the removal, or on the continued availability of David Duke's book "Jewish Supremacism: My Awakening to the Jewish Question." However, within hours of The Script's query to Amazon, Duke's book was removed from the site.

Ilhan Omar on Israel-Palestine Conflict: "We Only Value The Lives Of Certain People"

   In May 2018, the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict flared up along Israel's border with the Gaza Strip as the US shifted its embassy to Jerusalem. Protests turned violent as up to 35,000 Palestinians, at the instigation of Hamas according to US and Israeli officials, clashed with Israeli security forces. As many as 60 Palestinians were killed as Israel fought back against rioters who were throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails and burning tires, in addition to at least one direct armed attack.
    In response to the Palestinian deaths, freelance writer David Klion, a former editor for Al Jazeera America, wrote on Twitter, "Israel has killed more Palestinians at the Gaza border in the past six weeks than East Germany killed crossing the Berlin Wall from 1961-1989." Ilhan Omar, since elected to Congress to Keith Ellison's old seat, tweeted out Klion's comparison, adding, "It’s not a big secret that we only value the lives of certain people 😢 #Palestinians #GazaMassacre #peace."

   Rep. Omar has found herself at the center of several anti-Semitism controversies in the few short months since her election, drawing sharp rebuke and condemnation of her words from even Democrats who otherwise support her. Omar was recently forced to issue what turned out to be an equivocal apology for her "All About the Benjamins" remarks regarding AIPAC, comments that had drawn unwelcome support from none other than the Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan as The Script reported.