Month: November 2021

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More Rittenhouse Trial Fallout

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The media gets lots of stories wrong, but the Kyle Rittenhouse story (along with the Russiagate hoax, the “fine people” hoax, and the antifa/BLM “mostly peaceful riots” gaslight) is a story that the mainstream media got intentionally wrong to push a particular narrative. (If you haven’t read it already, this previously linked Bari Weiss piece on the trial is the go-to piece for covering media lies.) As the fallout from media lies continues,

  • Here’s Matt Taibbi

    Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all six charges today, already causing a great exploding of heads in the pundit-o-sphere. Unrest wouldn’t be surprising. How could it be otherwise? Colleagues in national media spent over a year telling the country the 18-year-old was not just guilty, but a moral monster whose acquittal would be an in-your-face affirmation of systemic white supremacy.

    It used to bother me that journalists were portrayed in pop culture as sniveling, amoral weenies. Take William Atherton’s iconic portrayal in Die Hard of “Thornburg,” the TV-news creep who gasps, “Tell me you got that!” with orgasmic awe when an explosion rocks the Nakatomi building. I got that I’d seen that face on reporters.

    But risking the life of hero John McClane’s wife Holly by putting her name on TV, and getting the info by threatening the family nanny Paulina with an immigration raid? We’re bad, I thought, but not that bad. I got that it was a movie, but my father was a local TV man, and that one stung a bit.

    MSNBC Thursday pulled a Thornburg in real life. Police stopped a man named James Morrison who was apparently following a jury bus, and said he was acting at the direction of a New York-based MSNBC producer named Irene Byon. Even if all you’re after is a post-verdict interview, if a jury gets the slightest whiff that the press is searching out their names and addresses, that’s clear intimidation. People will worry about the safety of their spouses and children as they’re deliberating. Not that it matters to anyone but the defense, prosecution, judge, jury, and taxpayers, but you’re also putting the trial at risk. I’ve covered plenty of celebrity trials, from Michael Jackson to the Enron defendants, and know the identifying-jurors practice isn’t unheard of. However, in a powder-keg case like this, it’s bonkers to play it any way but straight.

    We’ve seen Die Hard-level indifference to social consequence from the beginning of this case. The context of the Rittenhouse shootings involved a summer of protests that began after the police killing of George Floyd, and continued in Kenosha after the shooting of Jacob Blake. We saw demonstrations of all types last summer, ranging from solemn candlelight vigils and thousands of protesters laying peacefully on their backs across bridges, to the burning of storefronts and “hundreds” of car thieves stealing “nearly 80” cars from a dealership in San Leandro, California. When the population is on edge, and people are amped and ready to lash out, that puts an even greater onus on media figures to get things right.

    In a tinderbox situation like this one, it was reckless beyond belief for analysts to tell audiences Rittenhouse was a murderer when many if not most of them had a good idea he would be acquitted. But that’s exactly what most outlets did.

    This is separate and apart from the question of whether or not you like Kyle Rittenhouse, or agree with his politics, or if, as a parent, you would want your own teenager carrying an AR-15 into a chaotic protest zone. The huge media error here was of the “Walls are closing in” variety, except the context was far worse. The “Walls are closing in” stupidity raised vague expectations among #Resistance audiences that at some unfixed point in time, Donald Trump would be pushed from office by scandal. In this case, the same people who poured out onto the streets last summer were told over and over that Rittenhouse was guilty, setting the stage for shock and horror if and when the “wrong” verdict came back.

    Media figures got every element of this story wrong. As documented by TK contributor Matt Orfalea, the Young Turks alone spat out all sorts of misconceptions with shocking inattention: that Rittenhouse was “shooting randomly at people” after falling down, that he’d fired first, that there was no evidence that anyone had raised a gun at him, among many, many other errors. Belatedly, the show conceded some of these problems


    Snip.

    Joe Scarborough on MSNBC said Rittenhouse unloaded “about sixty rounds” into the crowd (it was eight), adding in another segment that he “drove across state lines and started shooting people up,” and in still another that he was “shooting wildly, running around acting like a rent a cop, trying to protect property in a town he doesn’t know.” (His father and other relatives live there). John Heilemann on the same channel said Rittenhouse was “arguably a domestic terrorist” who “crossed state lines to go and shoot people.” Bakari Sellers, CNN: “The only person who fired shots that night was Kyle Rittenhouse” (he didn’t fire first, and protesters actually fired more rounds).

    In the early days after the shooting, there were widespread reports that Rittenhouse either was a “militia member” or “thought of himself as a militia member,” but these turned out to not be true (he was actually only a member of a Police Explorers program). A well-known politician, squad member Ayanna Pressley, whom I wouldn’t by any means characterize as stupid or generally careless, tweeted a slew of accusations paired with a challenge to media outlets to “fix your damn headlines”

    This was followed by other politicians making similar comments. Congressman Ted Lieu in September of last year said Rittenhouse “drove across state lines and he murdered two protesters,” adding, “Americans of all colors and creeds are seeing that racism and white supremacy are problems we can’t ignore.” Stacy Abrams said Rittenhouse was “willing to drive across state lines in order to commit murder.” Of course, the crowning impropriety, already mentioned in this space, was then-candidate Joe Biden putting Rittenhouse in a campaign ad in which he talked about how Trump “refused to disavow white supremacists” in a debate


    Snip.

    A scant few outlets bothered to do what The New Yorker did in July of this year, in examining each of these claims one by one. This involved simple things like citing the Anti-Defamation League report covering Rittenhouse:

    Quote:
    There is to date no evidence that Rittenhouse was involved with the Kenosha Guard or showed up as a result of their call to action. Nor is there evidence of ties to other extremist groups, either militia groups or white supremacist groups. Rittenhouse’s social media accounts provided no evidence of ties to extremism prior to the killings.

    The New Yorker also took a sober look at the oft-howled objection that Rittenhouse “crossed state lines,” as if this were somehow an offense in itself (see the Matt Orfalea video above) and quickly determined that news outlets simply didn’t bother to ask a few basic questions about the case:

    Quote:
    Because he lived in Illinois, people assumed that he had travelled some distance, for nefarious purposes, and had “crossed state lines” with his rifle. (The Rittenhouse apartment was a mile south of the Wisconsin border, and Rittenhouse had been storing his gun in Kenosha, at the house of a friend’s stepfather.)

    Because of all of these simple factual misconceptions that Rittenhouse was a militia member and a white supremacist who’d traveled a great distance to a town to which he had no connection, then fired first and indiscriminately analysts not only pre-judged Rittenhouse’s guilt, but offered advance explanations for any possible acquittal.

    Since it was not possible that it was real self-defense, the trial could only be an affirmation of white supremacy’s hold on the judicial system. “I know what white people are willing to do to defend white supremacy,” is how Nation justice correspondent Elie Mystal put it, in a Democracy Now! appearance that casually explained some of Judge Schroeder’s decisions by saying things like, “That’s what racists do.” There’s simply no requirement anymore for substantiating words like “white supremacist” or “racist” in media. We were once terrified to use these words without a lot of backup, but now, we don’t distinguish between a person who attends Richard Spencer rallies and, say, a judge with a “God Bless The U.S.A.” ringtone, or a member of a Police Explorers program.

    Pretty much any use of the phrase “white supremacy” in current political context indicates the one using it is pushing a radical left-wing social justice agenda.

  • Here’s a quick and dirty takedown of various Rittenhouse lies in meme form:
  • GoFundMe, who blocked fundraising for Kyle Rittenhouse, now says he can fundraise now that he no longer needs it.
  • Tiny problem with GoFundMe’s explanation: at the same time they were denying funding to Kyle Rittenhouse’s defense, they were allowing it for accused antifa/#BlackLivesMatter rioters.

    One campaign, titled “CHARGED WITH BANK ROBBERY DURING GEORGE FLOYD RIOT,” has raised $140 of a $40,000 goal for a couple arrested in May last year.

    “My girlfriend was released with no paper, but unfortunately they kept me and charged me with bank larceny,” the description reads, adding that the charges have since changed to “attempted bank robbery.”

    Another titled “Fundraiser for Tuscon Arrestees” is soliciting donations for 12 people who face felony riot charges. The campaign has so far raised nearly $7,200 of a $12,000 goal.

    The “Tia Pugh Legal Defense Fund” is raising money for a 22-year-old Alabama woman arrested for criminal mischief and inciting a riot. The fund has just fallen about $50 short of a $3,000 goal.

    Rittenhouse, however, was unable to collect donations from the website because the then-17-year-old shooter was charged with a violent crime.

  • One cop fired for contributing to Rittenhouse’s defense demands his job back.

    The Norfolk Virginia Police Department fired Sgt. William K. Kelly III for donating anonymously $25 to Kyle Rittenhouse’s defense.

    The department only found out because a hacker group released the information of the anonymous users.

    A jury found Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts.

    Kelly wants his job back.

  • A lot of the left-wing response to the Rittenhouse verdict is that “juries would never acquit black people who used deadly force in self-defense.” A tiny problem with this argument: It’s not true.
  • One rare Democrat not joining the irrational “Kyle Rittenhouse is a white supremacist murderer” mob: Tulsi Gabbard.
  • There was actually a lot less left-wing rioting after the Rittenhouse verdict than expected. The exception: Portland, Oregon. Of course.
  • Oops! Someone said the quit part out-loud again: “This Chicago mob shouted ‘the only solution is communist revolution’ after the Rittenhouse verdict
  • Borepatch has a short meme roundup.

    • I hope Kyle Rittenhouse lawsuits prompt media bankruptcies and house-cleaning of SJW radicals far and wide.

    Lawrence Person’s BattleSwarm Blog

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    BREAKING: Kyle Rittenhouse Not Guilty on All Counts

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    Kyle rittenhouse verdict kenosha trial
    (Mark Hertzberg/Pool Photo via AP)

    Next Post Coming Soon…▶

    A jury in Kenosha, Wisconsin has found Kyle Rittenhouse

    Rittenhouse was standing guard outside a car dealership in Kenosha on August 25 last year during riots that followed the shooting of Jacob Blake. Police did little or nothing to curb the violence and destruction.

    When Rittenhouse attempted to stop a crowd from setting a dumpster on fire, he was approached by a violent Joseph Rosenbaum. That set off the entire chain of events leading to today’s result.

    Rittenhouse was threatened and attacked that night by four convicted felons that night; a mentally ill pedophile, car thief and forger, a domestic abuser, and a burglar who assaulted his own grandmother.

    One attacker threatened to kill him and tried to take Rittenhouse’s rifle. One delivered a flying kick as he layed on the ground. Another struck him on the head and neck with a skateboard. The last one pointed a gun at him.

    Gaige Grosskreutz Rittenhouse Kenosha shooting

    Rittenhouse used the AR-15 rifle he was carrying to shoot three of his attackers, killing two.

    The trial of the 18-year-old Rittenhouse inevitably became a political football. The inept prosecution succeeded in depicting, almost as well as the defense, that in each of the shootings, Rittenhouse had defended himself from physical threats or imminent attacks. Yet the media have been slanting and shading their reports of the testimony, no matter how frustratingly exculpatory it was.

    Rittenhouse was portrayed as a racist and a white supremacist, despite everyone involved in the incident that night being a white male.

    The jury had to weigh not only the evidence, but also the knowledge that if they found Rittenhouse not guilty of some or all of the charges, it could result in more rioting. Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers put 500 National Guardsman on standby in anticipation of the verdict. If he’d bothered to do that during the rioting in Kenosha last year, it’s likely that none of this would have happened.

     

    Next Post Coming Soon…▶

    The Truth About Guns

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    Kyle Rittenhouse: Not Guilty, All Charges

    As I said all along.

    Hey, Twitter! Told you so. Are you going to unblock me now, or will you doxx and ban the unanimous jury members, too?

    Self defense is a human right.

     

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    Kyle Rittenhouse NOT Guilty On All Charges! ~ Verdict VIDEO

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    H/T to Law and Crime TV for the week-long live Video feed.

    KENOSHA, WI –-(Ammoland.com)-  After three days of deliberation, the jury in the Kyle Rittenhouse self-defense trial returned a verdict of not guilty on all charges.

    Kyle Rittenhouse Not Guilty on All Charges

    The jurors found that Kyle Rittenhouse was justified in his self-defense shooting of three attackers. The jury believed that the three men targeted Rittenhouse, and the jury thought that he had felt that the three men threatened his life. The jury took four days to decide Mr. Rittenhouse’s fate.

    The first man attacked Kyle Rittenhouse after he put out a fire in a dumpster. Joseph Rosenbaum, a convicted pedophile, attacked and chased Rittenhouse through a car lot. After Rosenbaum pursued Rittenhouse through the parking lot, he turned and fired his AR-15 and killed Rosenbaum.

    An angry mob chased Rittenhouse down the street. He stumbled and fell to the ground as he tried to evade the mob and get to the police. The second man shot was Anthony Huber. Mr. Huber was a domestic abuser and attacked Rittenhouse with a skateboard. Rittenhouse shot and killed Huber.

    The third man didn’t die but was shot in the arm. Gaige Grosskreutz pointed a loaded Glock at Mr. Rittenhouse while he was on the ground. Rittenhouse pointed his AR-15 at Mr. Grosskreutz. He put up his hands, and Rittenhouse didn’t pull the trigger of his rifle until Grosskreutz pointed his pistol at Rittenhouse. Grosskreutz was hit in the arm and was disarmed by the shot.

    Grosskreutz admitted on the stand that Rittenhouse didn’t fire until he leveled the Glock at him. This moment was a critical turning point in the case, and some legal experts believed that Grosskreutz comment doomed the prosecution’s case.

    Rittenhouse also took the stand to defend himself. Rittenhouse broke down in tears when walking the court through the actions of the fateful night. The court had to adjourn to give Mr. Rittenhouse time to recover from emotional testimony. Rittenhouse came off as believable.

    The prosecution cross-examined Rittenhouse for hours. The prosecutor came off as a bully. The prosecutor attacked Mr. Rittenhouse for exercising his right to remain silent. This attack provoked a stinging rebuke from the judge. He removed the jury from the court and ripped into the prosecution for questioning Mr. Rittenhouse’s use of a Constitutional right. The attack by the prosecution almost caused a mistrial.

    Gun rights groups have celebrated the verdict. They believe that this decision is a victory for self-defense. Alan Gottlieb, the founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, claims that this is a victory for the Second Amendment.

    “The verdict by the Kenosha jury is an affirmation that people, regardless of their age, have a right to defend themselves against violent attack, by individuals or a mob,” Gottlieb said.

    “Anyone who viewed the video evidence and listened to the testimony would easily conclude Kyle Rittenhouse acted in self-defense. Fortunately, this young man’s supporters were able to raise the funds necessary for mounting a first-class defense. But this was a high-profile case, and ample financial resources became available. What about lower-profile cases where people with limited resources find themselves unable to afford adequate legal counsel.

    “There is no doubt this case will be analyzed and debated for months, or even years. What the verdict demonstrates is that reasonable people sitting in judgment of a case that should never have been brought in the first place can see through a politically-motivated prosecution and reach a verdict that is both reasonable and just.”

    Kyle Rittenhouse will now move on with his life and is in our prayers.

    About John Crump

    John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.

    John Crump

    AmmoLand.com

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    The 9 Best Data Visualization Methods That Adds Value to Any Reports

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    Professional data analysts use data visualization techniques like graphs, charts, and maps to create reports from numerical data. These visual elements help others understand the patterns, trends, and outliers in any data set.

    By knowing and applying the best data visualization techniques, you can also enhance your project reports. Read on to become your own data analyst or learn more about the mathematical visualization of data.

    1. Choropleth Map

    You can use a choropleth map to visualize geographical location-related data. You’ll need to use a color gradient to show the decreasing or increasing data values as the color fades or deepens.

    This data visualization technique enables you to see the change of data variables from one region to another. You can use this technique to visualize population density, employment rate, etc. If you want to find out the country-wise consumption of your services or content, this technique is also useful.

    You’ll find the Google Data Studio Geo Chart element handy for creating choropleth maps. You can add your data to Google Sheets and then import that to the Google Data Studio to create different views of your choropleth map. Furthermore, you’ll also get an interactive graphic that shows the underlying data when you hover your mouse cursor over any region of the map.

    MAKEUSEOF VIDEO OF THE DAY

    2. Bar Chart

    Bar charts are crucial to visualize data comparisons between multiple components of the data. For example, comparing revenue from financial quarters or years is the most common application.

    You need to place the categories that you want to compare on one axis. On the other axis, you need to keep the measured values. Depending on the values of this second axis, the length of the bars will vary.

    You can make your bar charts more informative by adding different colors, 3D effects, legends, interactive data views, etc. Google Data Studio offers you multiple forms of bar charts. You can choose from column/stacked column, bar/stacked bar, etc.

    3. 3D Maps

    3D maps are essentially charts made of bars or columns on a geographical map. You could use this type of chart to flaunt your knack for tech when presenting reports to the audience. 3D maps are ideal for data sets related to products, services, or population data that links a specific region on the globe.

    Microsoft Excel has an elaborate feature for creating such cool pictorial data visualizations. It’s called Microsoft 3D Maps. You’ll find it on the Insert tab of the Excel ribbon.

    4. Sankey Diagram

    This data visualization technique is appropriate to show how data flows. A plain text or rectangle box represents the entities or nodes of your data set. Arcs or arrows of different widths represent the link between the above nodes.

    The width of the arrows or arcs is directly proportional to the importance of the data flow. Therefore, this chart is helpful to visualize large data sets related to the flow of resources like energy, money, time, etc., in a project.

    5. Network Graphs

    You can show the relationship between multiple entities by creating a network graph. On a network graph, nodes or vertices represent each entity. Edges or links represent the connection between these nodes.

    You can use network graphs to find patterns, anomalies, and insights from large data sets that connect multiple entities. Alternatively, you can use a network graph to resolve any bottleneck around project tasks and subtasks by linking all resources and statuses.

    6. Timeline Charts

    Timeline charts help you visualize events or tasks in chronological order. It has wide applications in managing multiple tasks and projects. The involved persons can effortlessly identify project progress or bottlenecks when you visualize task-related data in timeline charts.

    Typically, timeline charts are linear. The key events, tasks, and subtasks show up on the axis. You can also make your timelines more attractive by inserting graphics, thumbnail-view of documents, linked resources, milestones, deadlines, etc.

    Gantt charts are streamlined timeline charts. You’ll find many free-to-use Gantt chart templates in the Microsft Excel templates library. You may select any template that matches your project and tweak that a bit to make comprehensive project timelines.

    Related: How to Make a Scatter Plot in Excel and Present Your Data

    7. Treemap Chart

    Treemap chart comes from the renowned information visualization and computing method treemapping. Visualization of large hierarchical data sets takes place on nested rectangles. Your data looks highly organized in branches and sub-branches.

    You need a data set with two quantitative values for each product or service because the rectangles visualize two data values. A treemap chart is ideal for visualizing a massive data set with many attributes on one screen.

    The color and dimension of each rectangle are directly related to the underlying values. Therefore, spotting anomalies or patterns becomes truly easy if you create treemaps for large data sets.

    8. Spiral Chart

    Spiral charts efficiently visualize large data sets on a single screen. You can show the underlying data as points, columns, or lines. You can also color code the data for easy visualization.

    Typically, you need to put the start point of your data at the center of the spiral and move outward as your data grows. Spiral plots are ideal for visualizing the following data: yearly student attendance, employee attendance, products sold, website traffic, etc.

    9. Pyramid Chart

    Pyramid charts are ideal if you need to visualize data sets in a hierarchy. You’ll see different pyramid charts with a lot of visual effects. However, it’s simply a triangle with different sections separated by lines.

    These separated sections of the triangle usually have different heights and widths. The value of the underlying data defines the volume of the separated sections. Usually, the high volume or wider sections should contain a general topic.

    The section with the least volume should contain a niche topic from the general topic sitting at the bottom. You can create pyramid charts to better understand your business model, products sold, customer segment, etc.

    Get Valuable Insights From Your Data

    These are the commonly used data visualization techniques that cover a wide variety of data sets. You can easily create any of the above charts or graphs by practicing a few times. If you’re a learner, these are the appropriate mathematical data interpretation techniques to get started.

    While you’re applying the above techniques in your work or school, also know that Google Data Studio helps you make great data visualizations in a few clicks.

    The 8 Best Features of Google Data Studio for Data Analysis and Visualization

    Want to impress your audience with actionable data insights and compelling visualizations? Check out these Google Data Studio features.

    Read Next

    About The Author

    Tamal Das
    (211 Articles Published)

    Tamal is a freelance writer at MakeUseOf. After gaining substantial experience in technology, finance, and business processes in his previous job in an IT consulting company, he adopted writing as a full-time profession 3 years ago. While not writing about productivity and the latest tech news, he loves to play Splinter Cell and binge-watch Netflix/ Prime Video.

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