By Selwyn Duke

An amusing quip is that with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s presidential-race exit, the 2020 campaign’s gain is NYC’s loss. And sure enough, with him back at work and up to mischief, the Big Apple has just notified residents that it has banned calling someone an “illegal alien” out of hate “in public accommodations, employment, and housing.” It’s all part of a prohibition against discrimination “on the basis of perceived or actual immigration status or national origin.” Presumably, however, it’s still legal to discriminate against conservatives/Trump supporters.

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By Selwyn Duke

Trepidatious teen Greta Thunberg has lot of company in her doom-and-gloom depression, according to a new survey. Conducted by ScottRasmussen.com, it found that 51 percent of under-35 voters believe it’s “somewhat likely” that man will be wiped out within 10 to 15 years. Only 12 percent of seniors agree, however, and there was an urban-rural divide as well, with city dwellers far more down on the future. Unsurprisingly, the doomsayers’ main fear appears to be “global warming.”

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By Selwyn Duke

Education’s three r’s long ago became racism, relativism, and revisionism, but more obviously shocking is its one s: sex. The latest distressing example is a primary school program in Britain that will teach young children about auto-eroticism.

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By Selwyn Duke

There has been much talk lately about robots taking jobs, but the even scarier prospect is robots taking lives. This is inevitable, too, says president of Microsoft, Brad Smith. In fact, he warned in a recent Telegraph interview that governments need to consider the ethical questions raised by the development of battlefield robots.

The term “killer robots” may conjure up images of the virtually indestructible automaton assassin in the film Terminator, and that is roughly what’s at issue. No, these robots wouldn’t be covered with imitation human flesh or travel through time, but they would be lethal autonomous weapons systems that would choose targets in accordance with their programming. And, as with nuclear bombs, machine guns, and aircraft, they would be, as Brookings Institution warfare futurist Peter W. Singer put it, a battlefield “game changer.”

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By Selwyn Duke

Imagine you’re a parent locked in a custody dispute, and a video emerges of you abusing your child; or that you’re a police officer, and you’re seen on video brutalizing a suspect; or that you’re a teacher “caught” on video beating a young student; or that a video goes public of your favorite politician engaging in serious sexual misconduct. Now imagine that the guilty party is actually the person who made the video — because it looks real, but isn’t. 

Welcome to the brave new world of “deepfake.”

It has been said that seeing is believing. But this may change, at least regarding online content, with “perfectly real” faked videos, which associate computer science professor Hao Li says are perhaps just months away.

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By Selwyn Duke

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may not be a racist, but he is “the biggest hypocrite in Canada,” says a liberal critic of the leader. For sure, the real problem with Trudeau is not that he has worn blackface on multiple occasions, but that he has two faces on all occasions, neither of them good. In this he’s also the perfect poster boy for the “phony…’cancel culture’ left,” as the New York Post puts it.

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By Selwyn Duke

Now that we know that the Miami American Airlines mechanic who sabotaged a plane had on his phone Islamic State video, two questions arise: Are any (other?) jihadist-minded mechanics working on our jetliners?

And has such terrorism already cost lives?

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By Selwyn Duke

Are many millennials embracing socialism — which most of them can’t even define — for lack of perspective? Do they see the glass as half empty when its three-quarters full, and when for most of history it contained, materially speaking, the equivalent of bitter dregs? A recent survey of millennials, and an analysis of it, point to this being the case.

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By Selwyn Duke

For Edawn Coughman, taking a knee was not enough. Instead, the 31-year-old ex-National Football League player has joined actor Jussie Smollett in the Hate Crime Hoax Hall of Shame, faking a racially tinged burglary on his own Gwinnett County, Georgia, business in an insurance fraud scheme.

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By Selwyn Duke

Much has been made of presidential candidate Robert Francis O’Rourke’s statement, “Hell, yes, we’ll take your AR-15!” Yet overlooked amidst the focus on what’s understood to be his vow — to confiscate all firearms classified (incorrectly) as “assault weapons” — is that O’Rourke has essentially proposed something far more sweeping: outlawing all or virtually all guns in the United States.

In fact, other Democrats have tacitly advocated likewise.

The clue lies in the answer O’Rourke gave when asked at last Thursday’s Democrat debate whether he actually was saying he’d confiscate Americans’ firearms. 

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