"The problem with internet quotes is that you can't always depend on their accuracy" ~Abraham Lincoln, 1864.

Basically if there's an appeal to authority with a quote that sounds too good to be true about a current day event, chances are, it is in fact fake.

A lefty I know published with approval this image on the Book of Face this morning:

Looks like the wise Jefferson is wisely foretelling the rise of the uncouth and media criticism of that Orange Man Bad Trump, and Orange Man is bad for acting contrary to the wise statement of Jefferson, now doesn't it?

The problem, of course, is that Jefferson never said nor wrote it, and the quote first seems to have popped up in February 2017, 191 years after Jefferson died. Would be a neat trick if he could have pulled that off.

In fact, Jefferson was rather Trumpian in his criticism of the press of his day:

"I deplore... the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed and the malignity, the vulgarity, and mendacious spirit of those who write for them... These ordures are rapidly depraving the public taste and lessening its relish for sound food. As vehicles of information and a curb on our funtionaries, they have rendered themselves useless by forfeiting all title to belief... This has, in a great degree, been produced by the violence and malignity of party spirit." --Thomas Jefferson to Walter Jones, 1814. ME 14:46

"Our printers raven on the agonies of their victims, as wolves do on the blood of the lamb." --Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1811. ME 13:59

"From forty years' experience of the wretched guess-work of the newspapers of what is not done in open daylight, and of their falsehood even as to that, I rarely think them worth reading, and almost never worth notice." --Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1816. ME 14:430

"Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day." --Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell, 1807. ME 11:224

"As for what is not true, you will always find abundance in the newspapers." --Thomas Jefferson to Barnabas Bidwell, 1806. ME 11:118

"Advertisements... contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper." --Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Macon, 1819. ME 15:179

"The press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Seymour, 1807.

In other words, one might just say Jefferson called the mainstream media of his day fake news.

There's many valid reasons to criticize Trump without resorting to fake quotes, but it does make it sound better to use a fake quote by a founder of our country rather than going "Reee, Orange Man Bad".

Now, its not just the left that make up historic quotes to bolster their arguments. We have plenty of fake quotes used by those on the right side of the spectrum by Adolf Hitler, George Washington and one particular quote claimed to be from Voltaire but isn't, constantly bandied about by the right side to bolster their arguments as well.

In short, if you come upon a quote by someone considered to be a historical authority or known to be a wise person and it looks like it suits the current drama of the day to a T, it's most likely fake and worth doing a quick check to see if the person quoted actually ever said it before you repost the fakery.

Without Fake Hate Crimes, There'd Be Damn Few Hate Crimes At All

On the national stage we have Jussie Smollet now being charged with faking a hate crime in an attempt to smear whites and Trump supporters and make himself newsworthy in the process.

Locally, we've had quite a few fake hate crimes.

This latest one however brings the heat and may top them all for sheer depravity.

In Jackson, Michigan, a gay rights activist is now being charged for felony arson by faking a hate crime - burning down his own house, along with five pets (2 dogs and 3 cats) of his still inside it.

The Detroit News: Jackson gay rights leader accused of burning down own home

It takes a lot of commitment (or being quite the narcissist or sociopath) to do a fake hate crime where you burn your own pets to death.

After doing a lot of good things, and being properly recognized for it, including being named Jackson Citizen of The Year, apparently this jerk needed to spend more time in the spotlight and felt a fake hate crime would bring him and gay rights more attention. This of course fed the media frenzy that loves to paint the stereotype of the City of Jackson and its citizens as homophobic etc - by the way, it's not.

It turns out that while he like Smollet got initial sympathy and lots of attention, and money to boot, he's now not getting the kind of attention he wasn't originally seeking. Instead of being painted as a poor victim, he's now getting felony arson charges as just like with Smollet, the timeline just doesn't work and his purchasing $10 worth of gasoline just before the fire started isn't going to help much either.

Burning your own animals to death to fake a hate crime has got to be a new low in the annals of Fake Hate Crimes.

The Muslimas Who Cried "Trump"

In this age of progressive hate and rage, we have the specter of a plethora of fake and staged "hate crimes" against muslims:

In Lousisiana: HotAir: Police: Reported crime against woman in Muslim headscarf was a hoax

A young Muslim woman claimed she was attacked and robbed of her headscarf and wallet by two men, one of whom wore a Trump hat, but police are now saying it was a hoax. The attack supposedly took place in Louisiana where the woman is a student.

In New York: NY Post: De Blasio says he’s ‘really angry’ about Muslim teen’s attack tale

Seweid, 18, of North New Hyde Park in Nassau County on Long Island, admitted to cops Wednesday that she’d made up a story of being accosted on a subway on Dec. 1 by three white drunks who called her a terrorist, taunted, “Donald Trump!” and tried to pull off her headscarf.

The Baruch College business major told cops she’d actually been out drinking with friends and lied about the attack to distract her strict Islamic father, who’d been furious over her being out late, sources told The Post.

In Ann Arbor: The Detroit News: Police: Woman who was told to remove hijab was lying

A University of Michigan student whose story was reported worldwide was not telling the truth when she told police she was threatened by a man who told her to remove her hijab and could now face felony charges for filing a false report, Ann Arbor police said Wednesday.

The woman told police that the man would set her on fire with a lighter if she did not remove her hijab, a headscarf worn by Muslim women, so she complied then fled the area of East William near State Street. Her story appeared in global publications last month couched as a hate crime following the win of President-elect Donald Trump.

But her report did not add up after Ann Arbor and UM police and the FBI interviewed multiple witnesses and reviewed video surveillance in the area of the alleged incident, said Detective Sgt. Matthew Lige of the Ann Arbor Police Department.

“This crime never happened,” Lige said.

Note that all of these false reports received very favorable and uncritical initial press treatment as this fit the media and Democrats' narrative far too well: All those evil Trump-supporting, cousin-humping haters were going out committing hate crimes in the wake of his winning. Apparently not so much as so many of these supposed hate crimes keep coming up as either false, staged, or by Muslims and directed at other groups while trying to sell it as a Trump supporter's acts.

If it weren't for fake hate crimes against and perpetrated by Muslims, there might very well be damn few hate crimes against them at all. False reports in the wake of Trump's victory certainly seem to be skyrocketing.