Sunday, May 21, 2017

Clarke Caught Plagiarizing Masters Thesis


Even before David Clarke claimed to have taken a job with Trump's Department of Homeland Security - which still has not been confirmed by Trump or the agency - I always thought that Clarke would be a good fit for Trump's team.

Like Trump and most of his appointees, Clarke has all of the same qualities. Clarke doesn't know his job - Clarke, the sheriff, tried to help a drunk driver instead of arresting him. Then like a true Trumpkin, Clarke tried to cover up his failure.

Clarke has many other qualities that make him a good fit. Clarke also hates minorities, including his fellow African Americans. He likes to go on wild Twitter rants, just like Trump.

And now Clarke has one more qualification to add to his resume - plagiarism:
Controversial Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, who this week announced he will be joining Donald Trump's administration as assistant secretary in the Department of Homeland Security, plagiarized sections of his 2013 master's thesis on US security, a CNN KFile review has found.

Clarke, a visible surrogate for Trump during the campaign known for his incendiary rhetoric, earned a master's degree in security studies at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. In his thesis, "Making U.S. security and privacy rights compatible," Clarke failed to properly attribute his sources at least 47 times.

In all instances reviewed by CNN's KFile, Clarke lifts language from sources and credits them with a footnote, but does not indicate with quotation marks that he is taking the words verbatim.

According to guidelines on plagiarism posted on the Naval Postgraduate School's website, "If a passage is quoted verbatim, it must be set off with quotation marks (or, if it is a longer passage, presented as indented text), and followed by a properly formulated citation. The length of the phrase does not matter. If someone else's words are sufficiently significant to be worth quoting, then accurate quotation followed by a correct citation is essential, even if only a few words are involved."

The school's honor code defines plagiarism as "submitting material that in part or whole is not one's own work without proper attribution. Plagiarism is further defined as the use, without giving reasonable and appropriate credit to or acknowledging the author or source, of another person's original work, whether such work is made up of code, formulas, ideas, language, research, strategies, writing or other form(s)."
Clarke lifted stuff from George W. Bush, Brennan Center and, of all places, the ACLU.

I will admit that at first glance, it seemed kinda petty, but Clarke's overreaction makes me now think otherwise. Instead of responding to reporters, Clarke took to his - and Trump's - favorite line of defense...Twitter:





Like I said, Clarke would be a perfect fit for Team Trump. The only thing that might make Trump reverse his decision, if he did indeed make one, is that he is concerned that Clarke would out-crazy and out-grandstand Trump himself.

4 comments:

  1. Another piece points out that his supposed military pins and medals are fake!

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    1. Well, on a close look they don't appear to be actual military decorations at all, merely “bling” trying to give the impression of such. Military honors are usually worn as “ribbons” — a compact array of rectangular colored fabric patterns (with the occasional metal tag embedded) — this scattered set of pins all over and above his pocket flaps isn’t how they’d be shown. Clarke didn’t serve in the Armed Forces at all, though his father did. I can’t imagine what his father would have thought of this flim-flammery.

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    2. John Oliver pointed out that one of his pins was an Israeli traffic cop pin that you can buy cheap online!

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  2. Great interview on Sunday's MSNBC - AMJOY. State Senator Lena Taylor calls out Charlie Sykes "He's your Frankenstein. You helped to create him and the rhetoric he has done, so I appreciate you saying this guy is over the top and with all due respect is not a good choice for Homeland Security or any position at the Federal Government, but I am happy as a Milwaukee County resident that we can have the Governor appoint someone........ and not have him add fuel to the fire and almost to Marshal Law.... ". Charlie nods is his perfect choirboy manner and sez "I know" and later sighs and adds with a smile, "and two years in Purgatory!"
    Oh gosh that was EASY! - Now that is just a SILLY THING, he did in the past !

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