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Ruth King

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Bailing on Bail Reform A progressive New York criminal-justice group walks back from an unsustainable position. Seth Barron

By on February 25th, 2019

https://www.city-journal.org/bail-reform

Last September, as part of a national push for criminal-justice reform, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, a charitable organization, announced a plan to pay the bail of every woman and minor held in New York City’s jails. According to the group, run by Kerry Kennedy, the slain senator’s daughter, “access to justice depends on whether you can afford bail. The majority of people incarcerated in the notoriously violent Rikers Island are behind bars for the crime of being too poor.”

This is a favorite theme of the reformers, but most Rikers inmates are accused of serious crimes. Around 11.4 percent of the population is there for murder, attempted murder, or manslaughter; 20 percent are in for robbery or burglary; and another 25 percent face charges involving weapons, felony assault, sale of drugs, or rape or other sexual offenses. New York’s jails are not crowded with people whose only crime was jumping a subway turnstile or smoking weed; the average number of people held in Rikers on a given day for fare-beating is two, and for pot possession, one. And “the majority” of Rikers inmates are behind bars because they’re serving out a sentence, are ineligible for bail because of outstanding warrants, or are awaiting trial for a serious crime—not because they can’t afford bail. Even the majority of women and juveniles at Rikers, the target of the Kennedy group’s efforts, are ineligible for bail.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

The search for viewpoint diversity in higher education. Samuel Abrams

By on February 25th, 2019

https://spectator.us/viewpoint-diversity-higher-education/

America’s colleges are deeply embedded in and influenced by the local communities where they are geographically situated.

While so much of higher-education in the United States is dominated by politically active and overwhelmingly liberal college administrators – the ever growing professional class of administrators who call the shots outside the classroom – it turns out that that not every college looks like those in New England which has a 25:1 ratio of liberal to conservative administrators.

As warnings about the diminution of viewpoint diversity become louder, understanding where and why there are some schools that are not completely progressive in orientation should be better understood and one explanation for this is geography: America’s institutions of higher education are deeply embedded in and influenced by the local communities where they are spatially situated. Thus, college administrators are not as uniformly left-wing in those areas that have surrounding Republican majorities.

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P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

Op Ed: Use ‘Partner’ Instead of ‘Boyfriend’ or ‘Girlfriend’ to Be ‘Politically Correct’ By Katherine Timpf….see note please

By on February 25th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/02/op-ed-use-partner-instead-of-boyfriend-or-girlfriend-to-be-politically-correct/

Partner sounds so businesslike. How about “colleague” or “consort” or ” comrade” or “sidekick”??? rsk

Simply giving something a different name doesn’t change the fact that it’s still the exact same thing that it was before you changed that name.

According to a piece in the Daily O, people should stop using the words “boyfriend” and “girlfriend” to refer to their significant others and use the word “partner” instead — because that’s “politically correct.”

“The term ‘partner’ — with its gender-neutral connotation — is politically correct and socially appropriate,” Saonli Hazra writes in a piece titled “Why it is time to move from the conventional ‘boyfriend’ or ‘girlfriend’ and switch to ‘partner’ instead.”

“With the growth of the Internet, and a transformation in the social order where casual dating, open relationships, delayed marriages and other such practices are finding favour, terms like ‘boyfriend’ or ‘girlfriend’ have a certain undesirable vibe,” she continues. “Mostly, these set limitations of gender roles — of what each partner ought to bring at the relationship table.”

“Partner,” she argues “has a nice, positive ring to it, and neither party feels the suffocating or debilitating pressure of trying to live up to certain preset notions.”

“‘Wife’ or ‘girlfriend’ usually come with patriarchal riders, and therefore, a women’s status within the marriage is often unequal,” she explains.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Poll: Americans’ Confidence in Nation’s World Image Grows By Mairead McArdle

By on February 25th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/poll-americans-confidence-in-nations-world-image-grows/

58 percent of respondents in a Gallup poll of American adults released Monday said they believe the U.S. is seen “very favorably” or “somewhat favorably” by the rest of the world — a three-point increase from last year’s survey, and the highest percentage recorded by the poll since 2003.

About 80 percent of Republicans and 36 percent of Democrats said the country is seen favorably by the rest of the world, and neither number represented much change from last year. But the number of independents who said the same jumped eight points.

Despite the broad confidence in America’s image, only a small percentage of respondents, 31 percent, said the current president is respected by foreign leaders.

Respondents’ confidence in how other countries see the U.S. appears to be separate from confidence in the Trump administration, whose controversial foreign-policy decisions have sometimes been criticized on both sides of the aisle. It also appears to be separate from their confidence in the nation’s position on the global stage, with which 53 percent of them expressed dissatisfaction.

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POLITICS Comments turned off

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Lies, Controversies, and Allegations By Jim Geraghty

By on February 25th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/alexandria-ocasio-cortezs-lies-controversies-and-allegations/

Making the click-through worthwhile: I relent and drink from the firehose of statements, lies, stories, controversies, allegations, and accusations of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — from her Malthusian impulses to her strangely delayed district office to what her stance on Congressional staffer salaries actually means for her office.

Ocasio-Cortez: ‘A Legitimate Question, You Know, Is It Okay to Still Have Children?’

“There’s scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult. And it does lead, I think, young people to have a legitimate question, you know, is it okay to still have children?” — Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, discussing climate change in a livestream Sunday night, while chopping vegetables in her kitchen.

There is ample evidence that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is over-covered by both the mainstream media and conservative media. She’s been in office about two months. She is near the very bottom of House Democrats in terms of seniority. There is considerable evidence that Speaker Nancy Pelosi doesn’t take her or “the green dream, whatever they call it” seriously.

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MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

Faking History and Remaking Oscar News By Armond White

By on February 25th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/02/oscars-2019-academy-awards-fakes-history-remakes-new/

When it comes to movies, the Oscars are one way of learning history. Students of film can peruse the annals to gather a sense of what movie culture was like in different periods, reading the list of winners (and nominations) as a guide to cultural standards and film-industry norms.

But journalists — those who cover the entertainment beat as well as the Beltway — abuse the historical function of the Oscars by routinely hijacking its significance. Specifically, when Ruth E. Carter and Hannah Beachler won Academy Awards for, respectively, the costumes and art direction of Black Panther, many media wonks (professional and amateur alike) immediately proclaimed that they had “made history as the first African-American women to win” in those categories.

What kind of “history” is this really? When the reporting of news events carries such automatic estimation of cultural value, the term “first” is used as manipulation, a measuring rod of social progress.

This makes the political idea of “progress” more important than the subject being reported. Carter’s and Beachler’s work goes undescribed; their personal histories as people are delimited to the social-justice categories of race and gender. First-semester journalism classes used to teach that mentioning a person’s race or gender was appropriate only when it was essential to the news.

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POLITICS Comments turned off

Ocasio-Cortez: Probably time to stop having kids because ‘there’s scientific consensus that the lives of children will be very difficult’ By Thomas Lifson

By on February 25th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/02/ocasiocortez_probably_time_to_stop_having_kids_because_theres_scientific_consensus_that_the_lives_of_children_will_be_very_difficult.html

In a stream-of-consciousness livestream video yesterday, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez revealed a lot more than she intended about her life in the shallow end of the gene pool.

It’s pretty clear that she regards herself as a fount of insight and wisdom, apparently because her education at Boston University and 29 years of life experience have provided discernment superior to that available to the rest of us — so much so that her random thoughts while cooking are worthy of mass dissemination via livestream video.

She came up with some primo idiocy on the livestream, delivered while she endangered herself with careless knifework (see below) in her kitchen.

The most egregious pseudo-wisdom was her cogitation that maybe we shouldn’t be having kids because “there’s scientific consensus that the lives of children will be very difficult.”

I particularly appreciated the low battery warning that popped up near the end. For someone who is telling us to prepare for the doom that awaits, she doesn’t seem to prepare for running out of electricity, something that will affect the entire nation if her Green New Deal ever becomes law.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

How North Korea’s Economy Defies Sanctions Indicators show day-to-day commerce in the country has remained resilient, rice prices are stable and gasoline prices have eased By Eun-Young Jeong and Dasl Yoon

By on February 25th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/sanctions-were-supposed-to-cripple-north-koreas-economy-theyre-not-working-11551116032

The U.S. has been leading a world-wide campaign to pressure North Korea into giving up its nuclear arsenal through an increasingly stringent sanctions regime. Available evidence suggests it’s not working.

Economic indicators show day-to-day commerce in the country has remained resilient. And many residents, having lived through much harsher conditions in the 1990s, appear to be adapting as market forces take deeper root, according to three dozen defectors, humanitarian workers, government officials and other visitors interviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The lack of impact is making things tricky for Donald Trump as he heads to this week’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi. The U.S. wants Pyongyang to freeze its nuclear weapons and missile programs while the two sides continue far-reaching talks on denuclearization.

Tougher sanctions, including new restrictions on foreign trade approved in 2016 and 2017, have caused North Korea some pain, depriving the regime and elites of revenue from commerce with other countries, including China.

In other ways, North Korea’s economy appears to be holding up well. Rice prices have remained stable, and gasoline prices, which rose after sanctions were tightened, have fallen significantly from highs in the fall of 2017.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

In France, Popular Support for Yellow Vests Cools Off Decline in public backing for protest movement comes amid infighting and President Macron’s improving approval ratings By Noemie Bisserbe

By on February 25th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-france-popular-support-for-yellow-vests-cools-off-11551124011

The French public has begun to turn against the yellow-vest movement, according to a new poll, in a fresh sign of relief for President Emmanuel Macron.

The yellow-vest demonstrations began in November to protest proposed increases in fuel taxes before quickly becoming a rallying cry against Mr. Macron and his pro-business agenda. The yellow vests, or “gilets jaunes,” named after the reflective safety vests worn by participants, initially won the support of more than three quarters of the population, who backed some of the protesters’ many demands.

But on Monday Odoxa, an independent French polling agency, published a poll in which 55% of the 1,004 people surveyed said they wanted the protests to stop. That is the first time since the start of the movement that a clear majority has opposed the protesters. The poll was conducted online on Feb. 20 and Feb. 21.

In an Oxoda poll last month, 49% of respondents reported wanting demonstrations to end.

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POLITICS Comments turned off

UK Labor Party’s Defections Over Anti-Semitism Toll Warning Bell For U.S. Democrats Given the recent incidents of anti-Semitism on the American left, the UK Labour Party’s collapse invites examination—and may offer a warning to the American Democrat Party. By Erielle Davidson

By on February 25th, 2019

http://thefederalist.com/2019/02/25/uk-labor-partys-defections-anti-semitism-toll-warning-bell-u-s-democrats/

The United Kingdom’s Labour Party is bleeding, and seem to have little idea of how to cauterize the wound. This past week, nine members of British Parliament resigned from the party in protest, eight citing anti-Semitism as one of their chief concerns. Given the recent incidents of anti-Semitism on the American left, the UK Labour Party’s plodding collapse invites examination—and offers perhaps a grim warning to the American Democrat Party, which faces its own recent accusations of anti-Semitism.

Labour’s general secretary, Jennie Formby, disclosed that the party had received more than 650 complaints of anti-Semitism by its members since last April. Almost 100 members were suspended, and a dozen expelled.

Luciana Berger, one of the Labour Party’s most prominent Jewish MPs, stated in her resignation, “I cannot remain in a party that I have today come to the sickening conclusion is institutionally anti-Semitic…The leadership has willfully and repeatedly failed to address hatred against Jewish people within its ranks.” Berger’s resignation sent ripples within the national Labour contingency, given her small constituency in Liverpool had voted unwaveringly for the Labour Party for the entirety of its two-decade existence.

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