EDUCATION Comments turned off

Epic Failure of American Students on the ‘Nation’s Report Card’ Rick Moran

Posted By on September 10th, 2025

https://pjmedia.com/rick-moran/2025/09/09/epic-failure-of-american-students-on-the-nations-report-card-n4943482

Johnny can’t read. Johnny can’t count. Johnny can’t reason.

Johnny is an unemployable bum.

“The Nation’s Report  Card,” AKA the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEAP), was released on Tuesday, and, quite simply, the state of learning by America’s 12th graders has never been worse.

“Students are taking their next steps in life with fewer skills and less knowledge in core academics than their predecessors a decade ago,” said Lesley Muldoon, executive director of the National Center for Education Statistics, the group that oversees the NEAP. “This is happening at a time when rapid advancements in technology and society demand more of future workers and citizens, not less.”

“Twelfth-graders’ average math score was the worst since the current test began in 2005, and reading was below any point since that assessment started in 1992,” reported the Wall Street Journal.

The percentage of students judged “proficient” in math and reading skills dropped by two percentage points between 2019 and 2024, to 35% in reading and 22% in math.

“Scores for our lowest-performing students are at historic lows, continuing declines that began more than a decade ago. My predecessor warned of this trend and her predecessor warned of this trend as well, and now I am warning you about this trend,” said Matthew Soldner, acting director of the Institute of Education Sciences (ES). ES is a research arm of the Department of Education. “These results should galvanize all of us to take concerted, focused action to accelerate student learning.”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

IDF Kills Palestinian Boy, and Then the Boy Gives a TV Interview But the lie has gone two or three times around the world by now. by Robert Spencer

Posted By on September 10th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/idf-kills-palestinian-boy-and-then-the-boy-gives-a-tv-interview/

It was one of the most horrific stories of the entire Israel-Hamas conflict, or any conflict. Back in late May, a retired Green Beret named Anthony Aguilar, who had been working with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), claimed that he witnessed an incident of such shocking heartlessness and inhumanity that it seemed destined to be remembered as one of the most cruel war crimes in the entire history of the world. There was just one catch: it has now been definitively established that not a word of it was true.

Aguilar said that while he was working with the GHF, he saw a young Gazan boy, whom he called Amir, approach in hopes of obtaining some food, and was given a bag of lentils. Amir was so overjoyed at this that he kissed Aguilar’s hand in joy and gratitude. This touching moment was captured in photos, as is so often the case these days, and Amir went on his way with everyone feeling happy. Aguilar’s happiness, however, was shattered soon after, when Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers began firing on aid recipients, and shot down young Amir in cold blood. Aguilar was featured on news outlets worldwide, and told the BBC, “I’ve never seen such brutality.”

And that was true: he never did, because as it turns out, his whole story about Amir being gunned down was a fabrication. Amir, whose real name is Abdul Rahim Muhammad Hamden, has reappeared in a TV interview, very much alive and not wounded. Fox News reported recently that he “has been found alive and was hiding out with his mother.” Why was he hiding out? Because if he had appeared, Hamas would likely have killed him, so as to preserve the story that Aguilar spread worldwide. The propaganda had to be preserved. Eventually, however, he was found anyway, and now the cat cannot be put back into the bag.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Why Immigration Can’t Revive the Economy Joel Kotkin

Posted By on September 10th, 2025

https://www.compactmag.com/article/why-immigration-cant-revive-the-economy/

Boosting immigration would seem a no-brainer to address the West’s ongoing demographic implosion and revive its stagnating economies. Even Japan now recruits foreign temporary workers for its rapidly aging economy. Yet mass migration has aroused fierce opposition, not only in the United States but in Great Britain, Netherlands, and France. Moves to reduce migration are already in place in Italy, and seem imminent in Germany, whose welfare state is creaking under the burden. 

This runs against conventional economic theory. Both libertarian conservatives and progressives see unregulated migration—upwards of 10 million during Joe Biden’s presidency—as a net plus. Many businesses see it as a source of cheap labor and demographic vitality. But if migrants have boosted population number, they have done little to revive stagnating economies in Europe and Canada.

Opposition to migration is often blamed on racism and xenophobia, and depicted as a drag on economic progress. Yet if you actually look at what is occurring on the ground level, mass immigration doesn’t seem to go along naturally with economic growth.

This is particularly evident in Britain and France, both of which have experienced massive increases in migration but have largely stagnant economies. Canada once based its migration policy on luring newcomers who could boost the country’s economy. But under Justin Trudeau the mantra was simply the more the merrier. In 2023 the country of 40 million received a million immigrants, accounting for 97.7 percent of Canada’s population growth. But despite the influx,  over the past decade Canada has suffered the slowest economic growth rates among advanced countries while its once high standard of living continues to decline.

This failure is less obvious in the more dynamic United States. But here too many newcomers, particularly the undocumented, are low-skilled and now must compete in poorly paid manual labor or service jobs with other recent immigrants or the indigenous poor. Jobs requiring extensive manual labor have dropped to 22 percent of all jobs in 2025, from 35 percent 50 years ago. As we add more workers to the low-wage pool, their presence does tend to retard wage growth, as noted by a recent Congressional study, and could discourage natives from work. 

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Say Her Name President Donald Trump should discuss the murder of Iryna Zarutska in blunt and honest terms.Andrew Day

Posted By on September 10th, 2025

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/say-her-name/

The savage murder of Iryna Zarutska in North Carolina last month has laid bare the daily terror of American urban life, the hypocrisy of the American mainstream media, and the negligence of the American political elite. 

On Monday, President Donald Trump briefly addressed the murder during a speech on religious liberty. “When you have horrible killings, you have to take horrible actions,” Trump said. “There are evil people. We have to be able to handle that. If we don’t handle that, we don’t have a country.”

I agree with the sentiment. My basic philosophy of law and order is this: Someone’s head is getting bashed. The only question is which heads will be bashed and who will be doing the bashing. Personally, I think we’ll all fare better if the heads belong to bad guys and the bashers have police badges.

But the president should do more to highlight the Zarutska murder, discussing it in blunt terms to seize the political advantage, kick off an honest conversation about violent crime in America, and restore public safety. A Truth Social post he published later on Monday was a great start, and the Trump administration needs to keep up the pressure on the Democrats and liberal media.

A Ukrainian refugee who fled her war-torn homeland in 2022, the 23-year-old Zarutska was stabbed to death last month by Decarlos Brown Jr., a 34-year-old black man, on a light-rail car in Charlotte. Zarutska entered the car a little before 10 p.m. after finishing a shift at the pizzeria where she worked. She sat in front of Brown, looked at her phone, and made herself most unobtrusive, tiny arms and ankles crossed.

That proved too much for Brown to handle. A career criminal whose numerous past convictions include armed robbery, felony larceny, assault, and breaking and entering, Brown rubbed his forehead and shifted in his seat before stabbing the young woman repeatedly with a pocketknife from behind. In a clip that went viral on X Monday evening, Brown stumbles through the car, blood dripping from his blade, and appears to mutter “I got that white girl.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Unhappy With Fed, Worried About Economy, 70% Of Voters Say Interest Rates Are Too High: I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

Posted By on September 10th, 2025

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/09/10/unhappy-with-fed-worried-about-economy-70-of-voters-say-interest-rates-are-too-high-ii-tipp-poll/

If Americans were asked to vote right now on whether the Federal Reserve should continue existing, the central bank might have a tough time staying in business. Why? Voters overwhelmingly think interest rates and prices are too high and that the Fed is not doing enough to bring them down, as the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

There’s no question that average Americans are keenly awaiting a cut in interest rates. And that anticipation no doubt grew last Friday after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a meager 22,000 jobs created in August, with unemployment hitting 4.3%, its highest point since October 2021.

In the latest online national I&I/TIPP Poll, taken from Aug. 27-29, 1,362 adults were asked the following question: “How would you describe the cost of borrowing money these days — for things like credit cards, car loans, or mortgages?”

An overall 70% described interest rates as either “very high” (39%) or “somewhat high” (31%), while a mere 4% described rates as either “very low” (2%) or “somewhat low” (2%). Another 13% said they were “not sure.” The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.9 percentage points.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Greta Thunberg sets sail for Gaza on a ship that consumes diesel at a shockingly rapid rate By Olivia Murray

Posted By on September 9th, 2025

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/09/greta_thunberg_sets_sail_for_gaza_on_a_ship_that_consumes_diesel_at_a_shockingly_rapid_rate.html

If your whole claim to fame is being one of the world’s most obnoxious “climate change” activists, sputtering about stolen dreams and childhoods from a United Nations stage, fearmongering about “mass extinction” and collapsing ecosystems—a narrative and schtick you’ve continued to repeat for the last six years—then you hop on a diesel-guzzling army ship from the 1960s to cruise to Gaza for some new type of activism, you’re definitely a hypocrite.

Shouldn’t these virtue-signaling autists be using sails and oars?

I had to run a quick search to figure out why Greta and her comrades were attempting to reach Israel—after a failed attempt earlier this year—and apparently they’re trying to deliver food and supplies since many of the individuals in Gaza are going without.

Well, when you vote in a group like Hamas…isn’t that kind of on you? At what point do these people take some responsibility for who they elected? If you find that the best representation for your political beliefs is a group that warmongers, rapes, steals, and uses civilians as pawns in a war against Israel and the West for Allah, I’d be confused how you though this would turn out any different than…terribly. You reap what you sow, and I suppose it’s just the natural outcome of electing terrorists to run your government.

BOOKS Comments turned off

A Republic Overrun by Lawfare Peter Navarro’s new book warns that Democrats’ lawfare endangers liberty, executive privilege, and the Constitution itself—making his fight a defense of self-government. By Loren Kalish

Posted By on September 9th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/09/09/a-republic-overrun-by-lawfare/

Democrats are not only the party of enmity but also the enemies of liberty and justice for all. Enmity consumes the Democrat Party, based not on hostility to certain ideas but hatred of certain individuals, chief among them President Trump and his friends and advisers. Among the latter is Peter Navarro, the president’s trade adviser, whose new book, I Went to Prison So You Won’t Have To, details Democrats’ efforts to criminalize politics. Navarro writes from experience and about his experiences as a political prisoner, enjoining us to defend the Constitution. The book is also a reminder of the precariousness of personal liberty and of the vigilance necessary to sustain it, lest we be the targets of malicious prosecution. As Navarro shows, malice begets injustice and threatens to destroy our system of self-government.

At stake is the doctrine of separation of powers as outlined in the Constitution. Upon this doctrine rest the respective rights of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the federal government. Because of this doctrine, executive privilege is a reality; without this doctrine, testimonial immunity—the right of a presidential adviser to refuse to abet a congressional witch hunt—is meaningless, which is why Navarro went to prison.

“If I lose, future presidential advisers of either party could face jail for honoring executive privilege and defending the Constitution’s separation of powers,” Navarro said in a statement. In this scenario, the investigative state grows stronger while the presidency becomes weaker. The result is an unlawful transfer of power from the White House to Congress.

Abuse of power is also inevitable, what with bureaucrats and hacks in charge of the prison system. The summary raids, the truncated religious services, the food mixups, the commissary markups, the interminable counts, the brokenness of the facilities themselves—the indignities are manifold. Despiriting though things are, Navarro does not waver; his spirit, like his faith in the Constitution, is total. He shows his faith by his works, inspiring us to do likewise.

Navarro’s book is itself a work of courage, free of score-settling or recrimination. The emphasis is on fairness, on the balance necessary to establish justice and secure the blessings of liberty. The words summon us to end lawfare, so executive privilege can endure and testimonial immunity can survive. The words give new meaning to the principle of limited government.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

UK Muslim Counterterrorism Minister Called White Men the Enemy “The people you see holding the English flag… are white and they are male and they’re bad people.” by Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on September 9th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/uk-muslim-counterterrorism-minister-called-white-men-the-enemy/

“For over two centuries, the Home Secretary has safeguarded the nation. Today, we begin a new chapter as we welcome Shabana Mahmood to the Home Office as the new Home Secretary,” the British government announced.

It is indeed a new chapter for the Pakistani Muslim politician, who took her oath of office on a Koran and who has now become the highest ranking Muslim in the British government.

And a new chapter for Islamic colonialism as seeing the white flag, 1,000 Muslim invaders crossed the Channel and invaded England on Mahmood’s first day at work.

But it’s also a new chapter for the people of England as a Pakistani Muslim woman who has made no secret of her hatred and contempt for them will now be empowered to persecute them using not only her control over immigration to displace them, but also her new arsenal of ‘public safety’, ‘national security’ and ‘law enforcement’ power to escalate her targeting of them.

What sort of chapter it is can be understood from Mahmood’s past declaration that “the people you see holding the English flag most of the time down my neck of the woods will be the EDL and they are white and they are male and they’re bad people.”

The Home Secretary is responsible for law enforcement. These “white men” will be the ones she comes after. Mahmood had previously proposed banning offenders from ‘pubs’ instead of arresting them. This new twist on the Starmer regime’s infamous two-tier policing would punish Englishmen while giving Muslims a pass. And implement Islamic Sharia law in the bargain.

Mahmood had urged adopting the definition of Islamophobia manufactured by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims. That definition would ban anyone from mentioning that Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, was a pedophile, referencing “Muslims spreading Islam by the sword or subjugating minority groups under their rule” and claimed that discussing the “issue of ‘grooming gangs’ which was a dangerous “trope” that increased the “vulnerability of Muslims to hate crimes”.

After a Muslim terrorist murdered three little girls, Mahmood, in her role as ‘Justice Secretary’ cheered as 500 prison cells described as “inhumane” were prepared for protesters against Islamic colonization and terrorism. Criminals were released to make room for those who had spoken out against the horrifying Islamic atrocity against English children.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Pakistan: The Latest Victim of Communist China’s BRI Debt Trap? by Lawrence A. Franklin

Posted By on September 9th, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21856/pakistan-china-bri-debt-trap

Pakistan, which possesses nuclear weapons, is nevertheless almost totally dependent on the People’s Republic of China for military weapons systems, infrastructure improvement and energy projects.

Pakistan is also in debt to China, its largest creditor, to the tune of $29 billion. Without continued Chinese financial assistance, Pakistan would fail to meet scheduled repayments of its international debt, which now amounts to $130 billion.

China’s financial rescue of its South Asian ally probably saved Pakistan from having the International Monetary Fund (IMF) declare it global credit risk. Such a declaration by the IMF could have resulted in the severe curtailment of foreign investment, as well as to decreased access to additional international loans. Consequently, if this had materialized, even China, might not have been able to stabilize the government of Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, which already is struggling to survive amidst soaring inflation, a weakening currency, high unemployment and dwindling foreign reserves.

China might initially have hoped that Pakistan would serve as a model to attract interest from other states to embrace its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China has sponsored 122 BRI projects in Pakistan, and might also have hoped, as with other BRI investments, to create a debt trap for Pakistan, as it has for other nations…. As of 2021, according to The Guardian, “Researchers have identified debts of at least $385bn (£286bn) owed by 165 countries to China for ‘Belt and road initiative’ (BRI) projects…”

Two interconnected flagship projects of China’s BRI program in Pakistan significantly threaten to reduce Pakistan’s national sovereignty: the “China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and the Gwadar Port Facility in Southwestern Pakistan along the coastline of the Arabian Sea…. Both projects appear to serve China’s interests more than they do Pakistan’s.

Pakistan’s latest sovereignty-concession is its caving to China’s insistence that it improve relations with Afghanistan’s Taliban regime…. The TTP’s primary objective is to overthrow the government of Pakistan, replacing it with a strict Islamist state. Despite this bloody feud between the Kabul and Islamabad, Beijing has agreed to extend the CPEC BRI project to include Afghanistan.

Gwadar is likely eventually to serve as a Chinese naval base, which will help challenge India’s prominence in the Indian Ocean. Gwadar also would provide China with increased power projection in the Indo-Pacific Region. China’s aggressive intrusion into its permissive ally Pakistan, certainly, violates Beijing’s stated “Principle of Non-Interference” that supposedly governs its diplomatic relations.

This latest projection of power in the Indian Ocean region is similar to what China has already achieved off the Horn of Africa, with its naval base at Djibouti, and — take notice, United States and its Latin American allies — what Communist China could be planning for Peru’s new mega-port on the eastern Pacific.

Pakistan, which possesses nuclear weapons, is nevertheless almost totally dependent on the People’s Republic of China for military weapons systems, infrastructure improvement and energy projects.

Pakistan is also in debt to China, its largest creditor, to the tune of $29 billion. Without continued Chinese financial assistance, Pakistan would fail to meet scheduled repayments of its international debt, which now amounts to $130 billion.

Pakistan’s foreign policy decision-making is also reportedly hostage to Chinese influence. Islamabad has even established joint border security programs with Chinese paramilitary teams, an arrangement that additionally threatens Pakistani sovereignty.

FOREIGN POLICY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Most Dangerous Man in the World Today And America has just the answer occupying the Oval Office right now. by Louie Gohmert

Posted By on September 9th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-most-dangerous-man-in-the-world-today/

One of the most amusing comments international observers can make is on the order of wondering what Russian President Vladimir Putin is thinking. He is one of the most transparent leaders in the world today. He is former KGB. He misses the old Soviet empire. He wants it back. He resents the west for helping create its dissolution. He fails to understand that a socialist system is always going to fail, no matter how many people are murdered or imprisoned who get in the way.

President Vladimir Putin does, however, know his Russian history. He knows the following:

– In September, 1739, the Russo-Turk War ended with Russia ceding claims to Crimea, Moldavia, and the Russian navy being barred from the Black Sea.
– In September 1829, the Russo-Turk War ended with Russia gaining the eastern Black Sea and the mouth of the Danube River.
– In September 1905, Russia signed a treaty in the Russo-Japanese War after the destruction of the Russian navy at Tsushima.
– In September 1915, Tsar Nicholas II assumed command of the Russian Army contributing to Russia’s defeat in World War I.
– In September 1917, the minority party Bolsheviks gained control of the Duma leading to the October Revolution.
– In September 1918, the Red Terror began: the campaign of political executions by Bolshevik Cheka secret police.
– In September 1939, the Soviet Red Army invaded Poland. Tens of thousands of Polish were killed or disappeared.

For decades after 1939, the Soviets blamed the Polish losses on the Germans. My college history professor Dr. Betty Unterberger, in the 1970’s did research claiming the Soviets killed many Polish and took thousands of prisoners to work camps inside the Soviet Union, for which report she was banned from ever reentering the U.S.S.R. I wondered about that issue as I traveled in the Soviet Union as an exchange student in the 1970’s. It was not until after the fall of the Soviet Union we learned that Dr. Unterberger had been exactly right.