polecat news and views

Saturday, April 29, 2023

Teachers Union Thuggery

If thugs were hurting your kid, you'd do almost anything to stop them. The harm inflicted by the teachers unions is legalized thuggery. Here's what you can do.

The tragic consequences of union strong-arming will be on display Wednesday, when a House subcommittee grills American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten on how the unions muscled the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in February 2021 into setting impossible-to-meet requirements for reopening schools during COVID.

Closing schools in the spring of 2020, when no one understood COVID, was understandable. But once science showed negligible risk to students in returning to the classroom, prolonging closures became child abuse. Yet on orders from the Biden White House, the CDC followed the unions' dictates instead of the science.

School closures led to severe learning loss, setting back many kids for years, possibly the rest of their lives. "This is potentially going to be a real problem for this generation," warns University of Oxford researcher Bastian Betthauser. Consulting firm McKinsey & Company calls the impact on students' basic skills "grim." A staggering 37% of high school students reported suffering mental health struggles during the lockdowns, according to a CDC survey.

Weingarten has already lawyered up for the hearing. Expect fireworks but no concrete changes. State laws, not Congress, determine what powers teachers unions have.

Listen up, parents. Protecting your kids from the unions requires waging political warfare, state by state.

Action is urgently needed. Since 2008, learning progress in public schools has stagnated, and U.S. kids are falling behind their peers in other countries. The COVID lockdowns dealt a devastating blow, but schools were in crisis long before that.

Laws in 38 states guarantee collective bargaining, not just over pay but often over every aspect of the school day, even curriculum. Unions use these powers to block school reform, opposing standardized testing, merit pay and teacher accountability. And to stuff the curriculum with political indoctrination — what the AFT calls "social justice."

The unions also buy political influence outright. The National Education Association and the AFT — the nation's two biggest teachers unions — are among the largest donors to politicians, and at least 94% of that money goes to Democrats, according to Open Secrets. No wonder Biden's White House ordered the CDC to grovel to Weingarten and the teachers unions.

It's a racket, explains Philip Howard, author of "Not Accountable," a riveting expose about public unions. They support Democrats handsomely, and in return, they get what they want at the bargaining table.

The good news is that in red and purple states, reformers are pushing to change that. Five states are banning unions from deducting dues from teachers' paychecks, making it harder to raise millions for political clout.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders are also moving to curb unions from dictating curriculum, such as teaching elementary school kids gender theory instead of arithmetic and reading.

Sadly, deep blue states like Illinois and New York are union captives. That explains the otherwise inexplicably destructive policy the New York State Education Department is adopting. New York is making the abysmal reading and math scores of kids tested just after the lockdowns ended into the baseline or "new normal" against which future students will be measured. That redefines "proficiency" down to rock bottom. A teacher's students only have to do as well as kids who were locked at home with no classroom time at all.

At the end of 2022, Weingarten admitted lockdowns were a mistake and asked for "pandemic amnesty." Expect her to ask for it again at Wednesday's hearing.

No way she deserves that. Everyone makes mistakes, but Weingarten lied to benefit her union members at the expense of the kids.

And she's still doing it. She's supporting a bill, introduced by New York Rep. and former teachers union member Jamaal Bowman, to eliminate federally mandated standardized testing. She claims it's best for kids not to be tested. Ridiculous. Getting rid of tests is a ploy to cover up failing teachers and schools.

Parents, join the fight to limit union power and put kids first.

https://www.creators.com/read/betsy-mccaughey/04/23/teachers-union-thuggery

Struck Down, Tucker Will Become More Powerful Than You Can Possibly Imagine

Struck Down, Tucker Will Become More Powerful Than You Can Possibly Imagine

Kurt Schlichter

AP Photo/Richard Drew

Tucker Carlson is neither down nor out; he is going to come back bigger and badder than ever. All you goofy virgins who love “Star Wars” will recall that when Darth Vader sliced Obi-Wan Kenobi in two – or at least his moth-eaten cloak – Ben stopped existing in this dimension and became a superbeing who popped in for a chat whenever Luke was in trouble. Tucker’s pretty much going to do that for the movement. Though Tucker may have been tossed off his perch at Fox (or jumped – we will eventually get the details on how this denouement went down), he will land on his feet and crush the libs beneath his preppy Topsiders.

Fox, on the other hand, will face some challenges (Full Disclosure: I occasionally guest on Fox shows and I have done hits with Tucker). It does not absolutely own the conservatives today, if it ever did. The regime media and the leftists do not understand that a lot of conservatives have been annoyed with Fox for quite a while – these cons think Fox is soft. But that misunderstands what Fox is, or at least what it strives to be. Fox, for its part, has to both be the network that welcomes the 50% of Americans the regime media rejects and also maintain old school journalistic standards. The problem is that the Fox audience has little patience for old school journalistic standards in an age where the rest of the media slanders it as a bunch of racist, sexist monsters who think that only women can get pregnant. The audience wants a cheerleader network, and not just in the primetime opinion shows, and that creates a significant tension regarding Fox’s identity.

Tucker, the network’s flagship opinion host, is gone, as are a lot of people will go with him wherever he lands. They did not consider themselves “Fox viewers” – they considered themselves “Tucker viewers.” The GOP will face a similar dilemma as the 2024 race heats up – there are a lot of people who consider themselves “Trump voters” and not “Republican voters.” Tucker has a lot of love; we will see how much love Fox has.

Now, Fox obviously believes that letting Tucker go is less bad than keeping him, and remember that Fox cut Bill O’Reilly loose at the height of his powers and barely missed a step. In fact, Tucker followed that firing and Tucker became…Tucker. It is possible that Fox can find a new Tucker, either already at the network or outside. But that assumes it wants a new Tucker – a no-holds-barred populist who challenges the establishment on everything from wokeness to Ukraine and thereby brings in huge ratings from viewers who cannot get that anywhere else. It is possible that Fox execs think he creates legal exposure, or that he creates more trouble than he is worth, or that they simply got tired of explaining to their fellow country club members why they let Tucker go unmuzzled. Whatever the reason, now they have to look for a new 8 p.m. Eastern show, and a new star. Hopefully, whatever comes next will not be some puddle of establishment-friendly goo – perhaps “Managed Decline” with hosts Paul Ryan and Jeb! Bush, or maybe “French Lessons” where, each night, the NYT’s own Ichabod Lame explains to the audience why they suck and how they disappoint Jesus.

Whatever is going on, it appears that Tucker is now free, but free to do what? He has limitless options. The question is whether he starts a new company – he already founded “The Daily Caller” – or whether he does something on his own, like a podcast. Move over, Joe Rogan – a daily Tucker podcast would be epic, but why stop there? He has the following and the ability to build his own internet network (his exec producer bailed too), and he could get the cash to do it – how about “Musk TV” available on Twitter?

A daily Tucker interwebs show is not nuts. Who needs a network? Most of us used his cable show like it was an online program anyway. I used to record it daily on the cable box, then play it back later, speeding up through segments I was not interested in. If he was on Roku instead of basic cable, how would I know the difference? And for $5 a month, great – a lot of viewers could dump their $120+ cable bill.

The thing about Tucker is that he might end up being the transitional figure in the movement of conservatives away from network brand identification to individual brand identification. If Tucker chooses to go indy, you will not need to access Fox News or any other organization to get your daily Tucker fix. Podcasts are already spurring this on, but soon the transition away from leaving the radio dial set to 990AM KCON or the cable box set to Fox on Channel 643 all day will be complete. Instead, you will curate your listening and viewing, getting a show from here and then another show from there, and essentially making your own daily line-up. Someone will come up with the platform to do that easily and smoothly on whichever devices we choose for those of us who are not tech savvy. When it happens, the old media orgs will stop being networks as we once knew them and become simply another bunch of content steamtables in the content cafeteria.

So, advantage Tucker. He is not unemployed; he is unleashed. Fox may not think it needs Tucker – and that will remain to be seen – but Tucker certainly does not need Fox. Tucker is a conservative giant, with only Rush Limbaugh at all comparable in his standing within the conservative movement. The answer to the question “What will Tucker do now” is the same answer as the answer to the question about what the 800-pound gorilla will do: “Anything he wants.”

https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2023/04/27/struck-down-tucker-will-become-more-powerful-than-you-can-possibly-imagine-n2622399?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&bcid=15803c7fc8c68b6fd1f0a5e7f4b59fc49df45d48335d4339ad60f7b0a0c7404d&recip=28668535

Bill Maher's Blunt Question to the Black Community in Chicago Will Surely Trigger Liberals

Bill Maher's Blunt Question to the Black Community in Chicago Will Surely Trigger Liberals

Matt Vespa |

One feels the need to explain this, but Bill Maher is not a conservative, though this segment on his show Real Time will certainly gin up accusations that he is not a proud liberal. For years, Maher has been in his own oasis, advocating his position on issues he feels passionate about, devoid of the left-wing lurch he correctly sees as illiberal. On matters like radical Islamic terrorism and freedom of speech, Maher is very much more in-line with conservatives since we know the threats posed by al-Qaeda and others and the dangers that come from curbing free speech. Maher knows the latter all too well; he’s a comedian by trade. We all know it takes just one issue for the Left to brand you a traitor: Maher and J.K. Rowling, the latter of which is more leftist, are the poster children for this tendency within liberal circles.

Though the segment was a long time coming, one that should’ve aired years ago, crime, specifically firearm-related homicides, has plagued Chicago. Maher pointed out some facts that liberals recoil from, like how young black men are killing each other en masse in the Windy City.

“Why are you killing each other?” the HBO host asked. It’s a question that will surely trigger those on Maher’s side of the aisle (via Fox News):

"Real Time" host Bill Maher called out the lack of attention to high Black-on-Black crime rates in cities such as Chicago during his show on Friday.
Hosting a panel with Brown University economist Glenn Loury and international relations scholar Daniel Bessner, Maher questioned the rise in crime in major cities and why it has not been addressed.
"Like Chicago, most of the shootings are young Black men killing other young Black men. Is that not correct?" Maher asked.
After Loury confirmed it was true, Maher continued, "OK, much more than what the cops do. Why doesn't anybody talk about that? Why aren't there a hundred giant Black celebrities, who would have the respect of those people, saying, ‘What are you doing to yourselves? Why are you killing each other?’"
[…]
Maher went on to criticize suggestions that more financial investment in the city would fix the issue.
"One in 3 children in America cannot read at a basic level of comprehension. Eight-five percent of Black students lack proficiency in reading skills," he said. "We already spent a lot of money on schools. So, are you going to keep telling me that more money will fix this because I feel like this is much more connected to the problems of people who can't read. Yes, they're going to have problems with gainful employment, and it seems like, you know, a lot of times the solutions that come from the left seem symbolic. They don't seem like we're addressing what really needs to be done, which is get kids learning, get them reading, get them to have a job."

You could view this issue from multiple angles, not least the Left’s inability to comprehend crime policy in a way that doesn’t get other people killed. Public safety isn’t an issue where pseudo-intellectual theories about how America is evil should be tested. Also, it’s fine to be critical of these dire societal elements that appear to be impacting the black community and any demographic in urban America. We know education is the silver bullet to a better life; when one in three children cannot, that’s a problem. When that educational gap is especially prevalent in the black community, it’s a problem. It’s not racist to point that out; just another item on the checklist for our leaders and representatives to figure out, though one could argue that Democrats have controlled Chicago for generations—look at how they’ve managed the store.

Give Maher credit; he once again asked a tough question that’s really directed at his side: they’re the ones in positions of power in the areas most impacted by these ills.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2023/04/25/bill-mahers-blunt-question-to-the-black-community-in-chicago-will-surely-trigger-liberals-n2622329?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&recip=28668535

Friday, April 28, 2023

WHOSE CHILDREN ARE THEY?

WHOSE CHILDREN ARE THEY?

BY JOHN HINDERAKER IN LEFTISM, LIBERALS

In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that the Left hates families and essentially wants the state to raise our children. Thus the anti-parent orientation of the public schools, the attempt to use the FBI to label parents who are concerned about their children’s education as “domestic terrorists,” the appalling practice of changing kids’ names and “genders” without informing parents, and so on.

As usual with the Left, the most appalling vice parades under a banner of superior virtue. Thus, replacing parental authority with the power of the state is spoken of warmly, as if it were a good thing. We have seen this from a number of liberals, most recently Joe Biden. Via InstaPundit:

Obviously, if there is no such thing as someone else’s child, there is no such thing as your child, either.

Everything the Left tries to do is destructive, but probably nothing is more so than this relentless effort to downgrade the family and replace it with the state and its minions.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/04/whose-children-are-they.php

Spies (Really) Like Us: Dem Bigwigs Caught Hobnobbing With Secret Chinese Police Mole

Spies (Really) Like Us: Dem Bigwigs Caught Hobnobbing With Secret Chinese Police Mole

BY KEVIN DOWNEY JR.

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer was recently caught on video rubbing elbows with one of two men arrested for running a secret — and illegal — Chinese police station in New York City’s Chinatown. The hobnobbing occurred at a gala for the Fukien American Association.

FACT-O-RAMA! The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has at least 54 secret police stations in almost 30 countries worldwide.

The FBI recently raided and shuttered a secret police station in Manhattan. Several more are still open for commie business throughout the United States and Canada.

“Two miles from our office, just across the Brooklyn Bridge, this nondescript office building in the heart of bustling Chinatown in Lower Manhattan has a dark secret,” Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, stated. “Until several months ago, an entire floor of this building hosted an undeclared police station of the Chinese National Police.” Peace added, “Now, just imagine the NYPD opening an undeclared secret police station in Beijing. It would be unthinkable.”

Schumer was recently seen with Lu Jianwang in a video taken on March 18, 2023, roughly four weeks before Jianwang and another CCP lackey were arrested by the FBI. New York City Mayor Eric Adams was in the house as well and was photographed rubbing shoulders — literally — with the Chinese spy.

Jianwang was charged with conspiring to act as an agent of China’s government.

WTF-O-RAMA! No one reading this article can come physically close to either Adams or Schumer, and yet a Chinese commie spy — who was one of two CCP members in charge of the secret Chinese police station — was able to mingle with both.

Schumer went into full lizard mode and dodged questions from reporters outside of Hunter College in Manhattan. New York’s senior senator was there to give a speech at an Equal Rights Amendment event Tuesday morning.

“How well do you know the man accused of running the secret police station in New York City?” Fox News’s Jennifer Johnson enquired.

“Hi, Senator, what can you tell us about attending a gala last month and taking photos with a suspected CCP agent?” another reporter asked.

Schumer ducked into a car without answering any questions.

Eric Adams’s people told Fox News that the mayor was in attendance to show his support for the cause and denied any endorsement for Jianwang.

Here’s the fun part: records show Jianwang has donated at least $32,625 to New York politicians, including Adams and New York’s Democratic Gov. Comrade Kathy Hochul.

What Have We Learned?

We’ve learned a Chinese spy has been getting cozy with Chuck Schumer and Eric Adams. The same commie spook donated at least $30,000 — that we know of — to various New York Democrat politicians, one of whom is Kathy Hochul, and Schumer doesn’t seem to want to talk about it.

All of this comes as Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) is reporting that he believes 12 members of the Biden crime family — and counting — received money from the CCP for goods and/or services that no one can identify.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/kevindowneyjr/2023/04/24/spies-really-like-us-dem-bigwigs-caught-hobnobbing-with-secret-chinese-police-mole-n1689913

Biden Gets Fact-Checked By A Little Girl

Biden Gets Fact-Checked By A Little Girl

Sarah Arnold |

If you can even believe it, President Joe Biden has suffered from yet another geriatric episode of delusion and forgetfulness— just days after announcing his 2024 re-election campaign.

Biden was caught struggling to remember where one of his grandchildren lives, only to be reminded by a little girl.

During a White House event with a group of children as part of “bring your kid to work day,” Biden began to stumble over his words trying to recall where his grandkids live… and how many he has.

“So let me see, I got one in New York, two in Philadelphia, three, no three because I got one granddaughter who is, I don’t know, you’re confusing me, but they’re all around Wilmington, California, New York and Philadelphia, the cities they live in,” Biden said.

A very confused Joe Biden gets fact checked by a little girl after forgetting about one of his own grandkids pic.twitter.com/Ie70v0spaS
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 27, 2023

The little girl fact-checked the president, telling him he had five grandchildren.

“I think we can all be very clear and say with a matter of fact that if you vote for Joe Biden, you really are counting on a President Harris because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old is not something that I think is likely,” Haley said, calling for mental competency tests starting at age 75.

https://townhall.com//tipsheet/saraharnold/2023/04/27/biden-gets-fact-checked-by-little-girl-n2622527?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&bcid=15803c7fc8c68b6fd1f0a5e7f4b59fc49df45d48335d4339ad60f7b0a0c7404d&recip=28668535

DEMOCRATS FOR PEDOPHILIA

DEMOCRATS FOR PEDOPHILIA

BY JOHN HINDERAKER IN CRIME, DEMOCRATS, GENDER FOLLIES

Anyone who has been paying attention knows that lots of liberals have been grooming kids in recent years. Generally, though, they don’t admit it: there are lots of good reasons, supposedly, why drag queens should invade little kids’ libraries, and ask children to stuff dollar bills into their G-strings at drag shows.

Here in Minnesota, we have something different: the Democratic Party is officially coming out in defense of pedophilia as a matter of law. Minnesota’s crazed DFL majorities have passed one extreme measure after another this session, but this one breaks new ground in service of pedophilia. The bill is HF 1655, sponsored by a man pretending to be a woman named Leigh Finke. (https://www.leighformn.com”>Not pretending very successfully.) Finke’s bill is called the “Take Pride Act.” We might re-name it the “Take Pride in Abuse of Children Act.”

Understanding what is going on starts with the definition of “Sexual Orientation” under existing Minnesota law:

Subd. 44.Sexual orientation. “Sexual orientation” means having or being perceived as having an emotional, physical, or sexual attachment to another person without regard to the sex of that person or having or being perceived as having an orientation for such attachment, or having or being perceived as having a self-image or identity not traditionally associated with one’s biological maleness or femaleness. “Sexual orientation” does not include a physical or sexual attachment to children by an adult.

Note that last sentence. Whatever legal advantages accrue to a gay sexual orientation–and there are many–do not, currently, apply to pederasts.

Now note what Mr. Finke’s bill does: Along with creating all kinds of legal rights on behalf of transgenders, it changes the definition of “Sexual orientation” by deleting the exclusion of pederasty from the definition:

Sec. 5. Minnesota Statutes 2022, section 363A.03, subdivision 44, is amended to read:
Subd. 44. Sexual orientation. “Sexual orientation” means having or being perceived as
having an emotional, physical, or sexual attachment to another person without regard to the
sex of that person or having or being perceived as having an orientation for such attachment,
or having or being perceived as having a self-image or identity not traditionally associated with one’s biological maleness or femaleness. “Sexual orientation” does not include a physical or sexual attachment to children by an adult.

The result of this amendment is that all of the special legal protections now given to homosexuals in health care, welfare, employment, housing, education and much else will benefit pederasts.

As I understand it, the Democrats were going to bring their pro-pedophilia bill on for a vote this afternoon, and Republicans were poised with an amendment to block new legal rights for pedophiles. I will update when I find out what, if anything, has happened.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/04/democrats-for-pedophilia.php