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American Education Can Be Saved, but Not by the Left

Two threads of educational reform can be discerned during the past 25 years. Both miss the need for real reform and have contributed thereby to the further dumbing down of our public schools. One involves greater federal involvement and funding through No Child Left Behind legislation followed by Common Core initiatives extending federal involvement even further into the realm of standardized testing. The other thread of reform blames racism as an underlying cause of educational failure, and through busing and various regulatory requirements seeks more racial balance in neighborhoods and in schools.

The increase in federal control of educational policy is unconstitutional because the Tenth Amendment relegates control of all powers not enumerated in the U.S. Constitution to the several states.  Common Core got around this with a deceitful strategy. Common Core says the federal government is not telling the states what to teach, only that the federal government will supply the standardized tests that will give the states greater feedback about whether they are meeting “standards.”  Thus, states would begin teaching to the tests, the tests would be controlling, but the federal government – not requiring curriculum x, y, or z — on a technicality would not be literally “in control” of state education.  

At the same time as anti-constitutional forces in the body politic are attempting to federalize education via control over the mechanisms of standardized testing, another movement is striving to “desegregate” public education, especially in our cities. The civil rights movement fought against de jure segregation in the 1950’s and 1960’s, that is, segregation required by state laws, as being unconstitutional.  The modern progressives are fighting to end de facto segregation, that is, segregation resulting from heavily black neighborhood-based schools which generally are showing poorer scores on standardized exams than schools with majority white or Asian students.

But this thread of educational reform implies that whites are systematically avoiding blacks and Hispanics.  However, some of that “segregation” is the result of self-segregation by the minority communities. I have a black friend whose son told her he wanted to go to a high school with an almost 100% black student population because, “I want to be in high school with my people.”  This is a reflection of the same mentality of black students at some of our elite colleges and universities. There, we find many black college students are self-segregating in dormitories and in graduation ceremonies, so the integration paradigm is being challenged in the black community and is not simply a “lily white” institutionalization.

The assumption that institutional racism is holding back the advancement of all students or even the majority of students in New York City is questionable.  Seth Barron has pointed out that “The student body of New York City is overwhelmingly ‘minority,’ so how meaningful is it really to talk about ‘racially segregated’ schools?” He further noted, “But white kids comprise less than 15 percent of the city’s entire student population….  Absent a massive program of busing, or forced population transfer, there aren’t enough white people to satisfy the progressives.”

Both threads of educational reform are unsound. Neither addresses the issues of curriculum reform and philosophical reform of the educational process.  We must turn away from the Deweyan social justice models begun over 100 years ago to develop a “common faith” (Dewey’s rubric) in democracy, and, in our present context, the values of leftism and “social justice.” 

Social justice is inherently unjust.  It is a communist ideal in sheep’s clothing.  Social justice denies the inherent worth of the individual as the end-all and be-all of a just and free society.  The success of the individual to maximize his or her potential and to enjoy the fruits of a productive life within a context of Judeo-Christian morality should be the goal of public education. But social justice advocates place various “collectives” (sub-group identities) as taking primacy.

Modern classrooms using social justice concepts tend to emphasize cooperative learning rather than individual students trying to memorize and figure out how to do this or that piece of work. Cooperative learning teaches to small groups of students who engage in “discovery” of the truths of the subjects through projects.  If one or two of the students in, say, a group of five do all the work, all the group members will receive an A, not only the one or two that did the work and demonstrated ability. This is the communist ideal reflected in education. Often, projects are dumbed down so that in high schools students are pasting pictures on colored construction paper and calling that a group research project.

Teachers are not teaching a body of knowledge, but are called “facilitators” who are catalysts or assistants as the students try to navigate learning at their own pace and in cooperation with their fellow students. Student dependency on the teacher has become diluted.

Bruce D. Price offers an incredible “Bill of Rights For Students 2020” which will shock the modern progressive sensibility as it so filled with common sense and clarity. These are ten “rights” which apply mainly to the elementary grades, including the ability to read based upon the proven phonics method by the end of grade one, the right to master arithmetic, the right to  literature, and the right to know correct spelling. Mr. Price’s Bill of Rights For Students will be the perfect starting point for real educational reform for all ethnicities and national backgrounds.

At the secondary school levels, study of the body of knowledge of great works in literature, history, biography, and traditional math rather than the new math which give students credit for trying even if they don’t come up with the right answer. Knowledge, analysis, synthesis, concern with definitions of terms, guided research in history, ability to work with charts and graphs, less concern for contemporary relevance and more emphasis on universal principles and ideas should take precedence.

Classroom behavior should be controlled and strict. The high-five mentality between teachers and students should be discouraged and a more formal tone set.  Teachers should not encourage students to call them by their first names. That which might be considered uptight should become normalized.  Commercial and vocational tracks should be re-instituted in our middle schools to meet the needs of students who are not aspiring to higher education but are in need of more practical development consistent with their talents. And, lastly, teacher evaluation should emphasize content competency. Does the teacher truly have mastery of his or her subject, and are they communicating this mastery?  Is their presentation slipshod, superficial, and simplified to a point where only a shadow of the subject is being taught.

Once, when teaching ancient history in a high school, this writer used photos of Roman coins to have students draw conclusions about Roman society from observing the coins.  The principal observing the lesson commented that I had a good sense of humor and had a lot of energy. He said nothing about the value of studying the coins or of the historical analysis that followed.

Education can be saved.  But we need to get off the hobby horse of blaming race relations or disparities in educational priorities among the 50 states as the reason for our failures.

Graphic credit: Pxhere

Two threads of educational reform can be discerned during the past 25 years. Both miss the need for real reform and have contributed thereby to the further dumbing down of our public schools. One involves greater federal involvement and funding through No Child Left Behind legislation followed by Common Core initiatives extending federal involvement even further into the realm of standardized testing. The other thread of reform blames racism as an underlying cause of educational failure, and through busing and various regulatory requirements seeks more racial balance in neighborhoods and in schools.

The increase in federal control of educational policy is unconstitutional because the Tenth Amendment relegates control of all powers not enumerated in the U.S. Constitution to the several states.  Common Core got around this with a deceitful strategy. Common Core says the federal government is not telling the states what to teach, only that the federal government will supply the standardized tests that will give the states greater feedback about whether they are meeting “standards.”  Thus, states would begin teaching to the tests, the tests would be controlling, but the federal government – not requiring curriculum x, y, or z — on a technicality would not be literally “in control” of state education.  

At the same time as anti-constitutional forces in the body politic are attempting to federalize education via control over the mechanisms of standardized testing, another movement is striving to “desegregate” public education, especially in our cities. The civil rights movement fought against de jure segregation in the 1950’s and 1960’s, that is, segregation required by state laws, as being unconstitutional.  The modern progressives are fighting to end de facto segregation, that is, segregation resulting from heavily black neighborhood-based schools which generally are showing poorer scores on standardized exams than schools with majority white or Asian students.

But this thread of educational reform implies that whites are systematically avoiding blacks and Hispanics.  However, some of that “segregation” is the result of self-segregation by the minority communities. I have a black friend whose son told her he wanted to go to a high school with an almost 100% black student population because, “I want to be in high school with my people.”  This is a reflection of the same mentality of black students at some of our elite colleges and universities. There, we find many black college students are self-segregating in dormitories and in graduation ceremonies, so the integration paradigm is being challenged in the black community and is not simply a “lily white” institutionalization.

The assumption that institutional racism is holding back the advancement of all students or even the majority of students in New York City is questionable.  Seth Barron has pointed out that “The student body of New York City is overwhelmingly ‘minority,’ so how meaningful is it really to talk about ‘racially segregated’ schools?” He further noted, “But white kids comprise less than 15 percent of the city’s entire student population….  Absent a massive program of busing, or forced population transfer, there aren’t enough white people to satisfy the progressives.”

Both threads of educational reform are unsound. Neither addresses the issues of curriculum reform and philosophical reform of the educational process.  We must turn away from the Deweyan social justice models begun over 100 years ago to develop a “common faith” (Dewey’s rubric) in democracy, and, in our present context, the values of leftism and “social justice.” 

Social justice is inherently unjust.  It is a communist ideal in sheep’s clothing.  Social justice denies the inherent worth of the individual as the end-all and be-all of a just and free society.  The success of the individual to maximize his or her potential and to enjoy the fruits of a productive life within a context of Judeo-Christian morality should be the goal of public education. But social justice advocates place various “collectives” (sub-group identities) as taking primacy.

Modern classrooms using social justice concepts tend to emphasize cooperative learning rather than individual students trying to memorize and figure out how to do this or that piece of work. Cooperative learning teaches to small groups of students who engage in “discovery” of the truths of the subjects through projects.  If one or two of the students in, say, a group of five do all the work, all the group members will receive an A, not only the one or two that did the work and demonstrated ability. This is the communist ideal reflected in education. Often, projects are dumbed down so that in high schools students are pasting pictures on colored construction paper and calling that a group research project.

Teachers are not teaching a body of knowledge, but are called “facilitators” who are catalysts or assistants as the students try to navigate learning at their own pace and in cooperation with their fellow students. Student dependency on the teacher has become diluted.

Bruce D. Price offers an incredible “Bill of Rights For Students 2020” which will shock the modern progressive sensibility as it so filled with common sense and clarity. These are ten “rights” which apply mainly to the elementary grades, including the ability to read based upon the proven phonics method by the end of grade one, the right to master arithmetic, the right to  literature, and the right to know correct spelling. Mr. Price’s Bill of Rights For Students will be the perfect starting point for real educational reform for all ethnicities and national backgrounds.

At the secondary school levels, study of the body of knowledge of great works in literature, history, biography, and traditional math rather than the new math which give students credit for trying even if they don’t come up with the right answer. Knowledge, analysis, synthesis, concern with definitions of terms, guided research in history, ability to work with charts and graphs, less concern for contemporary relevance and more emphasis on universal principles and ideas should take precedence.

Classroom behavior should be controlled and strict. The high-five mentality between teachers and students should be discouraged and a more formal tone set.  Teachers should not encourage students to call them by their first names. That which might be considered uptight should become normalized.  Commercial and vocational tracks should be re-instituted in our middle schools to meet the needs of students who are not aspiring to higher education but are in need of more practical development consistent with their talents. And, lastly, teacher evaluation should emphasize content competency. Does the teacher truly have mastery of his or her subject, and are they communicating this mastery?  Is their presentation slipshod, superficial, and simplified to a point where only a shadow of the subject is being taught.

Once, when teaching ancient history in a high school, this writer used photos of Roman coins to have students draw conclusions about Roman society from observing the coins.  The principal observing the lesson commented that I had a good sense of humor and had a lot of energy. He said nothing about the value of studying the coins or of the historical analysis that followed.

Education can be saved.  But we need to get off the hobby horse of blaming race relations or disparities in educational priorities among the 50 states as the reason for our failures.

Graphic credit: Pxhere

via American Thinker

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.americanthinker.com/

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The Democrats Want to Turn the US into Cuba; They Should Just Move There

Having recently returned from several days in Cuba, I watched the Democrats debate last week and wondered why they don’t just hop on a plane and move to Havana, the Cuban capital that has been languishing in the 1950’s thanks to Fidel Castro’s revolution.

Sure, the old cars are pretty cool to drive around in but most of them are dirty, loud, and don’t come close to meeting Obama’s emissions standards. The reason why they remain on the roads is not so much because of the U.S. embargo (the newer automobiles are Russian for the most part) but because the people working under the Communist regime can’t make enough money to pay for a new car. In fact, the government owns many of the cars, including those used as taxis and for tours.

I can just picture Bernie and Pocahontas zipping around in their government-owned 1950’s Chevy convertible, the Caribbean air flying through their gray hair as they blow kisses to the pictures of Che Guevara that adorn buildings, billboards, restaurants, and artwork across the country. (We were told that Fidel did not want his face to be the face of the country/revolution so we did not see a lot of him, but for an occasional photo and a commissary named Viva Fidel!)

Like the slate of Democrats standing on the stage last week (and all good Communists for that matter), the Cuban government claims to exist for the people. The revolution was a revolution of the people (wink, wink) and ever since, generations of Cubans have been indoctrinated to believe that nonsense. The Che photos around every bend are only part of it – and given the one-party system (how happy would Democrats be!), dissenting opinions are few and far between.

The indoctrination is very evident in much of the artwork we saw at the studios we visited. Obama is pictured very positively while Trump, not so much. Cubans don’t particularly care for Americans these days given Trump’s reversal of Obama’s policies that opened up the country. (Contrast that with the Iranian people who recognize that their government is to blame for destroying the economy and their lives.)

And as we walked through the famous Hotel Nacional de Cuba, we came across a massive painting of the beloved Hugo Chavez in full military dress.

Bernie, a “democratic socialist” in his own league having honeymooned in the Soviet Union, would feel right at home staying there while conveniently ignoring that the Cubans live under a military enforcing the Communism thrust upon them.

Our guide, completely brainwashed, was very much on board with the ideology governing the populace even as she showed us the local commissary – a dirty, hole-in-the-wall with shelves behind a counter barely filled with items – at which citizens use government-provided coupons to “purchase” their monthly allotment of cooking oil, eggs, juice and similar products. Of course, as a tour guide, she presumably makes a lot of money in tips that the government never sees, so like the Democrats, doesn’t seem to worry about the impact of Communism on the little people who are forced into jobs in which they have little interest or desire, relying on government handouts to survive.

In Cuba, the candidates wouldn’t have to worry about imposing a wealth tax because the only people with any wealth are those in high level government positions. And forget about a $15 minimum wage. We spoke to a waiter who makes $600 a month to only work 14 days; he was thrilled since the rest of the month he can go to the beach and spend time with his family. His brother who is a doctor works full-time and only makes $30 a month.  Given the way these Democrats think, the waiter is a working stiff who should be highly compensated through redistribution of wealth from those greedy doctors anyway.

We enjoyed lobster lunches and dinners but were told that lobster is only available to tourists, although a black market for Cubans exists (there are two types of Cuban money – one for the tourists and one for the locals and locals are not permitted to use tourist dollars, so tipping in the correct money is important). Of course, Bernie, Liz and Joe, who have made millions as politicians wouldn’t have to worry about affording food items any more than Fidel and Raul did. That’s how Communism works and one need only read Animal Farm to understand how it corrupts and leaves the common man behind in the dust.

I was surprised to walk by a mosque and Arab cultural center in the heart of Havana’s old city. We were told there is a growing Muslim population. Given Democrats’ penchant for bringing Muslim immigrants into the U.S., the candidates would feel right at home with the hijabs and burkas that will soon appear on Havana’s streets. Presumably the Cuban immigrants get all of that “free stuff” the Democrats are promising to moronic Americans who believe them that socialism is good for the country.

It occurred to me that perhaps a Cuban “birthright” type trip would be appropriate for all of the democratic socialists, or whatever they call themselves, with the hope that they would see what a disaster this ideology has been for that country. But then I realized that like all socialists, they would just claim it was implemented improperly and that they know how to do it the right way. It simply doesn’t occur to them that even across Europe there has been a backlash to the failed socialist policies experimented with there.

Most of the candidates other than Mayor Pete came out of the 60’s radical years when all of this nonsense started. These 60’s militants took over academia and are now indoctrinating Americans to believe that capitalism is bad and socialism is the only way to go.  Just look at Sanders’s supporters, many of whom are young, idealistic, and yes, indoctrinated.

The Ocasio-Cortezs of the world got their crazy notions from somewhere and it was likely the academy. Years ago, I wrote a column that mentioned that Karl Marx’s A Communist Manifesto was the third most read book in college economics classes. As I was working on the column, my 12th grade daughter asked me to help her understand something she had to read for her economics class. It was a several page excerpt from none other than A Communist Manifesto.

Imagine if one of these crazy people make it to the White House – or if they take the presidency, House and Senate – and begin to implement their version of the Revolucion Cubana. As it is, they constantly attempt to brainwash the American people through the rewriting of history (tearing down statues, painting over murals, and implementing biased and distorted K-12 curricula like The New York Times 1619 Project) or just simply lying and making up facts as each and every candidate did in this last debate when claiming that “the people” are being left behind by millionaires who don’t deserve the money they make. And make no mistake, Bernie supporters are brainwashed just like the Cuban people.

Havana’s architecture was once beautiful, exemplifying the rich European history of Cuba. It’s quite sad to think what the country could have been today were it not for Castro’s revolution. But reforms are slowly coming and perhaps one day that beauty will return. One young tour guide shared that younger people are starting to want change (ironic given young Americans’ attraction to socialism) and perhaps as the internet opens up, demands for modernization – and democracy and capitalism – will become greater. (We were told that college students get 90 minutes of internet per month for their studies but most use it to surf the web and check social media.) But one thing is clear: as long as the one-party Communist regime is in power, Cuba will remain a third world island which is known for cigars and rum rather than intellectual, technical, medical, and other contributions to the world.

All photographs by the author

Having recently returned from several days in Cuba, I watched the Democrats debate last week and wondered why they don’t just hop on a plane and move to Havana, the Cuban capital that has been languishing in the 1950’s thanks to Fidel Castro’s revolution.

Sure, the old cars are pretty cool to drive around in but most of them are dirty, loud, and don’t come close to meeting Obama’s emissions standards. The reason why they remain on the roads is not so much because of the U.S. embargo (the newer automobiles are Russian for the most part) but because the people working under the Communist regime can’t make enough money to pay for a new car. In fact, the government owns many of the cars, including those used as taxis and for tours.

I can just picture Bernie and Pocahontas zipping around in their government-owned 1950’s Chevy convertible, the Caribbean air flying through their gray hair as they blow kisses to the pictures of Che Guevara that adorn buildings, billboards, restaurants, and artwork across the country. (We were told that Fidel did not want his face to be the face of the country/revolution so we did not see a lot of him, but for an occasional photo and a commissary named Viva Fidel!)

Like the slate of Democrats standing on the stage last week (and all good Communists for that matter), the Cuban government claims to exist for the people. The revolution was a revolution of the people (wink, wink) and ever since, generations of Cubans have been indoctrinated to believe that nonsense. The Che photos around every bend are only part of it – and given the one-party system (how happy would Democrats be!), dissenting opinions are few and far between.

The indoctrination is very evident in much of the artwork we saw at the studios we visited. Obama is pictured very positively while Trump, not so much. Cubans don’t particularly care for Americans these days given Trump’s reversal of Obama’s policies that opened up the country. (Contrast that with the Iranian people who recognize that their government is to blame for destroying the economy and their lives.)

And as we walked through the famous Hotel Nacional de Cuba, we came across a massive painting of the beloved Hugo Chavez in full military dress.

Bernie, a “democratic socialist” in his own league having honeymooned in the Soviet Union, would feel right at home staying there while conveniently ignoring that the Cubans live under a military enforcing the Communism thrust upon them.

Our guide, completely brainwashed, was very much on board with the ideology governing the populace even as she showed us the local commissary – a dirty, hole-in-the-wall with shelves behind a counter barely filled with items – at which citizens use government-provided coupons to “purchase” their monthly allotment of cooking oil, eggs, juice and similar products. Of course, as a tour guide, she presumably makes a lot of money in tips that the government never sees, so like the Democrats, doesn’t seem to worry about the impact of Communism on the little people who are forced into jobs in which they have little interest or desire, relying on government handouts to survive.

In Cuba, the candidates wouldn’t have to worry about imposing a wealth tax because the only people with any wealth are those in high level government positions. And forget about a $15 minimum wage. We spoke to a waiter who makes $600 a month to only work 14 days; he was thrilled since the rest of the month he can go to the beach and spend time with his family. His brother who is a doctor works full-time and only makes $30 a month.  Given the way these Democrats think, the waiter is a working stiff who should be highly compensated through redistribution of wealth from those greedy doctors anyway.

We enjoyed lobster lunches and dinners but were told that lobster is only available to tourists, although a black market for Cubans exists (there are two types of Cuban money – one for the tourists and one for the locals and locals are not permitted to use tourist dollars, so tipping in the correct money is important). Of course, Bernie, Liz and Joe, who have made millions as politicians wouldn’t have to worry about affording food items any more than Fidel and Raul did. That’s how Communism works and one need only read Animal Farm to understand how it corrupts and leaves the common man behind in the dust.

I was surprised to walk by a mosque and Arab cultural center in the heart of Havana’s old city. We were told there is a growing Muslim population. Given Democrats’ penchant for bringing Muslim immigrants into the U.S., the candidates would feel right at home with the hijabs and burkas that will soon appear on Havana’s streets. Presumably the Cuban immigrants get all of that “free stuff” the Democrats are promising to moronic Americans who believe them that socialism is good for the country.

It occurred to me that perhaps a Cuban “birthright” type trip would be appropriate for all of the democratic socialists, or whatever they call themselves, with the hope that they would see what a disaster this ideology has been for that country. But then I realized that like all socialists, they would just claim it was implemented improperly and that they know how to do it the right way. It simply doesn’t occur to them that even across Europe there has been a backlash to the failed socialist policies experimented with there.

Most of the candidates other than Mayor Pete came out of the 60’s radical years when all of this nonsense started. These 60’s militants took over academia and are now indoctrinating Americans to believe that capitalism is bad and socialism is the only way to go.  Just look at Sanders’s supporters, many of whom are young, idealistic, and yes, indoctrinated.

The Ocasio-Cortezs of the world got their crazy notions from somewhere and it was likely the academy. Years ago, I wrote a column that mentioned that Karl Marx’s A Communist Manifesto was the third most read book in college economics classes. As I was working on the column, my 12th grade daughter asked me to help her understand something she had to read for her economics class. It was a several page excerpt from none other than A Communist Manifesto.

Imagine if one of these crazy people make it to the White House – or if they take the presidency, House and Senate – and begin to implement their version of the Revolucion Cubana. As it is, they constantly attempt to brainwash the American people through the rewriting of history (tearing down statues, painting over murals, and implementing biased and distorted K-12 curricula like The New York Times 1619 Project) or just simply lying and making up facts as each and every candidate did in this last debate when claiming that “the people” are being left behind by millionaires who don’t deserve the money they make. And make no mistake, Bernie supporters are brainwashed just like the Cuban people.

Havana’s architecture was once beautiful, exemplifying the rich European history of Cuba. It’s quite sad to think what the country could have been today were it not for Castro’s revolution. But reforms are slowly coming and perhaps one day that beauty will return. One young tour guide shared that younger people are starting to want change (ironic given young Americans’ attraction to socialism) and perhaps as the internet opens up, demands for modernization – and democracy and capitalism – will become greater. (We were told that college students get 90 minutes of internet per month for their studies but most use it to surf the web and check social media.) But one thing is clear: as long as the one-party Communist regime is in power, Cuba will remain a third world island which is known for cigars and rum rather than intellectual, technical, medical, and other contributions to the world.

All photographs by the author

via American Thinker

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Automatic Voter Registration Led to Illegal Ballots, Illinois Admits

A watchdog group has requested records from the Illinois State Board of Elections after 574 noncitizens were added to its voter rolls, allowing some of them to vote illegally in the 2018 midterm elections.

The Public Interest Legal Foundation, an election integrity law firm, made the request on Thursday after the board admitted the error. The individuals in question were improperly invited onto the rolls through a glitch in the state’s automatic voter registration system while applying for a driver’s license or state identification.

The watchdog says Democratic politicians are pushing automatic voter registration at the expense of election integrity. The issues in Illinois with automatic voter registration, which has been implemented in 18 states and the District of Columbia, contribute to an already widespread trend of noncitizens making their way onto voter rolls nationwide.

"States have no business experimenting with automatic voter registration until they can zero out the risk of ineligible noncitizens passing through traditional Motor Voter," said Logan Churchwell, communications director at PILF.

PILF is attempting to find out if all of the self-reported noncitizens were registered through DMV transactions and if the state is undertaking any efforts to identify remaining registered noncitizens. The 574 noncitizens were self-identified and more could potentially remain on the voter rolls. The state found 19 who cast ballots in 2018, but the total number of illegal votes remains unknown. The group is also seeking information on whether any noncitizens self-reported prior to the new cases or if any noncitizens voted in elections that could have been decided by their participation.

"This is not a new problem for Illinois. That state’s Motor Voter system made national news in 2017 well before policymakers foolishly installed automatic voter registration," Churchwell said. "States like Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, California, Georgia, Florida, and more have demonstrated how foreign nationals can and do enter voter registries through the Motor Voter process, regardless of automation."

PILF previously uncovered 232 cases of noncitizens who registered to vote in Chicago. The individuals later self-reported their illegal registrations in hopes of becoming naturalized U.S. citizens.

"The Foundation fully expects there are more foreign nationals still registered to vote in Illinois—and some of them voted in 2018," Churchwell said. "We just don’t know who they are yet since they haven’t felt the need to self-report—but their time will come."

Illinois’s State Board of Elections did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

The post Automatic Voter Registration Led to Illegal Ballots, Illinois Admits appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

via Washington Free Beacon

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NYC’s new police commissioner challenges the Left, confirming NY’s new bail laws have caused an explosion in crime

At the behest of radical left-wing Democrat politicians, New York – like other states – has recently instituted criminal-coddling “reform” laws that require violent offenders be released on the streets immediately after their arrest for crimes including violent felonies. A recent example was the release from custody several times in one week on no-bail personal recognizance of a career criminal who allegedly robbed banks six times in a two-week period. After his sixth bank robbery, he was finally remanded to custody.

Even the liberal New York Times had to admit:

Mr. Woodberry’s [the alleged serial bank robber] arrest is the latest of several recent cases that critics of the bail reform statute have said illustrated a dangerous loophole in state law.

On Jan. 10, a homeless man was released without bail after being charged with striking two women in unprovoked attacks in Manhattan. On Long Island, opponents of the new law have cited a case involving a man charged on Jan. 12 with a fatal drunken driving crash who had been released from custody two days earlier. Newsday has reported, however, that the judge in that case released the man because paperwork linked to a plea agreement had not been finalized.

This theater of the absurd policy continues because leftist Democrats have been reduced to seeking support – and votes – from constituents in urban environments who know someone, a family member or a friend, who is locked up.

On December 1, 2019 a new police commissioner, Dermot Shea, was sworn in in New York City – ground zero for this insane criminal justice policy under NYC’s socialist mayor Bill de Blasio and the state’s America-hating governor Andrew Cuomo.

On January 23, the New York Times of all places published an Op-Ed by Shea that laid out the reality of what these “no bail” policies have resulted in:

Last April, the New York State Legislature passed an ill-considered set of criminal justice reforms that were buried in the state budget bill. As those reforms have taken effect, it has become clear that they present a significant challenge to public safety. . .

Arrests are down 46 percent since 2013. Eighty-seven percent of arrested persons are released without bail within 24 hours of arrest. The city has the lowest jail incarceration rate compared to the five largest cities in the country, half the rate of Los Angeles and one-third that of Houston. The Rikers Island jail population is 51 percent lower since 2013 and down 74 percent from its high in 1993.

New York is now the only state in the nation that requires judges to entirely disregard the threat to public safety posed by accused persons in determining whether to hold them pending trial or to impose conditions for their release. . .

According to our calculation, 738 people arrested on burglary and robbery charges in 2018 would have been released without bail or remand under the new law, despite the fact that their collective records comprise 9,926 arrests for crimes including 1,134 robberies, 891 assaults, 524 burglaries, 334 weapons charges, 48 sex crimes (including 15 rapes), and 25 murders or attempted murders. These are not the types of offenders who should be freed to continue their criminal activity.

Early in the new year 2020, the results of these insane policies are already coming in. As the liberal New York Daily News reported on January 24:

A rise in crime during the first weeks of 2020 is directly tied to bail reforms that took away New York judges’ discretion to lock up potentially violent offenders, NYPD commissioner Dermot Shea said Friday.

“In the first three weeks of this year, were seeing significant spikes in crime,” Shea said.

It’s not the police department’s fault, he said — “either we forgot how to police New York City, or there’s a correlation” with the bail laws. . .

The overall crime rate is up 11%, NYPD CompStat data through Jan. 19 shows. In raw numbers, the police count 5,043 serious crimes this year, up from 4,542 in the same period of 2019.

New York is not the only city enacting these harmful and deadly “criminal justice reform” policies – predicated on the fake meme that the justice system in this country is racist. As the Times article noted, “New Jersey, California, Illinois and other states have limited the use of bail.”

Another likely result of this policy was the violent shootout on the streets of downtown Seattle on Wednesday, in which six innocent people on the sidewalks were injured and another bystander was killed. The police have arrested one suspect and are seeking two more: individuals in their twenties who, between them, have been arrested over sixty times. What were they doing on the streets?

Photo credit: Daniel Schwen

Peter Barry Chowka is a veteran journalist who writes about politics, media, popular culture, and health care for American Thinker and other publications.  Peter’s website is http://peter.media.  His new YouTube channel is here. Follow Peter on Twitter at @pchowka.

At the behest of radical left-wing Democrat politicians, New York – like other states – has recently instituted criminal-coddling “reform” laws that require violent offenders be released on the streets immediately after their arrest for crimes including violent felonies. A recent example was the release from custody several times in one week on no-bail personal recognizance of a career criminal who allegedly robbed banks six times in a two-week period. After his sixth bank robbery, he was finally remanded to custody.

Even the liberal New York Times had to admit:

Mr. Woodberry’s [the alleged serial bank robber] arrest is the latest of several recent cases that critics of the bail reform statute have said illustrated a dangerous loophole in state law.

On Jan. 10, a homeless man was released without bail after being charged with striking two women in unprovoked attacks in Manhattan. On Long Island, opponents of the new law have cited a case involving a man charged on Jan. 12 with a fatal drunken driving crash who had been released from custody two days earlier. Newsday has reported, however, that the judge in that case released the man because paperwork linked to a plea agreement had not been finalized.

This theater of the absurd policy continues because leftist Democrats have been reduced to seeking support – and votes – from constituents in urban environments who know someone, a family member or a friend, who is locked up.

On December 1, 2019 a new police commissioner, Dermot Shea, was sworn in in New York City – ground zero for this insane criminal justice policy under NYC’s socialist mayor Bill de Blasio and the state’s America-hating governor Andrew Cuomo.

On January 23, the New York Times of all places published an Op-Ed by Shea that laid out the reality of what these “no bail” policies have resulted in:

Last April, the New York State Legislature passed an ill-considered set of criminal justice reforms that were buried in the state budget bill. As those reforms have taken effect, it has become clear that they present a significant challenge to public safety. . .

Arrests are down 46 percent since 2013. Eighty-seven percent of arrested persons are released without bail within 24 hours of arrest. The city has the lowest jail incarceration rate compared to the five largest cities in the country, half the rate of Los Angeles and one-third that of Houston. The Rikers Island jail population is 51 percent lower since 2013 and down 74 percent from its high in 1993.

New York is now the only state in the nation that requires judges to entirely disregard the threat to public safety posed by accused persons in determining whether to hold them pending trial or to impose conditions for their release. . .

According to our calculation, 738 people arrested on burglary and robbery charges in 2018 would have been released without bail or remand under the new law, despite the fact that their collective records comprise 9,926 arrests for crimes including 1,134 robberies, 891 assaults, 524 burglaries, 334 weapons charges, 48 sex crimes (including 15 rapes), and 25 murders or attempted murders. These are not the types of offenders who should be freed to continue their criminal activity.

Early in the new year 2020, the results of these insane policies are already coming in. As the liberal New York Daily News reported on January 24:

A rise in crime during the first weeks of 2020 is directly tied to bail reforms that took away New York judges’ discretion to lock up potentially violent offenders, NYPD commissioner Dermot Shea said Friday.

“In the first three weeks of this year, were seeing significant spikes in crime,” Shea said.

It’s not the police department’s fault, he said — “either we forgot how to police New York City, or there’s a correlation” with the bail laws. . .

The overall crime rate is up 11%, NYPD CompStat data through Jan. 19 shows. In raw numbers, the police count 5,043 serious crimes this year, up from 4,542 in the same period of 2019.

New York is not the only city enacting these harmful and deadly “criminal justice reform” policies – predicated on the fake meme that the justice system in this country is racist. As the Times article noted, “New Jersey, California, Illinois and other states have limited the use of bail.”

Another likely result of this policy was the violent shootout on the streets of downtown Seattle on Wednesday, in which six innocent people on the sidewalks were injured and another bystander was killed. The police have arrested one suspect and are seeking two more: individuals in their twenties who, between them, have been arrested over sixty times. What were they doing on the streets?

Photo credit: Daniel Schwen

Peter Barry Chowka is a veteran journalist who writes about politics, media, popular culture, and health care for American Thinker and other publications.  Peter’s website is http://peter.media.  His new YouTube channel is here. Follow Peter on Twitter at @pchowka.

via American Thinker Blog

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WTH? Lindsey Graham Congratulates Adam Schiff – Cheers House Democrats on their Three Day Marathon of Lies and Smears

Democrats wrapped up their three days of attacks and lies about Donald Trump in the Senate Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump this Friday night.

Democrats are attempting to overthrow the President of the United States based on rumors, smears, lies and non-crimes.

For three days the House Impeachment team selectively edited clip after clip to make it appear President Trump committed an unethical act. Democrats smeared President Trump as an agent of Vladimir Putin and of colluding with Russia. It was pure insanity.

Lindsey Graham congratulated Rep. Adam Schiff on Wednesday after a full day of lies and smears of President Donald Trump.

And on Friday night after Democrats spewed their bile and lunacy for three straight days Lindsey Graham congratulated Democrats for presenting their case in a professional and articulate manner!!
What the hell?

Do not trust this man.

The post WTH? Lindsey Graham Congratulates Adam Schiff – Cheers House Democrats on their Three Day Marathon of Lies and Smears appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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PRAGER: Why Are So Many Young People Unhappy?

Here are some unhappy statistics:

— In America between 1946 and 2006, the suicide rate quadrupled for males ages 15 to 24 and doubled for females the same age.

— In 1950, the suicide rate per 100,000 Americans was 11.4. In 2017, it was 14.

— According to Grant Duwe, director of research and evaluation at the Minnesota Department of Corrections, in the 1980s, there were 32 mass public shootings (which he defines as incidents in which four or more people are killed publicly with guns within 24 hours). In the 1990s, there were 42. In the first decade of this century, there were 28. In all the 1950s, when there were fewer controls on guns, there was one. Fifty years before that, in the 1900s, there were none.

— Reuters Health reported in 2019, “Suicidal thinking, severe depression and rates of self-injury among U.S. college students more than doubled over less than a decade, a nationwide study suggests.” The study co-author Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, said, “It suggests that something is seriously wrong in the lives of young people.”

This data is not only applicable to Americans. As social commentator Kay Hymowitz wrote in City Journal in 2019: “Loneliness, public-health experts tell us, is killing as many people as obesity and smoking. … Germans are lonely, the bon vivant French are lonely, and even the Scandinavians — the happiest people in the world, according to the UN’s World Happiness Report — are lonely, too. British prime minister Theresa May recently appointed a ‘Minister of Loneliness.’ … consider Japan, a country now in the throes of an epidemic of kodokushi, roughly translated as ‘lonely deaths.’ Local Japanese papers regularly publish stories about kinless elderly whose deaths go unnoticed until the telltale smell of maggot-eaten flesh alerts neighbors.”

Though people have more money, better health care, better health, better housing and more education, and live longer than at any time in history, they — especially young people — are unhappier than at any time since data collection began.

Why has this happened?

There are any number of reasons. Increased use of illicit drugs and prescription drug abuse, and less human interaction because of constant cellphone use are two widely offered, valid explanations. Less valid explanations include competition, grades anxiety, capitalism and income inequality. And then there are young people’s fears that because of global warming, they have a bleak, and perhaps no, future.

But the biggest reason may be the almost-complete loss of values and meaning over the last half-century.

Let’s begin with values.

America — and much of the rest of the West, but I will confine my discussion to America — was founded on two sets of values: Judeo-Christian and American. This combination created the freest, most opportunity-giving, most affluent country in world history. This is not chauvinism. It is fact. And it was regarded as such throughout the world. That is why France gave America — and only America — the Statue of Liberty. That’s why people from every country on Earth so wanted to immigrate to America — and still do.

Chief among American values was keeping government as small as possible. This enabled nongovernmental institutions — Kiwanis International, Rotary International and Lions Clubs International; book clubs; the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts; bowling leagues; music societies; and, of course, churches — to provide Americans with friends and to provide the neediest Americans with help. But as government has gotten ever larger, many of these nongovernmental groups have dwindled in number or simply disappeared.

Another set of values is what is referred to as “middle-class” or “bourgeois” values. These include getting married before one has a child; making a family; getting a job so as to be self-sustaining and sustain one’s family; self-discipline; delayed gratification; and patriotism.

All of these have been under attack by America’s elites, with the following results:

One in 5 young Americans has no contact with his or her father (not including fathers who have died).

In 2011, 72% of black children were born to unmarried mothers. In 1965, it was 24%. In 2012, 29% of white children were born to unmarried women. In 1965, it was 3.1%.

The majority of births to millennials are to unmarried women. Yet, according to a 2018 Cigna study, single parents are generally the loneliest Americans.

Marriage and family are the single greatest sources of happiness for most people. Yet, the percentage of American adults who have never been married is at a historic high. More Americans than ever will not get married, or they will marry so late they will not have children. In 1960, 9% of blacks ages 25 and older had never been married. In 2012, it was nearly 40%.

And I haven’t even mentioned the biggest problem: the loss of meaning in young people’s lives. I will discuss that in part two.

Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in May 2019, is “The Rational Bible,” a commentary on the book of Genesis. His film, “No Safe Spaces,” came to theaters fall 2019. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.

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Cindy McCain Admits ‘We All Knew’ About Epstein

And you did what?

Via Washington Examiner:

Cindy McCain, the widow of late Sen. John McCain, blasted authorities who were “afraid” to arrest convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein even though everyone “knew” what he was doing.

“Epstein was hiding in plain sight,” said Cindy McCain. “We all knew about him. We all knew what he was doing, but we had no one that was — no legal aspect that would go after him. They were afraid of him. For whatever reason, they were afraid of him.”

McCain’s comments came after she was questioned by an attendee during her appearance at the State of the World 2020 conference in Florida.

McCain said a girl from her daughter’s high school was one of Epstein’s victims and that she hopes Epstein “is in hell.”

Keep reading…

via Weasel Zippers

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Former Child Services Caseworker Charged with Human Trafficking

Candace Talley, 27, of Sicklerville, Camden County, has been charged with human trafficking and promoting prostitution.

Talley was employed as a caseworker by the Delaware County Office of Children and Youth Services for the span of four months in 2017, according to a statement given on Friday by a spokesperson for the office. She is accused of recruiting women as prostitutes, pimping them for a 25% cut of their earnings. Further, Talley allegedly promised to falsify drug test results to ensure a child’s placement with their mother.

Delaware County Communications Director Adrienne Marofsky said that upon notification of Talley’s actions she was removed from all her cases but quit before she could be officially terminated. Talley faces felony charges of human trafficking, promoting prostitution, participating in a corrupt organization, as well as misdemeanor charges of coercion and official oppression

“It is truly horrible, and beyond imagination, that someone who is responsible for ensuring the welfare of children would pressure [a] mother into acts of prostitution for her own personal enrichment, and with the promise of a favorable custody recommendation, as this defendant is charged with doing,” District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said in a news release.

After her arraignment, Talley was released on an unsecured $25,000 bail but will be monitored at her home. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for February 10.

via Breitbart News

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New Filing in General Flynn Case Delayed as Judge Mulls Over Need for Evidentiary Hearing – Corrupt DOJ Still Withholding Information in Case

General Mike Flynn’s attorney Sidney Powell was on Mark Levin’s show last Friday and she warned that this Friday was going to be epic.  Yesterday the judge ordered.

Last week Sidney Powell dropped a couple of very newsworthy quotes about the Flynn case.

Sidney Powell: Every American should be terrified in what is happening in this case. It could happen to anyone that they want to target and destroy… Thank you so much, Mark. And we’re not going to quit until we win and I’m going to expose every bit of it. Friday next week is going to be phenomenal. It’s going to be EPIC!

Below is a link to the interview with Mark Levin and Sidney Powell:

There are many takeaways from this amazing interview:

1. General Flynn is a patriot and was set up by some criminals in the Deep State
2. They threatened Flynn to plead guilty by threatening to indict his son
3. The judge overseeing the case is preventing General Flynn from being provided Brady material related to his case
4. Powell listed a battery of documents that the DOJ withheld from General Flynn that would have proved his innocence
5. Powell has withdrawn General Flynn’s plea of “guilty”
6. Prosecutor Van Grack tried to get Flynn to make a false statement and Powell has evidence of this
7. Flynn can seek an appeal upon sentencing
8. Supplemental brief will have stunning reasons to withdraw the guilty plea this Friday

Yesterday some important actions took place in the Flynn case as Powell predicted:

Here is another excellent Twitter thread from Gigi covering what occurred yesterday:

Friday’s action by the judge delays the hearing even longer.  He should throw it out.  AG Barr should stop it.  The DOJ attorneys like Weissmann and Van Grack should be arrested and charged with crimes.  What a horrible event in US history.

Please give to the General Flynn Defense fund here

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Progressives Denounce Donald Trump’s Curbs Against ‘Birth Tourism’

President Donald Trump’s curbs against “birth tourism” are discriminatory and dangerous, say pro-migration progressives.

The rule “gives individual consular officials broad and unchecked authority to discriminate against visa applicants based on gender and age and will likely disproportionality affect women and girls of color,” says Phillip Wolgin, the managing director for immigration policy at the Democrats’ main think-tank, the pro-migration Center for American Progress.

Wolgin and other critics did not directly defend the commonplace practice by wealthier foreigners who try to snatch U.S. citizenship for their children by birthing them in the United States. But they did suggest alternative ways to protect Americans’ concern about the loss of sovereignty and resources to birth migrants.

Instead, the progressives strongly denounced Trump’s plan to fix the problem. For example, Wolgin said:

The final rule also erects new barriers to those seeking to come to the United States for critical medical treatment, potentially keeping people from lifesaving treatment. This final rule is the opposite of a fair and humane immigration system.

“The Latest Trump Target: Millions of Women Seeking a Travel Visa to the U.S.,”  declared a post by Immigration Voice, another pro-migration group. The post continued:

…this rule could apply to millions of women from around the world seeking to visit our country, but not men. The first barrier to entry starts with being a woman. The second: a consular officer’s subjective guess about a women’s reproductive cycle. Third: the fact of a woman’s pregnancy or her ability to become pregnant — which is not, in fact, a bar to visiting the U.S. under the law passed by Congress.

“These knuckleheads are defending birth tourism,” responded Mark Kirkorian, the director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

Birth tourism has few public supporters and many critics. For example, Trump’s decision was supported by the overwhelming majority of readers’ comments in the New York Times‘ article, “Trump Moves to Block Visas for Pregnant Women on ‘Birth Tourism,” and the Washington Post‘s  “Trump creates new hurdles for pregnant women seeking U.S. tourist visas.”

A January 23 report by the Center for Immigration Studies describes the large-scale abuse of United States’ practice of treating all children in the United States as U.S. citizens:

CIS estimates that birth tourism results in 33,000 births to women on tourist visas annually. We estimate that hundreds of thousands more are born to mothers who are illegal aliens or present on temporary visas.

These births produce instant citizenship for the infant, which can lead, 21 years later, to the migration of the parents, with neither event being controlled by the numerical limits that manage most international migration.

Of advanced economies, Canada and the United States are the only countries that grant automatic citizenship to children born to non-citizens who are not legally resident aliens.

Chinese citizens do not require a visa to visit certain U.S. territories, such as the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. The birth tourism industry is rampant there, with more annual births to Chinese visitors than native residents.

The birth tourism problem, however, is smaller than the birthing of children by illegal migrants. In January, Breitbart reported:

Today, there are at least 4.5 million anchor babies in the U.S. under 18, exceeding the annual roughly four million American babies born every year and costing American taxpayers about $2.4 billion every year to subsidize hospital costs.

Each year, four million Americans are born, and the United States accepts roughly one million migrants.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., denounced Trump’s policy:

Multiple immigration lawyers railed against the apparently popular rule.

“With the stroke of a pen Trump has now given low level embassy bureaucrats effective control over women’s bodies,” said David Leopold, a former President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. He continued:

The Trump administration has effectively placed a travel ban on women of child-bearing age … has concocted a discriminatory rule … Clearly, any woman seeking to visit the U.S. will be placed in the humiliating position of having to convince a U.S. consular official that she’s not pregnant or going to get pregnant before she travels to the U.S. or while she’s visiting. This indefensible regulation will potentially impact millions of women who seek to travel to the U.S. for business or pleasure. Of course, like many other Trump immigration schemes, the impact of this regulation will be largely on women of color.

“Can’t say it clearly enough: The current US regime hates people who can be called ‘other,’” tweeted Elissa Taub, another immigration lawyer.

via Breitbart News

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