Inside a Public School Social Justice Factory

Via Billy

 

The city of Edina has changed the way it approaches public education, putting social justice above learning. The results will shock you.


For decades, the public schools of Edina, Minnesota, were the gold standard among the state’s school districts. Edina is an upscale suburb of Minneapolis, but virtually overnight, its reputation has changed. Academic rigor is unraveling, high school reading and math test scores are sliding, and students increasingly fear bullying and persecution.

The shift began in 2013, when Edina school leaders adopted the “All for All” strategic plan—a sweeping initiative that reordered the district’s mission from academic excellence for all students to “racial equity.”

“Equity” in this context does not mean “equality” or “fairness.” It means racial identity politics—an ideology that blames minority students’ academic challenges on institutional racial bias, repudiates Martin Luther King, Jr.’s color-blind ideal, and focuses on uprooting “white privilege.”

More @ The Weekly Standard

Tax bill beginning to deliver bigger paychecks to workers

Via Billy

The contentious tax overhaul is beginning to deliver a change that many will welcome — bigger paychecks.

Workers are starting to see more take-home pay as employers implement the new withholding guidelines from the IRS, which dictate how much employers withhold from pay for federal taxes. Those whose checks have remained the same shouldn’t fret — employers have until Feb. 15 to make the changes.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has estimated that the new rules will mean more take-home pay for about 90 percent of American workers.

More @ AP

Nigel Farage: Reaction to Trump in Davos was stunning

Julian Assange: "I find it remarkable how comprehensively the Democrats, DoJ and FBI have played into Trump's hands over the Nunes memo...

 

...By conspicuously trying to hide information they have aligned themselves against the public, drawn suspicion and imbued the memo with totemic power."

Rep. Steve King: FISA Abuse Memo 'Earth-Shaking,' 'Worse Than Watergate'

Second Dossier by ‘Creepy Clinton Confidante’ Raises Doubts About FBI’s Trump Probe

 

Reports that the FBI has been utilizing a second dossier in its investigation of unsubstantiated claims of collusion between Russia and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign raise more questions about the credibility of the federal bureau’s already controversial probe.

According to a report in the Guardian citing “multiple sources,” the second memo in question was authored by Cody Shearer, a shadowy former tabloid journalist who has long been closely associated with various Clinton scandals.

National Review previously dubbed Shearer a “Creepy Clinton Confidante” and “the Strangest Character in Hillary’s Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy.”

Shearer’s reported involvement with the FBI’s investigation of Trump marks the second time the agency’s probe has been tied to the Clintons. Fusion GPS, the law firm that hired former British spy Christopher Steele to compile the infamous, largely discredited 35-page anti-Trump dossier, was reportedly retained to conduct the firm’s anti-Trump work on behalf of both Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC).  Steele’s dossier served as some of the basis for the FBI’s investigation into Trump and Russia.

The Guardian reported the so-called Shearer memo was given to the FBI by Steele in October 2016.

The newspaper reported on the Shearer memo:

More @ Breitbart

Donald Trump Has Read Controversial FBI Intelligence Memo; Plans to Release on Friday

 

 Breitbart

A White House official confirmed to reporters that President Donald Trump has read the House Intelligence Committee FISA memo after the committee voted to release it to the public and plans to release it on Friday.

The official confirmed that White House officials examined the memo to check for classified information, but that the president was comfortable with the release as long as Congress approved it.
“The president is ok with it,” an official told reporters after they boarded Air Force One with the president after his speech in West Virginia. “I doubt there will be any redactions. It’s in Congress’ hands after that.”

A second official confirmed to Breitbart News that the document would likely be released on Friday.
In response, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded Speaker Paul Ryan remove Rep. Devin Nunes as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, accusing him of “dangerous partisanship.”

Other Democrats protested that Nunes altered the memo before sending it to the White House. But staffers for Nunes dismissed Democrat concerns, noting that they were merely grammatical fixes and two edits requested by the FBI and even Democrats on the committee.

The F.B.I. has protested the publication of the memo, a vote that was approved by the House Intelligence Committee, however efforts to get the president to block it’s release appear to have failed for now.

A fundraiser for Angel

Via Greg

Sometimes the best things you can do for a friend are the hardest. Raising funds for a Friend in need are one of them.

Over the years, both Angel and myself have raised tens of thousands of dollars for those friends, as a matter of fact Angel’s last post was a fundraiser for a friend that lost both of her sons in a car accident.

Today, I’m doing a fundraiser for Angel over the loss of her daughter.

More @ Knucledraggin' My Life Away

Class Theory and Cultural Marxism

Via Billy

When Karl Marx put forth his theory of history, one of the primary characteristics of the mechanical historical actors was their “class consciousness.” In Marxist doctrine, the whole of humanity in a capitalist society can be divided cleanly into two classes: the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The proletariat was the exploited working class, and their class consciousness would eventually cause them to revolt against the capital-owning bourgeoisie, whose own class consciousness compelled them to exploit the proletariat by “stealing” the product of their labor.

Fallacies abound in Marxist theory, of course, but one of the commonly pointed-out fallacies of the class theory is that the so-called “working class” is impossible to cleanly define.

More @ Mises

Southern Speech

 

A little while ago, I spent some time at Colonial Williamsburg as a tourist. While my wife was getting dressed for dinner our first evening, I happened to watch a short film on TV entitled Portrait of a Patriot, which, I learned, was piped into all of the area hotels and motels. Briefly, the film is set in and around Williamsburg in the year or so preceding the Declaration of Independence, and attempts to dramatize the gradual evolution of its fictional protagonist, a young planter who succeeds his conservative father in the Virginia House of Burgesses, from Tory to “Patriot.” Historical figures portrayed in the film include Patrick Henry, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, William Byrd, and Peyton Randolph, to mention a few. What struck me about the film as a linguist, however, was the fact that every one of the actors portraying these eminent Colonial Virginians had a regional accent typical of the Midwest, so that Washington and Jefferson et al. tended to sound like, say, Adlai Stevenson. As one who is fond of shocking his students by pointing out that George Washington probably sounded more like Pat Robertson than the late Illinois senator, I wondered again if the linguistic implications of Washington’s birthplace ever occur to Southerners who are not academics. Of course one could simply dismiss the matter as another of those amusing little ironies:

More @ The Abbeville Institute

Why Cutting Chain Migration Must Be Part of an Immigration Deal

 

 

Democrats and their guests sat in stony silence through most of President Trump’s State of the Union address last night, but one part of the speech drew audible gasps and boos — the mention of chain migration. The president raised the issue while describing the four pillars of a deal that has emerged from discussions with key members of Congress to resolve the issue of the so-called Dreamers (the illegal aliens who arrived here as minors “through no fault of their own”). Described in a document released last week by the White House, the deal would offer amnesty for 1.8 million Dreamers along with provisions for border security and offsetting reductions in legal immigration. The president said:

 

More @ NRO

Today Should Be “Memo Release Day”…

 

It would be ordinary for any minor executive-branch-requested adjustments to be made, prior to submission/approval for executive declassification.  That’s exactly what happened.

Minor adjustments were made at the request of the FBI Director prior to submission for declassification approval.   Majority Chairman Devin Nunes shared those adjustments with Minority Chair Adam Schiff.

Schiff tried, and failed, to make a political issue out of a simple process.

If the apparent Nunes, Grassley, Goodlatte and Horowitz timing remains as previously evidenced, today should be Memo Release Day.

The White House having allowed a full 36 hours of media discussion time to talk through the SoU address, is poised to permit the Executive Branch declassification approval of the Legislative Branch intelligence work product.

More @ The Last Refuge

Saving America from foolish and corrupt immigration policies: Immigration enforcement, walls and amnesties

Via Mike

The United States has made two huge mistakes in immigration policy: The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act and the 1986 Amnesty.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 initiated a family reunification principle that allowed immigrants to bring in perpetual and unending chains of relatives by blood or marriage. For example, an immigrant could bring not only his wife and children, but his parents and sister. His sister could bring her husband and an unending chain of his relatives. Recent third world immigrants soon crowded out European immigrants with no recent immigrant relatives. They also crowded out skilled immigrants without relatives here. The education and skill levels of the average immigrant dropped, and the percentage of immigrants using government welfare programs increased. Chain migration statistics collected indicate that for every two legal immigrants another seven non-immediate family immigrants are brought in. The ratio for Mexican immigrants is slightly higher.

The second huge mistake was the 1986 Amnesty. Thought to be less than 1.0 million by President Reagan, it turned out to be 2.7 million. Six supplemental amnesties brought the total to near 6.0 million amnesties.

More @ The Tribune

WSJ: McCabe Held Off Revealing Hillary Email News for Weeks

Via John
McCabe was in the bag for Hillary, just like Lynch, Comey, Obama and the growing undercast of Deep State "DEMizens" who colluded with the media to illegally impact the 2016 election. That's the REAL story the (alleged) "media" refuses to tell The People. Instead, they remain fixated on promoting the "Russian collusion delusion."  Democrats, FBI management,  and GOP establishment drones do not want "the memo" released claiming it may risk compromising "sources and methods."  But that is nothing compared to exposing what may be evidence of the agencies of government having being commandeered  by an outgoing administration in order to influence the results of an election in a politically charged and partisan manner, and failing in that effort, to undermine and potentially reverse the results of that election.
That is the very definition of a coup d'etat and the protagonists of that coup, no matter how lofty the positions they once held, should be charged and if convicted, imprisoned to demonstrate we are still a nation of laws and we will NOT succumb to 3rd world-like corruptions of our election processes. ~JP1

Text messages show FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe knew about emails potentially related to an investigation of Hillary Clinton by Sept. 28, 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Then-FBI Director James Comey informed Congress about them Oct. 28, 11 days before the presidential election — a delay first reported by The Washington Post.

According to the Journal, FBI agent Peter Strzok, who led the probe into Clinton's use of a private email server, texted his girlfriend, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, on Sept. 28 that he had been summoned to speak to McCabe about the newly discovered emails.

More @ Newsmax

NEW: Walther PPQ Subcompact: 10+1 or 15+1 9mm — SHOT Show 2018

New for 2018, Walther dropped the PPQ subcompact at SHOT Show. Following countless consumer requests, the famous PPQ has now been shrunk to subcompact size. The sub takes the same famous Walther trigger and mates it with a 3.25-inch barrel. It ships with two magazines are in the box, one a flush fit 10, the other a 15-round extended magazine. The 15 round includes a grip extender, and when inserted, gives the subcompact a full-size grip.

More @ Guns America

Security Commentary Did Trump Really Beat ISIS? Here Are the Facts

Via Billy

“We’re gonna beat ISIS very, very quickly, folks. It’s gonna be fast. I have a great plan. It’s going to be great. They ask, ‘What is it?’ Well, I’d rather not say.”

Donald Trump made this pledge to supporters in Connecticut in April 2016. At the time, it seemed unlikely he would ever have to make good on the promise. After all, Hillary Clinton led comfortably in the polls. However, Trump’s surprise victory gave him the chance to back up his claim. Many were openly skeptical he could do it.

But one year into the Trump administration, the facts on the ground—in Syria and Iraq—have changed dramatically. The Islamic State, also known as ISIS, lost control of Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, in July 2017. Three months later, ISIS’ capital—the Syrian city of Raqqa—fell.

Many fighters retreated to Deir ez-Zor in the country’s east. In November 2017, that too fell. The “caliphate” that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced with such fanfare in the summer of 2014 was in tatters.

More @ The Daily Signal

Adam Schiff: FISA Memo Could Lead To Firings Of Mueller, Rosenstein

Via Billy

 

Stocks are red. Trey Gowdy is abruptly retiring from Congress. Everybody is laughing at what looks like drool dribbling from the edge of Joe Kennedy's mouth during his rebuttal to last night's State of the Union.

And along comes Reuters, dropping a bombshell headline that, if accurate, could shift the narrative of the multiple investigations involving Russia and obstruction of justice.

Reuters quoted Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intel Committee, who believes the contents of the four-page memo about allegedly egregious FBI abuses of FISA set for public release in the next several days, could lead to the firing of Special Counsel Bob Mueller, or more likely Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein.

More @ Zero Hedge

A New Poll Looks Mighty Grim for Democrats

Via John
Federal income tax rates will be changing shortly; perhaps as early as today.  Most people (>85%) are going to see their take home pay going up. How is the (alleged) "media," who managed to previously convince 2 out of 3 citizens that the tax cut was really a  tax 'increase.' They did it in order to gin up public opposition ahead of its approval by the Congress. It was a case of uber-partisan "last ditch lying" and starting today, it will be backfiring on them as the truth is quickly exposed. And that's a very good thing.  More and more people are waking up to the fact that the (alleged) "media" is merely the public relations team of the corrupt Democrat Party and are working hard every day to mislead We the People.  Turn the (alleged) "media" (ABCCBSNBCMSNBCCNN) off to let them know you're no longer going to permit yourself to be lied to and succumb to their misinformation.  After all, friends don't let friends drive drunk nor let them watch that liberal hogwash anymore.   lol ~ JP1

 

It’s just one poll from one polling outlet (albeit one given an A+ rating for accuracy and sound methodology by FiveThirtyEight). But for Democrats already concerned about the love shown the president in snap polls following last night’s State of the Union address, the first 2018 national survey from Monmouth University lands like a punch in the mouth.

More @ New York Mag

Dixie - Salt Lake Vocal Artists

The Salt Lake Vocal Artists perform Southern folk song "Dixie" arranged by J. Allison Snyder in Basilica di San Saturnino, city of Cagliari, Sardegna, Italy, under the direction of Dr. Brady Allred, live in concert on September 13, 2011 as part of the Cagliari Festival Internazionale di Musica Vocale.